five inmates in idaho are suing beer companies because they blame alcoholism put their crimes. they say the beer companies are responsible because they don't want consumers that their products are addictive. seeking $500 million. of course they want 500 million. >> in an era of finger-pointing and the blame game, are you serious? , many people picked up a pack of cigarettes and still get paid them when they cause cancer, even after the labels or wrong. we might have some kind of a shot here. i hate to say it. >> this is a historic moment because i agree with charles. the breaking news alert. no, i think that this is terrible. there have to be some personal responsibility. the fact that these people are getting wasted and committing crimes and then saying it's the bears fault. melissa: you think might have a case. >> you never know in this

environment it. melissa: thank you. that's all we have today. o.c. you back here tomorrow. "the willis report" is next. ♪ gerri: hello. i'm gerri willis. despite of fiscal cliff deal, there are still many financial challenges our nation faces this year. as a result many say 2013 will be a year of fiscal difficulty. maybe even a recession. still to be addressed, the debt ceiling tax an entitlement reform, even the ballooning balance sheet of our nation's federal reserve. as released from the december meeting suggesting even -- likely end this year. i am pleased to welcome steve forbes and chairman and editor. i will get you to the federal reserve second. i want to talk to you about this fiscal cliff legislation.

i no you're not happy. each other but have been better to go over the cliff and negotiate from there. what it is about this legislation you don't like? >> what it does is remove capital from the economy, punishes risk takers and punishes small businesses that are still going to get caught by that think. moreover there remove a lot of exemptions, so the highest tax rate and the federal government level you throw in states, over 50 percent. reading of their with france. we have seen where that leads. gerri: one and $2 a yard out the window. goes to the fed's. i think the average american doesn't realize what does look like at the end of the day. >> they will get it on social security. that 2 percent payroll tax holiday is over. all the talk about the rich, 77 percent of the workers are drawn to suddenly find in the next paycheck they're going to have less than it thought they had come before.

so this is the middle-class. that didn't get any coverage at all. the complexity goes up. incomers did hit, capital creators and risk takers did it. this is bad for the economy. >> and you say -- best of four in the green room over talking about did you missed the biggest opporunity of the last 20 years for major tax reform, simplify the tax code. >> the whole some symbols commission where they agreed to remove clear from the code and reduce tax rates across the board, there was a consensus emerging. clearly this president does not want real tax reform. his tax reform is raise rates and takes away exemptions. gerri: if you want to negotiate or did he? >> he could have cut a deal on november 7th after election day. the speaker had a summer of 2011 than those wanting to go against his caucus and go for a hundred billion in tax increases. suddenly the president comes back and says i want 1 trillion. that's what a ticket out of this

chance. they cut a deal. the president didn't want deal. gerri: he said that he really sees tax says punitive. this is how republicans talk about it. the president believes the same thing but wants to do it for different reasons. >> is not after raising revenue. rich people should not keep as much income as they do today. but if that hurts the economy are not does not matter to him. when he ran in 2008 and was shown that cutting the capital gains tax increase government revenue, and it doesn't matter. gerri: a very critical. no creativity. what could they have done? they only have the house. >> what they should have done is put up legislation such as the president cannot take money from medicare to finance obamacare. they hope to raise that by 700 billion.

social security, those ious. supposed to have two and a half trillion dollars of reserves. one not treat those worthless higher use and make them into marketable bonds. if you get a debt ceiling crisis you just tap into the bonding continue the payment. republicans should go on optimistic offense. gerri: we did not get their quite yet, that's for sure. the fed now saying quantitative easing stops this year now that we are in 2013. where do you see ahead for the economy? could news that the federal reserve will stop printing money? >> the definition of stop printing money, will have to see what that means. they'll do a lot of it this year a couple of trillion sitting on the balance sheets that could be released into the economy. what they continue to do is weakened the dollar. we have uncertainty about the dollar which means it's easy for the government to finance its debts. the company has no problem the credit, but it may still small and medium-sized businesses

cannot get reliable flow of credit to expand and finance their operations which is why job creation has been pitiful. gerri: and dodd-frank killing the small banks. that's where you would turn for the money. >> even though it prints money, regulators go in to banks and make it clear, if you make a lung you better pay for that six with to some they are we will squeeze you. they keep telling banks to raise capital requirements, do this and that. laws don't get me the way they should then mortgage rates, even though they keep coming down, millions of americans can't get mortgages. gerri: what do you see for the economy? we got to have any kind of growth? can we look forward to something that is not one person or of .2%? >> it's going to punt. i hope it's not sub, but when you have european trouble, japan in trouble, china still slow, it's going to be a tough year initially. but i think will happen is on the political side you're going to see real reform, a push for reform going into 2014.

