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tv   The Kudlow Report  CNBC  December 13, 2013 7:00pm-8:01pm EST

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the fed meeting when they hit the market. that's when the opportunity is. my trend of the week is finish line if it comes down because of the fed. let's say there's always a market somewhere. i promise to try to find it. i'm jim yamer, and i will see you monday. the white house says it's, quote, encouraging the insurance companies to accommodate its push for delayed obamacare enrollment deadline plans. is the white house waging war against insurance companies to cover up its massive obamacare mistakes? and speaking of ugly, the brewing war between john boehner and the tea party is getting nastier. the tea party fired back today saying boehner started it. of course, it's all about the budget deal that paul ryan struck with the democrats. ryan is trying to save the gop from itself so why would republican senators sabotage the deal and risk a government
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shutdown that distracts from obamacare and might kill him in november? we have one republican senator who says he's still undecided about he's going to vote. we're going to talk to him live. maybe we'll make some news right here on the program. and finally, stocks still worried about a tighter fed that could block a christmas rally. all those stories and more coming up on "the kudlow report" beginning right now. good evening, i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report." we're live here. it's 7:00 p.m. eastern, 4:00 p.m. pacific. the first deadline is approaching. we are now ten days away from the deadline to objetain covera by january 1st. but insurance companies will start covering individuals whether they have paid, enrolled, or not. so why won't the obama
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administration just swallow its pride and delay the individual mandate altogether? here now we talk to democratic strategist chris kofinis and manhattan institute senior fellow paul howard. gentlemen, welcome back. scott, let me begin with you because what i'm trying to figure out is, is this pressure -- are these orders, are these mandates from hhs -- they basically want, i think, the insurance companies to carry people past the deadline. how do you see this? >> they are asking the insurance companies, basically, to extend a line of credit to the beneficiaries and they are going to back stop that because effectively what they are saying and what they are going to say more explicitly is that they will pay the insurance companies what the companies they they are owed and try to reconcile it later. they need to do this because, frankly, the enrollment number
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is not very low. so the worst outcome is someone thinks they've signed up, their information isn't correct, the insurance company doesn't know to charge them the premium so they don't actually get insured in january. they say give them the benefit of the doubt. >> that is the weirdest thing. i'm not sure i understand it. maybe chris can help me out. your guys want to hear what you have to say. >> look, people may not even be enrolled. you just heard what scott gottlieb said. there's this whole flow, as i understand it, hhs is going to give the insurance companies money, it is a form of -- i don't know, consumer credit enhancement or consumer credit payment but nobody knows. nobody knows. i mean, the 836 forms, we don't know if it's true. we don't know if people are enrolled. we have no idea if they are verifiable. i don't get this, chris. they are totally unprepared.
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>> i mean, it's really tough to defend. i'm just being honest. it's just very tough to defend. i think the thinking here is because obviously the snafus related to the website and enrollment, a lot of these individuals had to do it through paper or by phone or there may be some errors so that it gives them a little bit of time to basically double-check and make sure that things are up. obviously if people would just kind of randomly signed up for health care and just kind of as a joke, i don't think they are going to get covered, obviously. i think we're going to be referencing serious people who are interested in getting health care. that being said, it's another kind of bad mark on what has not been a very, you know, auspicious rollout. that's the problem. >> we don't know the scope of this. they could, theoretically, cover the first month's premium for everyone who has enrolled but not paid their first month's premium.
