good morning. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. you can see the capitol there as the sun starts to rise this morning. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. we are in the nation's capital marking president trump's first 100 days in office. on the schedule today, kevin brady, steny hoyer, senator rob portman, senator david perdue, house free dumb caucus member, joe schweikert, commerce secretary, wilbur ross and mick mulvaney. let's look at futures at

this hour a day after digesting that tax plan. t all are up higher. in asia, a bit of a mixed picture. in europe, a look at european equities, still open in many parts of the world. a bit of a red picture. finally a quick take on crude prices. wti trading at 49.19. >> i don't know. >> i did see 49.20 or 30, i did see some stuff yesterday that if they don't -- if opec does not go along with the cuts, you could see it back to levels of around $40 if they don't continue with the cuts. >> both of these guys getting nervous. don't try that at home.

the white house says president trump -- it's when johnny deposition is moving like this in alice in wonderland. >> it's a weird dance he does, but it means things are out of whack. >> as far as nafta, president trump has agreed not to terminate the nafta agreement and will try renegotiating it. the white house said they agreed to proceed with negotiations swiftly. there had been reports earlier that the trump administration intended to begin the process of withdrawing from the trade agreement. it was a weird story. like there was supposedly an executive order drawn up, one source said that. i don't even know if it was two sources. >> multiple sources say that steve bannon and peter navarro -- >> they may have gotten it ready but it may never be enacted. >> we shall see.

>> and pushback from the capitol. >> the canadian dollar rising now after falling, as you can see there. commerce secretary wilbur ross announcing that the trump administration is launching a new investigation, this time into aluminum imported. the probe is similar inersr initiated by ross last wk into steel. this could result on tariffs and other taxes on aluminum imports. the white house rolling out details of president trump's tax plan. treasury secretary steven mnuchin calling the proposal the biggest tax cut in u.s. history.

the plan seeks to cut the corporate tax rate to 15% and reduce the repatriation tax on off-shore earnings. it will double the standard deduction on individuals and reduce the plans to 3 from 7. >> we have had very productive meetings with the house and senate working weekly to get this done. we will continue to do that. we're determined to move this as fast as we can and get this done this year. >> we'll have much more on trump's tax plan throughout the morning. congress is looking for a deal to fund the government through september and avoid a government shutdown, but they're preparing for a one-week extension. two sticking points have already been cleared. the trump administration dropping demands that the spending bill include money to begin construction of a border wall a

wall. united airlines overhauling passenger policies after that incident earlier this month in which a passenger was violently dragged from a plane. phil lebeau has details on that. >> reporter: these are the change, is that united has been forecasting over the past couple of weeks since that incident where a passenger was dragged off of a plane. let me give you the highlights. the one that will get a fair amount of attention is that united is off authorizing $10,0 for people to voluntarily give up their seats on overbooked flights. if a person is seated on the flight, united said they cannot be bumped unless there's a security or safety issue. and a question on whether or not united says they will stop overbooking, no, they will still do it but will reduce the amounts of overbooking. united admit there's were

mistakes in bumping david dao. they said the crew lacked authority to offer more compensation at that time. crews have had had insufficient training when it comes to bumping passengers. united also announced its review of what's happened on the flight from chicago to louisville. most of the facts that were released were its perspective. the company is creating a customer solution team or teams that will be at gates so in the future if there's an overbooked flight, in theory those teams can work with passengers. but these are policy changes. some have already been implemented. others will be implemented over the next couple of days or weeks. then we'll see training for united teams, gate agents, flight attendants over the next couple of months. back to you. >> phil, some of those solutions that were rolled out, like offering more money which is the market system at work, allowing

people to say, sure, i'll get off voluntarily for more money. things like that make sense but it's something that delta rolled out over a week ago. >> exactly. >> why did it take this long? >> they say they've been doing a review of the entire process. let's be honest, they're in a bit of crisis mode right now in terms of controlling what information they can release, how they'll handle this. they said when this first happened, we'll have it in our final policies by april 30th. we're a couple days ahead of that. this is what delta announced a week and a half ago. we have not heard anything from american yet. i would not be surprised if we don't see american match them as well. what stands out is that even though it's up to $10,000 being offered that doesn't mean they'll offer it on flight. >> that's a free market system. somebody will get the money. >> we were talking about if you -- if groups -- people are grouped together. i've been on people -- united

flies sometimes with only 25 people on the plane. there was 25 people on a plane, we were all talking to each other the whole time when they were trying to offer people money to get off the plane the first time around. >> those are few and far between. >> i can think of a land. of flights almost daily. >> you were talking to strangers on a plane? >> guys, remember this -- >> you saw other people talking. >> you heard them talking. >> guys, not just with united but with other airlines, there are typically certain flights that are well known for being overbooked and they have to offer people incentives to give up seats. >> and that's the other thing, i think united had a higher percentage of overbooks than some other carriers, am i correct in that? >> yes. a higher percentage of people who were overbooked and then voluntarily gave up their seats. >> it's going to be tough. if you're going to try to game

it. there will always be someone ready. >> somebody cheaper than you are. >> exactly. >> it's a free market. >> and someone not as cheep. >> i'll take it for 2,000. >> thank you, phil. >> we want to talk politics. we are here in washington, d.c., there's a lot on the agenda. healthcare reform, tax reform, negotiations to prevent a government shutdown. that's just to name a few things that everybody is talking about. let's bring in congressman david schweikert, republican from arizona and a member of the weighs and means committee and the freedom caucus who has a seat on the joint economic committee, and congressman joe crowley who also sits on the weighs and means group. congressmen, thank you for joining us. let me start with you on the tax plan. >> okay. >> you heard the tax plan yesterday. the proposal, the guidelines. i don't know what we want to call it. would back it?

>> look, in many ways it's very helpful, in many ways it's partially aspirational. for most of us on the republican side we want a tax plan that will be permanent. for it to be permanent t has to hit certain scorie ing numbers. look, we only really receive top lines. but just on the back of an envelope, it won't hit the scoring numbers that we need to make it permanent. the powerful thing is that it starts to drive the conversation. all of a sudden yesterday every member i'm running into, all they want to talk about is tax reform. it's begun. >> you're thinking more of an anchoring technique, in terms of the beginning of a negotiation than actual numbers. >> that seems to be something this white house does. here's our aspirational goals, here's our opening bid. here's why we're doing this. start the conversation. let it begin. >> we needed to get -- republicans needed to get it

back down. you had it -- even in your column at 28, no better than 28. 28. we started -- now we're back, people are talk 15 at least. now maybe they'll talk 22. with you, we would have been at 32, down 3 points max. >> congressman, does this have any chance of happening? >> i'm glad the president showed the courage to release his tax proposal. but not his taxes. unfortunately. because i think we need to know exactly how he will benefit from his proposal. that's one of the reasons we're asking for those to be released. i notice the hesitation on dave's part in terms of whether he would support it or not. it undermines the chair of the committee who came to see democrats two weeks ago to offer his proposal, the house republican proposal which was 20% which is a reach. >> kevin brady? >> kevin brady, good friend, good guy. but under duress these days. now the president undermined

him. >> either undermined him or made him look reasonable to you. >> we always felt 20% was not reasonable because of how do you -- how do you pay for it? you can't pay for a $4 trillion hit. we don't know yet, hasn't been scored whatsoever. we don't know what impact will be. >> the difficulty -- you'll see this between our right and our left, is this dance of legislation, is it political absolutism? this is the dance of legislation, but also the battle of math. we have access to dynamic scoring. what will that dynamic scoring look like? what's the multipliers that we'll agree to? once again, under the set of rules f it hits certain windows, it's permanent. if it falls short, it's not permanent. that has different effects in the economy. >> can we talk about the math and your view about increasing the deficits in this country or

not? even with dynamic scoring, you threw out a number of 4 trillion. there's some scores that will put you at $7 trillion with dynamic scoring. >> one last night saying the president was 1 trillion short. so you see the differences in the scores out there now on the numbers. but you're making certain assumptions of what's the multiplier, what does it do to gdp and what does it do to economic growth and u.s. production? but that's our job. that's why you get a seat on the weighs and means committee is to try to do hard math. >> i think he plopped it out there also and said you guys figure out how to pay for it. >> what happened to healthcare yesterday? did you agree? is the free caucus together now? >> i was already an outlyer. i was already supporting the bill. >> but is everybody supporting it now? >> not everyone. but at least enough on the more conservative libertarian side. what does it do to --

>> i've not done a whip count of more moderate members, but everyone is working through what do the mechanics mean. this still has to get to the senate and go through the mm. >> this sounds like it will make people with pre-existing conditions have to pay potentially more for their healthcare. >> yeah. i don't see where you can find that in the language. because the mechanisms basically say if you -- if a state -- let's say my state decides to do a statewide prenatal program. in that case that coverage does not have to be part of a set of benefits because it's now being done statewide. we've had waivers in our medicaid systems for years. if you read it, in many ways it reads similar to a request for a waiver. >> can we go back to taxes for a second. there's so many pieces of the tax proposal i'm trying to understand.

i want to understand whether you think there will be support for it one issue is the pass-through. you will have -- the highest income tax rate would be at 35%. however donald trump -- including donald trump, anyone who has an llc would be at 15%. does that make sense to you? >> the whole world, professional liability corporations, llcs, how do you make those work in a world where here's our new c-corporation, tax, pass-through and individuals. i knows there ways to draft it. but now we're coming back and adding complexity when one of the great goals was trying to find a more simple path to understand taxes. >> so you could cordon off some of those so they would get to 15%? >> yeah. you don't want to create a big gaping loophole where i decide i'm no longer taking my income as an individual, i'm taking it as a personal corporation.

