. i touched, it's their ball. don't foul them when they inbound. team on 'three.' one, two, three. nice going, alex. sorry coach. alex! good call.

gerri: finally tonight, i love my blackberry. it's making all kinds of noises. national day of unplugging. no cell phones, e-mail, texting, facebook. not for 24 hours. i thought, how hard could that ororore. have a great weekend and good

night. neil: tick, tick, tick, getting sick, sick, sick. the world hasn't ended. not the politicians and apparently not less. consumers, average americans, those who are spending every day. welcome, everybody. i am neil cavuto. in new york's times square. walk on by. by-and-by, those signs of calamity. $85 billion in budget cuts hours

away, i am not saying that something horrific can't happen. i am saying that contrary to all of the scar tactics ahead of this moment, the guys who cried wolf are having a very quiet moment. you do have to wonder. maybe they are looking at this whole world right now. maybe beause they crunch the numbers we have scott and mark and gretchen. >> happy sequestration a. neil: i cannot say that. [laughter] >> what we are seeing is the sequestration or the ramifications down the road.

they are going ahead with a big meat cleaver. >> was at a butter knife? they don't think the cuts will be that complicated. what do you think? >> the market realizes something. we need to walk before we run. that means that we need spending cut plans in order. future spending, not necessarily cuts, but something that they just kind of worked in them as

we get closer come the market gets stronger. >> i totally agree with you. $85 billion is not a big number in itself. sequesters something designed to be a doomsday machine. something designed to be so bad that if it goes off, everybody is in huge trouble. the fact that we've got to the situation, although it is only $85 billion worth, its ultimate we are not part of the people in washington but religious works right now. obama, for example, i just heard a quote. i hope that the republicans will come up with a revenue remedy.

what about incentivizing infrastructure? median incomes under this president, real purchasing power. median incomes have declined 10%. we should be talking about growth. >> what happened to you, by the way? >> growth in this country, i haven't given up. neil: gretchen, let's say we get through this without much damage or destruction. minimizing the impact on those who are unemployed. to the bigger picture, we get through it okay. that is kind of calling the president's bluff, isn't it?

does this hurt his credibility? >> i think it does, but more importantly, it hurts his overall agenda. this president wants an agenda that is spending more and building up a government that does more for the people and take some of the marketplace instead of the private sector. it only hur him and his credibility, but his agenda that spending is not a problem, which is what he wants us to believe. so he misses out on making some of his core principle arguments if this or that happens, sequester going into effect, american people do not see the ramifications that he said that we would see. >> i am just wondering about the next debacle to come. that is the end of march phenomenon wheree could look3 at a potential shutdown again. this was really tired of this?

>> yes, we do, but i think the market has figured out that it is just noise at this juncture. to this question earlier, it reminds us of august we had a downgrade. president obama, his constituents said the same thing. the market went up, the bond market went up, everything was fine, i think it is like them saying that it's great political theater but it doesn't mean anything. >> you know, if this president is serious about helping people that are having problems, the solution is growth and it is not -- it's not tax hikes. it's nothing other than growth and i haven't hed this president mention it once. i was told a few days ago that our grid on the east coast is so old that it's the age protect itself from cyberattacks come everything is written in a different software code.

we live in times right now in america. it is supposed to be the greatest country in the face of the earth where we have an antiquated grid. we are all over the place. what is the solution? cut back military expenditures. the only thing the government is good for right now is protecting us and they are not doing a good job. >> is this week that we had a republican center. they are saying we are open to cutting defense. they said that we will do just that. it is a start, it's a big start. i always argue that if everyone comes in to cut things, away we go. but what is happening is that it's not fair and balanced that way. a greater propensity to protect interest than ever looking at taxpayers before. >> there is no sacred cow.

