more super charging stations across the country to get electric battery vehicles moving faster into the market. charles: so 31-- >> for the mobile charger according to tesla. >> 31 to 300 according to what charging you use. thank you, liz. now this, according to the latest polls, scandals in washington hurting president obama. two polls from quinnipiac university. president obama's approval rating 45%. 49% disapproval. you can see it on the scene and overwhelming majority want an independent prosecutor to investigate the irs. 76%. and what will the president do today? what do you think, he's going to make a speechhin front of college kids at the white house. let's bring in former quinton advisor doug schoen. here is the president, three, ignore the whole thing, two, slam congress, or three, discuss is honestly with america? >> he's certainly going to take one and two before he takes

three. his basic attitude is talk about the issues people care about, blame the republicans. charles: wait, wait, people, 76% right there say they he want a special prosecutor, they care about this issue? >> that's right, and they want a special prosecutor because their confidence in congress's ability to investigate is probably neglible, charles and the president obama administration understands as unpopular and he's getting, the congress and republicans are worse. >> and the game with the white house, as long as my popularity is bet her than my opponents it doesn't matter if we're both sinking, if america is sinking and confidence in government is sinking? doesn't the president have a responsibility, forget about party lines, the responsibility to lift the entire nation? >> charles, he almost certainly does have a responsibility. i'll answer with a metaphor. if you and i are chased to the woods by a bear, i don't have to be a worldclass sprinter, just better than-- >> i've heard that before.

>> can you react to the quinnipiac independent poll. >> they are. >> aen 4-1 want a special prosecutor and the poll found overwhelming bipartisan support for a special prosecutor. an and it's split 50-50 that they find the president untrustworthy and eric holder is not they consider reliable person to investigate. >> that's right and the full answer to charles' question, bottom line, confidence in the administration's handling of the three scandals is plummeting quickly. there is no confidence in the attorney general and the president is just trying to avoid it all. i don't think he is he going to be able to succeed for too much longer. charles: i don't think so either. he's gotten away with a lot and maybe occurred some older friends in the immediate he yeah, but you were involved with the president. i was. charles: what's the difference, in other words, how would president clinton handle this that president obama didn't. >> what president clinton did,

he did engage with the process, but look, he said more important than the fight over a personal indiscretion, arguably, was progress for the american people. but this is different, doug. and it's getting-- three scandals and it's becoming more of a scandal that people can relate to because it's not just about the irs going after large organizations, they're actually zeroing in on individual people, ma, pa, anyone watching this show, who has a difference with the white house could have been a potential target. that's different. >> charles, i think you're onto something. let me put it a slightly different way. if the ordinary person understands that they, too, are at risk, and if the republicans can make that case, that this is not just tea party groups, but it's everybody, then the president has a real problem. charles: you know, i think if he waits too long and then comes on with the rambling speech like he did with the defense speech actually a couple of days ago, it's really going to hurt him. obviously, they watch the polls really a lot at the white house and this has to be something of

a yellow, if not red flag and i'm not finger pointing at the republicans over student loans is going to work. >> one of the questions we don't know the answer to, what was douglas shulman doing over a hundred times-- >> in the white house? >> i stand corrected. >> and it's a big contrast. >> yahoo!'s chief going on a spending spree, flexing the company's muscle and trying to become hip to a younger generation. after the break, a guest says it's a good idea and that the ceo is a rock star. we'll get his reaction to this after the break. >> there's just no way an old company can keep a young company, hip, cool. they can have the appearance of cool, but they can't actually be cool. in today's markets, a lot can happen in a second. with fidelity's guaranteed one-second trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 market centers

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how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us.

we learned a lot of us have kwn someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ ♪. stuart: u i guess you could say never trust a big chinese company, that deal with smithfield is still making headlines. a congresswoman says she's worried about food quality and safety now that a chinese

company owns the big pork producer. joining us now from chicago is larry levin. we're down right now first and foremost. do you think we can finish higher today? >> well, it's the end of the month, last day of the month, usually a day with pretty big action so i think that finishing higher. that will be good for the market. i'm not sure it's going to happen that way. charles. it's taken decent hits, not huge hits, but hits in the market and i think we may see another one today. >> i hated the way the market closed yesterday and i take a bigger cue from the way we closed than the way we opened. it's start to go get sloppy, could that be a harbinger for finally the correction coming? >> you know, theose are the the things he we look for. if we had one. that's the first clue and looking for chart points and looking at a couple of weeks forward and saw the points, yes, you would think that. i don't think it's going to happen. i think it's fed driven and that's a big head fake yesterday. open strong and finish weak. and that's a good possibility of

what we might see today. not finishing and opening strong, but finishing weak. >> next week we've got jobs data. what, side ways, maybe volatile, but with a tight range? >> today's close we'll have off and break the lows of yesterday and see a good range, you don't do that, you may have to wait for friday. >> larry levin, thanks a lot. it's exciting out there. as you can tell the opening bell is ringing at this moment. [bell ringing] and let's check the board, dow off 4 points, 6 points, moving slightly lower. liz, stay on the markets. the consumer numbers were out and weren't that great. i want to talk about the retailers. gave upbeat guidance and the stock is up year to date. on the other side of the he occasion, and designer brand michael kors is up 30%. and both of the stocks, low end, high end retail have done

