Transcripts For FBC Varney Company 20170509 : comparemela.c

consumer product stocks, and travel, and a number of industries, the only competition is from each other and investigators are giving them the benefit of the doubt for now. as far as the comparisons to 1973, the nifty fifty stocks, when i say when it comes to the tech stocks, it's not even 1970. "varney & company," we've got a lot to do. we're about to begin. ♪ . >> when you look at paris, you know, what's right about this issue is making sure that we have international discussion with respect to how good a job we're doing across the globe with respecting our co footprint. and what is wrong is a bad business deal for this company. it causes a contraction to our economy when we're leading already in reducing our co 2 footprint. >> he says that the paris deal is bad for the u.s. and they'll be meeting with the ite house and ivanka trump and she's made it one of her signature issues. >> you're a donald trump guy. the president's base won't be happy, obviously, if he doesn't pull the plug on the paris agreement. what do you think? >> right. charles, the base won't be happy and i won't be happy, frankly. number one, it's a promise from the campaign trail. this was just a terrible deal. administrator pruitt, is exactly right. this is an america second strategy. it represents the kind of globalism and the kind of poor negotiating that unfortunately has mashed american policy during the last administration and one nugget from a terrible paris accord. we have to reduce our emissions by 2025, which isn't far off by 25%. that's a massive change to our economy and life style. the chinese, by far the largest polluter in the world, how much do they refuse? nothing until 2030. it's a terrible agreement. rip it up, ignore it. liz: steve, that gas is helping drive down those emissions to lows not seen in 25 years. but what do you make of exxonmobil, bp, shell. they want to stay in the deal and so does peabody, the coal company because they say they will be an in better position to compete globally by being at the table. ivanka's paint, too. >> and that favors what i look at harmful emissions. i don't think it's about the environment. i think it's green policy as an excuse to get control of business and particularly entrepreneurial business. big energy will do fine under this and similar agreements. it's particularly shale production, so beneficial to the united states the last decade. the only job creation engine of much of this recovery was american energy. those are the producers and those are the jobs that will be harmed. look, america is blessed. we have enough crude oil, natural gas and coal to our us, our economy throughout our lives, throughout our children's lives until we finally reach what will be credible alternative energy sources. they're not there yet. we'll get there some day. i have no doubt. but until we do, we need to harness the gift of american energy that we have. >> i will say it's interesting to watch the last several years americans have come to believe in global warming and accept this climate change deal. so ivanka going in there involved with popular opinion, not the base, but her sway is what's happening in the trend is going to make for an interesting showdown there. steve, i want you to stay right there. we will look at the dow futures, the mark eking out a gain there and amazon is set to announce a new echo and this will have a video screen. apple fell shy of being the first company to close with the market cap of 800 billion and e-mack, shares are up 28% already this year. liz: they've added an equivalent or pfizer or ge since the election. what will make apple a $1 trillion, to pop it, they have be 173. if you're an apple shareholder you're happy. what is going to do it? they need to invest in something that's going to pop it higher. is it r & d? they're not investing as muches a google. how they deploy the cash to grow higher. if they're growing 6% they're a trillion dollar company by 2021. how do they move the bar closer, is by investing in r yn dachlt. i don't know if it's the apple car, but the big hit on-- >> there's pressure on apple to make a major acquisition, netflix or even tesla has been thrown up there. bill gates sounding optimistic on the economy. roll tape. >> the u.s. economy is doing well and the innovation in the u.s. is doing well. i think this is a period where the u.s. formula looks great. >> all right, back to you, steve cortez. you know what? politics aside, almost eryone who economics is coming to the same conclusion. u know, you've got this amazing surge and optimism which is now manifesting into reality. we're starting to see it, whether it's corporate earnings or other data streams. >> i think you're right, charles. to be fair, even though i'm a trump partisan, i will admit and concede that corporate earnings were starting to improve into the election and those of us can't take all the credit. however, i think we can take credit that i think so this have accelerated since the election, so i think the optimism is palpable and i love to hear one of the most successful capitalists that he likes the american economy right now i think once we get the tax package through and i think we will this summer, this economy is ready to roar. instead of financial engineering, i think investments in plants and people, technology, which has been stagnant, we'll get back to the 1980's and '90s and grow worthy of america. >> that clip being 4 or 5%? >> exactly. i think we can get there and i hear the naysayers telling the reasons why we can't, we're too mature an economy. in the 1980's, woo we were a pretty mature economy. we grew 7% under the reagan economy, and i don't know 7, but it's not only good for our economy, but good for society. one of the reasons we have so many problems, a decade of incredibly slow growth and sluggish economy. politically, economically. fast growth can solve problem. >> the same tide lifts all boats on the economic spectrum. 3, 4,%. let's get it done. and sally yates and ted cruz get into a heated debate or the moratorium. >> are you familiar with section 1182, the binding statutory authority for the executive order that you refused to implement and led to your termination. whenever the president finds the entry of any alien or any class of aliens into the united states would be detrimental to the interests of the united states, he may by proclamation and for such period he shall deem nessus spend the entry of all illions or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants. >> but my condition was not ina concern, it rather, was a constitutional concern. >> all rise, judge andrew napolitano was here. that was one neck of an exchange they had. >> senator cruz is probably the smartest person in the room with respect to the constitution and what was not seen in the clip was a statute that sally yates read, which was enacted after the one that senator cruz read which says the president can do it, but you he can't base it on religion, nationality or a set of beliefs. >> all right. >> and for better or for worse, all the courts that have enjoined president trump's order, the trial courts and the one appellate court, the 9th circuit that ruled thus far have based it on his words as candidate trump with were so volatile and incendiary against muslims they have attributed it as a motivation for the issuance of the executive order so that's really what that debate was about yesterday. the effort, i think, of senator cruz to change the topic to her behavior was part of an effort on the part of the republicans to let's throw mud at her and she did quite well whether you agree with her politically or not. >> to your point she said the additional provision was based on race, nationality and place of birth. but also, senator john kennedy who appointed her to the supreme court, whether or not she had-- her job entitled her to her own interpretation of the constitution. >> it does when she's running the justice department. >> really? >> and senator cornyn of texas who made the same criticism of her had read back to him by her his very words for her when she was up for confirmation number two in the justice department, if the president asks you something to do that's unconstitutional, will you? she said of course not, he said thank you, and he voted for her. every lawyer has the right to exercise his or her own judgment as to whether or not the client, her the client is the president, is lawful or not. and that doesn't mean if you think it isn't, it doesn't get done. you don't do it. you pass it on to somebody else in the justice department. instead of passing it on to everybody else to decide, she prohibited everybody else from deciding. and she's been vindicated so far. >> one heck of a thing to watch. it always helps when you come to explain it. thanks. well, your california story today, lawmakers may lift a decades old ban from communists work in jobs. [laughter] >> i thought they were already there. stuart:. [laughter] >> you cannot make this stuff up. a brawl breaks out at fort lauderdale airline. spirit airlines cancels flights and this erupts. and this outrage, washington conservative columnist, gets suspended by the st. louis post dispatch after writing a column n.r.a. compared to isis. she's here to tell her story next. >> passengers were arrested after spirit airlines canceled flights in florida. e-mack, you've got the details. liz: this has been going on for weeks. 300 flights canceled the past week. 20,000 passengers affected over the last week. and last night, nine flights were canceled. this erupted in a brawl between passengers and beleaguered airline workers. spirit airlines are suing the pilots association saying an illegal work slowdown. there were multiple arrests and injuries there, it got nasty. this happened in the fort lauderdale hollywood international airport last night. the pilots association is saying we are not doing a work stoppage. there are contract issues going on still. so, it's a chaotic scene, brawling going on last night. you should know that united airlines posted a record month with the fewe esest cancellatio 145 hours without a single cancellation, we're at their mercy no matter what. passengers miles up 7.4%. conservative columnist was suspended by the st. louis post dispatch after she defended the national rifle associations from comparisons to isis. and her is an excerpt from her opinion piece. this represents the opposing especially conservative views is an increasingly apparent deficit in the news reporting apparatus in our country. that columnist is stacy washington and joins us now. thanks foroining us. now, you were suspended by the newspaper. they said you were unpaid spokesperson for the n.r.a. and you decided to quit. right? >> absolutely, charles. so, this is something i had no qualms about after reading the e-mails of the suspension itself. i had no affiliation with the national rifle association. it wasn't about the n.r.a., it was about the editing and processes in news room to allow a guest opinion writer to compare isis and law abiding gun-owning american citizens who happen to be members of the n.r.a. or they may not. not all gun owners are members of the n.r.a. so i talked a little about the n.r.a., but the majority was the left-leaning news apparatus in the country so i was suspended. >> you were fighting two fights, the second amendment on this with un. >> and this requires introspection in news rooms across the country and intro speck tiffly they suspended me, they said i had a professional afailation with the n.r.a. that was undisclosed. as so many people know, i've been on this program, on yours, i'm an open second amendment supporter, i'm a veteran and my father is in law enforcement. my background is guns, guns, guns. i'm a proud owner, but the piece isn't diminished, because knee being an n.r.a. members doesn't change the fact that n.r.a. members are know the like isis. nothing would impune the fact that i'm a member of n.r.a. >> they knew your stance on n.r.a. and gun ownership, those sorts of things. what do you think made them take this drastic action all of a sudden? >> well, i mean, so i was the only conservative opinion writer on the editorial page. sometimes they could take syndicated columns like krauthammer and george will, i was the only local person. often i'd write columns that would provoke comments on the facebook page. people have written me by hand, and liberals, sent insulting notes and they would mail them to the post dispatch and forward them to me and i think i was kind of a fire-starter there in that there's so much left and not enough right opinion-wise that it was always almost an insult just the fact that i was writing a column. but this piece, i talk about the dwindling subscription, you know, numbers, the circulation numbers being down for papers across the country and talk about confirmation bias. you know this, we look for news that expresses our views, but hard, straightup news should be neutral and and make choices. that's all i was trying to say. >> you have a whole new fan base and you took a stand and i think you'll be proven correct. thank you. >> thank you. >> the foreign minister says the government is losing control warning of a possible civil war. scary, but realistic stuff. we're on it. you always pay your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $509 on auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. >> a former government official is warning a civil war in venezuela. what's going on there. liz: he's the ex-spy chief under chavez. he was responsible for the 2014 crackdown to led to 43 people dead there. the question by the opposition, is this more of the same poison? he's saying he wants to reset relations with the u.s., that he could run