>> some encourage the movement from pass-through to a corporate rate. and kind of incentivizing that. having said that, this is a gaping loophole for the wealthy. as you mentioned, donald trump has used the partnerships, the pass-throughs as a means of personal income. we're not sure to what extent he does. >> it just means the wealthiest people in america all are running their lives through an llc already. before you even start the game. >> but so is almost every plumber, every drywall hanger, every other small business. >> donald trump paid $31 million back then, he didn't like that tax, i think he makes adjustments so it doesn't hurt the burgeoning individual but the person as well. this is a giveaway to people. this is a wonderful example of the conversation we have to go through in the weighs and means committee. i appreciate the fixation on the

president's taxes, but we would also love to have a conversation about the polliicy for the country. >> it sounds like you would be in favor of more complexity if it closes that loophole. this is that artistry of drafting and how do you make sure it's not a gaping hole. >> and border adjustment will still be in brady's plan, nowhere to be seen here. >> look, we have to find a way to deal with sort of the rest of the world's tax arbitrage they have on american products. >> estate taxes, get rid of them does that help create jobs? growth in america? >> i believe it does, but you have to work through the breadth, the cost and the categories. >> it's an entire giveaway to the healthiest people of the country. this is a non-starter. >> the left always wants fairness. i don't know how you can be taxed your entire life, finally a certain crew -- and then taxed

again when you die. >> how do you pay for it. >> you're always talking about fairness, how you can be taxed twice on the same money? it seems inherently -- >> we're not great britain. >> i don't -- >> i think -- >> we don't have a futile system either. it doesn't get thrown back into the pot the minute you die and you sell your farm, you can't keep your business. >> it's not about farmers and ranchers. >> rich people don't pay estate taxes any way. a lot of buffett's businesses are based on avoiding state taxes. >> at the moment, $11 million is the limit. >> quite enough. >> that's a lot. >> it just -- your entire life you're paying 50 prgs % to accr 11 million. we have to go to commercial. >> fairness. >> thank you for coming in. we appreciate it. >> double taxation.

coming up, a closer look at infrastructure and president trump's first 100 days in office. we will talk about rebuilding america after the break. and then at 7:30, we will speak to brian roberts.

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president trump promised a 1 $1 billion infrastructure package. some projects have taken a back seat to issues like healthcare and taxes. joining us for a look at infrastructure in terms of the first 100 days is michael sculley and sean mcgarvey who met with the president days after his inauguration. i guess, michael, at this point, you would like a lot more money -- you already need money with your business to get it off the ground in the first place. oil prices didn't help, right?

>> we actually don't need money. what we need is project approvals. we are building long distance transmission lines to move around the country. >> for wind, though, right? >> for wind. and also when you build projects for wind, and with infrastructure in general, you start for one thing, build for one thing and it does other things. >> could you exist purely without subsidies? >> we don't get subsidies for transmission lines. >> the wind industry itself. >> the wind industry does get something called the production tax credit. we sort of tax reformed ourselves in the wind industry. those incentives fade out beginning in 2020. >> so the main thing is you need to move the -- move it to a grid somewhere. >> our job at clean line is to put together projects to move the energy around the country. >> is there a bigger infrastructure need for moving all kinds of power around the

country? >> there is. we're heartened by president trump's choice of secretary perry to run the department of energy. what he did in texas was he oversaw a dramatic expansion of the grid. that's enabled a lot more renewables, more oil and gas production, and it's been a $7 billing onshot in the arm to the economy of texas. >> so infrastructure means a lot of things to a lot of people. is that part of it? >> certainly part of it. there's private sector infrastructure, and there's public sector. and we like building them both. >> and we had a guy on the other day, a consultant who said 50 of the most important projects are ready to go, and a lot of those are funded and can't get through regulatory. >> we have a good list of a couple hundred billion of projects that are public and private and almost completely -- there's three phases.

the finance phase, a permitting phase and engineering phase. so there are two out of three complete and substantially complete in one of the other phases. so there are the shovel-ready projects that with some more push on permitting or finishing up the financing or other -- getting the engineering done, they're ready to go they're big, major projects. >> some of those shovel-ready projects were shovel-ready the first time we tried to have shovel-ready projects. the shovel just hasn't been -- >> on the transmission side of the equation, there are about a dozen projects that began the development about ten years ago. it takes that long to get through the regulatory and permitting projects, and those projects are ready to go. if we want to, we can push go on a fairly significant expansion of the grid. >> we're talking around this.

this wla what is the problem? >> is an approval process that is completely unworkable in the united states today, whether at the state and federal level. so many agencies have oversight. they don't do the work concurrent. if we could skinny down the approval process to 24, 36 months, we could move so much more -- >> you can trim it down to three years? >> yeah. right now it's unbelievable. >> how long is it right now? >> some, like the president even said, at our conference a few weeks ago, that to build a mile highway it might take ten years to get the approval. >> when did things get this bad in terms of the approval process? >> that's the creep of government. it's hard to explain to people unless you're building an addition on your house and you have to go through it at local community. imagine if people wanted healthcare, okay, apply for healthcare, and we'll get back to you in 36 months to let you know if you're aapproved.

it's crazy the system we're working under today. we could deploy hundreds of thousands of people. we have 600 training centers in the united states that we fund with 1$1.2 billion of private sector money and we're opening the doors to bring people in to train. >> this is something we talked about for years that has been a bipartisan approach. republicans and democrats will both tell you they want to get this done. is there a way to make something happen? >> i think the president and his team that he put in place, which is a terrific team working on these issues, along with outside groups, we're working with business roundtable, folks from wall street will finance part of the private side of this, they are working hard. the relevant chairs in the congress are working hard on this. so this is the real opportunity. >> i would add that there is -- there is one thing people agree on in washington, it appears, that we need to do a better job on infrastructure.

>> government gets too big, we love the president and -- > i did say i love the president? >> love the president's cabinet, some of the people he put in. you don't love -- >> i do love the president. he's my president. >> yeah, not everybody talks that way. any way, in stead of taking everyone, dragging them out and teaching them code, retraining, all this money for the current work force, these guys are ready. they're ready. they know how to -- which end of the hammer? >> i've been talking about infrastructure for a long time. >> i know, but they won't be robots. they will not be replaced by robots. >> are ten there are tens of th of pipe fitter welders in this country makes 250,000 a year. they're ready. >> let's get them going. >> just last week i was at a ribbon cutting for a factory in

eastern arkansas, french company, we talked them into -- they said they were thinking about the u.s. we said build a factory in arkansas, we'll buy all our insulators from you. factory is up and running. >> let's do it. >> there's tremendous opportunity. one of the things that the president was focused on in the campaign and in our conversations with him and his team, creating opportunities for communities, women, veterans, to get through the class, having training. we're ready to go because you have to have the pipeline of jobs. you don't train people and they get trained and never get the skills deployed in the field where they can live in the middle class. we're ready to go. >> thanks. when we come back, tech ceos gathering in washington today to meet with lawmakers. we will be joined by two executives who will attend those meetings. john chambers and michael

gregoire. that's next. as we head to break a look at yesterday's winners and losers. hey. pass please. i'm here to fix the elevator. nothing's wrong with the elevator. right. but you want to fix it. right. so who sent you? new guy. what new guy? watson. my analysis of sensor and maintenance data indicates elevator 3 will malfunction in 2 days. there you go. you still need a pass.

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♪ 100 days, 100 nights >> good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" live from washington, d.c.

u.s. equity futures at this hour, a bit mixed. interesting yesterday as the averages sold off slowly sinking into the close. i think as people are looking at the possibility of getting something like this done. it's hard. hard work. >> there weren't a lot of details yesterday. it does spark the conversation on the hill. >> weren't a lot of details. but for people on either side -- democrats found religion on defici deficits. they hate spending money. you already have the freedom caucus. they already have a problem with deficits. >> just by the fact that there weren't a lot of details, this let it sink in that this would take a while. >> she is being generous. other people thought this was offensive, 100 days later to hand a piece of paper and say here. you should be happy it was typed. >> going from 10 trillion to 20

trillion, people were like slow down here. on the agenda the europe seen central bank is holding its monthly policy meeting today. the decision is due at 7:45 a.m. ecb president mario draghi at 8:30 will hold his news conference. durable goods are out today. also pending home sales. on the earnings front, advi, bristol myers, comcast, ford, union pacific and u.p.s. all report before the opening bell. after the close, alphabet, amazon, intel, microsoft and starbucks. comcast chairman and ceo brian roberts will be on "squawk box" at 7:30 a.m. eastern.

if you didn't think we had enough going on today, technology executives are also heading to the hill today ahead of trump's 100th day in office. safir katz, michael levy and brad smith are among those. joining us first here are two men who will be at that meeting as well, john chambers, executive chairman at scisco an michael gregoire, both members of tech net. what do you want to see? what will you be telling the leaders on capitol hill today. >> we will be talking to democrats and republicans and we'll frame our position around what technology can do for the country. when you look at what's going on around the world, our global peers like france which is the last place you would locate a business has become the number one start-up country in europe. many people said that would not

happen. you can see that in politics with macron being the front leader. >> what happened? what happened in france? >> they basically digitized the country. they had the courage to say here's how we change tax laws, the education system, here's how we do smart cities. >> what is the tax rate at france? >> it's coming down. it's about 20% in terms of overall. but they say what do you need to do to create small business? that's what all job creation would do. they moved from 130 start-ups a year in high-tech, 226, 486. we usually do 220 ipos on the nasdaq. 90 last year. 11% of our work force is in new companies, in existence less than 50five years. start ups can generate a million jobs a year. we can get this to 25 million mu

jobs crea new jobs created. how do you evolve the education system, and how do you do business in this country? >> mike, do you agree with john's assessment of this? if so, what do you think went wrong? >> john has been working tirelessly on this particular topic for a lot of years. this is the 20th year since he started tech net. i think we're seeing this friction we have in the u.s. on getting companies to start up and also being able to attract talent. when we look at our education system and how we get money to the kind of courses that will produce people that can really do the jobs of the future, there's a lot of bottlenecks. one thing we'll do today at tech neck up on the hill is talk about constructive ways that we can help people get the skills they need to do the jobs that john is talking about. >> how difficult is it to find qualified employees for the jobs you have opening up? >> it's hard to find qualified employees in general.

to get s.t.e.m.-oriented people that have some experience, it's a food fight in the u.s. it's a food fight on a global basis. thnd i thi and i think we don't have the processes in place to make it easier. the best team will win. to the extent you want the best team in the united states t starts at an early age with education. >> john, we had a similar conversation we regarding infrastructure, and how the permitting process is taking so long. a gentleman representing the trade unions said we want it slimmed down to two years to three years for the permitting process. that sounds hard to imagine. is it similar to things like that or a lack of programs in place? >> i think it's about four, five key equations. you have to say how do you get your start up community going in jobs. how do you make it easier to do business in the u.s. how do you make infrastructure easier to point out.

modi has internet in his country for $2.40 a person. they will double their income per person in india minimum once every ten years, once every seven years. there's no reason the u.s. should not set the same goals and work backwards. this is my fourth president i worked on this on. i've been through four or five individual chairmen and chairwoman on different sides. we agree we have to move but we have no longer have the luxury of leading. we are playing catch-up. >> what do you think of the tax plan released yesterday. >> i think it's a start. when modi said we will digitize the country and change the lives of 1.3 billion people, everybody said it couldn't be done. when he de-monetized his company, they hammered him. he can grow it at 8%, 10 thrs a

year. same thing with france. when france said it is time to change. i've been on stage with macron at press conferences. they had their line. we need to be bold. i like the lower reduced rate, i like bringing back $3 trillion. >> when france starts growing at 7%, we really have problems. i come back to the s.t.e.m. stuff. if we need to educate young people in s.t.e.m., i don't know how we do it. how do you tell a college kid to take electrical engineering? you didn't do anything else but study. >> says a guy on college tours. >> yeah. >> but how do you -- we need that to happen, but it's hard to talk someone into going into these things where you just have it bust -- they want to go out at night. >> but they're not mutely exclusively. speaking as an engineer. >> what kind? >> physics. >> i'm blown away by people.

