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studios in new york city, this is maria bartiromo's wall street. and happy weekend to all. welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helpsa bartiromo. taxes are front and center on capitol hill as we near if april 15th on monday. republicans are fighting to keep the trump tax cuts in place that are set to expire next year. house ways and means committee chairman jason smith warning the removal of these cuts will hit the middle class hard. >> congress must act soon to prevent what will be the largest tax hike in history on workers, families, farmers can and small businesses. middle income if earners will be hit the hardest. we will see even more closed for business signs up. maria: if the law is not extended, americans can expect to pay anywhere between 1-4% more in personal if taxes. democrats continue to claim that the 2017 cuts only benefit the

wealthy. >> the life cycle of this governing goes as follows: cut taxes for special interests, top 1% and then take away basic benefits for middle income america. democrats, we saw the corporate tax cut giveaway for what it was, a tam scam. maria: and while the democrats claim that they are looking out for the middle class, we're getting a few watchdog report which shows 63% of the irs' recent add awed debts targeted taxpayers are with an income of less than $200,000 a year. joining me now isous ways and means committee member, florida congressman greg steube. congressman, good to see you. >> yeah, good do see you. maria: your reaction. >> yeah. this weekend we had a hearing that went through all these issues and how important these tax cuts are. we had two small business owners that talked about how detrimental to their businesses if these tax cuts are to expire next year. it would have, they would have to cut employees, they would have to make sizable -- they

wouldn't be able to invest in capital, make sizable reductions in all the type of purchases that they make to be successful. it's like a 43% increase on taxes on small businesses, ask -- and that means jobs, maria. people work for these small businesses, and if these tax cuts don't get reauthorized and get reinstituted, a 43 tax increase on a small business means people are going to lose their jobs, and they're not going to be as successful and be able to hire people and increase investment in their businesses. maria: yeah. and what's with all these audits for people making $200,000 orless? >> yeah. and we said that, republicans said that when joe biden pushed through the 80,000 new irs workers, we knew that they were going to go after small businesses, we knew they were going to go after a low and middle income people, and now you're seeing the result of that. and we tried to carve some of that back, but the expendture was already made when the democrats had control, and here we are.

maria: oh, wow. just out on friday the biden administration announced new details on their mans to cancel additional student the loan debt. the president now is looking to wipe out nearly $7.5 billion more. that brings the grand total of student debt forgiveness to $153 billion. florida, one of the 18 states suing biden over this latest bailout plan. here's how governor ron desantis responded earlier in the week. >> what he's proposing illegally, he doesn't have the authority to do it, is to basically say, you know, if you're a truck driver, you didn't go to college, you don't have student debt, sorry, you're going to have to pony up to pay the student loan of somebody, you know, who maybe got a degree in sociology or something and is not gainfully employed and can't afford the loans. maria: congressman, how does the president get away with canceling all of this student loan debt bespite the -- despite the supreme court deeming it

unconstitutional? >> yeah. this is a complete election ploy to try to get young people to try to vote for them. they know it's completely unconstitutional because the last attempt they had a9 this, the supreme court said it was unconstitutional. it's completely unconstitutional and, thankfully, we have states and our attorney general in the state of florida filing a lawsuit on florida' behalf because states have to start standing up against the complete up unconstitutional a actions of this administering. and i'm glad to -- administration. and i'm glad to see that florida's doing that. we'll be successful in the end, but i think the hope of the biden administration is not before they dole out billions of dollars to people for, quote-unquote, student loan forgiveness. it's completely unconstitutional, it completely usurps the congressional mandate where congress, if that is to be the law of the land, that's something that should pass congress. he knows that even democrats aren't going to vote for that a because it's so controversial. and yet they're -- it's not stopping them from attempting to dole out billions of dollars in student loan debt repayment if despite the fact that they know it's unconstitutional. maria: well, in an environment