we have medicare that will be insolvent in 10 years. >> those two programs along with defense pretty much make up half the budget. those are the areas where we have to look at making cuts. we can make smart and efficient cuts and still be able to achieve our objective. we just have to find a way to do it. and to do it by being smarter. >> in the end i think wall street is aapretty good way to read things. they say that we will accept sloppy cuts rather than no cuts at all. that is where they kind of size it up. >> i think we are able to separate the horsing around. something the gretchen mentioned, which is what the sequestration, more money gets back in the hands of the private sector, which is where needs to be, seeing the growth that we talked about that steve mentioned.

neil: we do not have any more time, but i would like to thank you. in the meantime, have a wonderful weekend. meanwhile, if only washington could spend as much time coming up with creative spending cuts as it does all these other tax hikes. this week we are starting with a stock transaction tax. another billionaires tax. they can tax, but they can't hide. the debt clock is not going away.

>> wall street could easily bear this tax. >> if you make $5 million per

year, you have to pay a minimum 30% tax. >> the higher transaction tax on stocks. >> we are asking the rich to contribute more. >> we need a new revenue. >> really creative about taxes, but not so much when it comes to cutting. democrats pushing for this again. liz macdonald says this is going global. would you make of this trend? >> i do nolike it at all. it is something that will hit our accounts, we get a sense that whether we are the ones doing it or not.

>> it could easily rise up to 60%, in fact, i would like to get to the thick of it. time and again we have seen congress saying that we had to tax everything, even oxygen, despite government spending that is going on. that is where our taxes will have to go. so it is those country and easy to put the switch on these taxes. neil: but it is global. >> it is a bit like southern europe, a lot of people are not happy about it. it they are taxing things a little bit different.

>> the deficit reduction, spending cuts, revenue increases. this hasn't really worked out so well. so maybe not necessarily following this, it could be a bit too much. neil: but right after they looked at it, i do see across some of the board, raising taxes in ways that there is other revenue. i am just wondering if that is the problem right there. >> we have to act on our spending addiction. our problem isn't revenue, its spending. until washington spends most of their time trying to figure out how to stop the hemorrhage of spending, ways to take moy away from people.

bill clinton says that there are trillions of dollars that people are sitting on e sidelines and not investing in because they are not sure of the future and they have no confidence in the marketplace and they don't know the rules by which the game is to be played. so they are waiting out the storm. they are sitting on this kind of capital that could be ingested into the economy. with the government signaling that they want a transaction tax, in addition to the corporate taxes that went up, what incentive is there for business to hire people and buy more equipme and expand the business. there is none. >> i'm sorry, sweden tried this and they yanked it. >> why did they do that? >> it was unsuccessful. stock price volatility, problems collecting it. you know, i will tell you that it is distraction to say that

if you tax the upper bracket, you will cure the deficit. it's a distction that really isn't the issue. it is similar to what is happening here with the federal income tax. 40% don't pay at. >> we need a boom. i don't know whether it would be something along the les of bill clinton and his enjoyment and getting out of this, i don't know how this will advance in any of these countries. >> you know, america's politicians have just spent $7 million getting themselves reelected. neil: really?

>> yes, they had to raise that money and that behavior is related to special interest groups. whether you are trying to raise revenue or cut anything, it is related to that. neil: some groups really want to be taken care of. >> yes, absolutely. >> h is it a problem? >> you are sounding like you are pointing fingers at us. bbt you are despicable yourselves. >> my country is a disaster. >> okay, i am looking at all of this and figuringthat none of the descriptions that i'm seeing, certainly the way we have handled this sequestration, what is coming down the pipe is another government shutdown and on and on.

>> absolutely. every time the dollar changes hands by the individual, that is what gems of the economy. by having the government spend money for the people, and that's the problem. there is a restriction with new taxes and more taxes coming down the pipe or people to do anything with their money, other than to ride out the storm. we have the debt tax, transaction tax, we have sales taxes. enough of the taxes. leave it to the private sector. we will come out of this thing, but we must grow our way out. >> it is remarkable that we have these people. we have had how many fiscal cliff deals? so many crises over the last two years. they need to do their day jobs and a budget. the way that we get revenues, you know, the bargaining may now

have been used, meaning that the tax increases, they may be more lock-in on either part of the aisle because they don't have kids department. neil: you are right about that. guys, stick around. in the meantime, the faa wants to know why we are doing the harlem shake like this on the plane. i could be wrong, but i'm thinking maybe they need to focus on the safety of the situation. and the groupon ceo stepping down. down. his outrageous letter coming up ♪ music

one more time! ♪ music kids will spend 22 minutes watching us, the super duper party troopers, sing about ants in their pants. brushing for two minutes now, can save your child from severe tooth pain later. two minutes twice a day. they have the time.