obamacare will kick in and people realize what happens, they realize this tax bill took their earnings, not just the rich. the economy is hurt by it, i think you're going to see in a political uprising. gerri: calipash topple this week and 55 percent of independent voters said america's best days behind her. you agree? >> no. this is a detour. this is -- may be ancient history. i heard the same gender back then. we will rise again and show the world that if -- a free economy can be free again. sadly we will have to wait until 2016. in the late 1970's all we are going down in downtown, the uprising started in california and elsewhere. you will see the same thing. gerri: you just have to have so much pain to run the right way? >> what you need is to deal to remind people what happens in the past we do these things and make a positive alternative which we did not do in the last

election, we did it intimately, but not consistently command the house leaders and the senate leaders have got to give a little more imagination. optimistic offense. supplying the president set the agenda. gerri: i'm like that. forced to reason. thank you for coming on. always good to see you. >> always good to see you. gerri: we want to know what you think. here's our question and the answer to our question of the day. what should we do with the u.s. tax code. reform it, as did a flashback to have flat tax numbers to russia. a citizen of russia because his own country wanted to charge him a 70% tax rate. can you imagine that? immigrating to russia. all right. you should answer the question. i'm tired of. log on to gerriwillis.com, but on the right inside the screen and a share results of the end of the show.

and the fiscal cliff deal already having an impact. a former bush press secretary, i increased donations to charity in 2012. this dilemma is my deduction, so i and many others will likely donate less. according to philanthropy news digest, the new cap on deductions could eliminate two and a half percent or $7 billion per year in charitable giving. and not just talking about the wealthy. you could be losing deductions. now break it down next. this is $100,000.

we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

hey, yo, check out this chef, right? right?

that's so gay. that's really gay. dude, look at those pants. please don't say that. what? don't say that something is gay hen you mean that something is dumb or stupid. it's insulting. it's like if i thought this peer shaker was stupid, and i said, "man, this pepper shaker is so 16-year-old boy with a cheesy mustache." just saying. gerri: are you trying to figure out how the fiscal cliff legislation is going to impact you? i am, too. well, maybe you went to the irs website for guidance.

here's what they had to say. the irs is currently reviewing the details of this week's tax legislation and assessing what impact it will have on this year's filing season. the irs will soon make available additional details. interpretation, we don't know yet either. now, my guesses there are a lot of you out there who look to the coverage and say, i don't have to worry about this because i know made for under $50,000. that is the level at which democrats say you are rich and should pay higher taxes. well, i am here to tell you that it does not matter. you may well pay more anyway. yesterday we talked about the increase in payroll taxes and that it's going to aid you and hit you hard a matter how much you make. then there's this, the law will cut the value of personal exemptions and itemized deductions. probably even don't even think about like mortgage interest, state income tax payments, charitable deductions, the limit

on those deductions will hit twice as many people as the income tax change. if you learn to hundred $50,000 as a single person or $300,000 as a married couple or more they're going to face these new limits. this is not going to be chump change either. above bring in $150 million of the next decade. so, you see, in the end, president obama really did get his tax increase on the successful among assuming one into the $50,000, you just to know about it because nobody told you. it's a good thing i made my charitable deductions. now that the design, we have a look at the new rules for you and your money. joining us, ceo of edelman financial services. welcome back to the show. always good to have you. let's talk about the tax increases, and i want to show

what they look like. talk about middle-class. you're paying an additional $822. what are you telling your clients about this? what i you telling them to do in the face of these big tax increases. >> cranberry. it's really frustrating. because not only the fact that there are tax increases, but they came with such little warning. we get notification of the tax increases literally on the first day of the year, which means there was no opportunity for tax planning, no way to make adjustments for all of my becoming months down the road. as the preference. congress passes a law in the summertime and we had six months to every engage in financial planning which is why you were joking about the irs website. everybody is commiserating with the irs. nobody knows what to make of this. we have not analyzed it. our message to clients is we need to sit back, do some research here to analyze how

this is going to affect us. do we need to change our tax withholding a work in one direction or another? front load retirement contributions to alter our behavior such as child care or long-term care expenses or mortgage deductions? gerri: you don't have the answer the question nighter. >> no. and it's frustrating. my clients are paying me to answer these kinds of questions. as a financial planner might just help them plan for the future. we just get notification of a top the 13 tax bill on january january 12013. that's unconscionable, absurd and demonstrates -- gerri: just to point out to our viewers, you are a smart financial adviser, one of the biggest in the country. selig were talking to someone who doesn't know is talking about. we're talking to someone he's very frustrated with the way washington works, and is not just income taxes. it's across the board here.