for-- to lead venezuela. he was a pallbearer at chavez's 2013 funeral, but he is considered a long shot third way. he's mistrusted by the opposition and venezuelans are saying we're sick and tired what's going on now. 39 dead, hundreds jailed, hundreds more injured. so, by the way, he is close toed military. this former spy chief. is he the answer? a lot of fighting over that right now. charles: it sounds like he could be venezuela's version of vladimir putin. peter, this is the latest example of the failure of socialism. >> it's communism with a dictatorial government. it's reminiscent of bulgaria and romania. ap venezuela is out by itself. the price of oil is too low to sustain the economy. what's more, they've wrecked the oil sector. so it's what we have. i don't know how bernie sanders bernie sanders can be embracing socialism so dramatically and fothe democrats to view socialism as salvation, because they do. >> you're a university professor. it never works in reality. >> i think they know it doesn't work and that's why they try so hard to silence voices like me and the lady at the st. louis dispatch and so forth. every conservative issue becomes symbolic of what is wrong with their ideas. charles: all right, peter, stay there. i want to check on the futures. it looks like all three major indices are set to open higher. we see it come through in the green each day and the dow the only of the big three not at record highs. the opening bell is moments away. at fidelity, trades are now just $4.95. we cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. and at $4.95, you can trade with a clear advantage. fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. >> the opening bell about ten seconds away, guys. the s&p and nasdaq at all time highs yesterday. and the late spurt helped the dow into the green column. the major indices have been on fire, an amazing, amazing run for the market and here we go. the green at the top led by apple, of course, wal-mart right behind them, pfizer, caterpillar, a nice mix of names at the top. cisco so far in the dow bringing up the rear. the nasdaq at an all-time high. i think it's up at least 14% for the year and again, crushing it big time 8 bucks out of this gate. and part of it is apple. apple shares in record territory. an amazing move. almost everything else was doing nothing and they went crazy on the shares and near, well, $800 billion valuation. amazon shares near a record high and the company is expected to announce a new echo with a video screen. that's exciting for a lot of folks. big lose r, hertz, that could be the uber effect. and we have' got to start with bill gates and he gave a rosie outlook for the economy. mike, do you agree? >> i think. he made good points on that. the economy across the country, small business owners all the way up to bill gates are feeling good about the economy, better than a year ago. much better than two years ago and i think you're seeing that play out, charles, in the overall market. charles: how about you, scott? you've seen skeptical in the las few days. >> i am skeptical. we don't have a gdp that has a heartbeat. yes, we're growing, but a paltry pace. what wouldn't bill gates think is going well? i think he's having a hard time seeing the proverbial economy through the dollar bills. and to think i might change his opinion, but he's sitting in the tech sector and they will continue to innovate and create wealth. the rest of america is getting left behind about his feel-good feeling and i think the economy, although again, does have a heartbeat we aren't ripping the cover off the ball and if we've got 4.4% unemployment how do we havno real wage growth? we've got things that we have concerns about. charles: i think on that front, peter. we should go with 8.6 unemployment. there's room for the down side, but i think there's enough evidence and i'm asking if you agree, peter, that this economy is picking up steam? >> the further we get from the crisis, the confident and stronger families are and more confident about spending. we're getting a shift away from more and more auto sales to more and more housing sales, things of that nature and we'll probably see an up-tick we haven't seen in recent years in gadgets. remember when big screen tvs was the thing? i think the economy has legs. i look for growth to be better than we've had the first two years. first quarter, there's something wrong with first quarter data. we know that. the economy is simply doing better than first quarter data indicated. there's a lot of upward pressure on wages for ordinary people and wouldn't see that april jobs figure, so encouraging and across the board and corporate profits are zooming. i see a lot of legs in this market. >> apple shares, of course, in record territory, 800 billion market cap. mike, some think the shares are too expensive to buy here. what do you think? >> i don't think they're too expensive on any metric. price earnings or price her sales. if you look at apple and you want to break it down, normally you say it's a hardware company. if you look at their software businesses, ios service. there's so much more to the apple story, i don't think you can call it expensive. it's trading at an all-time historic high. if you break it down and factor in the cash they have. i think there could be upside. >> institutional ownership suggests that apple owns 71% of google, 71% of facebook, 64% of amazon, and yesterday, apple took off. a lot of people, e-mack, money managers are forced to own the stock if they don't already. >> that's the good point shall the question for the money managers is, what is the next big problem for apple to bump earnings higher to get to be a one million dollar company. going to see annualized 6% growth in the profit line. they're not going to be a trillion dollar market cap until a few years out from now. what's the next big thing, software for the robot cars? going to improve its device to take on amazon echo? they need to get earnings growth in order to bump it to one million. charles: that's one of the criticisms of tim cook. amazon they've got robust pipeline because they do everything, including echo which now will have the video screen and record highs here. is anyone here, does anyone here by the way, have an echo. liz: i do. charles: you have echo. i'm afraid of them. and my wife, i think she buys the stuff and never tells me what they're out, and i'm walking by and i'm scared. the robot came up, the vacuum. i almost called the police, i was so nervous, what is this thing? >> the virtual husband with a video screen. charles: she keeps buying this and next thing i know we've got a vacuum cleaner hit he me in -- hitting me in the knee when i'm eating a sandwich. people love it. >> the dichotomy, and they're worried about security, but at the same time putting an echo in the house with a screen. what about the folks that think you can be seen through the camera on the tv and laptop. they're putting the trojan horse in the house and worried about getting things happen, but more than happy to put an echo in the house. >>. charles: stay away from the tin foil hats because they lead to early hair loss. [laughter]. charles: target with the delivery service trying to keep up with amazon. >> i think that going after amazon isn't the way to catch up. more like best buy, best buy went up against amazon and clearly saw they weren't going to defeat amazon so they shifted gear. and so when there's a space, it's not the right move. charles: target should do more in t homareas. home goods, an area where people are going to retail outlooks. let me ask you, peter, target, of course, was in the eye of a political storm last year as well. >> absolutely. they need to do a better job keeping out of that. they're in a tough spot in between wal-mart and amazon and doing a little bit of each. what they're going to have to do and it's nicer to be than wal-mart. targets are nice are places. stuff that requires walk-in, still, groceries, home goods, is the place to be. i agree with that. liz: to peter's point, wal-mart is focusing on grocery deliveries, right, you pay for groceries to be delivered. targets not doing that. they say they're going to deliver dry goods like paper towels and beauty products, next day delivery. they don't want to get into business to spend a lot of money to ship groceries. charles: target, one thing to do, that rear right tire, wheel, on the shopping cart that makes the noise on the floor, please fix that. your seattles would go up 10%. some advice there. seven minutes of trading dow up 16 points. we've been starting slow, but that's okay, the moves are grinding it higher and at some point, new highs begets new highs. and higher profits, marriott, higher. disney reports after the bell, so, a lot of anxiety over that, with cord cutting versus the movies. in the meantime, gas at $2.34 a national average for regular. scott, what are we going to pay at the pump this summer? we didn't get that summer blend jump and makes people feel like maybe we'll get a break this summer? >> i think we are going to get a break this summer. the stories of our own oil finds in the states with the shale oil in west texas and what we've found in alaska, kind of lead to, we were begiinto tnk we had supply and demand sorted out there and we don. i think it's an oversupply market and we are going to get a break and i think that's part of why donald trump, saying that he would consider a gas tax, i think maybe he's been told that gas prices are getting lower in the future. something to keep an eye on. at the end of the day, still a supply. >> peter morici. >> every year since one, baker people have reported an increase in the number of drilling rigs in the lower 48. we haven't seen yet the bubble in u.s. oil production. with that in mind, we're just going to have a lot of supply around, an awful lot. remember, oil that's produced here is more valuable from the point of view are driving down gasoline prices than anyplace else in the world. we will have a lot more. we haven't seen the peak at all. charles: tesla, and kind of scary stuff, they're recorded by the cars, apparently-- they stay it will help improve driving future. scott, it's a lot of what you're talking about, you country put on the tin foil hat. >> i don't know, maybe the it's made of tin foil. and i like elon musk, not per se his cars and vision for the future. at the end of the day we'll be invaded by artificial intelligence and they want to know everything. your refrigerator starts ordering food for you and the car tells your insurance company how well you drive, these are slippery slopes and step back and think what we want here. charles: mike, do you separate the slippery slope from the investment opportunity? >> that's where we're going, technology is not going to stop here. we're going in the din direction and we have all the of these gadgets in the house and god knows a year from now or five years from now. and you have to embrace it. that's what i've done. great investment opportunities and great improvements to life style in general. charles: thank you all very much. a special thank you to michael, scott and peter. thanks, guys. one more check of the big board. having trouble getting out. of the gate. we're up, but not by much. and venezuela, some people are starving. someone who fled venezuela says the country is headed to inevitable failure and a headline you only get from california. lawmakers are pushing to end a ban on communists working for the government, the state government. no, you cannot make it up. more varney after this. 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[laughter] >> over all, the flip-flop. look at you now, you've got a hugo boss on. >> you know it's serious when i'm wearing a suit. and son making money is on and i'm a watcher, you're not a target bull. i know what he's going to say. charles: i'm not and i think they have issues, a lot of issues, for a long time that they didn't pay attention to. i think that mike brought up the great idea with best buy. how do the brick and mortar guys compete against a box or an amazon? >> you know, and maybe it's giving advice to competition, but at the end of the day i think it's with all things in life, you've got to do what you're good at. you go in the off-line world and look into a target, looks different than a costco or a wal-mart, right or your local duane-reade. when you go on-line they all look the same. can you imagine the founders of the companies, they'd be rolling in their graves, why do we look the same because we do different things. now that target is trying to go after amazon pantry, i think that there are so many more things they need to focus on, including getting back to the core. charles: what about target next day delivery? is that a step in the right direction? >> it's definitely a step in the right direction. when we first chatted a while ago, two day delivery is the gold standard and now it's table stakes, you take folks like us, next day delivery or two day delivery for almost four years name. charles: same day delivery and someone from the store brings it to your house, i don't get it? >> i totally agree, i don't either. you know, i think there's so many assets there and i think it's just getting the right mindset will be pretty key for them. charles: i would be remiss, because stuart would definitely want to know. >> oh, no. charles: how much money are you making? >> stuart, even when he's out-- >> he left me one note. when you see him, make sure you find out how much he's making and worth. >> it's a little more, but i would say it's a pretty cheap suit, it's not there yet. charles: one of the things that these big box retailers are going to have to do are major acquisitions? wal-mart with jet, a billion dollar deal, and pet smart