disastrous number. massive deceleration. not what we wanted to see. they needed to kill it and they did the opposite. the people who were selling from the get-go knew more than the people who were buying. i don't want to touch it. starbucks is a great growth company. it was not a good quarter. that doesn't mean it can't be further down the road. good quarter for amazon. initially it cratered and then bounced back. who knows where it will be tomorrow? it's my favorite of the three. there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise to find it for you right here at "mad money." i'm jim cramer. and i will see you tomorrow. hey, larry, what do you have for us? >> all right, thanks, jimmy. the draghi rally, please beware. bernanke rally to follow. easy money is no panacea. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report." it took six months but president obama finally met with his cabinet today. normally a president meeting with his cabinet isn't normally big news. it's just a photo spread, small

words. but the fact that the president had too much on his plate, quote/unquote, the white house's words, not mine, to meet with the cabinet for the past seven months while we are at the precipice of an economic crisis, that's news. by our count the president had 191 fund-raisers. he's able to make those. you know what? i'm going to give my growth proposals that should have been discussed in today's cabinet meeting. best-selling author of "the amateur, ed klein will be our first guest to comment on it. also this evening, the dow's draghi rally up 212 points. investors beware. easy money is a short-term fix. if we get a bernanke rally to follow, beware of that, too. brian shactman, over to you. >> the italian prime minister sending a strong signal that the european central bank will act possibly setting the stage for the fed here to act as well. starbucks giving a jolt to after hours trading, missing earnings and expect global economic head

winds. the stock down sharply joins mcdonald's, u.p.s. and apple. back to you. >> plus, we'll talk about why our liberals allowed to dictate where chick-fil-a does business. you have chicago, philadelphia, boston. leftists bullying the ceo because the ceo made controversial statements. since when do they have the right to prevent the freedom to create a real business? that's the question. we begin tonight with this. president obama steps off the campaign trail for a meeting with the cabinet for the first time since january. the american people still want to know where are the jobs? in fact, they want to know if any pro growth proposals came out of this meeting. anything at all. listen to speaker pa er boehner earlier today. >> the president maybe checked out to the point he hasn't been

a able to meet with his jobs council but the american people are asking where are the jobs? >> continuing to ask the question. joining us with details, cnbc contributor robert costa of the national review. robert, is he panicked over the economy and wants to show folks he's doing something besides just raising money? >> this is part of the rose garden strategy. mitt romney is in europe. the president wants to reassert himself so he had the first cabinet meeting since january. the president met with the cabinet 18 times during his term. today's message was simple. president obama keeps pushing to extend the bush tax cuts partly, only for middle income voters. that was the message coming out of the meeting. >> he had nothing else besides that. tax the rich. >> only extend the bush tax cuts halfway. beyond that it's platitudes from the president. he's sticking to the message because he thinks he can run against congress, not let mitt romney run against the economy.

>> bob costa, let's throw out the script for a minute. uh i want to ask uh you about mitt romney in london, okay? it doesn't read well. sounds like he's criticizing the british government because the security of the olympic games isn't sufficient. romney rescued the salt lake olympics way back when. was this a gaffe? it's not reading well and he's backing off. what's going on? >> romney's comments to brian williams in the nbc interview could be interpreted as a gaffe. romney encourages a strong anglo-american relationship but he's gotten bogged down by commenting on the olympics saying they are not ready. though romney wants to improve the relationship between the uk and u.s. he's being tagged as someone who's not positive about england. that hurts today politically for the news cycle. >> robert, thank you. appreciate it. now, i have no idea what all is coming out at the meeting in regards to new economic policies. i suspect besides tax the rich, nothing. here's the problem.