you're going to have to change your withholding. the world is inside out and upside down. how long will it take you to come up with the specific advice for everyone if clients? >> we think we will do it pretty quickly, but there is one thing that is a little concerning right now, and thank you for the accolades. i was ranked the north one adviser for the country three times, so i think i'm pretty get this stuff which is why we are so frustrated and are appetency at the moment. it gets worse because what congress did was nothing more than punt for another six weeks. the new congress which will have an awful lot to say about this which means we would expect more tax changes to come, possibly retroactive to january 1 if the new congress does not like with the old congress did. gerri: okay. my blood is boiling. see you have anything to say about changes for people who are planning for retirement? maybe something we have overlooked. we tried to cover everything,

but there are some many changes. >> the best piece of news, you cannot contribute more than you were able to last year. that's one piece. although things are dicier and more uncertain and all that nonsense, the fundamentals of the economy are still strong. as steve forbes was describing, the outlook for america remains bright. therefore we should take full advantage of it with our investments. don't confuse this nonsense in washington with negativity for your investment strategy. gerri: the economy in capitol hill, two different things. thank you for coming on. great to see you. >> you, too. thanks. gerri: up next to my new congress in charge, but how much is really changing? even the speaker has to keep his job. much to my next guests sugar and his take on the 113th congress next. ♪ ♪

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gerri: house speaker keeping his job, but not everyone is happy next. one republican tells us why he wants to mount.

♪ gerri: speaker of the housekeeping the gavel for the new congress. he was sworn in just a day, looking at pictures right now. he is in keeping all the house republican support. one defector joins me now, congressman tim of kansas. welcome back to the show. good to see you. tell us why you don't like the speaker. >> well, he is the speaker still, but what i don't like is our lack of adherence to conservative principles.

we have had a long two years that was capped off with a very bad fiscal cliff deal. at think we need some leaders in washington. and he can return to that and focus on conservative principles and the ideals we hold in the republican party. gerri: you voted for another congressman from ohio. to you feel like he is more in line with your conservative principles of not spending money that the government does not have? >> i guess as a sophomore, came in with the class of 87 folks is said we would change washington, and not much is changed. another three and a half trillion dollars. we haven't made progress. been a good leader, but the speaker will have the gavel for another two years. as time to focus on the debt ceiling in the real challenge that presents to our economy and country. gerri: what do you make of the fact that he is signaling, saying outright that he is not going to negotiate a 1-on-1 with

the president anymore. is the surprising? is that just business as you would expect? >> as the way this place is supposed to work. suppose to work to the house and senate. more than one a two men behind closed doors. i don't think he negotiates. he simply takes. at the design for the house to pass what we want in time for harry reid to bring the senate then . he can sign or veto that. gerri: you bring up the debt ceiling which is exactly where i was going to go next. this can be a big fight all over again. a lot of people saying this is where republicans me to draw to say this to cut you have to keep spending. we will ever affect -- reflect now that he five negatively? >> the disaster will be if we don't solve our spending problem

. here we are after going through that last debt ceiling. i do believe this is the signal that -- singh -- said -- single largest opportunity. we will solve the problem or republicans will turnover and led washington continue unimpeded. it is the opportunity, and i'm hopeful that with the message we send today that our leaders will say, we are serious about spending not just in saying that doing. gerri: you make a good point about dead. the total amount of public debt outstanding. 16 trillion has been a one-way elevatoo particularly during the obama administration. he has presided over disastrous track records on that score. now moody's is saying, you know, look, this deal for the fiscal clift is not to think for the debt. they seem to be rattling the

chains. they are upset, and if you downgrade again we could be in for a very rough time in the market. >> that would be massive disruption if they did that. s&p warned us six months before the last time we faced the debt ceiling. washington didn't listen. making a lot of noise. let's not ignore this warning shot. this is serious. all politics aside, the fact that we continue to borrow money and not change our trajectory, no licking a balanced budget, the bill that passed a couple of days ago raised taxes, increased spending, and did nothing but until now reform which is a recipe for disaster and certainly will guarantee a downgrade of our credit rating if we continue down that path. gerri: last time that happened we lost 2,000 points of the dow. congressman in the thank you for coming on the show. recitative. >> thank you. gerri: thank you. gerri: more on the 113th congress. will they be any more productive

than the 112? our political panel weighs in next.