>> the issue here is, first of all, you have to have the motivation. if you want to work and have a good life, you want to do productive work, these are jobs that give you that opportunity to do that. secondly, we in tech have to make it more attractive. one thing that's happening is design. it used to be that engineers like us were terrible at design. we did complicated things, prided ourselves in doing complicated things. now people want things that are designed very, very well. that brings a whole new culture into the tech environment f you're build products today and you have not gotten to the design very early on, i think that that's going to be a failed product. so i think there's opportunity to bring more people into tech. so you don't have to be sitting there studying calculus at 11:00 at night on a friday. you can go out with your friends. >> we lose our women and we lose the diversity in the 10 to 14 years of age. that's where you have to teach them entrepreneurism, get them excited about this this can't be

something that the geeky guys do. i will shock you. france is working with cisco do do a whole new program focused on women and diversity about entrepreneurism, about how do you solve world problems? how do you become a ceo, a business leader, a marketing person? how do you take a technical course if it works they'll roll it out across the entire population of 10 to 14-year-olds across their country. would america think about doing something that bold? >> gentlemen, good luck today. appreciate your time. >> we're excited about it. all of america can pros fer prosper here. >> thank you very much. >> coming up in the next hour, president trump's budget director will join us live in studio, mick mulvaney will talk taxes, trade and avoiding a government shutdown. that's at 7:35 a.m. eastern time. you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc. >> "squawk box" goes to washington.

>> you act as if something is on your mind. >> we'll get the real story of president trump's first 100 days in office and expect tations fo the next 100. still ahead, commerce secretary wilbur ross, house minority whip, steny hoyer, senator rob portman and house weighs and means committee chairman rob brady. as a benchmark for average. yet a lot of people still build portfolios with strategies that just track the benchmarks. but investing isn't about achieving average. it's about achieving goals. and invesco believes doing that today requires the art and expertise of high-conviction investing. translation? why invest in average?

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welcome back to "squawk box." time for the executive edge. we start with stocks to watch today. deutsche bank reporting lower than expect the revenue because of the negative impact of credit spreads. the bank's profit more than doubled in the first quarter. this is the first earnings report since deutsche bank completed the 8$8.5 billion capital increase. the stock is down by 2.8%. paypal raising its earnings outlook after reporting upbeat quarterly results. there was an increase in payment processing volumes. shares are up 5.8%. sam shung lsung electronic getting a boost from its memory chip business. the company also flagging

stronger earnings for the current quarter and announcing a cancellation of treasury shares. stock is up 2.4%. >> $2 million a share. >> i don't think it's a downer. >> still, plitt that thisplit t. president trump unveiling his new tax proposal. mark weinberger will tell us which parts of the plane wi wil matter most for investors. a quick check of europe. red across the bad. we'll be right back. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business,

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning, live from washington, d.c. president trump's proposed tax plan is boasting the biggest tax break in history. joining us is mark weinberger. mark, the question i would ask you, you have corporate clients all over the world, many multi-nationals based here in the united states. they see the tax plan yesterday. you guys try to evaluate it,

they call you and ask you what and you tell them what? >> i tell them the same thing we've talked about before, andrew. you have to watch the four ps, which are important to any legislation moving through washington. priorities, policy, politics and process. what this has done, it's reinvigorated the priorities of the president and the republicans in the house and senate. they've all come together and said this is going to be a big deal, we got to get it done this year. that's good for the first p. then up get to the policy. they're doubling down on low rates for businesses and corporations and for individuals. they want to lower rates and a territorial system. that's what's going to be most important. the other two ps get cloudier. politics. no democrats are coming to the party. this is very significant tax cuts, not what the democrats are looking for. and on the policy side he did put in addition to the two issues, he put the child credit

out there. the last point is process. this is the big issue we all have to watch what i would tell our corporate clients, which is if the democrats aren't involved, you have to go through reconciliation, that's a big deal. you have to look at the cost in the out years. if there's a cost 11 years or after, then there's a cost to the plan. >> you saw it play out yesterday in the stock market, investors coming into yesterday were very euphoric given some of the things we heard. but then when we actually saw the plan, we all realized this plan not to suggest it's half baked but it's not fully baked yet and there's going to be a lot of details that still need to be worked out, i'm being generous, and it may not happen at all. >> we're 25 points from 21,000.

so euphoria, air coming out of the market, all of those hyperbolics -- >> i would hope the market doesn't move up or down on every announcement. >> it's a fraction of the percent. >> this was really important that the president signal lower corporate rates and a territorial system are what's important to him. those are guide posts -- >> that gives you what sort of gue guestimate as to when this get done this year? >> if it's not a high priority, it's going to get dropped off. health care is competing with it for oxygen in washington. are they going to use the fy-17 budget resolution for package? if not, they have to include it in fy-18 resolution and that

will make it difficult. they have to figure it out. >> if you're an optimist, you get the money from repealing obamacare, can you make it easier to do through reconciliation, keep the numbers where they need to be. they can do two things at once. they were still thinking about this week or next. everybody's pessimistic. can't you be an optimist? >> i am an optimist. i said a couple weeks ago tax reform would happen. >> not just tax reform. >> i think it's going to be really hard to get two budget reconciliation budgets through. >> they're linked. >>er th they're linked but you to have a second vehicle. you're going to have planned parenthood and it increases the stakes. >> when we come back, wilbur ross will be joins us. ild itsel.

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the buzz from washington and what it means from business, we'll hear from the leaders who are reshaping corporate america and indirectly your portfolio. in this hour commerce secretary wilbur ross on the administration's new investigation into imported aluminum and the president's stance on nafta. plus white house budget director mick mulvaney on the looming budget deadline and repealing obamacare. and earnings from the mother ship comcast. results straight ahead. we're going to speak to ceo brian roberts about the battle for your living room, as the second hour of "squawk box" live from washington, d.c. begins right now.

good morning. welcome back to "squawk box," right here live on cnbc, we are in washington, d.c. this morning. i'm andrew ross sorkin, along with becky quick and joe kernen. we are here as we approach the hundred days of the trump administration. this morning we're tackling the issues that matter most to your business and your portfolio. take a quick look at futures, the dow looks it would open 15 points higher, the s&p and nasdaq are in the green. >> ford quarter live results ju -- quarterly results hitting the wires. phil lebeau is with us. >> 39 cents better, revenue substantially higher, $36.47

billion. the profit $2 billion was down 1.6 billion from the first quarter of last year. a big problem for ford in the first quarter, costs were up $1.2 billion. that's because warranty costs being higher, engineering costs, commodities. they're expecting steel costs to go up by more than a billion dollars this year. their full year profit declines, however, when you are look at what's expected in the second, third and fourth quarter, most of their declines are coming in the first quarter. again, ford beating the street on the top and bottom line, earning 39 cents a share. guys, back to you. >> but we have comcast results out. hurry it up, will ya? no, kidding. thank you, phil. comcast did just report 53 cents a share. haven't seen a 9 cent beat in a while. 44 was the estimate. that's not necessarily the metric people look at with all the ebidta and cash flow

numbers. do you blame the analyst or is it because the company did so well? consolidated record, if you are went that metric, up 8.9% to 20.5 billion, consolidated ebidta increased 10.4% to $7 billion and free cash flow was 3.1. we're going to talk to brian roberts. but just real quickly, i mean, nbc universal, sorkin, i mean, they're mentioning some movies here and sing, i'm looking for "squawk box." >> cable's revenue was up 6.7%. >> did they mention "squawk box"? >> no. >> i've seen it. >> a penny a share, right? >> and cable continues to be a juggernaut, especially with business and high-speed internet. it's a lot of metrics. >> customer additions 297,000, about 10% improvement, video

customer adds 42,000. >> huge gains in film, too. a lot of times that has to do with the previous year. this doesn't include "fate of the furious" at this time i don't think. but most of those metrics, i haven't seen anything that this is actually below. beat on consolidated and beat on consolidated cable and ebidta and high-speed internet customer additions. here's one, just missed slightly on video customer additions. you can see the stock indicated up about 30 cents. we'll talk to brian roberts in a little while. >> in other news this morning, the busy day for earnings continues this afternoon. after today's closing bell, get this, we're going to be getting the latest quarterly numbers from the google parent alphabet, from amazon and intel, among

others. we'll get the weekly jobless claims numbers at 8:30 eastern time and we'll get durable goods orders for march and later pending home sales for the last month. and the european bank will release its latest policy decision, expected to leave key rates unchanged. that will be followed by 45 minutes later mario draghi's news conference. >> wilbur ross announcing a new investigate into imported aluminum, and word that leaders of mexico and canada a ready to join president trump for discussions on nafta. we just talked to a couple of days ago after this tariff situation in canada. tell us, first, what you know about the conversation that the president had with the presidents of canada and mexico yesterday. >> well, they were separate