we must grow the economy out of this 1%, worst recovery in modern times. let me begin quick. three key proposals that the president should support in order to get the economy moving again. this is not hard. first, extend the full bush tax cuts for one year. easy, done. all of the tax cuts extended. second, cut the corporate tax rate. probably the single most stimulating thing he could do. third, approve the keystone pipeline. this could be done in weeks. all these proposals are all on the shelf, all ready to go. full bush tax cuts, corporate tax cut, keystone pipeline. boom, boom, boom. just like that. and you might revive american business spirits and it might create confidence for a change among consumers. mr. president, at least show us you are dealing with the crisis. so far you are just fencing around. by the way, i personally believe

bill clinton would support my three-point plan and clinton might have taken it out of the cabinet. i know obama did not. my next guest might agree with that. let's talk about it. edward klein, author of the new york times best-selling book "the amateur" and my friend steve paul from the wall street journal editorial board. the reason obama doesn't come out with pro growth measures is i don't think his first priority is growth. i think his first priority is to have the government run the economy, not the private sector. >> my view is his first priority is to get ree -elected and he' having trouble with the base. african-americans aren't enthusiastic about him. jews aren't enthusiastic about him and unions aren't enthusiastic. obama took a page out of a 65-year-old memo written by

clark clifford for truman in 1948 in which truman's political guru said run against congress. do executive orders that transcend congress. that's what obama is doing now. the latest example of which is his getting a pass onto the states on welfare reform. >> hang on. we'll get to that in a second with steve moore. let me follow up on a key point. the economy, every poll shows and i know you are right about clifford and truman and appealing to specific left-wing democratic interest groups. i know you're right. my point is more generic. all the polls show the economy is issue number one. and similarly, all of the polls show that obama is badly behind on those polls on the economy. he doesn't have the horse sense, and i think this is why bill clinton called him an amateur in your book. obama doesn't have the horse

sense e to understand that growth, growth, growth is the issue in this campaign. this is not 1948. >> but i don't think he's got that as his number one priority now. it's almost too late for him to turn around the economy in time for the election. what he can do is get his base ene thoos i can't say tick and turned out for the election. that's all that's on his mind now. not the economy. not even foreign affairs for that matter. it's how can i get re-elected. >> steve moore, i will go back earlier than truman. fdr, steve. >> right. >> spend and spend, tax and tax, elect and elect. that was fdr and his deputy harry hopkins. it worked in the 1930s. i thought of that because here is obama suspending or putting waivers on one of the most important pieces of social legislation in the last 50 years. welfare reform which had work requirements which are being

lifted. what is this? this is an outrage. >> by the way, it's interesting you brought up fdr because fdr didn't just run on tax and tax and spend and spend. the new deal hadn't worked just like obama's policies haven't worked. he ran against wealth just as barack obama is doing. when you talk about him ginning up the base i don't believe his base is big enough to deliver him a victory. this incident of what he did on welfare, so let's be clear. he's gutting the work to welfare requirement, one of the great new democrat policies of the last # 30 years saying states, you don't have to comply with this. that's something that reduced welfare case loads by 50% because the left never liked work for welfare requirements. there is another element that's interesting, larry. barack obama, a lot of his economists really believe the best way to stimulate the economy is to put more people on food stamps, disability,

welfare, and those programs. >> that's somehow going to pump up consumer demand. >> it's crazy. >> they want more people depending on the government. they think that's where the votes come through. this was bill clinton's greatest achievement. >> exactly. >> clinton is so different from obama. >> clinton ran for president in 1996. when he bragged about it in the second term it was look how many people i took off welfare. obama is the opposite. he's trying to put more people on. they are running advertisements in hispanic neighborhoods to get people to sign up for food stamps and disability. you saw the numbers on disability. 40% increase during his presidency. i don't think ho% more people have become injured in the last four years. >> this is a key point. are now depending on the america government for assistance of one kind or another. this is obama taking the democratic party and the usa so far to the left, ed.

we are unraveling so much progress that was made in the '80s and '90s and so forth. this blows my mind. that's why he's not interested in growth. he's interested in moving the country to the left so the government runs the country. the whole economy. >> he said as much ever since this welfare reform bill was passed in 1996. he said again and again and again he wants to repeal it. what he's done is he's gone against the very law passed by congress, transcended the law as he has with the marriage act, with immigration, with the mandate that religious institutions have got to give free health care insurance for contraceptives. he's doing the same thing here with welfare reform. >> steve moore, this is a euro, left wing approach. i don't know if you have to call it socialist, social democracy. all i know is this is a european

type approach. the government first, private sector and free enterprise second. get more people depending on the government. this welfare thing, thanks to you, i don't think it's gotten enough press, steve moore. unraveling of the welfare reform is a tragedy for the country. >> it says to the democratic party, not just barack obama, but most democrats don't believe in the new democrat agenda of fiscal conservativism, getting people off welfare and to work. that's a terrible political strategy. 83% of americans support the idea that if you get a welfare benefit, if you fall on hard times and it is not a way of life you have to work for your benefits. i think republicans should make a much bigger issue out of this in the weeks ahead. >> romney, the whole nine yards. >> you cannot under estimate the cynicism of david axelrod and the group in chicago in the kind of election campaign they are running which has --