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we don't know what the scope of this is going to be right now. >> remember -- but remember, this is only going to be -- worst case scenario, we're talking about a limited amount of time. >> how long? >> a month. but that's a lot of money. >> i don't want to -- just to say this to chris because in a i wa i want to apologize. i didn't mean to say that they are your people. i don't even think this is a political issue. i'm not looking at it politically, to be honest. i'm looking at it more technically and functionally. the things that scott gottlieb took us through and you're echoing, to me this just indicates the flaws in the program themselves. they are technical flaws but they are policy flaws as well. we know that flaws are not good for team obama. paul, let me go to you again. on the failures here functionally and technically, it seems to me so many errors can and will occur and yet money is going to be spent by the
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insurance companies and perhaps by the government, by hhs or cms or whoever pays this out. it's like the government is bailing out the insurance companies, paul, the insurance companies are bailing out the consumers but nobody knows if any of this is real. that's the problem i have with this and i don't understand what's wrong with an extension? like a long extension? not a week, not a month, like a long extension for this whole individual mandate process. >> look, at this point the administration is hurdling down a cliff and they can't stop. so what we've got here, look at california, right, 800,000, close to one million people are going to see their policies canceled or have been canceled already. i think the administration is really terrified that at the end of the day more people are going to lose coverage come 2014 and gain it through the exchanges and basically begging the insurers to take whatever they can in terms of extending coverage, coverage providers who may not be a network, may not be
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on formulary. >> you just made two very important additional points. very important. they are asking the administration -- the administration is asking the insurers to cover people out of network. all right? that's a very big deal. i don't know how you do that. i don't know how the insurance company can just suddenly do that. it seems to me that's a huge deal. and you also mentioned the prescription drug refills. that's another big deal. now, it may be easier to pay for the refills but what about the networks, paul howard? just take me through that. how does an insurance company all of a sudden switch around and say you're out of the network but we're going to treat you like you're in the network? does the hospital have a say? does the doctor have a say? who is going to have a sayer? >> you've got these very narrow networks. people can't find what positions or hospitals are in their network on the website right now. they are going into the dark. i think the administration is
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trying to head off a backlash and how can you calculate a premium if you can't cover the networks that you think you have in your plan? >> they had to backstop the insurers because there would have been a lot of hardship with the first month preem kwem yemi >> you've been consistent on this. you see this as small ball right through. this is not going to be anything near the numbers of 2 1/2 million on their way to 7 million for the year. you think it's going to be, scott, a lot smaller than all that? >> what i'm hearing is 3 to 4 million for the whole year and that's the optimistic numbers. the bulk of those will be people who had insurance were kicked off it and moved into the obamacarema obamacare market. what i'm hearing from actuaries for 2015 is the only plans
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looking into getting into this market are the medicaid hmos. >> see, chris, another thing that troubles me -- i don't know. maybe it's small potatoes in the grand scheme of thing but this whole issue of -- you know, they've got to pay for them even if they don't -- insurance companies have to pay potential customers even if the customers haven't passed the income verification test or the jobs test. what bothers me about this -- and again, i'm not being partisan here. this reminds me of the mortgage crackup that we had 10, 12 years ago. you had what was called liar loans and they were made under both democrat and republican administration. people didn't have the income to buy the home, they didn't have the job in some cases that they needed, the banks were going it away because they thought everybody should have the house. this sounds like the same thing. the only difference is the insurance companies are giving it away because the government says everybody should have a health insurance. i don't know how you get around this, chris.
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that's why this thing is so bungled and muddled and screwed up. >> look, i think there's a couple different things that are going on here. in terms of the issue that you're talking about, if people get, for example, subsidies that they weren't entitled, it's written in the legislation that they have to pay that back. so there is, if you will, a certain level of protection there to protect the taxpayer -- to protect those who are actually doing legitimately versus those who may be doing i illlegitimately. the question is on enrollment. the targets are clearly off and there's a lot of reasons for that, good and bad. but if you look at both massachusetts as an example as well as the medicare drug plan part d, you had kind of a big push and a big growth in the last few weeks than last month. i think you're going to see -- to your point in terms of a
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delay or a pressure for a real delay, that i think will grow depending on what the numbers are in february and early march. if those numbers are still really off, you're going to see politically and policywise why people are saying we should fix here what is wrong. but if the. ins do the opposite and come in surprising, i think a lot of people will be very pleased. >> it just seems to me -- we're going to have to close this down. you have all been great. but it just seems to me that a lot of money is going to flow from hhs into insurance companies foo t companies into the consumers and there's a lot of money that might flow to people and policies and out of network hospitals that nobody knows, nobody can keep track of. there's no orderliness to this. i like to be orderly in my personal life and government dealings. i mean, it's like i've got money in this drawer and i'm going to transfer it to this drawer but
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i'm not sure what's in this drawer and my wife's been telling me to clean the desk up for years and i don't do it. this is the kind of thing that bugs the heck out of me. >> more aggravation to come. >> i'm telling you, that is the deal. >> hopefully not. >> it's all aggravation. it's bigger than politics. this is -- this is global and interplanetary. chris co-fi chris kofinis and dr. scott gottlieb. our free market friday panel is about to join us. later on the show, we introduced you last evening to jim hoft, a political writer who suddenly learned that he has a life-threatening disease and has lost his insurance plan because
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of obamacare. we had a huge response to this story. we're going to talk about what it means later on in the show. for heaven's sake, don't forget free market capitalism. it's the best path to health insurance. look how screwed this up. i'm larry kudlow. we'll be right back. every day we're working to be an even better company -
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report." i'm seema mody. police say an armed shooter shot at a school and then took his own life. the injured student is in serious condition. the shooting takes place a day before tomorrow's one-year anniversary of the newtown massacre. a tragic situation, larry. >> not a tragic. that is an amazing coincidence and i wonder if we're going to find out if it really was a coincidence. seema mody, thank you very, very much. fireworks in the gop, republican tea party activists. the tea party is calling the deal a sellout. house speaker john boehner is frustrating.