neil: shaking on a plane, giving the faa as shake. lookinat whether safety rules were violated on this plane. but instead of working about this, how about they focus on stopping the next shoe bomber or nightmare dream liner. this shakedown is a joke. but it is what it is. what do you make of this? >> what i make of it is we hear from armageddon, the government right now, the faa is existing on leftover dog food. let's have some priorities here.

they asked the stewardess for permission to do it, everyone seems to be pretty amused. let's face it that flying is such a misery anyway that everyone needs to lighten up a little bit. maybe this is the way to do it. maybe we ought to have that on every flight. neil: m sure if the captain had gone on the speaker and said we are about o be conservative, they would've sat down. >> on our. neil: but i think it is overkill. i'm wondering if it is another agency that should be focused on the safety of our planes that are ready to take off and making sure that the wrong guys on a plane. it just seems backwards. >> it is backwards. the problem is these people. we won't be satisfied until we are handcuffed to the chairs. but we need to have flexibility here and judgment. that's what they're not showing.

a bureaucratic mentality, pursuing something they don't need to pursue, doing things they don't need to do. i don't believe that we need to be going through x-rays every time it on an airplane. we need to have better screening procedures and the federal air marshals are pretty good. you don't see anyone jumping up and telling them to sit down. pele need to have some sort of judgment. >> on the sequestration things, one of the auments is that you're going to have your personality airports. security will be threatened, number of doomsday stories. would he make of that? >> we keep hearing about all of these taxes, i was struck by one he didn't even mention in the

last segment. senator blumenthal wants to have a tax for ammunion. i'm waiting for a handgun that i have to put a quarter and every time i want to make a shot. way out of hand, the faa needs to be brought to reality. we need to make fly and a lot more efficient and safer for everybody. that does not mean that weeed more screening or more people in our way making our lives miserable every time we travel. >> okay, thank you very much. a former u.s. defense deputy. in the meantime, sequestration cuts. suddenly the media is worried all over again.

>> i recognize that speaker boehner has challenges in his caucus. sometimes i reflect is there something else that i could do to make these guys not paint horns on my head. neil: it is pretty clear that the president is blaming the tea party for this sequester mass.

the mainstream media is giving them credit for making this a mass. dick armey says that it might suit the media to a tee, but the cuts could go relatively unnoticed. he joins us right now, the former house majority leader. it is always a pleasure. all of a sudden, they are in power again. look at that. >> i am always fascinated by the rhetorical symbiosis between the president and his fantasy and the press. the president has these ideas, a dumb idea and a bad thing. bad things will happen. he also says that the tea party does bad things. and therefore bad things will

happen in your life. most tea party activists are constitutionally limited, small government activists, we believe in sensible restraint of the government. also recognizing that across-the-board cuts are perfect formula for not thinking. the idea came from this white house on economics and finance because it is badly schooled in the first instance. not impressed with this. s.ey are saying, oh, my they are saying, oh, my goodness. they have stumbled and tripped along until they got into some minimal baby step cuts that are really decreased increases. [talking over each other] neil: that is a very good clarification. we show this card again about

what we get without this versus what we did with this. showg the rate of growth, so imperceptibly. having said that, i do find it interesting that one-day the tea party is dead and gone and those interests are dead and gone, and then something like sequestration props. not a care in the world. now it is to blame for what ever is to come. it is not so onerous, it's not the end of the world. then all of a sudden we call the bluff. the president cried wolf one too many times. >> he is exhausted. you know, he has exhausted the george bush conversation. >> i promise you that when it turns out that all of these horrible things that he has been

projecting don't happen, then the press will be happy to join him in pronouncing us dead again. we will be at about as bad as al qaeda was before the horrible red against our embassy. but if it suits his fantasy, he will do so. neil: what do you make of the argument. about john boehner being held hostage to extremists. >> first of all, this is not any different than when we hadthe majority in 1995 and 1996. there are essentially the hard-core fiscally conservative people and those that are more comfortable with spending. democrat have to manage.