three billion dollar with chewy.com. ultimately could you see one of them coming after your company? >> it's funny because remember, the first segment i was on with you and stu back in the day. stu said would you sell your company for a million i said no, he said, 10, 100. and almost three years later, our competition is getting bought for like 3, 3 1/2 billion dollars. so, for us, you know, i like what we're doing and i like to see it and be on the show, i don't know if you'd invite me back if we sold our company. charles: we always need a consultant. one last one. amazon echo is adding a video screen, voice assistance. is this the next big thing, your own personal voice assistant? >> i think it could be big in the future. technology, you always have a false start first and ten years down the road then it takes off. charles: was siri the false start to an agree? it felt like it had a lot of kinks in, i don't know if it lived up to the hype. >> a little bit, but i harken back to the early 2000's, and you had internet devices and check it there's a screen and 17 years later we're back where we started. so it could be big this time around. charles: and you have to look also at innovating your business. would you look a the a personal assistant, shopper. >> we've considered it. the back end customers don't see it. we've automated our fulfillment center and robotics and haven't laid off a person. we've guaranteed their jobs saying we're not going to lay anybody off at the facility. our back end and our corporate, doing good for the folks. charles: great job. when you go public let the show holders have a vote, please? let them have a vote. even 2-1 let shareholders have a vote. thanks, you're great. on the stock market, you can see more green than red, even though we're only up 17 points on the dow. lawmakers in california want to end a ban on communists working for the state government. imagine this, members of the communist party running the former golden state of california. some say it's already happening. it could be official. in a battle on sanctuary cities, friendly to undocumented immigrants, otherwise known as illegal immigrants. ♪ predictable. the comfort in knowing where things are headed. because as we live longer... and markets continue to rise and fall... predictable is one thing you need in retirement to help protect what you've earned and ensure it lasts. introducing brighthouse financial. a new company established by metlife to specialize in annuities & life insurance. talk to your advisor about a brighter financial future. >> speaking of on-line business, way fair is a big winner, i did it yesterday for trading clients. it's a grand slam. and that's where the action is. action in california they may end a ban on commune anythingses working in government jobs. this is odd, it feels like a lot of communists are already there. liz: that's a joke. this pass along democrat party lines and the state assembly is headed to the state senate. so, being a member of the communist party would no longer be a fireable offense for a state worker. this is a 1940's, 1950's era law that said you can't be a communist and work for the state government. republicans there say this is against everything we stand for. communist is a force in the world, look at north korea and china. charles: i i don'ten what to say. it's interesting we thought it was there and now, do we know of any other states have this law. liz: we don't know right now, but now the military vets are coming out in force and say, hey, wait a second, we fought wars to stop communism. why are california state workers allowing them in their ranks. it seems crazy. charles: we'll leave it there. ivanka trump and scott pruett meeting in washington. the topic, the paris climate change agreement. if president trump decides to stay with the agreement, will he lose some of his core supporters? tweet me. and also the reality of socialism, venezuela on the brink of civil war, the population and starvation, and next, someone who fled venezuela because of what he said was inevitable collapse. on varney, next. . . [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock. charles: 10:00 a.m. on east coast. 7:00 a.m. in al fornash. here are the big stories. white house meeting on climate change ivanka trump, a staunch environmentalist, and scott pruitt who says the united states should leave the paris climate deal. the latest is this. the country's foreign minister says that nation is on the brink of civil war. the trump administration considers sending more troops to afghanistan to fight the taliban. colonel allen west will be here on that. the lieutenant governor of texas joins us on the state's new law cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities. here comes hour two, "varney & company," about to begin. ♪ [gunfire] charles: that was just some of the chaos happening right now in venezuela. the country could indeed be on the brink of a civil war. we're all over the story. first your money. want to check on the big board. starting to gain a little bit of traction. the dow up 23 points. nasdaq has been absolutely on fire, up again big time, 25 point. another all-time high. same with the s&p 500. individual stocks with all-time highs, amazon, apple, alphabet google. look on online home furnishing retailer way fair, record high on earnings breath. now this, ivanka trump and epa chief scott pruitt will meet to discuss the paris climate agreement. katie pavlich joins us now. if president trump does not pull out of the paris climate agreement is he is breaking a campaign promise. >> he is breaking a campaign promise and a inconsistency on the budget. mick mulvaney, says we're no longer spending money on climate change, american taxpayer money. if it's a waste of money domestically, why is it a waste of money to spend hundreds of millions of doll large on the paris climate agreement. charles: initially when president trump ordered salvo to be fired in syria, a lot of core supporters, said that was no-go, american involvement, america first. seems like the initial critics come back around. considering how most americans are saying there are some issues with climate change, most seem to be okay with this accord, do you think any damage will linger? >> i think it depends on the outcome. when you look at the paris climate agreement, it is not clear the agreement will actually change the course of climate change. there is plenty of people who can be concerned about the environment but it doesn't mean that you're going to just push a bunch much money to an international body and expect the climate to change. do we really expect china to uphold their end of the climate agreement? no, we do not. they haven't done that in the past. it is fair to criticize it. i think there is also a big difference between launching tomahawk missiles in syria in response to a chemical weapons attack and shoveling buckets and buckets of money towards climate change, which by the way is not settled science despite the left wants to argue to dig into the pockets of americans to pay for their pet projects in climate change pipe dreams. charles: this, katie, i want to ask you, michael goodwin had a great article writing that hillary clinton is considering a run in 2020. i want you to check out the headline. hillary's election loss excuse means one thing, she is running in 2020. what is your reaction. >> just go away! stop. we had 30, 40 years of this. hillary if you care about your party, care about the future of democrats just exit stage left. leave it all alone. just stop hurting us please. this is nightmare on paper. when i read the headline in black and white, no, this can not be happening. she needs to spend more time in the woods and take a couple of hikes, if you know what i'm saying. stay away. she is doing significant damage to her own party not to mention the country if she wants to run again. charles: hillary, have you no shame. that is rhetorical question. >> that is a silly question. charles: it's a silly question. why, why doesn't the democratic party push her away, saying please, leave us alone? >> this time they might. for years and years they didn't have the courage to tell the clintons to hang it up. i think a lot of people now, if you're listening to people like jen psaki for example who worked in the obama administration, david axelrod, they're saying look we knew who hillary clinton was for 10 years going into the presidential election. we knew how people felt about her. yet democrats ran her anyway. so hopefully they will learn from their mistakes, but, at the same time, i'm not really sure they have deep enough bench to fill the void. we'll have to see. charles: one word, word of the day for hillary is humility. >> jeez, that is a big wish-list. we'll see. charles: thank you. gary cohn, president trump's chief economic advisor appeared on our program last week to talk taxes regulatory reform. just listen to this. >> we're going to stimulate growth by having a lower tax rate and having reformed regulation. ing are laboratory reform is almost as important as taxes. when we have met with all the business leaders in the country, in every industry, they told us their number one concern is regulatory reform. their number two concern is taxes. they want to invest in capital and want to hire people as you see in the jobs report. but they can't because the regulatory process is too difficult. they go to other countries where the regulatory process is easier around tax rate is lower. we need to fix both of those. charles: joining us congressman bill huizenga, republican from michigan. welcome to the show. >> appreciate it. charles: the trump administration has gotten off to amazing start with the economy. i think the economy is reacting to the promises made on the campaign trail and moving on its ow somef its is done with executive orders but at the same time some so so marbled with bureaucracy it will be tough to tackle. >> it will be difficult. i'm glad to see gary cohn on my talking points. we talk about taxation but don't talk about regulation. frankly under the lasted a administration we turned into regulation nation. that overregulation has slowed our economic growth as much as any sort of tax framework that we have. charles: do you worry, because i think where we were when president obama ran the first time around in the throes of that meltdown, the story was there wasn't enough regulation. that industries couldn't regulate themselves. wall street couldn't regulate themselves. in the opinion due lump they were able to swing it from one extreme all the way to another. critics say maybe they swing it all the way back again where you have unfettered capitalism and the country run amok once again. >> that is assuming back in 2007 and 2008 there was no regulation out there. that is yarn that gets spun by the other side that is trying to desperately hold on to frankly a an agenda waiting for the crisis which turned into the dodd-frank. we know what really the failure was, you didn't have regulators doing their job.weren't in place. it wasn't that laws weren't in place. it is they were not being enforced and regulators fell down on the job often times. charles: the or the part is one-two punch if you will of tax. >> yeah. charles: gary cohn said they will go around the country. they will talk to all different constituencies. hear what their thoughts and concerns are. they will cobble something together that i think will be able to sail through all the different levels that it has to sail threw without sort of embarassment they saw with the first health care vote. is it possible? you've got this, we've now, the american public has seen within the gop sop real distinct differences, idealogical differences that almost make it feel like the loyal opposition is within the gop itself? >> i point out back home just because we have the majority of the party doesn't mean we have a philosophical majority. there are differences. michigan, maine, mississippi, ntana have in common is the letter m at the beginning of the title. which come at it from different angles. we have to figure out, frankly, charles, how to govern and grow up and get over ourselves. when people are more concerned about protecting a brand or protecting a voting record. they would rather be 100% right and lose rather than 80% right and win, i side with ronald reagan. somebody agrees with me 80% of the time is my friend. i want to move forward with that. charles: is that the insidious nature of washington, d.c.? when everyone runs they feel like they're honest about the idea they want to make a difference but feels like once they get there, it is so powerful that you don't ever want to leave. all you consider at that point, it is not casting on you particular but feels like people went there with sincere intentions. didn't take long for them to i want to protect my turf and stay here forever? >> what i have seen a number of my colleagues coming in 2010 like i did, who have said, you know what? it is not their desires, it is more the system, the way it is set up, the way it is constructed. i say congress is the only organization that i have been a part of its sum is less than its parts. usually you want good parts to come together to get something even better. for some strange reason you get phenomenal great people come together but the system is bogged down. and frankly, i think, sort of this hyper-focused media and internet and sort of the glare that is on there, we've all sort of as consumers figured out what very narrow band of information that we're going to get and who we're going to listen to. again, i have constituents who will come up to me, i agree with almost everything you have, but you had this one vote. charles: sure. >> but ultimately it is up to us as the american people