>> it's a losing campaign. he's going to lose with this. >> i knew harry truman. and barack obama is no harry truman. >> he's no bill clinton either. >> i knew bill clinton and still do. obama is no clinton oath. uh i know steve moore and ed klein. thank you both for your views. coming up on kudlow, stocks surged. big day. it was the draghi rally. the ecb president promises to preserve the euro, and bail out europe. should we take it seriously? we have heard it before. we'll ask a market pro. and thins sins 1972 the presidential candidate leading in the gallup poll a hundred days before the election has won the white house. where do they stand? here's a hint. it is all about the economy. don't forget, folks. free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. we want opportunity, not

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within our mandate, the ecb is ready to do whatever it takes to

preserve the euro. and believe me, it will be enough. >> all right. those were the words that sent stocks soaring today. but i say this -- draghi stimulus rally, investors beware. by the way, its cousin the bernanke rally may be coming. also beware. i'm glad stocks when the up but when draghi says we'll do all we have to to keep the euro. that doesn't mean the euro will have greece in it, other countries in it. it doesn't mean anything except that the ecb central bank may buy some bonds. i'm distrustful and i think folks are way overreacting. >> well, you may be right. i think the most important thing today was that it exposed, first

of all, how fearful the markets have been to price the markets where they are now. and when you get a little bit of a surprise, as draghi's comment was. this guy is an adult. he's not given to cheerleader. he doesn't want to be looking like an idiot. i think he'll do whatever he can do. as you say, that may not be enough to stem the tide here of erosion in europe on the one hand. on the other end it does show surprising good news. what happens in the marketplace. >> i understand that. doses of easy money, the little injeks help stocks in the short run. regarding draghi, i don't want to get hung up on europe. he can't promote pro growth tax return or get them to sl off government owned assets or cut the expensive pengs and health care benefits. neither can ben bernanke for that matter. we are probably going to have a bernanke rally like this. there is probably going to be a stimulus, maybe quantitative easing coming up next week. >> less of a surprise.

i would be shocked if we had any kind of move like we had today. draghi was a huge surprise. ben bernanke's qe-3 so-called. most people are with you in that it isn't going to be effective. the last two have been less effective each time. the first was a surprise. the second one, not good. qe-3, you do what you can. >> here's another thing. we'll get a gdp report for the usa tomorrow. real gdp. it could be around 1%. you have already noticed. i have half of the s&p 50 # 0 countries reporting. the top line revenues in sales are running about 1%. to me, this is symbolic of the entire world global recession. that troubles me. unless policies change i don't see why that should change. uh still worry about stocks. >> well, two things. first of all, the companies reporting like u.p.s. and dow chemical are confirming what

you're talking about immateri. . stable to down for the rest of the year. the reality is that at 9, ten and 11 times earning that's what stocks have priced into them. what they don't have priced into them is a positive surprise going into year end. i listened to your previous guests steve moore and ed klein. if some of what they are talking about filters into the election we could have a surprise on the positive side by the end of the year. >> wait. i said extend the bush tax cuts, get a corporate tax rate cut. we all bemoaned the fact that welfare reform is being gutted. that was one of the most bullish things. you also have a fiscal tax cliff. you saw the shenanigans the democrats did. they want to raise taxes on the upper end, investors and small business people. we're not going to get passage of full extension of bush. that will hang over the markets. like you say, bernanke, another bernanke quick fix, i think it

does virtually nothing for the stock market. it's probably already discounted and if not, people are smart enough to know the first two quick fixes didn't get us a decent recovery and the third won't either. >> i cannot believe i'm sitting here this much more optimistic than larry kudlow. >> i don't see the policies! i need supply side policies. i don't see them. >> they're not there. november could provide one of the significant changes in our economic and social lifetimes. >> i totally agree. i absolutely agree. if you get regime change in the november election -- and i'm talking administration and senate, yes. that could be bullish. can stocks discount this far ahead? >> absolutely not. that's why you had the move you did today. the markets are set up worldwide oh for, you know -- years ago we were priced to perfection in the goldilocks economy with 20, 30, 40 times earnings and interest rates of 6 to 10.