i remember when i was a majority leader, i told my wife that i think i am a two-tailed dog. both sides tell me different things. i will tell you something else. john boehner has to live with a body of 435 people who know they can do his job better than he can and has never had the responsibility. so you get a lot of blowback. if you said who is the best man for the american people in office in washington today, i would say that it is is john boehner. why is that? because he is in touch with reality. you can't find anybody in the white house that has any idea what is going on in the real world. everybody in the white house today, if they would just watch her show tonight, the economic economic and finance iq would more than double. if they read one article, they

would be considered brilliant and therefore lose their job in the white house. neil: dick armey, you just guaranteed a weekly spot in our show. [laughter] you are right about that. the former leader for the freedom marks movement. a very much in-your-face guy. a sign of the times? this new advertisement is saying spend your dad's money. sounds a lot like washington. úúú ♪musicú ♪the more i search0forú my significance,♪ ♪seems0r ♪and0i0ú a0difference♪

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neil: a new advertisement

pushing grosses than their dads money. the company trying to put its best foot forward. a young man says that this is a horrible lesson to be sending to our kids. >> the question is, what do they mean? do they mean your dad or your sugar daddy? the sad reality that is about 40% of kids are born out of wedlock. only about 45% live their entire childhood with a mom and a dad in the home. for a whole group of little girls, and this is targeted to little girls. what are we telling them? what are we talking about? this is women's history month. the message that sketchers

ascending to the kids at him the wrong ones for young women. neil: that the company has said that they are not making a big deal, but the gist of it is that this collection's advertising is designed to be fun and lighthearted. what do you make of this reaction? >> i kind of agree with sketchers. they are going after the whole spoiled kid type of thing, which continues to grow. but that has been around for thousands of years. just turn into "downton abbey." if sketchers think they can make money at it, go ahead. i'm worried about the bigger issue, as you alluded to. it is this issue of spending other people's money. i mean, i agree with penny that it's not the rightessage to spend, but that is what the

current administration is encouraging. we are going to spread it out and essentially, we have 45% of the country receiving financial aid. saying that if we were briefed the work of hard work, we could keep most of it. >> i can agree with you that there are bigger issues. but i also think you have hit on something that might be a metaphor for our time. the company could've come up with another name, and they came up with this. we live in an environment where someone else is going to pay. i don't like is to be assumed.

i guess what i am seeing here is an expectation that it's going to happen. >> americans realize that how not to raise entitled kids and of course that is a concern. i am pointing to how this works. bathing suits for 8-year-olds, these halloween costumes that are crazy. i am someone who believes in a free-market free market economy, also believingn good corporate citizenship. corporations need to use their head. if they don't, we will do that. but we would really appreciate if they consider in their marketing that they don't sound like pedophiles. neil: there is that. in the end, i think it speaks to

us. i think it is a sort of reflection of a world we live in. >> i absolutely agree. i don't think it is particularly, you know, sketchers fault in this case. i think we don't like the trend, if you will. someone else taking advantage of the phenomenon and we are just not happy. a different age than when the three of us grew up. neil: well, good for you, all right, thank you so much. we hope you have a safe weekend. said as workers and making them looking crazy for a lot of green. >> would you like to buy some marijuana from your granddad in the?