where we still have hotter than expected inflation. we had the consumer price index can out earlier in the week showing that prices are still elevated, you know? go buy steak, up 28% year-over-year. bread up 20 plus percent. this is all because of all of the stimulus, if this student loan debt forgiveness is just more stimulus. so $7 trillion later we still have inflation where it is, do you think the administration or your colleagues understand the impact of all of this stimulus on the debt, now $36 trillion? >> yeah, the democrats certainly don't. they think that continuing the spending and giving these hand handouts to people will encourage them to vote for them in the upcoming november election. but if you look at the numbers, i've only been in congress for six years, three terms. when i got elected, the department was $21 trillion. we're now over $34 trillion. we have programs that we're spending more money on interest on the debt now than we are on defense spending. these are huge numbers, maria,

that we have to get under control. washington has a spending problem. i got elected to come out a here and fight against the spending in washington. the american people see that. and adding trillions more on the already inflationary if economy is the direction opposite of what we should be doing. we should be cutting spending. and if all of this is because of the decisions that the democrats made. the trillions that they have dumped on the economy has caused this inflationary environment that we are in and dumping more billions of dollars on student loan repayment would further increase inflation. maria: and yet you all are now talking about another spending package sending money to ukraine. while still not securing the border. fox has confirmed an afghan national on the terrorist watch list is now in dhs custody after being caught and released twice while crossing into america. dhs secretary alejandro mayorkas finally admitting this week that the situation at the border is a crisis, and at the same time joe

biden is hinting an executive order to tighten up ports of entrity the -- by the -- entry by the end of april. a new report estimates health care for illegal migrants cost florida more than $500 million in just the last six months last year. so this is not just a national security issue, this is an economic issue as well, congressman, isn't it? >> and it's an economic issue at all levels of government. it's an economic issue at your local counties that are paying money, like in sarasota county we have a hospital that gives -- gets $50 million in taxpayer dollars for needy e care. so if an illegal immigrant shows up at the e.r. at sarasota memorial hospital, they're required under law to treat them, and all our tax dollars in sarasota county are paying for that. same at the state level, same at the federal level. so you have multiple levels of government that are spending money on this illegal immigration crisis. and it's not just health care, it's schools. i mean, these people show up that have children, they have children that they enter into the school system.

the school system, by federal law, is not allowed to ask them if they're here legally or not. so they're entered into our school system which is a drain and a push on our school boards and school districts for more money to be able to spend on this. so to be able to try to calculate the millions and hundreds of -- well, it's probably billions of dollars of taxpayer costs just in florida on this illegal immigration crisis on top of allowing terrorists into our country, on top of allowing criminals into our country. i had a constituent in my district that was raped by an illegal immigrant. this was all caused by the policies of joe biden and secretary mayorkas which is why we impeached secretary mayorkas in the house. hopefully, the nat will move forward -- senate will move forward with a trial over there soon. maria: yeah. we're going to see if that happens this upcoming week. congressman, great to see you this weekendful thank you, sir. >> yeah, thank you. maria: greg steube in washington. big banks kicking off the first quarter earnings season with a bang. kenny polcari on wha

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more welcome back. here's a look at where markets ended the week after new reports showed a hotter than expected inflation story. consumer prices higher, producer prices climbing to an 11-month high. but the a major banks -- wells fargo, jpmorgan and citigroup -- blew out expectations. all three kicking off the first quarter earnings season with double beats on friday. joining me now is slatestone wealth chief market strategist kenny polcari. kenny, thank you so much for being here. assess the week for us. you had hotter than expected inflation data, then you had good news for the banks and they still traded down initially. >> right. [laughter] so i think the inflation data, i don't think, should be a surprise to anyone. of we've been talking about it, we've been seeing it remains sticky. we saw the last two months the cpi and ppi both elevated. while one month doesn't make a trend, two months and three months begins to make a trend, and that's exactly what we saw.