we are now priced to destruction. the euro trade is so bearish. that's what happened today. >> by the way, when i coined the term goldilocks it was during the clinton years. >> right. >> you're the best. thank you very much. up next, intense storms across the midatlantic and into new england bringing high winds, large hail and possible tornadoes. last season was the gulf's best tourism season in years. in florida we had more suntans... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times...

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rock in new york city. there it is. looks okay now. there is intense storm activity tonight in the midatlantic and the northeast. tornadoes in up state new york and new york city right in its cross hairs. in our crosshairs, brian shactman joins us with more on that and the latest breaking headlines coming into the cnbc newsroom. >> mother nature isn't messing around. the storms knocked out power in pennsylvania, new york and are pointing at the new york metro area and the hudson valley. let's get the latest from chris warren at the weather channel. >> brian, we are looking at a dangerous situation for the northeast. storms are moving in. this whole thing really started last night. we saw storms developing throughout parts of the plains and the midwest. overnight hours, wind gusts in chicago, upwards of 70 miles per hour. all of these are wind reports, trees down, power outages and a report of a tornado. this threat continues.

widespread damaging winds will be the biggest threat. also heavy rain and lightning. >> twisters. thank you, chris. and scott cohen says there are signs the former head of peregrin financial may be trying to make a deal with prosecutors. he waived his right to a preliminary hearing. there is an alleged $200 million of client money missing. social media companies took lumps today. in addition to the facebook faceplant on earnings, twitter was down for hours. that was tough on you. the company says the outage was caused by the failure of two parallel systems at nearly the same time. i can say i have no idea what that means. just means you couldn't tweet for a while. >> i got two solid tweets before -- after it was improved. after the system went back up. cnbc's brian shactman, thank you very much. up next, a leading indicator for the presidential election.

all right. in nine out of ten times since 1972, gallup poll has accurately predicted 100 days before the election who will win the white house. we'll tell you where the candidates stand on that when we come back. here is a hint. turns out it's all about the economy.

welcome back to "the kudlow report." i'm larry kudlow. in this half hour, liberals have some nerve trying to rob fast food restaurant chick-fil-a of its commercial rights to build stores and the ceo's freedom of speech to say what he wants. that's his right. but the left is already punking out and consumers will win this battle. now, a year ago today i was warning you that failure to solve the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling would damage the economy and the market. guess what. it's déjà vu all over again. first, the 100-day countdown to the presidential election begins sunday. here's an interesting stat. usa today writes, in nine of the past ten e elections, the

candidate leading in the gallup poll taken closest to 100 days out has won the white house. all right. what's gallup has to say today? drum roll please. obama 46, mitt romney 46. now this is among registered voters. not the best. among likely voters, which i believe is a more important and ak a rat measure, by the way, ace pollster scott has mus century has romney ahead 48-44. hang on. consensus is really that the election will be about the economy and who is better for it. on that, one candidate has the clear advantage. i'm going to give you a hint. it ain't obama. gallup shows romney # 51, obama 41. nbc wall street journal shows romney 43, obama 36. cbs new york times, romney 49, obama 41. abc washington post, romney 49, obama, 44.

the economy reigns supreme. let's bring in our guest to talk about it a little bit. phil muser, republican consultant and former pawlenty campaign senior add a visor and sarah fagan, former george w. bush aide and political director. i will tell you two things. 46-46 in gallup among registered voters could be obama's number. 46%. in incumbents are below 50 that could be the number he gets. in other words, a landslide against him. number two, under all the numbers is the economy. that's going to decide the election. that's where the independents are going to break. what do you think? am i right? >> i think you're right. the problem for the president is that this uptick in unemployment is coming at the exact worst time for him. what we see in the numbers, i believe, is that mitt romney is lower than he should be for a couple of reasons.