conversations obviously enough. i think both countries are very agreeable to start negotiating, if we can only get congress to release the 90-day letter, we'll be going on our side as well. >> there was a report there was a bit of back and forth in the white house about how to approach nafta, whether to try to pull out earlier in terms of that pledge that he made earlier on in his campaign, apparently steve bannon we understand and peter navarro had written an executive order that would have taken us out of nafta. what happened? >> i think you can get overdone on rumors and gossipy things, especially right now. what we are doing is we're working on aluminum and there's going to be a big event about that today. >> so tell us about that and the decision. >> well, what it's going to be is to direct us to continue with rapidity the study we've begun a couple of days ago about whether

aluminum has gotten to the point of whether it's a matter of national security. we're down to two smelters in the whole country. imports are now 55% of the total aluminum market here and many critical things such as the very high purity aluminum that we need for aerospace, we only have one producer. that's not a good formula. >> when you bring up issues of national security, is that one way you are able to kind of change the trade relations to this point, if it's an issue of national security, i would guess that gives us more leeway. >> there's a provision called 232 under the legislation that when things are a matter of national security, you can do it on a fairly broad brush and cover a lot of countries. because what happens, we've been doing a the love trade enforcement, as i think you're aware, including the canadian lumber situation. but what happens in things like

aluminum, under the wto rules, it will be this precise little product from this particular source. then it shows up as a slightly different product maybe from vietnam instead of from china. so it hard to get your arms around it and end the dumping. >> there are comparative advantages to making things -- sometimes we shouldn't have factories here to do certain things that other places can do cheaper and better. this is definitely someone's rigging the system. >> yeah. we're after people who aren't playing by the rules. >> some people, picking a fight with canada about something, a small -- that lumber i'm talking about -- >> well, lumber is not a small thing. the fine on them is a billion dollars. >> but this is like we're not going to get pushed around anymore more than the actual -- >> symbolic. >> yeah, symbolic more than

substantive. >> no, i think it's some of both. the canadians until recently had 31.5% market share here and a lot of it was being dumped. in many of the provinces, the forests are owned by the province and they charge a low rate for what they call stumpage, the right to take down the trees. then that rate gets passed into the marketplace. so it's not a proper means of competition. here in the states the land are mostly privately owned so the rates are competitive market rates. >> what other industries do you look at right now where you say things are unfair? that they're industries or can is that are dumping in our country? >> well, a lot of our 500 billion trade deficit is from unfair practices. in some cases it's just due to bad treaties that we had made. that's more fixable.

but there is a lot of subsidy going into things. and steel, stork, which is one we did a week or so ago, china's express capacity is double, just their excess. >> do you have a little? are we going to hear from you about going after a particular company or industry for dumping? >> well, until people play by the rules, we'll be there policing. >> i want to know what's on the list. >> if i give the whole list now, you'll never invite me back on television. >> you were long on fix the debt campaign. do you remember that group? >> right. >> that group came out yesterday against the tax proposal or plan put forth by the trump administration in part because of the view it could increase our debt substantially. what do you think of that?

>> well, first of all, put it in perspective. under obama more new national debt was created than by all prior presidents. the people who were obama supporters who are nay sayers here, they ought to think about what do they do. but the only way that the current balance sheet works is if we grow faster, let alone any new one. because under 3% growth and, as you know, the obama administration is the first one in ages and aejs a didn't even have one year at 3% growth. we've got to get forth of 3% growth to get things working. >> you historically have been somebody who want to pay for things. even with dynamic scoring, it suggests this does not pay for itself. >> i think there may be some negativity on the budget up front but if we're right, and i think we are, it will quickly

grow out of that. >> can i ask about negotiations on nafta. we've seen stories out of those conversations yesterday that all three nations would like to see renegotiation that helps each nation. what are a few things that might be negotiated that would look like a win for all? >> mexico's trade deficit with china is approximately equal to their trade surplus to us and that's not an accident. >> meaning that there are things a being dumped in? >> yes, the rules of origin with nafta need some tightening. rules are origin means things produced outside of nafta come in under nafta. it was a silly stuff to let a

lot of stuff in. the idea of nafta was to produce things on the inside and it's a conceptual flaw in nafta. >> did you buy a decent place? >> do you not read the real estate pages? >> i did. it's a second floor walk-up. >> that's what i thought. >> there's no doorman. it's a single-family house. >> i just worry about. you got a lot of roommates. >> he's got security now. he doesn't need a roommate. >> we love seeing you. thank you very much. >> still to come on this special edition of "squawk box," live from our nation's capital, former examiners secretary penny

pritzker. plus brian roberts will join us. and house minority steny hoyer will talk to us about the left reaching across the aisle to talk tax reform. stay with us. at bp's cooper river plant, employees take safety personally - down to each piece of equipment, so they can protect their teammates and the surrounding wetlands, too. because safety is never being satisfied.

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welcome back, everybody. let's get reaction to secretary ross's comments as well as the path to closing the skills gap in the best trade plan for america. joining us right now in her first appearance since she served as commerce secretary in the obama administration is penny pritzker, now founder and chairman of psp viinvestment partners. welcome. >> glad to be back. >> the commerce department is where president trump is laying out his attack. we saw the lumber issue with canada, we know the nafta renegotiation process is potentially under way. what do you think of this news so far? >> there seems to be a receptivity between all three countries for nafta 2.0. this is our number one and

number three trading partner. it's important that we not have whiplash, if you will, back and forth about whether we'll be in or out of nafta. >> there were rumors circulating that will take us out of nafta. this sound like a renegotiation and something that you think will be a good idea. >> i don't think we should be threatening our allies and particularly as we go into a negotiation. this is complicated. in order to get a trade deal passed, it has to pass in all three countries, all of whom have legislatures. it's important to handle it in a way where everybody knows what are the objectives, that we're sitting down and having a serious negotiation about the challenges that exist. after 23 years, the agreement need to be updated. >> secretary ross brought up something he would like to see renegotiated and that's the rules of origin. as he sees it, china is sending a bunch of stuff into mexico

that then gets shipped here, it's a way for china to do an end run around -- >> i think enforcement is critical. i'm proud of the record we had on tradence for encforcement. having said that, countries do try and work around the rules and so if you can tighten that up, there's nothing wrong with that. that's a good thing. there's a lot of other issues to be handled as well. >> what about the lumber situation, the tariff on lumber coming in from canada? this is something that's been going on for 20 years. >> since the 80s, this issue about lumber. i don't understand arbitrarily or politicizing this issue. i think it's really important that enforcement on trade issues is apolitical. i'm proud of the fact that's the way we went about this. i think what's important is that

we don't berate or belittle or arbitrarily deal with issues of enforcement but instead that we go about the process in a way that's consistent. >> my guess is that the trump administration looks at this and the president himself as a way -- an art of a negotiation, to throw out some things very early on. we talked about it the o other day when this first came out. it sounded almost like instead of speak softly and carry a big stick, this was more of a situation of speak very loudly and carry a small stick and maybe that puts trading partners a little on edge to make them more careful of what they do. you're not in favor of how to go about it? >> it's not how i would do it. we have a lot at stakes with mexico and canada, not just as it relates to trade. soft wood lumber is a very sensitive issue in canada.

i'm all in favor of enforcement and making sure that our trading partners are living up to their obligations. on the other hand, you have to be sensitive as you go into this kind of complex negotiation. >> does this make it more difficult for trudeau to bring his people along to the negotiation? is that what you're saying? >> yeah. what happens is you have both for trudeau and pena knnieto, i they're sacrificing on the deal, that doesn't sell well to their countries. so it's a balancing act. we need to do the right thing to protect american opportunity, american labor, our american economy. we also need to make sure this works for our major allies and our number one and number three trading partners. >> do you have concerns about what's happened with china? when the trump administration first came in, a lot of people thought if there was a trade war or a trade battle that would take place, the first salvo

would be with china. that is not the case in this point and maybe in part because of what's happening with north korea. >> this is exactly the point. you can't just divorce trade conversations from every other conversation you're having with a country. and nobody wants a trade war. the very top economic issue that was raised with me when i was still secretary of commerce was are we going to end up in a trade war? i think we have to be careful about the language we're using and the salvos that are thrown out as threats. they cause a big ripple effect in you are trading partners, which is understandably i think what is the current president is trying to do. having said that, you can't create a situation where you can't end up with a deal you want to get. >> secretary pritzker, we appreciate your time today. thank you so much for joining us. we hope to see you again soon. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up comcast ce o o

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hey, i've got the trend analysis. hey. hi. hi. you guys going to the company picnic this weekend? picnics are delightful. oh, wish we could. but we're stuck here catching up on claims. but we just compared historical claims to coverages. but we have those new audits. my natural language api can help us score those by noon. great. see you guys there. we would not miss it. watson, you gotta learn how to take a hint. i love to learn.

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good morning, everyone. welcome back to "squawk box." we are live from washington, d.c. let's get you caught up on earnings reports. >> underarmor did report a loss of 0.4 but it was a smaller loss than the -- reported a loss o of .01 per share lower than the

0.04 projected. >> and bristol myers skort a beat and was helped by better than expected sales of it's blood thinner treatment. >> and our parent comcast beat on many of the metrics, including the top and bottom lines. joins us from philadelphia, brian roberts. i was passing through about 10:30 last night on a train coming down here. but thank you for rising so early and joining us this morning. appreciate it. >> i see you all setting up for the nfl draft tonight. the city is abuzz with a lot of activity. >> we work for cnbc. one of the first things you pointed out was the strong results at nbc universal. you got a lot of operations and cable has always been the anchor sort of of comcast.