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take a listen to his fiery comments. >> so yesterday when the criticism was coming, frankly, i thought it was my job and my obligation to stand up for conservatives here in congress who want more deficit reduction, stand up for the work that chairman ryan did and why conservatives wouldn't vote for this or criticize the bill is beyond any recognition that i can come up with. but if you recall, the day before the governed reopened, one of these groups stood up and said, well, we never really thought it would work. are you kidding mae? >> is this the start of a full-blown war between boehner and the tea party? we welcome back democratic
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strategist and talk show host. i want to go to you. you guys are directly politicos. let me start with you, jimmy. you're an old congressional staff guy. >> senate. >> senate. i regard them all together. >> i saw the house. it was over there. >> what's boehner's -- how do you read boehner? what's his motive in what does he think he's going to accomplish on this? >> so i think what the speaker of the house did not too long ago was he brought his caucus to the brink and he showed that it stinks and it was bad. they felt it all across the country. they said, okay, i gave you what you wanted. i gave you your shutdown. guess what i'm going to do? i'm not counting to 218 anymore when it comes to my caucus. i'm here to be the speaker of the country. there's no -- the republicans don't have a white house. you don't have the and john boehner is a pissed off speaker
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of the house. >> do you think that or do you have a different interpretation? >> i think it shows you all of the passion and energy is on the republican side and i think this is a good thing and everybody has to admit it, moderates have to say, it's not perfect but, look, when you have to deal with harry reid running the senate and the democrats run the senate as jimmy said and you have to deal with barack obama, just the fact that these guys aren't raising taxes, that's a plus right now and it's going to be something that is good for the economy. it may not be perfect but it's probably the best deal that they could get. >> mark simon, there are talks and rumors that some of the big donors to these tea party groups are not happy, the big donors. they don't want shutdowns. they would rather the gop focus on obama care which is the issue that will carry them in 2014. how do you see this issue? is boehner really pushing back? is he going to be successful in pushing back the tea party? >> the chess that he was playing, it was a bad deal. they gave in. i think it was a brilliant idea.
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there's times in a football game where you know you're going to win so you don't try to score a touchdown and you just drop the ball. democrats are going to have the worst year than they've ever had in their life. they find out they've lost their doctor and can't go the hospitals they want. it's going to be disastrous. midterm elections are coming up. do nothing. do no damage. >> a shutdown would be a mistake. >> the one thing people have against the republicans is they are obstructionists. this takes that off the table. >> this is why i say, by the way, seriously, paul ryan is saving the gop from its self. >> i agree with you. >> that's my basic point of view. >> the only thing i'll add to is what the speaker was saying and mark was echoing, i think republicans win this budget deal just by a smidgen and i tell you why. the democrats wanted an end to
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the sequester and they didn't get it. keeping the shut out -- shutdown away and scoring these small points -- >> look what paul ryan privatized. neither one got that. neither one got that but both came out smelling pretty decent. >> it's the one time you don't want to kick the can down the road for the republicans. >> they also did a two-year budget which i'm completely against. that's congress' job to show up and do things. what is not off the table is debt ceiling. so what's going to happen here, i cannot disagree with you that it could be the democrats have a bad next year because the shutdown -- >> the worst year they've -- >> possibly. >> there's going to be an automatic increase. >> i'm completely find with that. let's have that. but that's not going to be the case. they are going to tie that to lots of other things.