he isn't well known by the public. that will happen at the convention. [ laughter ] >> okay. >> second, he has to put definition on his economic plan. he does those things and the race will break open. >> okay. keith boykin, you're laughing. i love it when you laugh. we love humor on the show. but everybody in the country knows barack obama. if he's still at 46%, what does that tell you, keith? >> first of all, mitt romney has been running for president for five years. the idea that people don't know him is absurd. of course they know him. the problem is they don't like him. every poll done including everyone you stoned here larry demonstrates the same thing. his likeability numbers are low. they don't like some of the policies president obama has done in terms of the economy now. but they don't like mitt romney. a couple of other things. one democratic president in the past 120 years has been defeated for re-election. this ain't that type of election

as we had in 1980. secondly, no war-time president has ever been defeated for re-election. and at this point in july usually the incumbent trails the challenger. this is unprecedented for barack obama to be leading. >> there is a challenge for that. >> all the indicators are in barack obama's favor. if you don't understand it you are not looking at the polls. >> sara, do you want to rebut? >> incumbents typically get job approval at the ballot box. barack obama hasn't been at 50% in months. in his job approval. he will not get there unless the economy turns around and it's not going to. >> hang on, keith. phil, on this note, two points. he's getting it down to key economic growth bullets. cut tacks, deregulate energy and balance the budget. those are his key bullets and i reordered them a little bit to

help out. >> the kudlow prioritization. i love it. >> that's what i do. he's done a good job on that. i don't understand something keith boykin said. i was looking at the gallup poll. it's true romney's likeability or whatever is low. i don't get that and i'm being serious. i have interviewed him four, five times. i have had a chance to talk with him, visit with him. i find him to be a fine person, a likeable person and a hard-working person. why do the numbers show otherwise? what am i missing and keith understands. >> i work for romney. i have had the chance to see him up close and personal. he's all those things and more. the candidacy will reveal that for romney. in 12 states around the country the obama campaign spent $100 million plus beating the crap out of romney on trumped up charges about things he wasn't responsible for after he left

bain capital. >> oh, come on. >> you have seen movement on his negatives. in the big picture what matters is right direction, wrong track on the economy. sara's point -- and remember, sara worked in the sz last successful presidential campaign where we re-elected a republican president. she knows the stuff. >> when george w. bush was in the same position in the polls barack obama was in -- >> that's not true, keith. >> it's not true. >> the polls are virtually identical. look at clear politics averages. i don't know what poll you are looking at. >> here's the difference -- >> uh i think you are right about the same position in 2004. >> 2004. >> here's what's different. the economy was doing very well for bush. >> right. >> from the middle of 2003 basically to the end of 2007. the bush tax cuts all kicked in. he had a lot of job creation. he created eight and a half million jobs.

when george w. ran in 2004 he had a good economy with him. barack obama does not. i see that as a very substantive difference. >> two problems with that. first of all, people understand that barack obama didn't create the economic conditions we a have, george w. bush did. second, this president has been leading us in terms of creating real issues here. whereas mitt romney has basically offered nothing in terms of specifics on what he's going to do for the economy. when you ask where the unemployment rate will be four years from now he says it will be at 6%. exactly where the congressional budget office estimates it will be without any intervention. he's not offering anything new. >> there is no rational for the re-election at this point in time. >> excuse me? >> to blame it on someone else is an exhausted argument from the left. >> you did the same thing in 1984 over and over. >> you have to move off that. the answer to the question is

mitt romney will do simple things to bring certainty and growth to the economy. he'll extend the bush tax cuts, cut corporate tax rates. >> so the same things that got us into the crisis in the first place. >> sara, if you were running bush 2004, this is an interesting conversation. i haven't had this. bush 2004 versus obama 2012. i think people forget. i know the economy turned out badly in 2008. uh get it. in 2004 the economy had already turned up big time. president bush leveraged that along with his staunch national security and domestic security, homeland security. i don't see, sara, any issues like that that would put mr. obama over the finish line. that's why i think the numbers are an indictment. what are his trump cards such as bush had? what are they? >> i think he has only one opportunity. that's to completely destroy mitt romney. that's the campaign they are

running. >> that's right. >> this is a referendum on the president like 2004 was a referendum on george w. bush. >> no, it was not. >> 2004 -- >> it was not. >> you destroyed john kerry. >> go ahead, sir. what were you going to say, sara. >> it was a referendum on the president. you're right. the economy in the summer of 2003 started to turn around. when you go back and look at a normalized trend line and trends matter in this business. his numbers got better and continued on to election day. obama is in the opposite position. his numbers are getting worse. >> that's the challenge, larry. sara's got it right. people are probably going to take one more look here and make up their mind about the direction of the economy. >> has anybody -- >> hang on, keith. >> the numbers next week are important. we have a bad jobs report. anemic growth. >> gdp tomorrow. >> has anybody here read the polls this year?