to decide one, are we going to be governed, how we're going to be governed, who we choose to go there. for the most part we have good people. we need to work together. charles: that is the great challenge for the republican party. >> thank you, charles. good to be on with you. thank you very much. charles: look at this. more airline chaos. passengers actually arrested after spirit airlines cancelses a bunch of flights in florida. liz, what happened? liz: nine flights canceled. this is the fort lauderdale airport. spirit airlines customers, hundreds started to get really upset, brawls broke out. rioting broke out. people were fighting with spirit airlines officials. then they started fighting with the cops. one dep ity sheriff got knocked down. several detained and arrested. this comes after 300 flights were canceled by spirit air over the last week. spirit airlines is saying that the pilots are purposely doing a work slowdown over contract disputes. they deny it. but boy, this is this a chaotic, came to a head in fort lauderdale monday night. charles: ugly stuff. venezuela is on the brink. the white house is watching the situation closely. they're considering intervening. we'll talk to a venezuela expat who knows this. senator cassidy appeared on our program. he unveiled his own health care plan. jimmy kimmel him whether it meets his new standard. we have the story. the second hour of "varney & company" continues. ♪ charles: let's check on the big board here. the dow jones industrial average gaining some momentum up 29, 30 points. and more green on the screen when we went to break. hertz is a big loser today. lost a lot of money. the stock continues to get hammered. the uber effect is crushing this company. want to check this out. refugee admissions to the united states plummeted under president trump. you have the details. liz: hitting four-year lows. 2070 refugees admitted in march. that is down from april at 3300. trended 32,000 a year. president trump will allow in 50,000. what is going on? republican and democrat senators have sent a letter to rex tillerson and the john kelly who runs homeland security saying are you slowing down processing? you know that travel pause, that ban. charles: sure. liz: it is now in the courts, being duked out for couple month now but in the interim is there a slowdown admitting refugees is being slowed down. marco rubio signed a letter. charles: really? republicans are asking? liz: if there is refugee processing slowdown. charles: they're suggesting it is nefarious. liz: they don't know why. they don't know why there has been a slowdown. charles: we're on pace to be as low as 2006, if you extrapolate the first four months. wow. thank you very much. >> sure. charles: now this. the former foreign minister of venezuela says that that country is on the brink of civil war and there are reports that the trump administration is now monitoring venezuela's unrest. eric burman join us now. he emmy greated to the united states from venezuela. he is founder of new way capital. he is now a u.s. citizen. eric, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, charles, for having me. charles: how long ago did you leave venezuela? >> i left venezuela 16 years ago when i was a teenager. charles: i'm sure you have a lot of relatives, acquaintances there? >> of course. charles: from the outside looking in, this looked in thability. in other words not just socialism failing. last few years chavez and maduro. given that the military giant pay raises, things like that, feels like we're setting up for a real ugly confrontation. >> absolutely, charles. in some ways it was inevitable. history is very clear about the types of policies implemented in venezuela simply not working. there is almost a natural law you can not defy when it comes to socialism versus the freedom of people to pursue their own interests, and what works and what doesn't. charles: yet the nation embraced it particularly under the charismatic leadership of chavez. at one point with crude oil over 100 bucks, he was making promises to the venezuelans but almost everyone in south america. he had a real movement going on. >> he did. when oil was not only abundant and also expensive they could get away with it. unfortunately the types of policies they put in place managed to destroy the productive capacity of the country. even oil started to drop in terms of its production and clearly world markets have not been playing in its favor. charles: so you have a situation now where the country, where people are starving. where, it is just, wsee it disintegrating before our very eyes. maduro apparently giving weapons to peasants to i guess bolster his army. how do you see this ending? >> this is a tough situation. the situation in venezuela matters a lot to us in the united states for three main reasons. the first, it is a clear example of what we shouldn't do. unfortunately i think we're moving too much in that direction. second it is turning into a crisis, humanitarian crisis which will be before too long become a refugee crisis. that comes with its own economic and national security issues. and third, but not least, the situation in venezuela, when you look at it from the inside and understand the larger geopolitical context looks very similar to syria. the conditions on the ground lend itself for the same type of dynamics to evolve. clearly some of the same actors behind the scenes are at play. and it is a country that is very rich in oil resources. even though the current government has been unable to stimulate the economy and bring foreign direct investment to effectively leverage that industry, it is a resource available there. the question is what is going to happen next? who will end up in power? are we going to sit back and let it happen while it is both a humanitarian crisis and national security crisis as well as a clear example where we shouldn't be headed? charles: eric, thank you very much. we appreciate you sharing your personal and professional knowledge about what is happening there. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me, charles. charles: coming up, president trump considers a strategy shift by sending up to 3,000 more troops to afghanistan to combat the taliban. lieutenant colonel allen west will give us his take on that. you always pay your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $509 on auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. charles: all-time highs for apple, amazon and alphabet/google again. now back to the republican health care plan. want to take a listen to what senator bill cassidy said on this program yesterday. >> our bill is more set up to achieve president trump's goals and one, to lower premiums. that is a huge thing for middle america. and at the same time achieve what i call the jimmy kimmel test. if somebody has a preexisting condition which she has the verage for herself or her family member that would allow her to get the care she needs. charles: senator cassidy also appeared on "jimmy kimmel" last night. want to listen to their exchange on health care. >> we have got to have insurance that passes the jimmy kimmel test. >> jimmy kimmel test i think should be no family should be deny medical care, emergency or otherwise because they can't afford it. can that be the jimmy kimmel test? [cheers and applause] is that oversimplifying it? >> man, you're on the right track. >> i can think of a way to pay for it, don't give a huge tax cut to millionaires like me, instead, leave it how it is. charles: liz what is the reaction? liz: this started because jimmy kimmel's new-born son had a hole in his heart and needed emergency surgery. he was called elitist creep and emotionally drunk. i thought the words were too harsh. jimmy kimmel is going through a very hard time. this baby has to have multiple surgeries. it is in the thick of the whether or not federal taxpayers should cover preexisting conditions. he is accused using this as political platform. i thought attacks against jimmy kimmel were wrong. it is okay for free speech to say what he has to say. it is fine what jimmy kimmel said. charles: the central issue, how do you cover preexisting conditions? i think with respect to the trump administration, acknowledgement that obama care has failed? it hasn't lived up to any of its promises. everybody thinks it needs to be tweaked. the centerpiece of the controversy how do you f of the more expensive issues which is preexisting conditions particularly for insurance companies that don't want to cover them? liz: that is the issue. insurance companies have a lock on state capitols. when the gop says we want insurance sold across state lines. obamacare allowed that. only five states did it. can they do that without filing antitrust action against insurance industry who company prices very high. the existing pool, $138 billion will cover preexisting conditions will give incentive to insurerses to overcharge or shut down. that is the issue. this is the crux of the fight. i think attacking jimmy kimmel for going through what he is saying and what he said is wrong. charles: he put it out there. liz: that is fine he shares his story with the public -- liz: you don't call him names. republicans are always saying, democrats shouldn't call people names. you don't call him emotionally drunk or elitist creep. that is totally wrong way to do the debates. charles: let's leave it there. california in the meantime. they continue to confound us. they are looking to end a decades-old ban on economists from taking government jobs. we have the details for you. so new touch screens... and biometrics. in 574 branches. all done by... yesterday. ♪ ♪ banks aren't just undergoing a face lift. they're undergoing a transformation. a data fueled, security driven shift in applications and customer experience. which is why comcast business delivers consistent network performance and speed across all your locations. hello, mr. deets. every branch running like headquarters. that's how you outmaneuver. ♪ ♪ welcome to holiday inn! ♪ ♪ thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! ♪ ♪ making every stay a special stay. holiday inn, smiles ahead. whether for big meetings or little getaways, member always save more at holidayinn.com so how old do you want uhh, i was thinking around 70. alright, and before that you mean after that? no, i'm talking before that. do you have things you want to dbefo you retire? oh yeah sure... ok, like what? but i thought we were supposed to be talking about investing for retirement? we're absolutely doing that. but there's no law you can't make the most of today. what do you want to do? i'd really like to run with the bulls. wow. yea. hope you're fast. i am. get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change. investment management services from td ameritrade. ♪ charles: looking at the big board there, dow up almost 20 points. been up about 30. we're hanging in there, in the green though. big tech names. we check them every single day. as you can see they're still for the most part on fire. now this. president trump considering a strategy shift, perhaps sending as many as three thousand troops to afghanistan to combat the resurgent taliban. colonel allen west, in the studio. former republican congressman from florida. >> great to be with you, charles. charles: this is sort of alarming, for many reasons. first that the taliban is still around. secondly we may put more boots on the ground which is something a lot of people don't want to see happen. >> this kind of reminds me, i was born and raised in atlanta, how the falcons played the game with the patriot. they started to play not to lose and took their foot off the pedal. that is what happened. when president obama called a unilateral end to combat operations. you only end combat operations you win or lose. you just can't walk away. since is 2001, the taliban controls more territory than they have sense that point. we need the right type of troops to task, deny the taliban and isis and islamic jihadist groups, haqqani network the sanctuaries they have. make sure we have the right rules of engagement, get in and defeat the army and work side by side with the afghan coalition partners and other nato partners. charles: i remember the powell doctrine, colin powell say go in overwhelming force, win quickly, create peace and leave. american politicians of all stripes have been loathe to do that particularly since the vietnam war brought ugliness of and horror of combat to our living rooms. it has been sort of a piecemeal thing. 