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>> there actually was a provision in the budget process that i think gives the president an automatic debt increase. >> that's congress' job, not the president. >> i know. i knew you would say that and you're probably right. jimmy, let me just say this. ryan has not attacked openly the tea party. >> uh-huh. >> he's basically stuck to his guns. he's like, i got this, i got that. he stayed on message, on substance. what does that tell you about ryan and his future? >> i think in a lot of ways what it tells you about ryan is he's become a mature politician. >> yep. yep. >> and i think it's, to heck with politics. with paul ryan saying i've got to do with what is best for the country because i'm sure the paul ryans of the world they hated the tax increase we got after the 2012 elections because barack obama forced it down the american people's throats and, by the way, i thought that was a big mistake for the republicans to sign off because it continues to hurt the economy to this day.
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>> for me, okay, the worst part of this was losing some of the sequester. that urt hurt. >> no question. >> the cuts in the budget has actually helped the economy. a lot of people disagree with that point of view. but that's the part that hurt the most. the other stuff i can live with, you're going to be right. jimmy williams, jim, mark, don't move a muscle. we have many more topics for you this evening. now, don't adjust your tv. this is really a video of heavy snow in jerusalem. other parts of the middle east got pounded, too. seema mody has more on this and an update on the storm headed to the northeast usa. she's next up on "the kudlow report." please stay with us. i love having a free checked bag
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i've dropped my tea into the boston harbor. huhh... i guess this party's over. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. welcome back to "the kudlow report." i'm seema mody. winter storm electra is to bring snow and ice. retailers are worried that this may cause problems for shoppers on sunday when millions of people are digging out. but in egypt and israel, as much as 3 feet of snow fell and cairo is experiencing its first measurable snowfall in, get this, 100 years. another big story across the country, tonight is the mega millions lottery. the jackpot was $400 million a d
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the start of the day but that's changed. cnn's morgan brennan is joining us. it's december 13th but clearly people don't feel lucky. >> reporter: we are seeing that jackpot grow, definitely growing. $425 million it jumped to today. that's a lump sum take-home payment. there are new odds. before october you had a 1 in 176 million chance at winning. after the change, a 1 in 259 million chance. some perspective, you've got a better chance at being killed by a falling coconut and the changes have worked. the jackpot has rolled over 20 consecutive times but that's not stopping people from buying here at eagle liquors.
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people believe to be lucky. in march, pedro bought his powerball ticket here and while that may sound like a dream come true, he's in court battling it out with his former long-time girlfriend over those earnings and he faces accusations that he broke promises to pay neighbors' rents. that's not stopping me from dreaming big. i bought this here today myself. i hope that lightning will strike twice. larry? >> by the way, thanks to morgan and seema mody. welcome to the kudlow report. welcome to the cnbc family. >> thank you. >> i want to go back a second. it's great to see you. this is not in the script. i want to hear jimmy williams about death by coconut. have you ever thought about that? death by coconut. >> i don't want to die death by coconut. >> i want to go to the closest liquor store. get me one quick.
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>> and the guy who won yesterday spent all of his money and then his girlfriend hauls him into court. she lived with him for ten years. >> you could buy the s&p spiders. >> here's a burning question for tonight. will the republican in the senate really block the budget deal? are they trying to shoot themselves in the foot, risk a government shutdown? stop paul ryan from saving their own chances of taking the senate next year? ryan's trying to save the gop from himself. we're going to talk to a republican senator who has not yet decided how he's going to vote. that makes this upcoming interview very important. stay with us for it. we'll be right back.