but you went to great lengths to mention nbc universal. was that the highlight, would you say, of the report or one of the highlights? >> it's definitely a highlight if not the highlight. i give tremendous kudos to everybody at universal. 15% revenue growth and 24.5% cash flow ebidta both. that's probably the best first quarter we've had since we owned the company, it's the fastest start the company is off to in five years, across comcast, nbc universal, the film division had wonderful results, theme parks, we're opening a new water park this coming month, the next month. there's a lot of excitement. and of course nbc is in first place and had one of the most successful years we've had since we've owned the company. it's the fourth year we've been in first place. so i really think 24% cash flow

growth on a business this large is extraordinary performance and it was followed by our cable company also having a really strong performance but you're right, there's something really to talk about about with nbc universal group. >> the cable had not been a great story in terms of slowing advertising growth and we worry about all the threats from streaming and o.t.t. and things like that. did that -- was it more of the same are was there an actual improvement there? >> a little bit of one-time things from year over year. the trend can you take away is we reset affiliate rates across the board with the year end with a number of distributors both on the broadcast side and on the cable side that are going to repeat themselves now for years into the future. we've also been included in i think every o.t.t. offering nbc's universal programming and

cnbc, like you said, and usa and all the cable networks and te telemundo and after a number of years of preexisting contracts when we bought the company, we're able to get closer to market and that's a big part of the healthy increase in the quarter. >> at this point the demise of cable, is it moderating? i see things at espn that again raise the fear of, you know, skinny bundles and everything else and that companies like comcast need to, you know, redouble their efforts on streaming or whatever. is it worrisome or is it over -- >> it's an exhilarating time to be in business because of all the change. depending what company you are and how well you're thinking about that, there can be winners and losers. for our company, we think we're pretty well positioned for this

evolution. so when people go to more streaming, the first thing you want is the best wifi, the best broad band and if you said pick another really interesting metric that you look at this quarter was that we added 429,000 broadband, high-speed internet customers in the quarter. last year was our best year in the decade and ewe're starting out with the same year and how well is your content going to provide on other platforms? we're really well positioned there. and then as a cable company, how innovative are you to offer something to your consumers that they want your video? so the other big headline this quarter is that we added 42,000 video customers, a number of people have reported they're losing customers. we've turned that trend, at least was positive through a decade, the first quarter's

positive and that's our x-1 platform. there's the voice remote that allows you to just say what you want and get it instantaneously. it's the inclusion of netflix and in the future youtube as part of our definition of video. no every company is doing that. i think we're uniquely positioned maybe in the world for this transformation but, yes, it's a new era and we're trying to take advantage of it. >> is the wireless service some people don't necessarily -- is it a good business? people that are in that business seem to want to do other things because it's not such a great business. >> i think people have been asking us that question for 20 years and we sold our wireless company a while ago. i don't regret that decision, but we've wanted to find a way to see if we can offer customers as part of our bundle a really attractive wireless product and not have to have all the complexity of owner a wireless business. and i think we found a very good way to do that with our

announcement a few weeks ago where we're taking our relationship with the verizon wireless network and coming up with a really simple product to our consumers called xfinity mobile and there's only two products and they're on your screen, on an app, you can touch a button and see how many bits you've consumed or pay $12 a giga byte and it's a brand new network and it allows you to expand to wifi. so for our broadband customers, this should be a great addition without us having to own a wireless company. we're very excited about that

launch. that will take place with the next month or two. we're now testing it with our employees. the results are really excited. >> you did mention verizon. verizon's ceo said bluntly a week ago he would be open to merging with comcast. but would you be open to merging with him? >> it was nice to be in good company but we are very content with the company we've got. we love these results, andrew. if you look at a company of this scale to be up 10.5% cash flow and 9% plus revenue with the nbc universal results, having a wireless plan that it doesn't require us to have the heavy capital, i think there's a lot of things we want to work through and try with this plan that make me convinced we're on a great track the way we are right now and i love the company we've got. >> brian, we're here in washington, d.c. today taking a

look at the new administration policies they put in place. just week, yesterday, the new fcc chairman laid out some pretty sweeping rules he would like to undo net neutrality. those are rules that at&t and other broad band providers were opposed to. what does this new sort of shift in washington mean to your business? >> i think, becky, that we are encouraged that there is a constructive dialogue that we hope to take a look at rules that are perhaps impeding investment and in that uncertain world of what's coming next, what technology is going to win, you need to have flexibility. so the title 2 is what they're getting rid of. what i said yesterday and i've said before, that we support rules that ensure for our customers because that's how we will operate and want our customers to know that, you're going to have the net neutrality

protections but what happened with the last rule making was they put in a 1930s rule called title 2, which most people don't understand, very dense, and it is regulation like a utility that was never designed for the internet. so i believe this is the beginning of a dialogue to say how can congress or which ever legal body comes up with enforceable rules to protect consumers but do so in a way that we're going to spend over $10 billion in capital spending doesn't jeopardize that ability to make those really large decisions year after year after year as the world changes. >> brian roberts, very nice to see you this morning. thank you. >> thank you, team, and thanks for what you do. >> thank you. let's return to politics and the man leading negotiations with congress to avoid a government shutdown. joining us is mick mulvaney, director of office of management and budget. thank you for patiently waiting. what i was thinking when brian

roberts was talking was everything that i think the president and congress is trying to do right now is to try to help american business. you think about comcast, the way it was started, the number of employees that work there, the shareholder value that's accrued and -- >> i'm happy to follow the boss. >> but this is why we're here, isn't it? to try to get corporate taxes over, to try to free up companies with regulations to do what they do best, to hire people and pay taxes and everything else. >> you can boil it down to really one sentence. we're trying to get back to historic levels of growth, 3% growth. there's what we're looking for. i think folks have for goat i don't know -- forgotten what it's like to live in a growing economy. you've been sputtering around at 1.5, 1.9, 2.3%. that's not america. when i was a young man, if you got fired, you could find another job.

if you wanted to quit, you could start your own company. >> never thought of 30-year-olds not having higher growth. >> that's what we're trying to get back to. >> we saw it in the early 80s, a shift from malaise to rip-roaring growth and it's good. >> there's a very pessimistic view of the economy and the country in general. we do think 1.9% growth, which is what the congressional budget office is telling the world they expect forever, that's not the new normal. that was an anomaly. >> are we good on the government? we're going to stay open. is that done? >> we hope so. we thought we had a deal on monday. we said we're talking about the last five months of our fiscal year, only talking about until the end of september. there's only so much we could do on the wall between now and september anyway so let's have that discussion starting next week for next fiscal year. we thought on monday when we

said we'll take the wall off the discussion right now and democrats in the senate went silent on us for two days. i haven't heard from them since monday. >> i heard it said when the government shuts down, since it's always the republicans who want to do less, it's always the republicans that get blamed. >> couldn't they ask for anything? they could ask for pigs to fly and if they don't do, it it's your fault? >> you have to have 60 votes in the senate. i think the senate democrats are looking for something they can ask for that they can shut the government down. >> you don't have any idea what it is yet? >> i don't think there is such a thing. they tried it with the obama csr payments, talked about it with puerto rico. why don't we take the deal, fund the government and we'll start the battle for 2018.

>> i think we just want to all understand -- >> don't say we. >> no, i think the public wants to understand how you look at that plan and responsibly think about the deficit and debt in this country. >> sure. what's your question? >> the question is from a dynamic scores ping perspectivew much do you think we're going to add to the debt? >> there's no way to know. i've seen ranges from 2 trillion to 8 trillion. there's no way to score what we did yesterday. we did it on purpose. not to hide the numbers but we learned with health care we have to be involved in the process much earlier. that's what you're seeing. how are you going to score interest deduction in there's a whole long list of things. we haven't finalized a decision

on -- >> where do you stand on that? >> we don't. this is general principles, what do we think gets to us 3% growth. we put 15% on the table because we talked about it in the campaign, 10, 20, 25 for rates. i think folks who are sitting there saying it's just going to add to the deficit just doesn't like the president. >> the border tax as it stands, the administration has problems. there's negotiations that would take place. how would it have to change to make it more palatable? >> what the president is trying to accomplish is to level the playing field with countries who tax our stuff we believe unfairly. countries that tax our stuff at 100% and we don't tax theirs at any level and that's not fair in our minds. the house looked at the bored -- >> and what are the revenue

enhancers? >> there's two different questions. one is a trade question and one is a tax question. the revenue enhancers, we can talk about growth that doesn't convince a lot of people. look at the deductions we're getting rid of. you probably live in new york, you probably pay a lot of state and local taxes. that's gone. >> but republicans from those states that benefit from it like new jersey, new york, connecticut are already lining up to say hold on a second, i don't know if i can support this bill if you lose a lot of republicans, that's where you get into -- >> that's why we started as where we did. we saed here's the principles we'll we'd like to see, here's what's important to us, always with the folkousin the 3% to 4,000 growth, let's start the discussions now. >> i indulge in is it over 200

right now with the freedom caucus on board or have you lost all the guys? >> no, it's probably over 200 now. i bumped into congressman jim jordan as i was walking into the building. he was doing another show on your notework. the freedom cause and that's the difficulty that we face, by the way. that's what i didn't realize when i took this yop -- >> could it happen next week? >> listen, i'm still holding out for saturday. >> it would be nice because you get that done and then you have a lot more to work with -- i mean, it's always been that way. is it a fantasy to think it could happen? >> no, no. i think the house has made a lot of progress, both on the bill and healing its internal divisions over the last three, four weeks. zahn taxes, because you're a math guy, i'm curious how you see the pass-through situation

working at 15%. one of the pledges that the president also made during his campaign was to close the interest loophole. hedge funds would be eligible at 15% and we also have steven mnuchin come on our saturday and say the wealthiest are not going to be geing a tax break and keep in mind most folks are llcs or s corporations in this country. i think what you're hitting on are the abuse. >> what happens if you are an llc? let's say if you're a real estate developer. should you be taxed at 15% or taxed at the income you get? >> i think we're creating a circumstance where we're giving

folks an insent tiff to leave their money in their business. different discussion for law firms and such. but you're in the real estate business, i wanted to leave my money in the business and i can do that and that's one of the ways we get to the 3% growth. >> thank you for having me. i understand schweikert was here earlier. he's a young -- >> the best coffee on the hill in david eaves office. >> please when we return, minority whip steny hoyer is going to join us. and you don't want to miss the cnbc stock draft. 18 stocks, just one winner we return after a short break from washington, d.c.