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gerri: there is a new congress in town to deal with the problems the last congress left behind, but with our national brett -- debt growing, we are getting closer and closer to the debt ceiling. what will congress do about it if anything? joining me now, editor for the weekly standard. and columnist for the daily beast. my favorite panel. let's start with you. some interesting comments today about how the president should conduct himself going forward. here he is. >> over the next few months it will be up to the president and his party to work with us to deliver the same kind of bipartisan resolution of

spending that we have now achieved on taxes, but it needs to happen before the 11th-hour. for that to happen the president is to show up this time. gerri: does the president need to show up? >> denise to show up on the spending cuts, definitely. i think there will be any kind of real movement on that it will require the president's meeting the republicans somewhere along the way. it can't be done on one side. i think we need to have some deficit reduction. we need to have some cuts in entitlement, and ideally, i can't predict, but ideally the white house would get together with congress and it would figure out what they would be rather than each side sitting there waiting for the other to do it so they could point that the men say, oh, your the one who wants to cut entitlements. that's unfortunately what seems to happen. gerri: it's like an to stocks our relationship.

crazy talk. it to you, the president's record on debt, the worst of any president in our history. the national debt is up since it came into office. i believe that 60 percent. what should he do? >> well, as the problem. you have just hated it. i don't think this is a president who is interested in reducing the size and scope of government. take a step back and look at the big picture. barack, is a big government liberal. that's who he is, who he is ideologically. add all the key has never been any different, as much as people attempted said said he was a pragmatist. he does not fundamentally believe in cutting government. if you get to barack obama and singh were spending 24 percent of our economy and government spending, he doesn't think that's too much. i don't think he would be upset if he was 26 to 28%. the real question is how you get somebody who is not terribly interested in getting government or reforming entitlements to do

something he is not terribly interested in doing. gerri: do you agree? >> has said this before. i don't know the answer. and that he certainly has a lot of people are around him in the white house to feel very strongly that the deficit is a major problem and does need to be cut, probably most, if all of this policy people feel that way. but he has not made it a priority. he has given it let service, talked about what he's running for office, but he has not done a lot to show that he's serious about it, and he is a lot of pressure from the left saying, don't you dare touch entitlements. they don't think there's a problem. you have all who everyone likes to sing our only problem is the deficit being reduced to quickly. so to me that jury is still out. i'd say he does not seem serious, but he could be brought around may buy as policy people and be convinced that he needs to beat. i think there's a chance.

gerri: you look at the deal we have on the table that has been signed by the president. the government is 4 trillion bigger this year than last year. it's that simple. the democrats are leading us to bigger and bigger and bigger government. >> i think at least you can say about this latest deal that the teeth of a lot of that money is accounted for in tax cuts which is extensions of the current tax rates which is better than the growth in spending. we haven't seen any efforts to restrain spending at all. she's right to say we don't know what he thinks, but we tell a judge and based on what he's done. if you go back -- i go back to this time four years ago when he was not yet present, wedding for his inauguration, giving a series of interviews and talking to people about his priorities to my want to cut the deficit in half in the way i'll do it is to reform entitlements entitlement

reform has to be central to my deficit reduction plan, and it has not only not been central, it hasn't been anywhere involved. all he's done is demagogued. gerri: is going to be interesting to see how this plays out. thank you. appreciate your time. hope to have you back soon. >> great. gerri: taxpayers getting the shaft once again. you're used to that, but this time thanks to the green car industry. back in 2009 vice-president joe biden in delaware governor enthusiastically announcing a plan to bring 2500 jobs to the state, all thanks to a faster automotive. the governor then lent the electric car maker 21 and a half billion dollars to set up shop there. it seemed like a good deal at the time. about $8,600 per job. he since suffered huge setbacks. no one wanted to buy there, kara and their battery supplier file

for bankruptcy. so the chances of delaware taxpayer seeing that 21 million again are slim to none. especially since he already owes the federal government nearly ten times that amount, ten times . it gets worse. halting operations and laying off workers last april so they have not produced a single car in nearly a year. the taxpayers of still pay $400,000 in utility bills for the plant that is clearly on life support. they can make a car, but we have to keep the lights on. this is what happens when the government takes on a roll it shouldn't. but if government feels the need to and that might to somebody, please give your homework. it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out a company getting an out might not be a good investment of taxpayer dollars. back to make their looking for money and all, is not a sign of successful business. there again to my go using logic with the government.

those things to stop makes. and we come back, like where you should be putting your money, and a new report showing positive december numbers for the jobs market. will tomorrow's numbers from the labor department's share the same thing? preview next.