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welcome back to "the kudlow report." the house passed a two-year budget last night. so far, not a single republican senator has backed it which leads democrats well short of the 60 votes they need to break a filibuster or at least a procedural cloture vote. well, we welcome back to the program now north dakota
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republican senator john hobin. you're very kind to do this. i appreciate it. respectfully, may i ask, sir, how are you going to vote on this murray/ryan budget? >> larry, it's going to be with you. i'm still going through it. certainly have an open mind and in regard to your earlier comments, i believe it will pass the senate. >> you think it will pass the senate? >> i do. >> mitch mcconnell says he's against it, not a republican has come out for it or am i wrong there? >> no, there are some that have come out for it and there's a number undecided. in the end it will be bipartisan. we want to take some time and go through it. we have some concerns but all in all, i think the support's going to be there. >> is there anything that you're particularly interested in as you go through your own deliberate process? >> big picture, when i started in january 2011, discretionary spending, which is what this budget covers, was about 1.35
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trillion. this will not only take it down but keep it down at about a trillion dollars through fiscal year 15. so that's about a 35% reduction from where we were. so in terms of discretionary spending, you know, we're making real progress. obviously there's more to do but this enables us to prioritize spending but, you know, keep very close to those caps that we set in the budget control act. >> well, paul ryan has said, even though the caps are lifted slightly in 14 and 15, the long-term baseline for the sequester is still in place and he's going to get 90% of it back later on. >> right. >> it sounds like you're leaning in favor of the deal. >> i think so. there's some things i don't like. again, i'd like to be at the $967 billion figure instead of about a trillion or 12 billion. we hold it for both years instead of across the board cuts we can actually go in and prioritize spending through the appropriation process. i think that's going to really
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help in terms of how we set up the budget for the next two years and i hope with economic growth we can actually reduce the budget, more than project it. >> you know, senator, just hypothetically, i don't know why the republicans -- senator mcconnell has come out against this. he's been very militant. why would republican senators at this point even threaten, even talk about a government shutdown by breaking this deal? i mean, don't you all want to run in 2014 against obama care and then promote more economic growth? isn't that the issue? wouldn't a budget shutdown just be, you know, destroy the republican chances because obama care gave them a new life after the shutdown last summer and go through it again? this doesn't make any sense to me. >> i think a shutdown would be a big time problem and we've got
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to way to get the economy growing and then as we address the debt ceiling agreement in february, get some reforms and go to the mandatory spending, not just deal with discretionary spending, which is what is in this budget. >> i thought the debt ceiling in the prior deal, the debt ceiling increase was automatic. am i wrong about that? >> what it does is extend it for a short period of time and in essence you're right. we try to keep that agreement as short as possible because i believe and others we've got to get reforms to reduce spending on the mandatory side spending equation. >> senator john hoeven, thank you very much. >> you bet. let's bring back our friday panel, jimmy williams, what do you think? >> i think he said something very interesting. ice got to vote for that budget.
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b., here is what is really interesting, he said debt ceiling and then something about market reforms. that's what they are going to do. in the spring, here's the big fight. this is going to pass. blah. merry christmas, all that kind of crap. in the spring, there's going to be a massive, massive fight. it's going to make last summer look like kitty play. it's going to be debt ceiling versus entitlement reform. the republicans say you don't give us entitlement reform and you're going to have a big massive to the brink issue of whether you pay your bills. >> mark -- those are important points. >> that's a good battle to fall. anyway, mark simone, with all due respect to mitch mcconnell, the republican leading the senate, he is going to vote against this budget deal. now, to me, this is a guy who
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last summer was absolutely insulting to ted cruz, senator lee, and all of the deep who lined up with the defunding which became the shutdown. he was insulting to the whole house of representatives for voting for defunding. now he is going to defund which could wreck the republican chances of making him the majority leader. with all due respect, how could he do this? the hypocrisy is staggering. >> it's brilliant maneuvering. he's a mark guy. you're right. he burned some bridges and he's going to agonize over this and look like he tried everything to stop this and then let it happen. it's like obama and gay marriage. remember the first two years he was against it and looked like only under duress did he go to this other position. mcconnell is going to have a primary challenge. he's not a strong candidate but that candidate is going to have money coming in from soros and
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everyone else. mcconnell has got to repair those burned bridges. >> jimmy, it looks bad doing this. people are going to haul out with advertisements what he said about government shutdowns and republicans and defunding and the house of representatives. he insulted john boehner and now he's going to take -- he becomes the mike lee and ted cruz of this battle. is that what he really wants to be? >> i think what he really wants to be on the side is prosperity and he wants to cut spending and probably wants to lower taxes. >> before jesus was born, he's on the appropriation committee. >> he's got -- >> he's been watching larry. >> i'm going to defend his honor on this. i just don't understand this latest maneuver.