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tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis. let's[ whimpers ] dog. find ping-pong. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. that's amazing! welcome back to "squawk box." we're live from d.c. things were getting feisty during the break.

sunday will mark president trump's 100th day in office. we'll talk taxes with steny who ier, representative from maryland's fifth congressional district and house minority whip and a friend of squawk as we get to see you all the time but not in person, sir. >> it's great to be here. we're usually talking to you guys through the airwaves. >> you're trying to shut down the government? >> you're hearing that from nick. >> nobody believes that the democrats want to shut down the government period. that's irrational. i represent 62,000 federal employees, they're always in angst. we agree on probably 80%. would you think the rational person would say we agree on 08%, we'll put the 20% aside,

we'll pass it and then we'll argue on that which we do not agree. that's the reasonable thing to do and hopefully we'll do that and do it in the next 48 hours. >> you saw the plan, the sort of blueprint -- >> i haven't seen the plan. i've seen a one-pager that in "the washington post," wall street journal. >> call it what you will. call it an anchoring technique in terms of starting the negotiation. reasonable responsible people can get your heads together to make something work, what does it look like? >> i think reasonable and responsible people can get their head together. the question is are we going to have reasonable and responsible interfa interfact with the white house? that hasn't happened yesterday. but we'll see. the last time it happened was 1986 and it happened largely because they sat down and

agreed. >> do you accept any level of dynamic scoring in tax plan. >> i'm not in favor of dynamic scoring. it's not because i don't believe there's a dynamic effect of the actions you take, but if you anticipate a positive result and a negative result happens, you've dug a hole. on the other hand, if you don't anticipate that and you plan on what the straight scoring of the bill is and you get more than you thought, then you have a bonus and you can spend that bonus either to bring down the debt or invest in programs that are important. i think dynamic scoring is, frankly, a very risky and we saw in '81 it didn't works, in '01, and in '03 it didn't work and frankly in the bill that has been proposed -- we don't have a bill, we have an outline -- some speculate it will cost $6 trillion in debt and we don't

need to pay for it. it's irresponsible. >> the end of the cold war with the defense buildup. you can't go back and change the history of the 80s. good things happened in 80s very quickly. >> joe, i agree with that. >> but that want because of the dynamic effect of the tax cut? >> it may have been but the fact is we went very much further in debt. >> much farther in debt under ronald reagan and that president obama. >> you saw what happened and why we built up the defense. >> i supported the defense buildup. the issue is, fine, pay for it. don't have our kid and grandchildren pay for it. >> i understand it. we're talking about 700,000 jobs in a jobs report a couple of times. we're talking about 5%. we average 3.6% gdp, almost 4%. >> what of the best job performance? clinton? >> a newt gingrich-led congress.

that actually held back and worked with clinton welfare reform. >> they didn't have the presidency but guess what happened in 2000? they had the presidency, they had the house, they had the senate and what happened? >> like 2008. >> what happened at the end of it? we had the worst recession anybody at this table has experienced. >> congressman, they're not expecting to work with you on the tax bill but they need to work with you to fund the government. >> ronald reagan expected to work with us. ronald reagan and jim baker -- >> that's a different republican party. >> that's a vastly different republican party. i'd be glad to argue with you and look at the figures and do the data as to which party has changed more. the republican party is a vastly different, much more ideological, much more hardline party than it was. >> you're on the right of the democratic party. >> uyou trying to hurt me, joe? >> that was a huge compliment from you. >> congressman, very quickly,

though, no shutdown of the government this week? >> becky, we don't want a shutdown. i talked to mr. mccarthy yesterday. we want to cooperate. but we're not going to be put in hostage. >> you got your border wall thing and you keep moving the goalpost. you got what you want, just do it. what do you not like now? you going to do it on puerto rico? >> i think puerto rico is a very important issue. for decades, investors have used a 60/40 stock and bond model, with little in alternatives. yet alternatives can tap opportunities that traditional assets can't.

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the first 100 days, "squawk box" tackling the issues that are important to you and your money. lawmakers weigh in on president trump's first months in office and what's ahead for the next 100 days? a special hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we're live in our nation's

capital, just talking about it. it just feels different down here. you get used to it, right senator? senator rob portman is with us. >> if you do, you're in trouble. >> then you become part of the swamp. we're in the capital today with special coverage of president trump's first 100 days. we have a big hours of newsmakers, senator rob portman from the best city in ohio, from cincinnati. >> in the country. >> best city in the country. senator david purdue. i had high hopes for the reds. >> they started strong. >> now below .500. >> did you see the orioles game on sunday? >> and we also have house ways and means chairman kevin brady, whose ears were probably burning as we were talking about him earlier. here's a check on the markets. futures are improving as people

have watched the show and felt better about everything. dow jones up 24 points, the s&p 500 up just less than 2 and the nasdaq indicated about 9. treasury yields have not been the thing to watch recently. kind of boring. 2.3 on the ten-year. >> in our headlines this morning, the european central bank leaving its interest rates and policy guidance unchanged today. we'll hear from ecb president mario draghi coming up in the next hour. in the meantime, the euro is trading at 10887. comcast beating the street on both the top and bottom lines. the nbc universal parent seeing exceptionally strong performance as well as its revenue and business units. it registered growth in the theme park business. ceo brian roberts joining us in the last hour. >> we reported 15% or 14.7% ref

nu -- revenue growth and 24% ebidta growth. this is the fastest start the company is off to in five years across comcast, nbc universal, it was strength to strength. the film division had wonderful results from several films, cable channels, great quarter includes theme parks. >> take a look at shares of comcast this morning, up by about 2.5%. under armour posting a loss. all of this has added up for big gains, the shares up by about 8% right now. >> let's talk more about president trump's economic plans in its first 100 days in office. commercial secretary wilbur ross joined us. >> the rules of origin in nafta

need tightening. rules of origin, those outside of nafta come in and benefit from nafta. the whole idea of the trade deal is to build a fence around the participants inside and give them an advantage over the outside. so there's a conceptual flaw in that one of the many conceptual flaws in nafta. >> senator rob portman serves on the senate finance committee and we get into the weeds on lumber tariffs, this is our 100-day lookback show. how do you summarize the first 100 days with the birds' eye view from the senate change bmb? look at you. if you look up in the dictionary senator portman, there you.

>> yes, that's me. i think there's been real progress made on the economic front, primarily on the regulatory side, about add 65 billion impact on the economy because of these congressional review acts. we can do a lot more, by the way. introduced the regulatory accountability act that would help on regulations going forward, bipartisan, by the way. on the foreign policy front, i think america's position in the world is being restored. that's important to all of us, to the economy and also to our kids and grand kids and to a safer and more prosperous world. . and kind of an incomplete grade and it takes a while to get things done. >> i heard he's the foreign policy president. it was going to be the domestic policy president but turns out he's a foreign policy maven.

>> they've sent a strong signal they're back and will be involved. there's a lot that can be done about tax reform and in terms of more regulatory reform going forward, coming up with a better system for smarter regulations so i'm encouraged. >> are you encouraged about the tax plan? >> i'm encouraged that we're doing it, andrew. you had the administration out putting out a proposal which puts them in a position to figure out how to get things done. with the obama administration, it was frustrating. the three of us talked about tax reform several times, we had some good ideas. some democrats and republicans came together with ideas on repatriation. we could never get the administration as engaged as they need to be to get something done. >> they never pushed it, they never used the bully pulpit. it was never a priority because gun control and climate change was the priority every single day. >> the republicans blocked the whole thing from day one.

this comes out on one piece of paper that we should be happy. >> you think tax reform of a big priority of the administration? >> i'm saying realistically. there didn't even push simpson bowles. >> referee this. >> with the obama administration there was an commitment to tax reform but it included about a $2 trillion tax increase. that was in every one of his budgets. and i understand it. >> the republicans blocked it. >> and this comes with a commitment to a $2 trillion deficit increase. >> not necessarily. i think we can do this in a deficit-neutral way. it would require to us use the right baseline, which should include things that are in the code like bonus depreciation and it should reflect a score that affects the reality of taxes that affect people's reality. >> do you think the joint tax commission will get to a place where they can say let's move forward? >> they have three models that they use. some call it a dynamic score -- >> it's not going to pass muster with the democrats, i just want to let you know that right now.

it's not going to fly, damn it! it's not going to fly. it's not the party that will allow that. >> our tax code is so broken that by fixing it and coming up with pro-growth policies, i'm encouraged. >> can you achieve that at these rates? >> it depends. in other words, we don't talk about deductibility of interest. we may not be able to get to these rates but they'll be substantially lower. again, there's just so much potential here. >> do you think the target's at 20 now. people were saying 28 had to be as good as -- that's like kissing your cousin, 28. ives goi i was going to say you're from ohio. i'm from ohio, too. >> kissing your sister.

>> kissing your sister. but you're shooting for 20. is that doable? >> maybe. that would be a huge improvement. again, it depends on what else you're talking about. if you take away other pro-growth elements of the code. >> you're already got your papers, llc. andrew already has his pass for -- >> i already have an llc. is that going to work? >> you do have to be concerned about that because if you have a huge differential between the individual rate and the pass-through rate, there will be incentive to incorporate. but i think we can deal with that. the fact is this is exciting because we're talking about pro-growth tax reform. this is a way to get wages up. this is not about the businesses and the board room. in is about the workers. all the studies have shown the same thing. the benefit is going to be higher wages, more jobs, economic growth, better benefits for workers and we are in a position where we are losing out because the rest of the world

has caught on to this. >> is it ten years, 51 votes and reconciliation? >> no, it should be permanent. the problem with ten years, when you're talking about international tax reform, you can't make it subject to a five-year phase out -- >> to make it permanent, you need 60 -- >> to make the math work, it's very complicated. given the numbers that have been proposed, you can't do these numbers and make the math work. >> i've looked at the numbers a lot as we've talked about in the past, again, it depends what you do with the other preferences, depends on what the score is, if you use a dynamic score. >> if it's really pro-grow ftax reform, between $700 billion and $1 trillion would be in the p proposal. this would generation more economic activity and it depends

on what the baseline is. i'm a former director, mick mulvaney was on here, if you start with a policy baseline, bonus depreciation will be in permanently, which is probably the right thing to do poll siic wise, if do you that, you have more head room. it gives us the opportunity to do pro grow tax reform. let's not make it temporary. i mean, we did that once. that was 2001, 2003. and especially on the business side, they need predictability. >> great to see you. >> great to see you. >> light a fire when you're here. get things done. >> we have three hours here. >> no, no, you guys like to fire things. >> i can't imagine you get any help on this. i don't know how you get 60. you're going to get no help.

>> we may not. we should try to make it bipartisan. if we can't, we have to make a tough decision, it's not temporary, it's permanent and helps create more jobs and that's a good idea. >> when we return, a senator turned politician. senator david purdue joins us to talk about washington's priority and what they mean for businesses and investors. and can president trump's tax plan help us achieve 3% economic growth? we'll bring you the debate. plus house ways and means chairman will join us here on set. the path to tax reform goes directly through his committee. so does health care reform. stay tuned, you are watching "squawk box" here on cnbc. i think that she's a very nice girl... you never got the brakes looked at? oh yeah. no.