♪ gerri: the jobs market showing

improvement in december, despite worries over the fiscal cliff. payroll processor finds the private sector at about 215,000 jobs to majestic for 802,000 added. has something to up offset an uptick in weekly jobless claims which economists say could have been distorted by the winter holiday. will those numbers match the big government report due out tomorrow? joining me now, senior fellow for the manhattan institute and former chief economist for labor department. welcome back to the show. always good to have you. i want to start with the consensus view on the jobs market tomorrow. the expectation is that the rate will stay at changed and it will add 150,000 jobs. the range of expectations all the way from 80,000 to 225,000. to you think these folks are on target? do you agree with people who think that adp report is

evidence that some kind of massive recovery in the jobs market. >> well, i think that job creation number probably will be between 80 and 220,000. we don't know what it's going to be because it's the first government news flash for december. it might match the adp number. rubber that adp is a sample of adp clients, people who sign up with adp to have adp do their peril. it's not a completely random sample the way the department of labor does its survey. gerri: people to watch as evidence of what might happen, but what is your analysis? what's interesting is how this coincides with the debate over the fiscal cliff. everyone said the fiscal cliff was negatively impacting the jobs market, but here comes the adp number. it's positive. how you analyze that? >> i would say that the numbers

don't mean as much as people saying they do. we need to wait for the bls numbers. when it comes up tomorrow it will be revised two times. the unemployment insurance initial claims have been pretty high, so that's not a good sign. a lot of uncertainty in december about the fiscal cliff. but when the survey was taken which is in the week of the 12th of december, there was a lot of uncertainty. some people were concerned that americans were going out and doing as much shopping as they did before and consumer confidence is down. >> right. exactly. gerri: pardon me. less talk about labour participation. and of this is just an -- this is important and something we watch closely. it's just not impressive and it does not speak well for this labour market. how did you analyze these numbers to back. >> well, it's troubling, but at

the same time the people said the economy is improving, we're seeing a gradual shrinkage in the number of people who are available to work or working. it fell two tenths of a percentage point to 63 last month. but we want to do tomorrow and see where that labor force participation rate will be because the unemployment rate goes up, the labor force participation rate also goes up, that spot necessarily bad news. if the unemployment rate goes down but the labor force participation rate continues to slip, that is not necessarily good news. we need to be watching that. what we need to be doing is creating circumstances where people go into the labour market and work. obamacare, unfortunately, will be a big deterrent because it will make employers shift from full-time to part-time work in certain sectors such as a hospitality inn restaurants. gerri: a long way to go. thank you very much for coming up tonight. appreciate your time.

>> agreed to be with you. gerri: well, and now for something a little different. a segment we are calling, as you can see, this day in history. today marks a very special day for those of you who love butter. who does not? on this day in 1871 henry bradley patented the oleomargarine, the world's very first substitute for butter. he estimates vegetable oils, animal fat, and buckets of water and america's love it. by 1930 the average was considering over two and a half pounds of margarine. that still did not compete with the nearly 18 pounds of butter being eaten every year. today the average household spends roughly $66 a year on the invention. that all translates into 8 pounds per person. 8 pounds. no wonder consuming our weight in the good stuff. butter consumption is down to 4 pounds per person and this guy

, thank you very much, spread the word, the very first substitute for butter made its debut on the stay in business in january the third 142 years ago today. still to come, my "2 cents more" on a hypocritical move from one of the nation's biggest coffee chains, and recovering your assets in 2013 with the pros and cons of investing in hedge funds. is it right for you and your money coming up.

gerri: at down year for hedge funds, investors seem to be sticking with them. how to avoid those hefty fees next.

