>> good morning, everyone. hope you're going to have a great day before the holiday tomorrow. eric bolling is in again filling in for steve. >> great to be here. >> the fourth of july right on the cusp where america takes time out to explode things and salute this great nation and hopefully we don't lose any fingers or anything. >> you know what else, too? maybe they should take a year off with all the wildfires going on in colorado and it's pretty tindery there, maybe just this year, maybe don't do a fire. >> especially down south and in colorado. i agree. >> i like to hear your summation of fourth of july. >> i think this may be the year that people don't shoot the bottle rockets by themselves. >> how about sparkler? >> go for sparklers. >> let's get to your headlines as well. attorney general eric holder firing back now at republicans in his first interview since the house voted to hold him in contempt of congress. holder claims that the g.o.p. is making him a proxy to attack president obama in an election year. the u.s. military grounding all c-130 planes fighting wildfires after one crashed in south dakota killing one crew member. all seven of the planes will now be inspected. some could be back in the sky within the next couple of days. this is the second crash of a plane fighting wildfires this year. a lockheed martin tanker crashed in utah last month leaving both crew members on board dead. mitt romney is vowing to "do the exact opposite" of president obama when it comes to israel. he announced he will visit israel later this month and meet with the prime minister benjamin netanyahu. romney has visited israel three times before. president obama has not been there since his 2008 campaign. a sore spot among some israeli forces. a shocking scene caught on camera in north carolina. a woman riding on a ferry in the palmilco sound catching this amazing lightning strike on her cell phone. she was recording the choppy waves when it all happened. those are the headlines. >> we're excited. governor christie will be here in an hour. laura ingraham in two hours. first thing is first. a lot of people will find something for the first time today. that the supreme court ruled on obamacare so please, wake your kids and inform them what's going on in this country. >> all right, so there's a new poll out that says only 41% -- not only, a whopping 41% are unaware that the supreme court upheld the health care law. 50 -- here's the silver lining. 59% of americans have woken up since last thursday and they are aware that the court ruled. 17% are not sure if the court ruled, 18% the court did not rule and 16% aware the court ruled but don't know how. guys, why are we so surprised at this? half of the american people cannot name who the vice president of the united states is and more than half of the people in the united states of america did not exercise their right to vote. so why should we be surprised by this? >> because it's on every newspaper and every tv. >> half of all people don't know who the vice president is and half of the people don't know. >> absolutely no doubt. just that they rule. we've talked about it nonstop. it's an important -- it's affecting 1/5th economy for who knows how long, some would say november, december or for the rest of our lives. it's substantial and going to be hard to overturn. of the 59% who said they knew that they ruled, do you think any of them lied? i knew that. >> i'll tell you what, it's up to people at their barbecues this weekend to fill in the person next to you. if you're at a barbecue and not everybody knows, you haven't done your job as an american. if you look at the ratings our rated surged during the announcement and after the announcement and through there. people who are watching now are engaged. >> i think our viewers are very smart people but you have to factor in that not everyone is paying attention. >> did you say factor? >> i did. >> but i didn't say it on purpose but i know you were thinking that. >> i was thinking that, too, because bill o'reilly was back last night, odd vacation of choice. last week he's off. this week, he's in. >> question his vacations now? >> i'm going to do that. i'll see if i can get to the heart of the story and do it in our talking points tomorrow. bill o'reilly was on the record like many people who said, listen, obamacare is going to be overturned. it's just a formality. let's find out what day in june it's going to happen. it didn't happen. he gives a theory of why it didn't happen. listen. >> i think it happened because he doesn't want the court to be put in this position any longer. he wants the electorate to step up and vote for the kind of country they want. as i said, that's the message. he said you don't like my ruling? vote these people out in november. change the government. you don't like it? change it. don't -- don't rely on the supreme court, my court, ok? to start legislating from the bench? >> don't take the case if you don't want to legislate from the bench. that's a total copout. no, if any justice on the supreme court says yeah, we'll take the case but by the way, we don't want to rule what our thoughts are. >> i think you're 100% right. there are those who say there's sort of judicial activism which means they'll start to legislate from the bench. those say there was judicial statesmanship that says judge roberts was trying to make this decision. he wanted to make it seem like it was fair, weighing all options but the bottom line is you're 100% right. it's going to be a landmark case. it will affect 1/5 of the economy. you better take and rule on it based on the merits of the case. not what the court is going to look at. >> when that guy made his statement, everyone ripped him apart about his arguments and starting his stammering and coughing, the solicitor general, no one really focused on him. the court watchers, i don't pretend to be one, court watchers never picked up that he did