while we saw markets pull back, the minute they take it down 2.5 to nearly 3%, all the buy the dip orers jump in because they think this is the opportunity which is actually, as you and i both know, not really the buy the dip opportunity. that's when we see the market back off 8 or 10%, that's really buy the dip opportunity. but i wasn't surprised, i don't continue to be surprised. i think inflation is going to remain sticky, and so i'm not, i'm not surprised at what we saw at all. now, the banks, on the other hand, we've talked about that a too. i expected them to be strong, they are. the big banks that you mentioned, jpmorgan, wells fargo, all better than expected but what do the traders do? jpmorgan was up 15% year to date going into that report, and so even though they beat the number, you got the trader type locking in gains. long-term investors, on that rt report i am not selling my jpmorgan, but i will use the pullback as an opportunity to strategically add if more. maria: i see.

okay, so we'll get morgan stanley, goldman sachs, bank of america reporting next week. the first quarter reporting season is on. what kind of an earnings season are you expecting? >> so i'm not expecting earnings season to be weak at all. i think we're going to continue to get that 75-80 of the earnings beats on, you know, both the top and bottom line. and i think that the guy dance forward is going to remain cautious. i don't think it's going to be so, so, so exciting and robust, but i don't think it's going to be negative. so i actually think it's going to be the earnings now that's going to power the next move higher and and less about what the fed's next move is. maria: yeah, that was my next question, what about the fed. president biden is raising eyebrows when he said that he is sticking by his prediction that the federal reserve will cut interest rates before the end of the year, and he also went ahead and said but the rate cut might be delayed by a month or so. how does he know that? >> right. maria: jim grant, i spoke with him, he is convinced that the fed is aligned with democrats

going into the election. watch this. >> i believe that the fed itself regards a potential second term of donald trump as a clear and present danger to the country. maria: uh-huh, so that's why -- >> it's politically very much aligned with the democratic party. maria: i mean, imagine if president trump said something about rate cuts. i mean, was president biden on to something that he spoke with jay powell to know that it's going to be a month delayed, or is he pressuring jay powell to make sure he cuts rates? >> well, you know what? it might be a little bit of both. i'm in grant's camp. i actually do think that the fed thinks or views a trump presidency as a danger to the economy. i think that's what the fed's view is, right? that may not be my view, but i think that's their view -- maria: you know what, kenny? it might be that jay powell thinks it's a danger to jay powell, because president trump told me in an interview in february that he would not reappoint jay powell.

[laughter] >> that's right. but jay powell's there until 2026. at that point he's another one that's going to be 80 years old. at that point maybe it's time to step back anyway. to your point, yes, maybe he's also trying to protect himself for a potential third term at the fed. i'm not sure why he'd want to stay another term at the fed after, you know, what he's been through, but that's a whole other conversation. one way or the other, i do think that it's inpoint if -- inappropriate for the president to come out and say we're going to get in this rate cut. while it may be pushed off a month, i fully expect it to come. meanwhile, unless the data changes i don't see how the fed can convince everyone that it's necessary to cut rates and stimulate the economy when our economy is functioning on all 12 cylinders and is doing a very fine job are even with rates at 5.25%. which, by the way, you and i know are historically normal. maria: yeah. well, it's hard to make a case for interest rate cuts when you've got inflation where it is still and oil prices where it is

still as far as elevated, is the name. >> exactly. and so that's why it's going to be very difficult unless they manipulate the numbers somehow to show it's fallen off the edge in the next two months and give them a reason to cut rates which i don't' see how they're going to do. maria: all right, kenny. great to talk with you. thanks so much. >> thank you. maria: we will see you soon. kenny polcari. meanwhile, the tragic 2012 aurora movie theater shooting inspiring one entrepreneur to take action leading to the creation of america's first biometric smart gun and landing him on the 30 unde