♪ gerri: many individual investors use of funds because of the high returns, with high returns to my fees. are they worth it? the entire returns don't really exist right now. this year they made five nap percent compared to the s&p 500. if you just invested in an index fund you might have weighed 16%. here to help me now, investment manager an equity analyst larry kramer, author of the big profits from small stocks. great book. what is going on? things? >> they used to be the smart ones. now they are big and bureaucratic and the big pension funds of billions of dollars to invest. these have become big corporate bureaucracies that charged 2 percent of the assets under management. 20 percent of whatever is made profit lies. the whole problem is that the hedge fund loses money it does not matter.

the managers of the head of -- hedge funds to make 2%. let me tell you, we'll talk about hedge fund. it's our money. corporate pension funds and labor pension funds, -- nonprofit. countries, entire countries. gerri: we really don't know what's going on. gerri: not very public about what they do. >> and the leverage of. an individual investor, you can take a chance to invest in stock. hedge fund, for every dollar they invest they could be borrowing $3, $10. that is why we have a financial crisis and melt down. they can blow up and the manager can move on. also, some top fund managers become more like marketers and let the stock picking go down to a very junior rank and there is nothing like experience when it comes to wall street and domestic. gerri: what would you tell people who are interested in investing in a hedge fund? >> i would say you're much

better off using the transparency of the internet to be able to check and see what hedge funds are buying. a hedge fund has to disclose the large stake in companies when they make investments. today we heard of the citadel investing in navistar. you can follow along as an investor and make your own decisions. the hedge funds, they often get caught in a trade. so much ego, and we know you have to have -- gerri: the go on wall street's. >> and you have to have a cool head and be able to take a loss. keep piling in. they won it meant when they make a mistake. gerri: will have to have a hedge fund manager. but a little bit about something. he said they don't typically spend a lot of time thinking about. as you know, we had a big move in the markets this week. small-cap stocks did fantastically well. what do you like right now?

>> some of the small-cap insurance companies are really, really attractive because the big caps a doing well and they're going to look to consolidate. universal insurance, you get a 7% dividend yield, property and casualty company. these insurance companies have been able to raise premiums. you can be a shareholder, and they have learned how to reduce risk through actuaries and by putting a lot of the money off into the reinsurers. a great stock. could be a double. and some of the tech companies. >> i have to put it on our website. gerri: your other pick, always great to see you. thank you for this my words of hedge funds. of people liking the caught in that. big-time fees. thank you. >> thank you. gerri: such thinking about your investments, you should start budgeting a little more for some of your regular purchases

throughout the year in tonight's top five. the things that will cost consumers more in 2013 according to u.s. news and world report. new cars. and you have president obama to thank for that. thanks to new fuel efficiency standards put in place by this demonstration, cars like the toyota camry are expected to go up about 1%. pressure is committed to have mother nature that thank for that. the brittle drought last summer. food prices jumping around 4% this year. that is an average of $40 a month at the grocery store. number three, shipping. but ups and fedex to have fedex and announced plans to raise prices. it will cost around 5% amelya packages. and it always goes up, college tuition. as states continue to make cuts in education, public schools will see in-state tuition jump around 5%. the number one thing that will cost you more, health care.

that's right. thanks to obamacare insurance will cost you a pretty penny. according to human resources consulting firm, expects to pay 6 percent more coming into an extra $267 per year from your paycheck. we'll be right back with my "2 cents more" and the answer to our question of the day. what should we do with the u.s. tax code. reformat, as to the flat tax or do you just move to russia at a dry cleaner, we replaced people with a machine. what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello?

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at legalzoom, we've created a better place to handle your legal needs. maybe you have questions about incorporating a business you'd like to start. or questions about protecting your family with a will or living trust. and you'd like to find the right attorney to help guide you along, answer any questions and offer advice. with an "a" rating from the better business bureau legalzoom helps you get personalized and affordable legal protection. in most states, a legal plan attorney is available with every personalized document to answer any questions. get started at legalzoom.com today. and now you're protected. gerri: earlier we had steve forbes, a proponent of the flat tax. we wanted to ask what you think. this flat tax the way to go. should we treat the income tax rates or move to russia like french actor. here is with some of your

posting. the flat tax has seemed like the best most fair idea for over a decade. first we have to reform congress of is a better chance that they will do a good job. finally, here is that word. i can't even pronounce that. i have no idea what that is. a u.s. tax cut will never be reformed or changed. we also asked this on gerriwillis.com. 23 percent said reform. 67 percent said flat tax, and in percent said they would move to russia. here are some of your e-mails. democrats who want credit for the cuts they already made, reagan is still waiting for the cuts promised when he was president. bush lost his job. he passed a tax increase with the idea that democrats would be okay with spending cuts. did not happen. democrats may should come up with the cuts that promised in the past. finally, love the show.