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but we've got the get tdigital tools to help. truck, s now with xfinity's my account, you can figure things out easily, so you won't even have to call us. change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. add that premium channel, and watch the show everyone's talking about, tonight. and the bill you need to pay? do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount box." oil prices this morning were just a little bit lower earlier, now down 2%. maybe it did start a little bit of a sell. 48.65 now on wti, down almost 2%. >> we are continuing our coverage of president trump's

first 100 days and the policies that impact the business community. joining us right now is georgia senator david perdue, who is also the former ceo of rebaebok and dollar general. thank you for joining us. >> good morning. how are you? >> good. as a former businessman yourself, someone who grew up in the business world, what do you think of donald trump and what he's done so far in washington? >> when he was a candidate, he said job one would get the economy going. he's trying to move in that direction. regulatory work so far is encouraging. i like the tax conversation. i give paul ryan and brady a lot of credit for starting that conversation this year. i'm encouraged by the tax plan that came out last night. i'm looking forward to having that debate over there. i'm excited we're now talking about things that are pro growth. >> to this point it's been the republicans in the house that have had a hard time kind of get being things together to get legislation put together and getting it to your side. now it looks like there are a lot of issues in the senate that

could be the stopping point for some of these issues. you talk about taxes. can you get to 60, can you make it revenue neutral? >> it's pressuring we' refreshi this conversation. we got some tough things to get through. the revenue neutral issue is a washington issue. let me point out one other thing. we're actually going through a funding conversation this week that i find absolutely ridiculous. we're seven months into this fiscal year and we're arguing how to fund not 18 but fund the rest of 17. >> again, it's the senate that might hold things up. at least that's what mick mulvaney told us today. that's where you need 60 votes. >> i hope that doesn't happen. we have to fix the budget process and get past this window now. we have to fix this budget process so we don't face this every year. this is ridiculous. in 42 years we have to fund 12 appropriation bills of years. we've only averaged two and a

half in congress the last 42 years. the budget process is broken. >> this is getting down to the wire. you're talking about the number 24 hours. >> they're about to pass the 171 175th continuation to give us one week to do something we haven't done in seven months. and six people will decide how we spend the trillion dollars and that's not going to save this relationship. >> do you have hope that chuck schumer eventually is going to work within the whole senate at some point and represent the american people instead of it seems like a lot of times he's really akin to his base right now and he has to be, i guess, but the base is so far left in that pear. are you going to be able to work with him, can republicans work to chuck schumer?

>> i'm an outside person to this process. >> you must be frustrated. >> i'm very frustrated with both sides. people are very frustrated with in gridlock. we see the politicians don't see it the same way as the rest of the world. they want washington to work. they're less concerned about how we got gorsuch confirmed than they are we got him confirmed, less concerned about how we do this tax thing than getting it done. consumer confidence is actually up, it's the highest it's been in 20 years. ceo confidence is up. why is that? they're hopeful, you talk about hope, they're hopeful that actually we're going to break through on regulation, which they see happening right now, that we'll end up with a relatively good tax package that will create a level playing field with the rest of the world, we'll solve this health care disaster that we're sitting here with and move forward. they're excited about the fact that we got gorsuch confirmed.

>> mitch mcconnell stated his position -- >> on day one. >> it wasn't day one, it was 2010. but he stated his position and never wavered, never worked with democrats so why should chuck schumer? it's almost a -- >> when i ran, i found there were very few innocent party up hoar. $20 in debillion in debt. look at the debacle. >> babies, though, you did this to us, we're not going to work with you. >> you still don't like that ad, do you? >> which one? >> the babies. >> that wasn't what i was thinking. that's why -- what's approval now in congress? single digits i think. >> that's only because our mothers voted. we've needed leadership from the white house, we reengaging internationally. he's putting forth idea and hopefully he'll be the driver behind this tax pack and. this economy is ready to have a cycle. it's ready to turn.

can you see the bond market in growth and consumers are anticipating things coming out of washington. >> border tax is something you've been opposed to, you know what impact it would have on the retail industry. steven mnuchin said yesterday it's not dead but the administration doesn't like it in the form it's in. is there a form of the border adjustment tax that you would eventually sign off off? >> no, ma'am. why would you want to put a consumption talks on top of an income tax? that's what you're did and we saw the european central governments grow two-thirds in the next decade. our government's already grown two third -- >> assuming we all want some sort of corporate tax reform, how do you do it responsibly? >> by addressing the regulatory environment, address the tax environment -- >> i'm saying how do you make the math work? >> i'm coming there. >> sorry. >> you're not going to solve this debt crisis without -- you can't tax your way there, cut

your way there or grow your way there without doing all of the above and i think that's what this president is trying to do. >> thank you. >> coming up, the ceo of american airlines, we'll hear from him next. ♪ here's to breaking more glass ceilings. in golf and everywhere else. ♪ kpmg, continuing our commitment to the next generation of women leaders.

. folks, futures are higher today. when we return, can president trump's tax plan help us achieve 3% economic growth in that debate among wall street's top forecasters is next. you are live watching a special presentation of "squawk box" live from d.c.

♪ ♪ good morning. welcome back to "squawk box." we are live in washington, d.c. on cnbc. among the stories front and center this hour, it's been a bearish morning for airlines. american airlines under pressure, despite beating on top and bottom lines, they noted

higher fuel prices and increase in employee pay. and ecb president mario draghi about to begin his conference, following the bank as decision to leave key interest rates unchanged. japan's nintendo expecting to cut its profit to more than double for the current fiscal year thanks to its new gaming console called the switch. >> in corporate news, american airlines will now offer up to $10,000 to passengers who voluntarily give up their seat on a change in flight. dr. dao was offered only $800 to give up his seat. at that point the employees were not allowed to offer more than

that. one other notable change as passengers who are on board and in their seat cannot be removed from a flight unless there is a safety or security issue. here's what ceo oscar munoz said on the "today" show earlier this morning. >> we make sure-a million peo h people get somewhere safely every day. we forget sometimes the people are human and have interests and desires as to where they're going. >> munoz said the company's policies put its employees in an impossible situation. we will continue to watch this. >> i think $2,500 probably would have done it. i would bet that -- >> i bet below that, $1,800. >> but in a year the actual people that get paid $10,000 i better a handful. >> it's a small change, the right change and it introduces

the market system back into it. all you have to do is offer money to get people to say voluntarily we'll do it. >> $10,000 in vouchers -- >> that you have to use in a year. >> in terms of a value to them. these are empty plane seats. the cash value is completely different situation. >> breaking economic news, steve liesman, stock strader extraordinaire joins us with durable goods. >> i don't think so, joe. durable goods coming in less than expected, 0.7%. february it looks like it was revised to 2.3%. the critical business investment number, nondefense cap goods, ex-aircraft up 0.2%, okay after a 0.1 in february. claims are up more than expected, up 14,000. the announcement on the president's tax plan immediately launching a pretty vigorous

debate among economists about what it's going to cost and how much growth it will generate but a big complaint is there isn't enough detail to figure all this out for people. even the president's budget director agreed. >> there's no way to score what we did out yesterday. we did that on purpose, not to try and hide the numbers but to say this is a first discussion. >> to score, you need to know how big the cut will be, you need to know what the brackets are. you'll hear one side argue tax cuts spark massive growth, another says the effects will be modest. goldman sachs saying "our baseline continues to incorporate a relatively modest fiscal package that provides a small boost to the economy, mainly after this year." economists generally agree tax

cuts do generate growth, they disagree on how much. more growth means more federal revenue. most agree tax cuts don't pay for themselves. harvard professor gregory mancue found that tax cuts on capital, they're the best. they return about 50 cents on dolt l dollar, income tax cuts have less return, somewhere between 0 and 17 cents per dollar. they do like it, it does appear the trump administration is addressing two big weaknesses in our economy, the lack of capital investment and small business investment anecdotally. >> as an inside joke of a stock trader, we don't trade stocks at all. i saw ge the other day, too. where was it?

29 again, right? and market was up 230 points and it was down and we both were wondering why did we keep any of that? >> did you keep it, joe? >> i can't find the shares for just a little bit and i can't find it to sell it. not that i'm giving advice but, i don't know, your e-mail came out of the blue. you're like trying to kick yourself. >> we're only allowed to own two stocks, ge or comcast, otherwise have to go mutual funds. we both hold on to this. also the tax foundation says they need 0.9% growth every year to pay for the business tax cut. there's a long way to go here. you have to temper the optimism with the lack of knowledge and inability to score this. the scoring is an uncertain science. sometimes the cbo gets it wrong.

it's the best we got right now. >> my next comment is i was trained for years at merrill lynch. with all that training i found out that comcast seems better than ge. that's all i'm going to -- >> good call. good call. >> thank you. thank you. in recent history anyway. thanks, steve. >> when we return this morning, house ways and means chairman kevin brady joins us right here on the set. the path to tax reform goes directly through his committee. health care reform, too. the congressman is here when "squawk box" comes right back. we're facing 20 billion security events every day. ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks... actually, we just handled all the priority threats. you did that? we did that. really. we analyzed millions of articles and reports. we can identify threats 50% faster. you can do that? we can do that. then do that. can we do that? we can do that.