argue this is a tax so everyone seemed to mix that. so when roberts found, looked into the arguments that i got something here and i was going to go with it, it reminded me of presidents when when they run for office, they say it's something that we have to get into. and when we're in the oval office and behind the desk and you have to sign a sheet saying let's go to war and ask the country for support, when it's your responsibility and kids will die on the war that you've declared, it's a little bit different than opposed to sitting on the sidelines and being a retired judge or a legal expert. so there's a lot on your shoulders and what bill o'reilly is pointing to is as we pointed out on the couch last week, when bill o'reilly was sunning himself in malta, john roberts said i am not commenting on the wisdom of the law. and you could still overturn it. it has until 2014 to be fully implemented. >> you're giving him too much credit. >> which one? >> john roberts. >> not bill o'reilly. >> i won't delve into those waters. i know he wasn't sunning himself. let's leave it at that. the bottom line is i think you're giving the chief justice too much credit. >> what credit am i giving? i'm saying his reasoning behind it it's easier being a supreme court justice than being the guy in charge. >> i think you're overthinking it. >> i've never been accused of overthinking, right? >> i think any justice on the supreme court shouldn't worry about the rest of the world and what they're going to think. they should do what's right about the constitution and the declaration of independence, etc., they shouldn't worry about what newspaper column is going to say what, what editorial will be written about them, etc. that's not the point of the court. >> no, but i think his decision was with that in mind. his decision is let's keep these -- the separation of powers intact. i don't want to write legislation, i don't want to change the direction of the country. i want to establish constitutionality. am i in danger of overthinking? >> perhaps. >> thank you very much. let's move on to this. the holiday weekend nightmare for millions of people without power. it could be a while before electricity is restored as temperatures continue to soar into the 90's. steve centanni is live with all the sweltering heat. hey, steve. >> good morning. this is -- one of the advantages of living in the d.c. area is these calm green neighborhoods but when a big storm rolls through like last friday, these big huge mature trees come tumbling down. that's what happened behind me. a huge tree blocking this road and another one around the corner blocking another road. folks in this neighborhood are severely handicapped. car was crushed around the corner. fortunately, none of these homes were hit and they easily could have been. there could have been injuries and could have been deaths. i think people squeaked by here but they have a mess to clean up and it's going to take a while to clean this up and just in time for the fourth of july, too. the d.c. area and several states around here, maryland, virginia, west virginia still suffering the brunt of this from that major storm that rolled through on friday and left in its wake two million people still without power so there's no electricity here. there's probably not going to be electricity for many, many, many homes until wednesday, thursday, friday of this week on into the weekend. hopefully by friday most of them will be back up. fourth of july, some of the fireworks shows in localities around here had to be canceled because of fears of congestion and dangers because of power failures at the locations where those fireworks shows were scheduled so the fourth of july certainly has a wrench thrown into the works by that big storm that rolled through here and folks living in these neighborhoods are suffering still, too, without power, without air conditioning. food in the refrigerator spoiling. not a pleasant situation but slowly over the next few days should get back to normal. back to you guys. >> all right, steve centanni live for us in virginia. thanks for the update. >> here we go. 10 minutes after the hour. the u.s. economy is slowing. some using the word recession. so what does that mean for the president's re-election efforts? stuart varney making an effort to get here on time. refusing to walk. we'll get to the bottom of that story. he's just standing. >> and disgraced congressman anthony weiner, remember him? rumor is he's getting ready to make a comeback. >> finally, that's great! he was quoted in our article. 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[ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biolog medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. >> the economy is showing signs of slipping back into a recession. will it recover in time to help the president's re-election efforts? stuart varney is here. stuart, the r word again, you sure? >> i think it's legitimate to use that word. you asked the question. are we slipping into recession? it's legitimate to use the word. and here's the question. what will stop us? what will stop this downward spiral that we are now on? i mean, can you think of anything on the horizon? you follow money. can you think of anything on the horizon that will get us out of this mess? because we are spiralling down and i don't see anything out there to stop us. >> i tend to agree, can i throw this in here, not the technical definition of the recession. negative growth. >> that's basically six months in which the economy shrinks. that's the technical definition of it. that doesn't mean anything to most people. most people still think we're not -- you got your hand up. >> yeah, i don't know. you wanted to -- can you ask me the question that you asked eric. >> i forgot what the question was. >> can you think of anything on the horizon that -- >> can you think of anything on the horizon that will stop this downward