3,000 doesn't sunday like a lot to win per se. it sounds like enough to stop the tide. are they setting up to perhaps negotiate with the taliban, formal exit because everyone is saying no matter what, the taliban will be part of afghanistan's government from here on out? >> i don't think we can allow the taliban to be part of the government. clause said part of war is imposing your will upon another. we haven't done that with the taliban. they retain radical islamic perspective. we can't allow that in the 21st century. we need to defeat the taliban. defeat the ideology there. not allow them to ever have a sanctuary. they will launch attacks out from the sanctuary they established. charles: coming into yesterday, america had lost 2396 troops, soldiers in afghanistan including four fatality this is year. so we better be sure if we're going to do this, we're going to do it -- >> let the generals on the ground do this. charles: colonel, i want to ask you about troops in israel using virtual reality to train for combat in underground tunnels. like this idea? >> i absolutely do like this idea. that is a very claustrophobic environment. this is like the two-foot war, when you talk about going down into these tunnel systems this is something also that we probably he need to look at because we know the mexican drug cartels are using tunnels to come into the united states of america. maybe that is something we can also train our border patrol for the law enforcement officers on. israel has a serious issue with these tunnels coming out out ofe gaza strip this is good step in the use of technology. charles: a lot of things going on around the world. feels like we're walking on eggshells, whether the korean peninsula. they have a new president. >> yes. charles: i think the new president is a liberal, could upset donald trump's, maybe some of his potential options there, particularly with the tthad missile system. we're concerned about the mediterranean and middle east. how are you feel about overall about things? >> president trump needs an address to the american people. you talked about the powell doctrine. what is the trump doctrine? how we will get away from nation bidding? get to use our economic energy and sources of power we can leverage and diplomatic means we can leverage? how do we build the military as deterrent force to combat different threats. charles: godfather three, couldn't hold up to one and two, every time i get out they pull me back in. can we get away from these things? they always pull me back in as the world's policeman. >>he void you create will be filled and we created the void. charles: lieutenant colonel allen west. thank you very much. >> thank you. charles: facebook deletes thousands of so-called fake news accounts, that is great but ahead of the british elections. did they pick the right ones? liz: you're right. theresa may called the snap election june 8th. ahead of that facebook deleted, thousands of accounts. a really striking move here. one instance looks like they wiped out 8 million fake likes on, they're calling fake news. they're trying to stop the problem ahead of the election basically a mandate to get the "brexit" done. that is why theresa may called the election. charles: what about russian bots? should be a way to counter those. liz: eight million likes, facebook says this is sophisticated scam operation. massive purge of accounts. is it bots? looks like it. charles: hopefully they get ahead of the stuff. there was a big thing with macron before the election. didn't have impact. liz: yep. charles: check this out. state as somably of california, passed a bill, a decades-long ban on communists working for the state government. look who is joining us now. brian kilmeade, "fox & friends" co-host, of course radio show "kilmeade and friends." brian you can run for office now. worked for the government in california. >> as you know, charles, you live on one side of the hall on the 1th floor here. i'm on the other. we're mostly communists. and you're mostly free-marketeers. just amazing, in the 1950s they passed this law banning communist in california obviously they see we're in the middle after cold war. now that we won the war, there is no more communist china. wait a second there is. there is no more communist cuba. wait a second, there might be. nicaragua there is communist regime. no more people fleeing cop nists. how disrespectful to those who won the cold war? is this all they have to focus on in los angeles? charles: listen, you have "governor moonbeam" and his policies are right there on the socialistic level, to some degree you might as welcome out of the closet, admit it, i'm a socialist/economist. we want to work for government. they're probably marbled in there already. >> you know what is interesting? it is not going over big from immigrants fleeing the central and south american countrys who are teetering towards communism and have been in the past. they want no part of it. you don't even bring that up. it is a dirty word. when you see reemergence of russia and what they want to do what was once the soviet union, you understand that communism is not in our review mirror. to be that arrogant, say we have nothing to worry about, let's be progressive, turn the page on communism, is an insult to those who fought against it. and who actually won it in in the 1990s. charles: yet, here we have it. this is the incomes move in a string of moves of course. i guess the best thing we can do hope it stays in california but ironically, a lot of dumb things they do seem to spill over into other places? >> you know what i would like? i would like the central government to pick out my occupation. if i'm making too much money, i would love to fan it out, if i happen to get to there. let's everyone have everything equal. let's march in lockstep and start invading other countries and demand we spread our doctrine to other nations that would be a great flash back for us. charles: you know what? i'm going to continue to smuggle food over to your side, you communists, you guys need it from time to time. >> east and west germany, north and south korea, that is how different we are on the 17th floor. thanks for filling in when you have a chance to fill in here. people love you. charles: always a pleasure. >> sorry about the tie. i took it off not realizing how much better you would look in the long run. you really shamed me in the two shot. that i will forever regret and apologize to my mom who is watching. charles: buddy, emac wants to say hi. liz: hi, brian. can i make one point. democrats are saying russians are meddling in the election but california is letting communists into the state government. i don't get it? >> that is areat pnt. they were ddling but the whole collusion thing didn't pan out yesterday, am i right, liz? liz: james clapper said there is no collusion. he said a lot of thing. said fbi, cia says to date no russian collusion with the trump campaign. >> my big question about general clapper is. why do we look like we just woke him up? i always feel i have to whisper or shake him to let him realize we're on a time limit to answer a question. did he ever hear the question first time once? we repeated every question, which is something i did in grade school when i didn't have time to figure out the answer yet. i was trying to buy myself some more time. just what i i noticed. charles: we're in a time limit too. we'll see you real soon. thanks a lot. >> thank you, charles. charles: brian kilmeade. the state of texas filing lawsuits against sanctuary cities, sanctuary cities that are friendly like austin. they're demanding that the courts say its sanctuary city ban is constitutional. we'll have the texas lieutenant governor on that next. continued failure of socialism on full display in venezuela. the country on the verge of civil war, a failed state that seemed inevitable. more "varney" after this. ♪ ♪ predictable. the comfort in knowing where things are headed. because as we live longer... and markets continue to rise and fall... predictable is one thing you need in retirement to help protect what you've earned and ensure it lasts. introducing brighthouse financial. a new company established by metlife to specialize in annuities & life insurance. talk to your advisor about a brighter financial future. ♪ liz: welcome back. you might want to listen to this. charles talked retail with che wong, ceo of online discounter, vox. they had fun on set. >> you can't sell anything online to think about amazon. we cellaringly different items, large bulk items you find at bj's, costco, sam's club. you have to worry about them. they do everything including robotic stuff, charles. charles: you guys doing very well. first time on the show you ad overalls and flip-flops. look at you now. you have hugo boss. >> you know it is getting serious when i wear a suit. we were saying before, charles, you should have your own show. making money is on. i know you're not a tar get bull. i last segment i was watching. i know what he is going to say. ♪ [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock. arbreak through your allergies. try new flonase sensimist instead of allergy pills. it's more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. using unique mistpro technology, new flonase sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. most allergy pills only block one. and six is greater than one. break through your allergies. new flonase sensimist charles: dow losing a little bit of steam. up as much as 30 at one point. now this, texas governor greg abbott sign as new law punishing sanctuary cities. state of texas is suing the city of austin, travis county, to enforce the law. joining me the lieutenant governor of the state. dan patrick. thanks for joining us. >> thank you, charles. charles: of course critics your law instantly compared it to the arizona law that was, parts of it were struck down by the supreme court. so what's the move here with the preemptive lawsuit on your behalf? what are you trying to establish here? >> well, senate bill 4 that we passed months ago out of the senate will protect all citizens in texas, right thing to do to have local law enforcement and local elected officials follow the law to cooperate with federal officials. we believe it clearly tituonal. ken paxton, our attorney general, filedhis primarily early as preemptive strike what will be obvious lawsuits coming from the left. once you establish clearly it is constitutional, it helps push off some of the lawsuits. doesn't mean they can't sue. we simply want to make it very clear. charles: what about these states, these locales, these cities and counties that are saying, first of all it is too expensive to do the things that you're asking them to do? it puts unnecessary burden and strain on police, local police forces to do their primary job of keeping their citizens protected? >> well, the people who believe, and say that sanctuary cities make us safer are just flat wrong, they know they're flat wrong. here are the statistics charles, and you're a numbers guy. since 2011, through january of this year, in texas alone, texas, we put 212,000 criminal aliens in jail. we charged them with 566,000 crimes. over 6,000 sexual assaults. 7,000 drug offenses. the 60,000 other offenses. over 1000 murders. nearly 500 kidnappings. that is in texas, charles. so this idea by sally hernandez, the sheriff here in travis count where i sit, who really brought focus on this, she let out criminals out of into the streets of austin, when she said she will not cooperate with the federal government, she is the shining example, the poster-child what is wrong with america for these law enforcement officers, very few, only sheriff in texas out of 254 taking stance. city mayorss tell the police chiefs, don't follow federal law. don't cooperate with the feds. imagine that, charles, 566,000 crimes committed by criminal aliens, 2/3 here illegally. sanctuary cities only bring criminals into america and give them a safe haven. these people are wrong and the cost to the victims is what counts to me, not some costs to them. if it costs them money because they're not following the law. charles: of course it is tough to put a numerical figure on some of the pain and suffering of victims and families. >> absolutely not. charles: to your point, op ed in dallas newspaper recently, both police chiefs of houston and dallas pushing back on this. i think the next question beyond the legal challenge is, will the state go after and actually arrest someone like a sally hernandez if they don't hold illegal immigrant for i.c.e. more than 48 hours? will you take the next step to start to arrest these sheriffs? >> charles, let's be very clear. the legislature has spoken because the people have spoken. if we have local elected officials including some in law enforcement who will defy the law, they are subject to fines and they are subject to going to jail. we will follow up. we're serious about protecting our citizens, charles. and sanctuary cities across america have made america less safe. i gave you the stats here in texas. imagine those all across the country. if you talk to any sheriff in the country they will tell you they are a border sheriff because crimes to come to their community with ms-13. look what is happening in your neighborhood long island, ms-13, that far away from the border. we must stop this, charles, here is the key. i blame both parties over long term in congress passing legal immigration reform. people should come to the country in dignity. not live in shadows, live with pride. we need to control who comes to america not drug cartels. seal the border. we need a real wall, technology, cam ares, natural barriers, fencing, we need to secure the border. we have a legal system for people to come here who want to be proud americans today, with a border that has not been secure, particularly under the obama administration. a lot of criminals made their way across the border into this country. in texas, we're tired of it. we'll put an end to it, that is why we passed senate bill 4. charles: lieutenant governor dan patrick. thank you very much. we appreciate your time. guys, look at this. the amazon echo device, will have video call capability. liz: you seen the 7-inch touch screen on amazon echo, out in june. price point 200 bucks. can use the echo to call mom and dad over internet. you won't need verizon or whatever. other telecoms. when you use skype, microsoft keeps that, owns skype. microsoft owns that phone call. amazon filed a patent to look up your phone with the alexa echo. they could have all sorts of information, information on your data and phone contacts and your conversations stored in there. that is a downside of it to think about, interesting. coming up, third hour of "varney & company." a wife said her husband would have died if he was covered by obamacare, not private insurance. we'll be right back. charles: you were suspended by the newspaper. you were unpaid spokesman for the nra. you decided to quit, right. >> absolutely, charles. i