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president trump calling for a big cut to corporate tax rates and major changes to the individual tax system as well as he nears his 100 davis in office. joani joining me is kevin brady, chairman of the ways and means committee. we have a reset, with the administration putting out a rough plan of what they'd like to see with tax reform. what happens now? >> a couple of really positive things yesterday. it's clear the president is putting his capital behind tax reform. it's been 30 years since we've had a president in the house who was all willing and committed to doing tax reform. i think we're the closest in 30 years towards comprehensive pro-growth tax reform.

secondly, it's lear we want cle work together with the white house and senate with one plan so it's not three, four, five, six plans. now and really the hard work, just rolling up our sleeves with the white house and senate. this is where the work is going to givebegin. they laid out a plan that is 80% kp common ground with the house. >> what's the 20%. >> we have some differences on rates. but only in the sense we want to go as low as we can for job creation is a big one. we want the greatest growth for the greatest years comes about when tax reform is bold, when it balances in the budget and when it's built for last. it's permanent. done right, permanent tax reform i think can double the growth you get from temporary tax cuts. we're going to have that conversation as well. but, look, bringing these ideas

to the table now, really important. >> one of the bold ideas you've had is the border adjustment tax. we've talked about that with you in the past where something you thought would be a done deal but steven mnuchin said yesterday the administration is not on board with the border adjustment tax. he said there are negotiations with you and others to get to that point. what would be something that would make it more palatablpala? >> i agree with the secretary. it's clear we're going to need to make refinements, have very patient transition rules with it. the solutions we were going to bring to the table are along those lines and i think are going to make it extremely pro growth. here's the key. the reason we're bringing this to the table is this is what our competitors use to beat us from china, to mexico and canada.

so ignoring it's there won't help us in the 21st century. so not only does it create true competition and economic growth, it eliminates the tax incentives to move u.s. companies and their patents and headquarters overseas. >> senator david perdue was here, a republican and he said there is no border adjustment or refinement that will make it something he will vote for. you only have 52 senators. >> perhaps. we still have a lot of work to do. i city think having the current tax code that favors foreign products over u.s. products and encourages companies to move oversea isn't the status quo we continue. >> i agree. and his concern is slapping any sort of a border adjustment tax that winds up being a consumer

tax and puts another tax on consumers. >> this is not a vat. this is not a consumer tax. ending the made in america tax, both here and abroad makes this not just extremely competitive, it is what we'll need for the 21st century. >> if not the border adjustment tax, what are the other alternatives given what you talked about needing to balance the budget? and dare i say i think any half centen person knows at this rates it's very hard to balance the budget unless you plan another thing. >> we have a lot of work to do. one of the arguments we continue on ending the made in america tax, not only does it level the playing field, it allows us to compete abroad. >> is there any other alternative -- if that's not on the table given the conversations with other people who are not prepared to support it, is there any other option?

>> so to finish my point, we think using the tax reform with foreign workers to lower rates is a really important point. we're also open to others bringing solutions to the table. >> you have heard any others? >> i haven't. so we're -- that's why we think we've got the smartest idea going forward but, look, the burden is on us to bring a good, smart solution to the table with the white house and the senate. >> what would be better, these horrible rules -- >> in the senate? >> yeah. >> organizatioh gosh. >> would it be better to be 15% for ten years or 28% permanent? >> we won't be 28. >> andrew makes a lot of really good point about these rules that you can't have both.

you can't do 15% and get it through for more than ten years. >> i'm not sure you have to have quite that stark a voice. permanence done right doubles the growth. >> that's more important than the low rate. >> into my belief it is. >> so you think 25? >> i think the ideas we're bringing to the table can get us to 20% or below and leap frog america -- >> my number cruncher here says that's not possible. 20% permanent? >> you can get to 22 -- i want the rate to be as low as competitive purposes and balance the budget at the same time. >> 22? >> no. we're already below that in the house blueprint, permanent, balanced in reasonable dynamic scoring. >> at 20? >> yeah. and we're working to see if we

can go lower. >> i need to see the number before i believe you. >> i understand. >> what about the numbers the president introduced yesterday, at least new from what he proposed about the taxes you pay at a state and local level will no longer be something you can get a rebate on your federal taxes on. >> the code that raises the rates for everybody and s subsidizes a few. why don't you lower the rates for everybody -- >> it makes sense for a state like florida. however, you have republicans in those states, new jersey, new york, connecticut, california who say there's no way they're voting for this because it would be disastrous. >> i still think in a tax code where nine out of ten americans won't be itemizing, iffy can lower the tax rates for

everybody, so they, too, can get a break in local taxes because they keep more than they earn, that's a discussion worth having. >> how do you make it work so that small business owners can actually benefit and be on the same playing field as a big corporation yet at the same time not allow necessarily people to enrich themselves in a way that's unfair. >> there's two big elements there. one, can we get the small businesses and large businesses. some are corporations and they're mixed up in there, can you get them down to an equal rate and dramatically lower them. the answer is, yes, we answer is very close. and, secondly, that does create a challenge to make sure we don't have people gaming the system. we've been working with treasury and others on how to best make sure that there aren't some loopholes. >> is there a real discussion

about that? one of the things you hear, especially from democrats who want donald trump to give his tax returns, which he's not going to do, they say if you're a wealthy developer, your rate is not going to be 35%, it's going to be 15%, whatever it is. >> so our argument has been for too long, we can't distinguish between michael jordan and mike the local plumber. so mike the local plumber paid much higher taxes. >> it's joe the plumber. >> it is joe the plumber. so our approach has been, look, it's time to separate the business from wage income so we can lower the taxes on that local small business person. it's at right thing to do but it creates al challenge. so we're working toward that solution and i think we're making progress. >> it we ask you very quickly about health care because it looks as though this is back on the tab once again, most of the

members of the freedom act. what happens now and how is your committee involved in this? >> the discussions owe considered just in rooms where members who couldn't get to yes yet had real conversations with each other. what would it take to improve this, to get comfortable? so over the last three weeks those conversations have occurred, they produced two very good improvements in my view and so now the question is are enough people there to be able to pass this. i think don't rush it, give everyone plenty of time to digest and think through this latest improvement. i think it's a good one for lowering premiums, for creating flexibili flexibility, but i think we're making progress. i don't want to set a deadline. >> we heard as early as saturday

from one guest earlier. >> we heard rumors but i really think it's a mistake to just set a deadline. let the member discussions continue. what i'm hearing is very positive. >> meaning you don't have necessarily 218 votes yet. >> i think we've got a lot of people who want to get there, who want to understand this latest -- >> the moderates, is that the problem now? >> not necessarily. washington is always a blame game, i think members want to consider this health care. this is people's lives. they want to make sure they get it right. they're doing the right thing here. >> mr. chairman, thank you for your time here. >> if we come down here, you'll come on, right? >> absolutely. i think it's automatic. >> we need to talk to you. >> we do. >> it's a deal. >> when we return, jim cramer will be live at the new york stock exchange. as we head to the break, check out the euro.

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the new york stock exchange, jim cramer joins us.

we have been down here talking to all the policy types. the real world though comes at us so hard after the close today. i mean, that's -- that is a who's who for someone like you with alphabet, intel. i mean, amazon. it's unbelievable in one day. >> i think that -- well, amazon i think may be the outlier. they may not print a number that people want. but i think intel is doing a lot of things to mix up the portfolios so we don't know until yet. but alphabet should be delivering good news, but they have the huge cash hoard overseas. and starbucks, and microsoft is going to do great. because pc sales were better than expected this quarter. >> comcast, jim, i guess nbcu, i don't know. maybe ge should have kept nbcu for a couple more years or something. i mean -- >> they didn't -- they weren't able to monetize it the way that

the parent company of our network is. i think they didn't know what they had. they didn't understand theme parks. they clearly didn't understand the network leverage and the broadband business was remarkable, 400,000. the thing i would comment on was the last thing that brian talked about, the profitable cash flow here. there's probable growth in a way that i didn't think was possible given that the company is so big. the cash flow is so meaningful for every shareholder. you lower the corporate tax rate there this is the cheapest stock in the nasdaq. >> what -- if you assign a modest multiple to the cash flow ebitda numbers at nbcu, what value do you get and what was it sold for? i mean, is it $50 billion or something? do you remember? >> i think it's worth -- you know what? it's certainly worth a lot more than the others that are separate. i know that abc buried within

disney and espn in disney. it was -- you want to call it a steal i don't know. comcast made something with it. it would have been a fastest growing in the ge portfolio. >> it's got to be at least twice -- >> more than that. >> three times. >> actually much more. >> the stock -- >> because the synergy is together. >> almost $08 -- >> if i was to be sentient -- did you use the word sentient? >> i did. >> i love that. i love proper discourse. >> thank you. >> i love you. >> feeling is similar. >> but you're making me feel like nothing is going to get done. >> i know. i know. that's what i just said. i heard the ways and means chairman tell me we'd do it. i said, no way, under 20. no way under 20. corporate -- >> i mean, i have read every article in every paper. everything i heard is about ten times better than anything i read. thank you very much for making it clear what's going on. >> i have to say, kevin brady, i

feel like i understand what's a really happening after he talks. >> you mean like nothing? >> yeah. yeah. and basically, says don't bring a vote on saturday because we don't have the votes. >> the border tax is alive and well in his brain. >> low rates for ten years or kissing your sister permanent, basically. >> yeah, i'll take corporate earnings any day over what's going on down there. >> i know, i'm exhausted from being here. something in the air. see you at the top of the hair. as we get to the break, get your gear ready. the stop draft kicks off today. 50 stocks and one winner. all starts on "power lunch" at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. stay tuned. "squawk box" is live from washington. net! i know a bunch of people who would love that. the internet loves what you're doing... ...so build a better website in under an hour with... ...gocentral from godaddy. type in your idea. select from designs tailored just for you

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apparently, i kept her up all night. she said the future freaks her out. how come no one likes me, jim? intel does! just think of everything intel's doing right now with artificial intelligence. and pretty soon ai is going to help executives like her see trends to stay ahead of her competition. no more sleepless nights. - we're going to be friends! - i'm sorry about this.

don't be embarrassed of me, jim. i'm getting excited about this! we know the future. we're going to be friends! because we're building it. cnbc is fast forwarding to the future. today it's national take your child to work day which we we have done if we weren't here. so back at headquarters the cnbcers tomorrow are taking over the newsroom. >> hi, everybody. way to go, guys. yay. >> good looking crew. >> it is. >> some new faces in here. >> wow. >> some familiar faces, new faces. but yes, adorable. every one of them.

>> mama, don't let your babies grow up to be -- well, business news -- no. it's great. it's -- that's not the song. grow up to be cowboys or something. final check on the markets this morning. how could they be up after -- >> yet they are. >> we hear what those guys -- how it works down here. anyway, you see how the sausage is made, i hope you're not nauseous. dow jones up 23. s&p up 1 1/2. join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" is next. ♪ >> good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer at the new york stock exchange. david is at the active passive investors summit in new york. the futures steady, europe is mixed, the boj and the ecb leave rates unchanged. ten year at 2.3. our road