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it's going to pass. that's what hoeven said. you said it's going to pass. >> it's going to pass. >> i think what he's probably looking for is a better deal. i think he. >> they are going to vote on monday and tuesday. >> that is not going to happen. there's no way that's going to happen. >> john boehner is not going to bring -- look, holden is such a smart guy. holden made the key point, which paul ryan has also made. when you take a step back and look at what happened, the appropriations has come down and as a shared gdp it's come down. actually, they are right where they want to be. >> i think he's right. commonsense conservatives are going to support this and they are going to do it because they think it's best for the country.
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it's like, look, this is, yeah, patty murray's involved here. this is a paul ryan budget and paul ryan -- >> it's not a paul ryan budget. >> discretionary spending is what kicked bill clinton out of the entire budget. >> discretionary spending in today's dollars, it's now 580 billion. it's out of control. >> it is out of control. this whole thing is out of control. i've got to tell you, paul ryan is going to save republicans from themselves. jimmy, mark, jim, stick around. we're going to come back to the panel in just a moment. we've got more to do. this is serious stuff. up next on "the kudlow report," the markets were down for the week. they are worried that there may not be a christmas rally. we're going to talk your money next on "kudlow." (announcer) at scottrade, our clients trade and invest
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welcome back to "the kudlow report." i'm seema mody. the nasdaq is down slightly but
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higher today but down 1.5% for the week. s&p was flat but also down 1.7% for this week. right after the "closing bell," though, we got potential merger news. "the wall street journal" is reporting to buy out t-mobile. if this happened, they would have 50 million customers. this is a trend that we're seeing in this space. a lot of consolidation just this year. >> will that make them competitive? there's been competitiveness questions about both of those. >> sure. >> if they have a merger, does that keep them in the game? >> you would think so, right. they could allow their forces and offer competitive pricing but we'll have to see. >> i can't figure whether 50 million is enough but it might be. seem m seema, stick around. question, our investors worried about a tighter fed with the expected nomination of stanley fisher coming down the pike and a stronger than
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expected economy? chief investment strategist and jeff with kkm financial. jeff, i never liked this because good news becomes bad news. you get really strong retail sales and pretty strong job creation and one of the most brilliant guys coming on the federal reserve board. he's a brilliant guy, stanley fisher, and he's much more hawkish than janet yellen. is that enough, okay, strong growth, hawk on the fed, is that enough to stop a christmas rally in the stock market? >> it should be, larry. let's look at the criteria that mr. bernanke laid out when he flip-flopped and pulled the rug out. the criteria was, we need better data, data dependent but more importantly he was concerned about washington. despite the fact that we had a 1646 day shutdown and right now it feels like we have every reason to at least initiate that the lights are going to be
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turned on at this way, long over due dance party. >> you know, i want to get your quick take on the economy because we are seeing some strengthening in numbers. we've seen this before. i want to ask you, too, in relation to what jeff just said, the issue was not just the taper, i think it's the size of the slowdown and the speed of the slowdown of the bond buying. what's your take on all of that? >> people are definitely worried about the taper talk and i think that's what took the markets out this week. i would bet against them saying something meaningful at next week's meeting and if they did they would combine it with soft talk and they don't want to reproduce last may and june when the beyond yields went up and the emerging markets went down. the economy is stronger but net worth in the last year has
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increased by $6 million. it's not surprising that people are getting into their pockets to spend a little bit. >> seema, you're covering the beat. i may be behind but even three or four days ago a $15 billion taper or slow down in bond buying. now, with these new numbers coming down, retail sales and so forth, perhaps stanley fisher going to the fed, are people upping their estimates like maybe the fed will surprise everybody and you're doing 85 billion a nt month. is that possible? >> i think there's a lot of guesses out there and that's an option right now because we've been getting the strong economic reports as you've been pointing out from last friday's sales reports and gdp at 3.6%, much better than expected. that's pushing traders and economists to suggest or think that the fed will not only taper sooner than expected but might taper more.