had no qualms about reading series of emails that notified me of suspension itself. to be on the record, i had no professional affiliation with the national rifle association. the column wasn't about the nra. it was about the kind of editing process and thought process in newsrooms across america that would permit an editor to allow a guest opinion writer to compare isis and law-abiding gun-owning american citizens who happen to be members of the nra or they may not. not all gun owners are members of the nra. so i talked a little bit about the nra. but the majority of the piece was about the left-leaning news apparatus in the country. that is why i was suspended. charles: you were fighting two fights, the first and second amendment on this one? >> right. charles, i'm writing in the piece, around i say at the very end, i close it out with, this kind of practice requires introspection across in newsrooms across the country. intro speckively they suspended me. they said i had a professional affiliation with the nra was undisclosed. as some people know i've been on this program, on yours, i have been open second amendment supporter. i'm a veteran. my father was in law enforcement. my background is guns, guns. i have never hidden that i'm proud to be nra member. the piece isn't in any way diminished about the fact that i am. me being an nra member, doesn't change the fact that nra members are like isis. nothing in the come almost can be impugned by the fact that i may or may not be a member of the nra. ♪ has exposure to energy infrastructure mlps? think again. it's time to shake up your lineup. the alerian mlp etf can diversify your equity portfolio and add potential income. bring amlp into the game. before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. read the prospectus carefully at alpsfunds.com/amlp thereit comes to technology, about my small business so when i need someone that understands my unique needs. my dell small business advisor has gotten to know our business so well that is feels like he's a part of our team. with one phone call, he sets me up with tailored products and services. and when my advisor is focused on my tech, i can focus on my small business. ♪ ♪ .. charles: it's 11 a.m. in new york, 8 a.m. in california. i'm charles payne in for stuart very orny. he will be back on -- varney, he will be back on thursday. on the west coast, another roadblock to high-speed bullet train. we're also going to be p joined by a woman who has a very personal story. she says her husband would have died under obamacare. she's going to be with us to tell us that story. and imagine asking your favorite pop star to pay your college tuition, and she agrees! one very famous entertainer did just that. get ready, hour two of "varney & company" full speed ahead. ♪ ♪ charles: that's right. beautiful, it's a beautiful day outside, a beautiful day inside and a heck of a beautiful day for your wallet and your 401(k). check out the big board here, guys. dow's up ten points, getting closer and closer to an all-time high. trying to catch up with those other major indices, particularly the nasdaq. hitting another all-time high earlier today, still hanging tough. and amazon one of the reasons for it. they hit a record high, and the company is expected to announce a new echo with a video screen. we do have some losers including hertz. the shares are getting hammered, i would say a victim of uber. now to apple. it hit an all-time high. the market valuation now above $800 billion. with me now, new york times best selling author of american mojo: lost and found, peter kiernan. will they going to hit by christmas? >> i think it will be. i like apple, i'll tell you why. when people look at the tech stocks, they love to say this is a bubble. they freak out. if you look at the market multiple of 22, apple's only trading at 18 times. it'sen an earnings juggernaut. charles: i compare it to the nifty fifty in the '60s. they were big names, they dominated industry, they had no real rivals, and by the time they exploded which was january 1973, they had pe ratios in the 50s and 60s,ing and it was clear. but to your point, the earnings for these companies are starting to catch up to the hype. >> apple is earning 35 cents on every dollar they invest. there are very few places anywhere in our economy you can get that kind of return. and they're doing it reliably, and they're sitting on mountains of cash. charles: peter, i want to go back to amazon. take a listen to what warren buffett had to say about fox business about -- to say to fox business about jeff bezos. >> well, bezos has developed two extraordinary businesses. i mean, take on retailing, that is not a small task, and change it and have virtually everybody in the world if you ask them who they worry about the most, they worry about amazon. and then do the same thing, you know, in the cloud? i can't think of anybody that's really tackled two industries at once and created as much change. charles: peter, do you agree? >> i think he's especially right on the second point which is amazon dominates the cloud. why build your own when you can have all that computer power managed for you by amazon. that's the secret sauce that's driving amazon right now. weall see very visibly what they're doing in retail, but it's the cloud where they enjoy thique posion ofeing king of the hill. charles: i love that bezos goes after things, he's not afraid to fail. they just bought and sold soap.com for a major loss, but he's always ahead of the curve. of. bill gates weighing in on the state of the economy. listen to this. >> the u.s. economy is doing well, innovation in the u.s. is doing well. i think this is a, you know, a period where the u.s. formula looks great. charles: joining us now, american action forum president douglas holtz-eakin. all right, douglas, it sounds pretty bullish. probably as bullish as you're going to ever hear bill gates sound. what do you say? >> he's a little more bullish than i am. i think the ideas innovation is in good shape, no doubt about that. but the translation of those ideas into actual business productivity has been missing for a couple of years, remains missing in action. and until we close that loop, until we get real, strong productivity growth back, we're not going to see top-line gdp go above 2%, see wages growing at a pace americans need and expect, and we're not going to have people feel like the economy's performing well. charles: doug, when you saw productivity, because we hear it a lot. i know alan greenspan, the productivity miracle was the thing he pointed to a lot. for many, that's a euphemism for more people losing their jobs and robots and artificial intelligence taking over. that's not what you're talking about, is it? >> no. if you look back to that period in the '90s, we got the unemployment rate down to almost 4%. this was getting more americans to work than ever before, and at the same time if those workers are more productive, then you can pay them more off the revenue they're generating without raising prices. and that's the magic sauce. if you can have those wage increases without corresponding price increases, those dollars are going farther, people are getting a better standard of living and the economy's expanding the whole time. to get back to that kind of productivity growth is absolutely essential. charles: peter kiernan, i want your take as well. >> i just think productivity is the key. one of the things we have to prepare ourselves for, many, many existing jobs right here, right now, today are going to be disrupted in the next ten year. and the challenge is to use that productivity, to use business investment to create new jobs which will pay higher, but they need different kinds of training. and we need to adapt because disruption is a mart of fact. it is -- is a matter of fact. it is going to occur, and we have to be ready to seize opportunities when they come up. charles: you're not just talking s.t.e.m., but vocation and other issues as well. >> i think the number one issue we have is a talent management issue. we need to have our people ready. there are millions of great, high-paying jobs that are open and available. they don't need the genius of job creation. we don't need jeff bezos to create them. they're out there. we need to train our young people particularly so they're ready to assume those jobs. charles and to that point, empire state manufacturing said only 12% of those jobs need a college degree, but they can't find skilled workers. doug, i want to ask you about this. investors perhaps feeling too confident. the much talked about volatility index, the vix, dropping to the lowest levels in 24 years. for many, that raises red flags. >> yeah. i'm surprised by this. you know, there has been this sharp uptick in business confidence and consumer confidence. this is the reflection of that in investor confidence. but the fact is the u.s. economy is not out of the woods. we haven't shifted from 2% growth rate to 3, 3.5% growth rate. we haven't really changed the trajectory that left so many people frustrated and unhappy. until we actually do, i think investors should be a bit more cautious and be a little more strategic on where they put their dollars. not everything's going to perform well. charles: peter? >> i feel very strongly this low volatility is misleading. just like you can drown in a river that averages 6 inches -- excuse me -- 6 inches in depth. and one of the problems is relevant volatility. if you miss your earnings, you will not go from very low volatility. you will experience enormous volatility. so the stocks like under armour miss a quarter, down 31%. hertz, you referenced earlier, down 20% because they doubled the loss they expected. all across the retail chain huge losses, so volatility generally very measured, very calm. volatility specifically, if you miss your target as a company, you are going to have a major action, double-digit losses. it's happening all over the place. and by the way, if you're a biotech and someone dies on your watch, all of your competitors will go down as well. this is a very tricky time. do not be fooled if you're an investor by modest volatility claims. charles: and, doug, recently there have been a lot more losers in the market than winners, but the structure of these major inty cease kind of masks what may be happening broadly. >> yeah. i think peter made a great point. all those examples are examples in which the market is going to discipline those who do not perform well, and that's how good market economics works. it rewards people who perform well, it does not reward those who do not. the real surprise is somehow the macro environment, the global environment is somehow perceived as more stable than in the past. i look around europe, i look at china, japan, russia, brazil, i don't see anything in 2017 that looks so much more benign than we saw in 2016, and it's that decline of volatility that i think i'm confused by. charles: all right, guys, let's leave it there. doug, thank you very much. peter, you're going to come back and talk about that. first, though, want to share some individual names with the audience. pandora exploring strategic alternatives and investors, of course, always like the sound of that. although in this case the stock is down because perhaps they won't be able to woo a much bigger bid if they are bought out. marriott, higher room rates and occupancy, the company guided for the full year. that gives you a lot of comfort as an investor. disney is going to be a nail-biter, of course, it's all about cord cutting versus other businesses which we know are doing great. meanwhile, gas now at $2.34, that is the national average for regular gasoline. we've got much more ahead including epa chief scott pruitt saying on this program last week that the paris climate deal is bad for business, but happening today, pruitt will be meeting with ivanka trump at the white house, and they're going to discuss whether or not america should withdraw from the paris ime agreement. plus, the late out of venezuela. the country's former foreign minister saying the government is losing control and warning of a possible civil war. we're all over that. and another day, another airline problem. today it was spirit airlines. a brawl breaks out at the fort lauderdale airport after the airline cancels a bunch of flights. people arrested, we're going to have details next. ♪ ♪ >> when you look at paris, you know, what's right about this issue is making sure that we have international discussion with respect to how good a job we're doing across the globe with respecting our co2 foot print. but it was a bad deal for this country. what paris represents is a bad business deal for this country. it caused a contraction the our economy when we're leading the world already at reducing our co2 footprint. charles: that was epa chief scott pruitt on this program last week. today he's meeting with ivanka trump at the white house and the topic whether america should stay in the paris climate agreement. here now the author of the new book, "leading from behind, herb london. you write a book every other week. [laughter] you put 'em out, they're smart. i love them. i can't keep up. >> you're very kind, thank you. charles: scott pruitt talking about the fracking miracle, natural gas coming out, con gently -- consequently, we were able to lower our co2 emissions dramatically. it's obviously a lopsided deal to begin with. >> it's a lopsided deal. there's no question that the mitigation involved in this is not going to be as significant as it could be if you had china and india operating immediately. it is also true that they feel they're engaged in catch-up. and as a consequence, they are saying, look, the united states has a distinct advantage. we want to be able