barack obama has not trailed in any single poll average for the entire year. >> he's trailing right now. >> he's trailing in most likely in rasmussen. >> unbelievable. >> thank you, ladies and gentlemen. uh i appreciate it. congress again brings us to the brink of catastrophe. that's right, the looming tax cut threatens recession. congress continues to do nothing. is there hope for a compromise? i will do my best. i asked chris van holland, rank and member on the house budget committee, how we can fix it with common ground. we'll be right back. i'm freaking out man. why? i thought jill was your soul mate. no, no it's her dad. the general's your soul mate? dude what? no, no, no.

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as you know, i fret all the time about a looming tax and fiscal cliff that could put us into recession. now, just in the last 24 hours leading democrats have put forward what they call a new bipartisan bargain on deficit reduction. the question tonight is are we really closer to such a deal today as we were a year ago? take a listen. tax hikes are off the table. the economy is bad enough. we're going to get a terrible

gdp report tomorrow. you don't want to raise taxes. that at least is off the table. >> larry, two points. number one, the president's proposal doesn't talk about any immediate tax hikes. we are talking about after 2013. >> it's about spending. >> jeb, come on. >> they cite less than a third of the debt being responsible for the tax relief and you happen to know that has to do with scoring. >> i have to leave it there. >> these guys won't use one penny from closing tax loopholes to close the deficit. >> we are the ones who put it in our budget. >> all right. a very spirited discussion last year. this evening we have chris van holland back, the democrats top budget man on the committee. welcome. let me ask you. you're coming in with the bipartisan agreement that we are going to talk about in a minute. why so late? people have been talking about it for months. oddly enough, the gdp report comes out tomorrow and it's going to be a terrible report.

probably only 1%. so why now? >> well, larry, we have proposed we take this route long ago. what we are calling for in this letter is simply to take a balanced, framework approach simpson bowles has proposed to dealing with the deficit. that's required from the beginning spending cuts and, as you know, we did a trillion in spending cuts as part of the act. also revenue to reduce the deficit over the long term. as you said on the clip and i said on the clip, our republican colleagues have signed this pledge saying that not one penny of new revenue can reduce the deficit. that continues to be a problem. >> well, some people think that new proposals such as yours -- and i don't want to prejudge it. i don't know the details. but it's a trojan horse to raise tax rates. i think you know, and i'm not defending anybody. but i think you know --

especially from upper income people. now that's going to be a sticking point. can you live with that kind of tax reform, chris van hollen? >> the short answer is when you look at the corporate side we can live with tax reform. you know we have a high corporate tax rate but a relatively low effective corporate tax rate. there may be ways to deal with that. the issue has come in identify ing which tax deductions, expenditures will be eliminated. we don't think it makes sense without knowing the consequences. are we going to hurt codomestic manufacturing? our republican colleagues want to cut the top rate to 25%. they won't identify one particular tax deduction or expenditure that they want to eliminate in order to get there. >> i want spending restraint. according to the article i read

democrats don't want the hundred billion or the 109 billion in spending reductions. particularly on social programs. it sounds vague to me on entitlement reform. you are talking about a grand bargain. i don't see it. where is it? >> it comes in a number of pieces. the particular letter we talked about would track a proposal the democrats offered in the house that would at least replace the first year of the squeser. we have the budget proposal which like the president's budget proposal would replace all ten years. but the one-year proposal combined spending cuts, for example, getting rid of some of the big crop subsidies, getting rid of some of the direct payments to farmers along with getting rid of some of the big subsidies to oil companies. you know that's not necessary to incentivize. >> i agree. i totally agree with you on that. absolutely. >> larry, what we are saying is

you could come up with a mix of cuts and direct payments and elimination of subsidies to at least replace the is he quester for a year as we worked on a grand bargain for the ten-year period. we have proposals for that period. >> we'll see what happens and leave it there. i appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> you're awful nice to come on the show. >> good to be with you. >> up next, chick-fil-a tries to put out a political fire after the ceo takes a stand against gay marriage. i'm sorry. it has nothing to do with the ceo's opinion. what it boils down to is free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of consumers and freedom of doing business. former senator rick santorum joins us next. [ male announcer ] drive a car filled with as much advanced technology