>> wow, fantastic. >> wow, fantastic. >> what was that kids will spend 8 minutes decorating their little brother. brushing for two minutes now, can save your child from severe tooth pain later. two minutes, twice a day. they have the time.

neil: a package full of pot. a mother bought a gift for her daughter, but then pot showed up at her house. via fedex, she is suing him for putting her family at risk. we reached out to fedex. they refuse to comment. >> not only does she have a case. but this woman is going to track

this all the way to the bank. and they better get ready to ride route a big check because this is beyond gross neglince. they send this woman a packet containing 7 pounds of pot. this woman does the right thing and call the police. the police get involved. of course she is going to be be in fear for her life. there are going to be possible retaliations from drug dealers. she has every right to sek damages.

neil: she had no idea what she was signing for it. >> but she signed for the package. it was not the intended recipient -- she was not the intended recipient. but she signed for it. she consented to the terms and policies that they may have. [talking over each other] [talking over each other] >> i agree, she disagrees. the terms and policies are the following. if you get a package, you have to call fedex and say i just had a package. neil: pennock honored dora.

neil: they knock on your door. a. [talking over each other] [talking over each other] neil: okay, i understand. [talking over each other] [talking over each other] neil: you go first. >> let me finish. my issue is that fedex -- the police notified them that there were drugs in the package and this was part of the deal. >> they know that would be the case. >> go ahead. >> this happened shortly after the police left, which means

that they actually have this information. here is what happened. if you track the package and it shows that, it has been delivered and it's not a good thing. they are going to call fedex right away and say, where is my package. that is exactly what is probably happening. [talking over each other] [talking over each other] neil: hold on, all right. ladies, thank you both very much. much. anyway, the ceo of [narrator: female] quiet please. wait a sec. i'll take one. oh yeah. alright. all good. take care. way to go. nice. bring it on. gotcha i'm here for you. oh no. please, please. please.

i'm iting. interesting... not buying it. not fair. that's it. this conversation is over. oh, brother. [narrator: male] body language can tell you all sorts of things. [narrator: female] i'm having a stroke. i'm having a stroke. [narrator: male] know the sudden signs. learn f.a.s.t. f- face drooping a-arm weakness s- speech difficulty t- time, time to call 911 immediately. the sooner they get to the hospital, the sooner they'll get treatment, and that can make a remarkable difference in their recovery. learn the body language, the sudden signs, and spot a stroke f.a.s.t.

neil: group letter.

the groupon operating chief wrote a letter today. their stock priceehas been hovering. liz macdonald thinks the nation's chief executive should hold themselves accountable. we the american people hought he was good enough to be reelecte >> you get $87 billion off of the federal budget, and what are you left with? $3.7 trillion. this is the fifth year and we still have 1.4% anemic growth. the oth thing is that we have a lot of great coupon spending

going on on conferences. all sorts of redundancies throughout the government. i still do not understand why we cut the real issue. we have 80 union groups representing federal union workers. once you give them money, they really squawk when you try to take it back. >> it really does come back to accountability. neil: he says this is on me, what is the deal red not that this president would resign, but that he doesn't ever take the blame for a lot of things. he points to a lot of people, but never to himself. >> i think history will be the

judge. >> i think he is aware that the legacy will depend upon the deficit. there is the whole thing that politicians have performance related pay. there is also the flipside, they get a better calvo person. >> very good governing, relations d etc. international relations. >> of course, we get these as well. [talking over each other]

[talking over each other] neil: i am looking at this and i say that this is very crazy. i think very now and also dan, e is a good corporate deal. there is a lot more me a mea culpa i don't know, but you are in charge great campy everyone else's fault all the time. >> there is no doubt about it. the chickens are coming home to roost because people have seen that he created this firestorm of gloom and doom and the man

who cried wolf over sequester. saying that it won't be as bad as we thought. we have arnie duncan, the secretary of education telling falsehoods to the american people. it is false. we have janet napolitano saying that she didn't know that criminals were being released under the sequester. how is it possible that she did not know? the president took an oath to support and defend us. not to bring harm upon the american people and tell them that you will have to pay a price. they are making life difficult. this is not what leaders do. saying that to make the least amount of discomfort, that is quite the contrary what they are doing. >> getting back to groupon, i