to catch up. charles: let me just interject, because when they made that argument, there was sort of like because of the imperialism of the west that held back china and india for so long. it's oy right and fair that you' allow our economies to catch up to yours. >> well, one of the things that you have to understand is the chinese have taken the equivalent of the american population and put them in the middle class. that's 300 million people. it's absolutely astonishing, quite remarkable. so when the chinese say we cannot catch up, they are catching up. they are making a very significant stride forward. i also think it's important to understand that there are a lot of factors that go into the co2 footprint. when you talk about natural gas, it's a fossil fuel. again, it's not so easy to make these judgments. i think what you've got to do is recognize the fact that according to the agreement, the nation -- 55 nations are supposed to meet every five years to discuss this matter, go over it and reconsider the terms. i think that what you have with mr. pruitt is exactly that. he's saying let's go through the next five years and see where we stand. charles: although, peter, a lot of americans would simply like to see us pull out of it and say thank you very much, but we'll take care of our climate, you take care of yours. >> i think it's a mistake to do that because it's voluntary. there is no penalty. if you don't produce the reductions that you've promised, no one does anything to you. and so when japan had a problem because of the fukushima power plant, they went in and backtracked. they renegotiated. this is a pact that can contain plenty of opportunities for renegotiation. we don't need to pull out now. there are about 200 nations that are surrounding this thing, and i think what we want to do is have a leadership position that makes sense for us. and by -- charles: what would you do differently? >> i would go in and downgrade our commitment. we're more than halfway to the 26-28% commitment we made. we're at about 13%. let's go in, and just as herb is talking about, let's get something reasonable, let's get something that level sets with the two dynamos, china and india, which are becoming huge users of natural resources, and do that with a seat at the table. >> right. that's what exxonmobil, bp and shell are saying. you want to reduce climate emissions, get nat gas sold around the world. even the coal oducs like peabody are saying don't exit out of the deal. charles: i felt it was dumb for emerging nations -- not china and india, but so-called third world nations who will never be able to develop their economies. >> i think it's important in the united states that we recognize the leadership position we're in. i think it was a mistake, a big mistake for us to withdraw. but at the same time, renegotiation, i think, is necessary. so i think that you can do both. you can simply say to the nations of the world we want to play a role, but at the same time we recognize the fact that there are limits and that the united states is in the position where we will reduce the carbon footprint world wild, but we want to renegotiate the position. charles: sure. and, of course, with china some of the pictures of smog means they may have to do some things, paris climate deal or not. >> yeah. charles: thanks a lot, herb. >> pleasure to be with you. charles: now to florida. passengers at the airport went absolutely bonkers after spirit airlines canceled system flights. >> yeah. fort lauderdale international airport. so nine flights were canceled. a brawl broke out between passengers and the spirit airline workers, and then with the police who showed up -- in fact, the deputy-got knock today the ground -- deputy sheriff got knocked to the ground. 303 flights have been canceled. people have been angry and upset with spirit or airlines. they're blaming the pilots' union saying they are doing an unlawful work slowdown, the pilots' union denying it. they're in a contract dispute. they have one of the worst records anyway for customer service, and, wow, not good for your brand. charles: i will remind people last month united airlines saw their fewest cancellations in company history while traffic went up 7%. they've got us, guys. one of the pop stars that you see on your screen actually held an impromptu contest challenging her fans to send in their grades. she said straight as and in return she would pay for their school tuition. can you guess ich one on this screen it was? we didn't have room for herb london. [laughter] >> you're a pop star, herb. >> oh, yeah. [laughter] look closely. hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. the microsoft cloud helps the pga tour turn countless points of data into insights that transform their business and will enhance the game for players and fans. the microsoft cloud turns information into insight. charles: before the break we asked which of these stars you're looking at right now is paying tuition fees for a few lucky fans? if you guessed nicki minaj, you're right. >> yeah. so what happened, nicki minaj is coming out with new music. she said to her fans, make your own video. if i like it, you could win a free trip to las vegas to see me perform at the billboard music awards later this month. one person said, hey, how about paying my tuition? how about helping there? nicki minaj said, okay, show me straight as so that i can verify with your school, and i'll pay it that you're performing well. so she got more tweets coming back to her, 30 tweets so far. she's going to continue to pay people's college tuition. you can see the tweets, so she's saying she's going to make the offer again next month. she's saying send me your bank account information and contact info, and i'll step up and pay your college tuition. charles: great gesture. chance the rapper also doing great things for the city of chicago. it's great to see some of these stars. thanks a lot. now to venezuela, that country's former foreign minister warning of a possible civil war. we are all over that. and the woman on your screen, that's her husband with her. she says that he would have died from his heart attack if he had obamacare. wait until you hear her story. that's next. ♪ ♪ [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock. charles: venezuela in chaos. the country racked by a string of violent protests. now the former foreign minister says it could be on the brink of civil war. here now, sandra smith. >> hi. charles: great seeing you. we always talk about the dangerrings of socialism and the dangerous outcomes, but when it starts to play before our eyes, it really becomes intense. >> when you see these images of "wall street journal" talkg about civil war there, tear gas in the streets, people are diagnose, there's not enough -- dying, there's not enough medicines in the hospitals, people dumpster diving for food. i was just in the green room talking to colonel allen west who pointed out this was once one of latin america's richest nations. the foreign minister says the protests are spreading, the country's at risk of a civil war. he was quoted in the journal saying we're seeing much larger massive protesting across all major cities including the working class neighborhoods which is really key because they were always supportive of the government. he said the government is losing control. it's really spiraling out of control. >> and the government, you've covered commodities, people wrongfully say to the media, oh, it's because of the oil price plunge. if that were true, north dakota, ecuador and canada would be basket cases. it's really because of the form of government. >> you look at what's happening with the economy, inflation is out of control. analysts say the economy has shrunk by a third in just the last five years alone. i mean, it's a situation that's gone from bad to worse. charles: and, peter, i think what's really sad about it is we saw it coming. if we had this conversation five years ago, we'd say in five years -- >> eighteen years ago. >> sandra was exactly right. this was the richest country in latining america, and almost to the day in 2007 when chavez nationalized the oil country, he literally took every oil company and said it is now ours, it's a straight chart. oil was about $50 a barrel back then, so they literally went through an economy that was going this way while oil was going over $100 a barrel. they missed it entirely. charles: they kicked out all the expertise. it's a bad thing if you can't pull be it out of the ground. people have trouble finding toilet paper, and yet there's a segment of that population that are very wealthy, and they have people stand online and pay them. >> the question is, what are they going to do about it? charles: what are we going to do about it. >> what's thesident going to do aut it? support democracy, how can we help these people? the general i just quoted said life conditions are deteriorating greatly, you cannot restore order without addressing the economic roots of the crisis. >> so he's attacking socialism. finish. charles: i want to ask you about health care here in america because this is, obviously, a crazy time right now. we're trying to get a replacement for obamacare which is in a death spiral, no doubt about it. how you feeling about all that? >> sitting here on the business channel right now before i head over to fox news channel, i have simply said through the course of the election that whoever could prove that they would be the most business-friendly and create the most business-friendly environment in america would win. president donald trump is in there. right now when you look at businesses, they're excited we're addressing what has been a major problem for them, both health care and taxes. charles: right. >> and just any sort of certainty there would help. and there's still just a lot of uncertainty as to where that's going. charles: sandra smith, always great to have you. >> thank you, sir. charles: now want to talk about this health care situation in the united states, the health care bill the gop has is under fire, of course, from the left. take a listen to what nancy pelosi had to say about it. roll tape. >> so in terms of insurance coverage, it's immoral. in terms of giving money to the rich at the expense of working families, it is indecent and wrong. charles: pelosi might want to listen to our next guest. she says her husband would have died if her family had obamacare. cheryl chumlee, thanks for joining us. share your story with us, please. >> thanks for having me, charles. yes, just in brief to run down the highlights, in april of 2008 my husband suffered a massive heart attack. i was alerted to that, his boss called me while i was at work. i rushed to the hospital only to find that they were going to airlift him to another hospital. well, enroute in the helicopter his potassium levels dropped and he fell into a coma. he stayed in that for ten days while intensive care nurses and doctors worked around the clock, two specialty teams for him, the keep him alive. during the course of that treatment, they inserted a balloon pump in his leg to keep the blood flowing, and he ended up having his leg amputated. it's been a long ordeal, but the main points i want to make is we ran into a nurse a few months after that care and treatment that we had through private employer-provided insurance. and she had told us if my husband had been on medicaid, med -- medicare, the hospital would have pulled the plug after maybe the third day because they wouldn't have paid for the intensive, 24-hour care that my husband needed. charles: wow, cheryl. so it's, i mean, it's always tough, and we never hear this other side of the story at all, so we're, you know, thrilled that your husband has made it through. obviously, sorry about the amputation. are you going to to now try to continue to tell this story? because this side of it should be heard. >> you know, my husband and i for years now have sat at home and yelled at the cf screen about obama -- tv screen about obama's tales of woe for private insurers and big business. and it was jimmy kimmel and his remarks that led me to tell this story. as long as people want to hear the other side, i'm available. charles: thank you very much, cheryl. we appreciate it. >> thank you. charles: here now, jake jacobs -- jay jacobs. what's your response to cheryl's story, and how would you defend obamacare in light of it? >> well, i feel certainly terrible for cheryl and her husband, they went through an ordeal. and no question about it, it was traumatic. but i have to tell you, i don't know that that was a story. frankly, this was before obamacare. it was 2008, and it's all reliant upon some nurse saying to her that had they had medicare or medicaid or only other government program that they would have pulled the plug, and that's just not the way those programs -- charles: but you would concede if there wasn't a problem, if the democrats hadn't acknowledged the problem, you wouldn't have said we need a solution. your solution, of course, was obamacare. everyone acknowledges there were serious problems with the health care system from insurance to care. >> well, i would say that the biggest problem that obamacare was meant to address was the fact that so many millions of people, 40 million some odd people didn't have any insurance whatsoever and were reliant on going into hospitals when things got to be an emergency and getting free emergency care which was required which, by the way, costs all of us who do have insurance money because there's no free lunch. charles: by the same token though, obamacare with respect to covering those 40 million, it was never going to reach that objective. even if you looked at cbo projections all the way out, you would still have at least 20 