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welcome back. now check this out. cattlemen and ranchers got beefed when an internal department of agriculture uh newsletter surfaced calling on employees to participate in meatless mondays as a way of reducing their environmental footprint. meatless mondays. the department told beef

magazine it doesn't endorse meatless monday. the newsletter hadn't been cleared and has been removed. the president of the association said we appreciate usda making this right. okay. now, why are liberals being allowed to dictate where chick-fil-a does its business? chicago, philadelphia, boston. all these mayors and officials bullying the company because the ceo made a controversial statement about marriage. here's the question. since when do city officials have the right to deny the freedom of speech and prevent the freedom to create a real business? joining us now the editor in chief of reason.com nick gillespie, author of the declaration of independents. and with us on the phone, former presidential candidate rick santorum. i really think we are talking about rahm emanuel and the mayer i don't of boston and

philadelphia beating up on chick-fil-a because of something their ceo said. this is a new low in politics, it seems to me. >> you know, you just keep seeing it more and more which is the absolute intolerance of the left in america. there can be no dissent from what their position is. if you disagree, you are to be punished. you are to be castigated, barred from doing business. this is the kind of thing that, in philadelphia, the seat of the declaration of independence, the constitution and the bill of rights. this is why the hugonauts came to america. the dutch reform, catholics, so many came to the country. they wanted religious freedom. they didn't want the government telling them they couldn't say things in public, that uh they had to keep it to themselves. they would lose privileges.

they would lose the opportunity to make a living. this is not america. this is why i think you are seeing such a backlash to these hateful comments on the part of city leaders. >> these guys are starting to back off. nick, whatever one's opinion is about marriage and these related social issues, there is a free speech issue here. there is a religious freedom issue here if that's what it boils to for chick-fil-a. there is a freedom of business. seems there is also a consumer freedom. consumers can go and vote with their pocketbooks. >> right. you're absolutely right. as a libertarian, somebody who believes in marriage ele quality, like rick santorum i love william pen, roger williams and people of tolerance. by the same token there is something absolutely fundamentally wrong with politicians saying what businesses can set up shop in

their cities and where. at the same time, let's stick up for freedom of assembly and what you're talking about. what is great about this country is people who disagree with the head of chick-fil-a or his company can go elsewhere and eat chicken elsewhere. that's what it comes down to. >> that is an important free market point. consumer choice is so important. if people have a problem with mr. dani kathy and his opinions eat somewhere else. but you can't deny him the ability to build a business. not a phony business as president obama says. he built that real business. >> he didn't build it on his ow inherited it from his father. >> all right. his father built the business. >> it's a good franchise. one important thing in the dialogue over this because, again, uh'm in favor of equal treatment of gays. i think it is shameful america doesn't. but there is no indication that

chick-fil-a bars or bans gay employees or customers. that's worth keeping in mind. they are good businessmen. >> rick santorum, let me come back to you. there are great headlines in some of my favorite conservative websites that rahm emanuel who was quick to beat up on chick-fil-a for what cathy said, he's embracing louis farrakan to get help for the situation in chicago. they are totally anti-gay and totally antisemitic. why did rahm emanuel make a big stink about their opinions? >> you make a great point there. if you look at one group of people that is as anti-gay as anybody you look at the radical islamists. in iran, if you are found to be gay, you are killed. radical islam, shariya law has

zero tolerance for gays but you see the main stream media, the left in america rallying around trying to -- >> i have to get out. rick santorum. thank you. i have to get out. i hate to do it. uh i have to. nick gillespie, rick santorum. that's it for tonight's show. thanks for watching. i'll say this. good for freedom. it's going to prevail in this whole story. choose control.

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