spiral? go. >> eur such bad shape, the money will continue to pour into america, if nothing else, the t-bills will allow us to stay and sustain above the growth level. >> nice try. interest rate on treasury securities has been low for a number of years. hasn't done us much good, has it? >> oh, gosh! brian! we'll be all over the blog. >> he walked out on us. >> we'll be all over the blogs. people are going to think you're really mad. oh, my gosh. >> he walks out on an englishman right before july 4th. >> oh, my gosh. >> that's incredible. >> you're going on vacation anyway. >> i am. >> he prepped that question all morning, too. >> unemployment is at 8.2%. these are the factors in which you are building your r word recession theory. >> here's the story. consumers have spent less in each of the last two months. in america, that's very unusual. more people are arriving on the unemployment lines. again, that's a negative trend. and manufacturing yesterday contracted for the first time in three years. on friday, we got the latest unemployment report. i say it could be that the unemployment rate goes up. that's my reasoning for we are spiralling down and i don't see what stops us. >> i saw the amount of jobs created for the last month, or this current month that we're in right now, 90,000. >> nothing. >> that's nothing. that is peanuts. >> that would put the interest rate -- unemployment rate up. >> in a country with 132 million jobs, a new 90,000 jobs is absolutely nothing. and could put the rate up, as you say. >> i think i remember a few months ago when the three of us were on the couch together and we had some sort of a bet. >> uh-oh. >> this mr. bolling disagrees with stuart varney and myself about which direction the economy was going. >> i said things -- >> somebody is going to have to do a little bit of a jig. >> i think i have to do the dougy. >> yes, you do. >> because you just -- i have on tape you now agreeing with mr. varney. >> yeah, i'll have to do the dougy. >> the dougy will be coming up later on. >> not with me in it, that's for sure. >> all right, stu. have a fantastic show. >> thanks very much, everyone. >> and a great vacation. >> thank you. >> how will history remember president obama? he might have just won a serious legal battle. does it mean defeat for him in the long run? >> then what happened to this dad? 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[ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. >> couple of quick headlines for you. a small town of mammoth lake has no choice after getting stuck with a legal bell that it can't afford. last week, stockton, california, became the largest city in america to file for bankruptcy. meantime, firefighters forced to rescue a dad from a tree in his own front yard. he climbed up to hang a swing for his daughter and realized he needed some help getting down. his wife filming the entire rescue. and posting it on line. how embarrassing for that poor dad. >> 22 minute after the hour. how are history books described president obama's time in office? like other famous presidents, he passed a major piece of legislation but their policies were mostly popular. health care is not as of last week, fox news polls show the overwhelming majority opposed to his reforms. in the long run, how might this play out? joining us right now, editor of the national interest magazine, he's also author of this great new book, it's called "where they stand, the american presidents in the eyes of voters and historians." what a great book to get as fourth of july is upon us. let's talk about today before we talk about yesterday. this piece of legislation, unlike social security and medicare, not passing popular -- not passing very popular, correct? >> very correct and i think the point to be made here is that president obama didn't really lay the groundwork for the passage of such monumental legislation as predecessors of significance in the presidential realm have done. >> what do you mean? i mean, he ran on it. he said he wanted to do it in his first year as a campaigner. how did he not prepare the groundwork? >> consider lyndon johnson, for example, when lyndon johnson passed civil rights bill and medicare and medicaid, he had significant advantages in both parties. obama passed obamacare with a very, very partisan vote. he got maybe a couple of house members and no senators. and so what we're talking about here is failing to sort of lay the groundwork to get the country ready for something like a piece of legislation of this magnitude. >> has the horse left the barn? can he still do it -- can you do it the backwards way now that it's basically passed? can you sell people on it or is it too late? >> i think it's probably too late on this piece of legislation. i mean, this isn't fatal to them but it's definitely a net negative to have a piece of legislation pushed through congress in this way that's so unpopular and lingeringly unpopular. a lot of democrats thought well, we'll pass it and the american people will warm up to it. but they haven't done that. >> in researching the presidents, it's fascinating when you bring up presidents at war and presidents with different challenges through time, some have to deal with very partisan atmospheres. we like to think that this is the only polarizing time in our history but it's not correct. am i correct in that statement? >> you're absolutely correct. we go through these polarizing times? we're in one now. what we find when that happens is we have a situation in which congress turns dysfunctional and the rhetoric turns nasty and that's exactly what we're living through but, you know, the way you get through these in our system is through presidential leadership or not at all and so far, we haven't had the presidential leadership that we need to sort of move us through this deadlock phase. >> as you look back at our presidents in years past, they left the office with a certain amount o