million people who weren't covered. so so the question is, and this is a business channel, the return on investment. the return on taking care from people, working people and trying to put together a program that would give it to others took a serious toll on working people, a serious toll on people who could not see their doctors any longer, whose deductibles went through the roofs, whose premiums went through the roofs. we're not talking about millionaires, but ordinary americans paid a huge price for, perhaps, a noble cause. >> well, again, you're generalizing, and i think there were many circumstances that were like that. there were also many circumstances where the insurance was fine. i have a private company. i pay for our employers through our, you know, insurance we get and the insurance has been fine. have the costs been going up? yes. but they were going up before. let's talk about the business aspect. when you meddle with the health insurance plans, as we have now with this republican plan, let's remember something. one out of every eight jobs in the united states is now associated with health care. health care is the second and it is growing and growing. what's happening here now is when you cut $880 billion out of medicaid and you make other cuts to the health care funding that comes through the federal government either directly or indirectly, that's going to take a toll. and hospitals have already been curtailing their projections and their growth. you've got outpatient centers, nursing homes. you know, there are so many benefits that help business, frankly, because they create jobs. so i think we have to be very careful in a business sense about what we do and how we change health care -- charles: let me get peter's thoughts on this. >> yeah. i don't want tom impolite -- to be impolite, but i think your idea is nicely circular in that if we have a bad plan, we can pay for that plan and keep people -- i don't think that's how it should be. i think what we should do is structure this so it makes true economic sense. and the true economics, to me, if you have insurance companies that are saying to the country and to the government we cannot make money with this exchange system, we cannot make money, is so we're going to withdraw from states. humana and others saying we're out, we're out of the business, what we're doing is heading towards this single-payer program, and i don't believe -- maybe you think single payer is the way to go -- having one giant government entity that handlings health care, i think that would be disastrous for business and for the american people. >> well, i think there are alternatives. i don't think you have to go from onextreme to the otr. i don't disagree that obamacare needed corrections and fixes. you know, 48 united states senators, all democrats, just a little while ago sent a letter to leader mcconnell and said instead of going through this repeal business, let's all sit down on a bipartisan basis and figure out how we can craft and construct a workable health care solution. i think that's the way we ought to be going. charles: all right, jay, thanks a lot. we'll leave it there. it's, obviously, a gigantic issue and critically important to all of us. thanks a lot. two stories coming out of california. the state passing a bill that would end a law allowing government employees to be fired for being members of the communist party. that's right, you cannot make this stuff up. plus, the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of high-speed rail there. will this thing ever be built? please say no. next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i'm lori rothman with your fox business brief. the s&p and the nasdaq, if we see any gains at the close, well, it would be a third consecutive day of records for the s&p and the nasdaq which are up here at the moment. let's look at the dow, a little weaker here. there are the winners, nike and walmart with cisco and chevron weighing on the dow. let's take a look at shares of amazon, in record territory. new pricing information, 25 minimum dollars to get the free shipping. and they're also unveiling the latest version of the echo, introducing the 7-inch touch screen echo show. $229.99 is the preorder on that. amazon shares up one-third of 1%. the news not so good for hertz, the rental car company hitting an eight-year low because of a crummy quarter, bigger than expected first quarter loss. down almost 12%. charles: the california assembly just passing a bill that says being a communist no longer a fireable offense for the state government, at least for the employees. larry elder joins us now, salem radio nationally-syndicated talk show host. all right, the left coast, it's going further left if that was possible. [laughter] >> yeah. i guess so. and, charles, i'm trying to figure out what prompted this. i mean, were there some communists working at the department of motor vehicles that a they found out and they wanted to fire? what prompted this in the first place? i didn't even know the law was still on the books. it's probably questionable legality, but it shows a lot of lawmakers in california really think very much like communists, from each according to his ability to even according to his needs -- each according to his needs. i guess they feel this law so offensive and they want to get rid of it in case something comes up down the road. why, what prompted this right now, i have no blooming idea. [laughter] charles: you know, what's interesting too, the idea that someone would be offended by the laws on the book, how about the millions of people around the world who have died at the hands of communism, failed attempts at this so-called perfect world of communism? it's remarkable because i know a lot thelive right t in lifornia. [laughter] >> well, that's right. well, the od news is there still is a law on the books that says if you support the armed overthrow of the government, you can still be fired. so so there still is that distinction. [laughter] charles: they're doing it not without arms, but with these sort of regulations, higher gas tax and everything else, they are absolutely destroying your state one bit and piece at a time, aren't they? >> well, peeking of destroying the -- speaking of destroying the state, did you hear this quote from governor jerry brown just a few months ago? he said the minimum wage, quote: may not make any economic sense, but it makes moral and political sense. end of quote. signed a bill for a $15 minimum wage admitting that it doesn't make good economic sense but signed it anyway. beam me up. [laughter] charles: i gotta tell you, it's nuts. here's another one for you, larry, another crazy story. apparently the state is one step closer to building that high-speed bullet train. a judge approved a billion dollars of funding for the project. now opponents plan to appeal. everything i've realize is no one wants to take this thing, it's out of the way, it's going to cost billions and billions and billions of dollars if it's ever done. >> well, you're absolutely right. the voters approved it, but if the voters had another shot at it, in my opinion, they very likely would turn it down. the costs have exceeded far what they thought it was going to be. the ridership will not be as high, the cost is going to be more expensive, the speed won't be as fast. and one very important thing voters stipulated when they voted for this was that it be self-sustaining, that it not require any further subsidies. i don't know of any kind of train like in that does not require subsidies, and the california bullet train will likely require subsidies on into the future. it decide not even -- it did not even meet the requirements the voters asked for. charles: hold there, larry, i want to get peter's input on this. >> i call it shamtrak. it doesn't make economic sense. there's nothing more lonely than drivg out to jfk and seeing that infrastructure for the train to the plane that never runs. we don't want bridges to nowhere. let's find out what the people need and build something to that, not just keep the engineers happy with, i think, thicks that will never -- things that will never, ever work economically or otherwise. charles: larry, you're holding down the fort there, but i'm not sure how you do it. [laughter] >> the fascinating thing is you had an administration, the obama administration, that turned down private funding for keystone xl, we've got no private funding for this one, no public funding, no guaranteed revenue stream, yet they approved this legislation. by the way, california also has approved -- has put a bill out of committee to make california a single-payer state. again, no funding, don't have any idea where the money comes from, but it already made it out of committee 5-2. welcome to california. charles: oh, boy. you know what? get yourself a u.s. passport, please, before you guys completely break off from the rest of the country. we don't want to lose you. [laughter] >> i'm moving to texas. charles: hurry up. all right, guys, the man coming down the hall, we're going to show our hallway. he's familiar to most of you. judge andrew napolitano, the man. all rise! he's next. ♪ ♪ charles: well, before the break you heard about california's high-speed rail project. the a judge there just ruling to free up $1 billion to help build this bullet train, but now there is talk of an appeal. all rise, judge andrew napolitano is here. this bullet train thing amazing, and now the courts are involved. >> well, the segment you just had with larry elder was very helpful and informative of, as peter kiernan points out, the worst kind of government waste imaginable, because they'll end up with another plane to the train like we have here in new york which was built with good intentions but with other people's money. so who cares about the waste from the point of view of the builders. the same thing will happen there. jerry brown, governor brown, strong proponent of mass transit, in the least mass transit-oriented big state in the union, california -- [laughter] decided to promote this proposal on the november ballot. the public adopted it thinking it was going to cost $1 billion, now it's going to cost many, many times that. basically, the judge said the public approved it in theory, the legislature can decide how much of their money it's going to spend. so it's an open spigot. charles: amazing. >> just be thankful they can't print their own cash. charles: judges are mulling over president trump's revised travel moratori. some are saying it's not about national security and that it's about religion. >> well, every decision that has enjoined the enenforcement of the first recorder -- enforcement of the first order -- which is now moot, or the second order or which is the subject of two decisions, one in maryland, one in hawaii, both being appealed. has based it on the words of candidate trump during the campaign, not the words of president trump after he was inaugurated. during the campaign, let's face it, he used harsh, insend yea verbiage which targeted muslims. you may say, so what? well, if it is a religious ban, if it is a muslim ban under the mask, under the guise of being for national security, that raises the bar so high it would be nearly -- charles: can you extrapolate what a candidate says particularly if he used radical islam rather than islam, per se, and can you extrapolate that or can you bring that into how he is now governing and apply it to -- the language is not in the travel moratorium. >> oh, yeah. the language of the executive order is brilliantly and legally and neutrally written. so the judges have decided to pierce the language and see what the motivation is. charles: right. >> not only did they use trump's language against him, they used things that giuliani said and other people that were campaigning for im. the supreme court has permitted it, using the candidate's words charles: wow. one more real quick. president trump has an opportunity to fill ten federal court seats and a lot of people are excited about this, looking for young conservatives to take this up. you've seen the list? >> yes. he's going to do the same thing that barack obama did, but on the other side of the aisle. barack obama changed the fourth circuit, that's virginia, maryland, north carolina from the most conservative to another ninth circuit. president trump is going to try and do the opposite there, and he's going to try and change the ninth. it's going to take eight years of doing this to achieve it. charles: turn about is fair play. judge, thank you very much. more "varney" after this. ♪ . . charles: real quick, i want to ask peter about the markets. we're sort of spinning our wheels. you would like to see more volatility? >> i would think we do really well with more volatility. only thing i say to investors watch out, specific to relative volatility could be very painful even if the market is calm. if your stock misses, your company misses earnings, watch out. charles: i think these are overreactions. i wish we didn't have quarterly earnings. emac, peter you're great. now of course the man himself, neil cavuto. always great. neil: i love you man. charles, thank you very, very much, a great show as always. we have a lot more we're following up. in the middle of earnings season charles has told you we're about 3/4 of the way through this and they're reporting better than expected numbers. backlash over republican party that wants to fix health care but you wouldn't know the from the back and forth at town hall meetings where, all but framed as murderers. take a look. >> reach an agreement on a bipartisan basis to fund the government. neil: got that wrong. there have been at least two, two major town halms

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