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maria: welcome back. surging crime across the country convincing more americans to purchase firearms for protection. gun sales spiking in the final three months of 2023 up better than 4.5% for the same time a year earlier. but many households are also concerned about how to safely use and store these guns inside of their homes. one company out with a solution, america's first biometric smart gun. it can only be fired by preauthorized users identified by their fingerprints and facial recognition. joining me right now is the the boss, biofire ceo and founder, ky -- khai columnar if. thanks if for being here. >> absolutely. thanks for having me. maria: what an interesting idea. tell me about the company and how biofire works. >> yeah. so the biofire smart gun is a new kind of home defense firearm. it's one that has, as you said, fingerprint and facial recognition technology built into it such that the owner or the only people, the owner or

that they've chosen can actually use it. the owner enrolls people into the firearm. so it's all a local. there's no day databases or remote activity, it helps insure that other folks hay don't want getting access to that the firearm won't be able to while they still have full, unrestricted access. maria: i see. now, there have been lots of failed attempts from other companies, other manufacturers to bring a reliable smart gun to the market. how have you done it? >> absolutely. i've been hard at work for over 12 years working on this. you're probably saying, 12 years? i actually started when e was 15 as a project in high school. but these days we raised over $37 million from the top tech investors, and have been able to build an unprecedented technical team here in colorado that's been hard at work over the past couple years building this technology. we have many, many patents that have been filed and issued, and we fundamentally approach this in if a very different way that a allows us to actually produce

a reliable, high quality product that gun owners like myself can trust. maria: and you talk about this being very specific to the home. you say it has a very specific purpose, a weapon that can be quickly accessed to defend against a home intruder. this is not something that you're going to carry around. >> yeah. we won't stop you, but it's a full sized, you know, traditional sized handgun, so it dealt would be challenging for most people to conceal carry. in general, we've found many gun owners are struggle with the challenges of when to make sure they appropriately and have safely secured their firearm, insuring their children don't get access to the it but also also have access to that in the very, very few, short seconds they might need to get access to it in a home defense emergency. that's a problem that biofire's solving because our technology is always hocked by default. you don't need to lock it or take any action, but it also instantly unlocks faster than the fastest gun safe.

maria: that's amazing. you launched for are revegases -- for reservations about a year ago. tell me about the early adopters. what are they saying? >> it's been tremendous. we've got thousands of preorders. we've got a ton of pokes that are waiting in line eagerly -- folks that are waiting in line eagerly. we're actually going to be shipping the first smart guns within the next few weeks to early customers, and that's a huge milestone for us. and and we're excited to get to work at full filling this backlog now that we're fully into production. maria: so tell me about the smart gun and the cost. what do people need to understand about this? >> yeah. so it's a retail price of $1499, and that includes both the smart gun as well as a smart dock that comes along with it that helps with configuration, training, other things like that. so definitely a premium price point as compared to a traditional firearm and compared to a glock or something like that. but given all the technology that's built into it and that peace of mind, we've actually had most customers asking why

it's not a higher price. we want it as accessible as possible. maria: and the ammunition? >> just a standard ..9 mm, so you can use hollow point, fmj, traditional ammunition. maria: okay. well, we'll be watching, kai, great idea. we will watch the story. thanks very much for being here. >> thanks for having me. maria: all right. i've got one important thing you need to know about ahead of next week. that's next. ♪ ♪ [alarm beeping] amelia, turn off alarm. amelia, weather. 70 degrees and sunny today. amelia, unlock the door. i'm afraid i can't do that, jen. why not? did you forget something? my protein shake. the future isn't scary, not investing in it is. you're so dramatic amelia. bye jen.

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♪ go on, take the money and run ♪ maria: welcome back. one thing you need to know about ahead of next week, the tax deadline is monday, and most people are not planning to take the money and run this year. a new survey from bankrate says

only 1 in 5 americans will use their refund as fun money, splurging on things like vacation, clothes and other luxury. items. the other 80% have more practical ideas for their extra cash. over a quarter of people plan to put it into savings. 19% say that they'll use it to pay down debt. and round aring out the top five, the money will go to day to day expenses, the essentials followed by investing and home improvements. we'll be following this on "mornings with maria" 6-9 a.m. eastern weekdays right here on fox news, and i'll see you over on the fox news channel sunday on "sunday morning futures," live so is 0 a.m. eastern. i've got interviews with kentucky senator rand paul, john ratcliffe and gw law professor jonathan turley. join us hive on sunday, 10 a.m. that'll do do it for fox business. have a great next of the weekend, and and i'll see you next time.