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>> jeff, i liked your point very much about the forward guidance. the fed has got to make up credibility. can i take you overseas just a second? >> sure. >> there's a big story. the dollar is at a five-year high relative to the japanese yen. it's about 104, in round numbers. very interesting number. japan is pumping in reserves like crazy, even while our fed may slow that process down. the japanese stock market, jeff, up nearly 50% year to date. 48% year to date. even if you came out ahead substantially, let me ask you, if the u.s. is uncertain, as all you guys are suggesting, should people go and go into japan if they haven't already? >> larry, you brought up a big point. they have seen those great gains but honestly if we have a taper
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here out of the u.s., that sets the template for the whole world. once we saw a possible taper, japan got brought down with that. japan isn't going to pull back and if you told me that we're going to have a 10% correction, i would say i have a better chance of dying by a coconut. so we will see. but right now it does feel like a very false sense of security in the market. >> i'm a lodng-term bull. i can't buy a coconut. i'm going to florida in a couple of weeks. what's your outlook, john? give us some market -- >> larry, in the first place i'll take that trade and buying the japanese market and shorting the yen which fits the market right now. but in the u.s. right now people are confusing qe with stimulus.
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they say when qe is gone, stimulus is gone. buying bond is not the stimulus. the stimulus is the on loan reserves that have been piling up. by the time they are finished, there are going to be $3 trillion of excess reserves generating revenue for banks. every percent they can get extra loaning those out, they can add $30 billion to earnings. unless they've repealed the laws of arbitrage, banks are going to continue to loan this money out. >> that's the exact point. >> all right, larry, go get them. >> right now tonight, friday night, i may change my mind on monday -- friday night i think the fed is going to, quote, taper more than people think. >> don't expect that santa claus. >> thanks very much. now, last night we brought you the heartbreaking story of jim hoft, a political writer, he
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suddenly has a life-threatening disease and has lost his health plan because of obamacare. he's not alone. we're going to talk about why that happened and what's out there for people who are just as uneasy as he is. i'm kudlow. we'll be right back. every day we're working to be an even better company - and to keep our commitments. and we've made a big commitment to america. bp supports nearly 250,000 jobs here. through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the u.s. than any other place in the world. in fact, we've invested over $55 billion here
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just three months ago i had a cold. after three days i was taking cold medicine. i lost vision in any left eye,
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went blind in my eyes so i checked into the hospital here in st. louis, missouri. they ransom tests and found out i actually had bacteria that had poisoned my blood system. the bacteria had ate a whole through my heart the size of a dime. it caused five different strokes on both sides of the brain. it's been traumatic, as you can imagine. but the last thing i wanted to think about was switching insurance at this time. i pray to god i can still see these doctors because they saved my life. >> i think it's a god miracle that he's doing as well as he's doing, given all that happened. that was jim, founder and publisher. on this show last night, sharing his top and many americans are in a health care care
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catastrophe. just quickly, what does that mean? >> two points. george bush and the republican sold the house and the senate for six years and didn't do a damn thing about it. that's a tragic story and it's sad. it's happening well before obama care. read a john grisham book and you'll see it all over the place. it's sad. i don't want it to keep happening but there are other aspects to this besides people losing their health care and not being able to go see their doctor. >> we just have a couple of seconds. i think obama gets blamed. >> obamacare is making it accessible and it works.
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>> it was all over facebook and everybody saw that story. >> he thought he had a cold. they diagnosed it correctly. under obamacare, you won't have a choice of a great hospital. >> that's exactly right. that's the deal. jimmy williams, mark simon, jim, thank you. buy a coconut for me. i'm larry kudlow. have a wonderful weekend, everybody. we will see you on monday. n sho- see who does good work and compare costs. it doesn't usually work that way with health care. but with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me, and my guys, make better decisions. i don't like guesses with my business, and definitely not with our health. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.
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>> tonight on the car chasers... whoa! [laughs] >> black shelby. >> oh, my god. that is wicked. this looks like a rock star car. >> oh, this is a rock star car. >> since it's not done, it's got to be dirt cheap. i'm thinking 25,000. >> you want me to take $10,000 off? >> i can pay you 60,000 for cash today. >> ooh, you're reversing everything on me. >> oh, you think my car's weak? >> yeah. >> i think i will beat you. wouldn't that be sad? >> it ain't gonna happen. my name is jeff allen. i buy, fix, and flip cars. but i don't do it alone. i've got perry... meg... and eric.

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