extraordinarily well. big news for netflix, the company is going to join the nasdaq 100 next week and lauren, let's go to you and find out how it's opening. >> it's opening by more than $3 right now. they will join the nasdaq 100 on thursday. the nasdaq 100 is the largest nonfinancial company that do trade on the nasdaq. it has a 12 billion dollar market cap, therefore, it's replacing a health care supplier which has a 11 million dollar market cap, charles. charles: we should point out to the viewers, a lot of investment managers have to buy the stock now that it's part of the nasdaq 100. let's stay on markets and bring in john layfield. john, this week we have been talking about the job that marissa mayer is doing at yahoo! and we thought on a strategist who said he wasn't impressed, what she's doing, she's going for attention, is not going to help the company, but i think you disagree? >> i he completely disagree. that's what they said about the deal with google and youtube. and they said the same thing

about youtube as they say about t tumblr. that it's a small niche market, no way to monetize that market. and that they had a small percentage of porn on youtube at the time. they've kept. the founder of youtube and tumblr. marissa mayer was there when they bought youtube. microsoft is a wonderful company and they have not been able to develop anything other than xbox, other than incredible word that they have. they have just been returning this money to shareholders. to me, that's a waste of money and shows that you're a very uncreative and there's nothing else you can do. i think that marissa mayer is an absolute rock star. charles: i tend to agree. she's invigorated the spirit of the company. this or maybe one or two more deals, they've been rumored for other deals is more or less swinging for the fences. what she's done, come into the

batter's box and taken a reggie jackson-like swing. either a majestic home run or a strikeout. do you think she put the company in that position? >> i think she's miss october. and reggie was mr. october. i don't think that she's necessarily swinging for the fence, i think they're increasing visitors, and then find a way to monetize it and yahoo! is worldclass just like google where she came from. and the deal that it's rumored that they're going to buy hulu to me is a complete game changer. it's how you're going to get content in the future and yahoo! is building up that entire television network. to me, this is simply a way to use the cash better. remember, yahoo! almost got bought for 30-something dollars a few years ago and they made a horrible mistake not selling the company. most of these dinosaurs, like yahoo! once they go to the tar pit, look at dell computer, a big fan of michael dell, but once they start going to the tar pit, they never find a way to turn around.

and marissa mayer has come in and i believe she's found a way to rejuvenate this company and use this incredible cash hoard for something good. charles: definitely got to give her an a-for effort and i don't think it's a parlor trick, to your point. i want to ask you about ben. listen, printing 85 billion dollars a month and it's just not working. there's really no evidence that it's working on main street. we saw the gdp number this morning, got consumer spending numbers and the needle just doesn't seem to move. what do you make testify? >> i make of the tactffactactff structural job market. if this was cyclical, lowering interest rates and printing this money and creating a little inflation would help the job market. the problem is there aren't jobs. and we need that. we don't have a national energy policy. we're the only country in the entire world that doesn't have one. we could have 3 to 4 million jobs created by 2020. but since we don't have it, there's no job creation event on

the horizon it's structural. >> you say that washington d.c. is basically holding the economy, and economic growth in check and that washington d.c. policies are undoing and basically eviscerating or undercutting the fed's money printing? >> yeah, no doubt about it. i'm not for pushing the epa in either direction, but they need to make a ruling on fracking. you have enough in shale in california alone to rerace their debt and year over year just like texas is doing. you can't, because you don't have a national energy policy. you don't know where things fit in or other pipelines or fracking or horizontal drilling. if we had that and they could look at it and take it off the table and say, look, the government ruled this, this is fine we're going forward with it. we don't have that and so we have no job creation on the horizonen. >> it's amazing we have that in our back pocket as a nation and won't use it. i would ask you to have a great

weekend, but you're in bermuda and i'm jealous. >> bring your trunks, charles. >> see you later. and lauren, krispy kreme, a name a lot of people know and the stock is up big. >> it's up double digits by 11.8%, then they've raised their names. same-store sales for a donut maker increasing by 11%, that's a huge margin. i want to point out the volume on the stock at 1 million shares and growing. the average daily volume is 1.1 million so this is a huge stock and a huge winner today, a huge winner, i didn't contribute this quarter, but-- >> i did, here. charles: you can afford to. we'll talk to you again soon. now, let's get back to the story, purchase of smithfield food by a chinese company is raising serious red flags in washington joining us by phone is rosa deloria, from connecticut. good morning, congresswoman.

>> good morning. charles: first thing, you think that raises food safety concerns in america? >> yeah, i think that this does a potential merger, [inaudible] it raises questions about their economic concern around it and also, the agency that is -- is investigating the merger really doesn't have the ability to focus in on safety issues. and it's just because it's national security [inaudible] >> food safety, on the food safety concern a couple of thesis here. when you have consolidation with overseas ownership it makes it more difficult to make sure that the food that americans have is safe. we know there are food imports from china are growing as food safety concerns in china grows

so he we need to be concerned about that and one other point, the pork producer acquiring smithfield in 2011 was found to have produced and sold tainted pork. charles: right. >> so, you know, and on the economic side of this issue, why would we believe that-- the policy that china has by the way, a practice. what they do is rather than open their markets to their products. they buy a major producer and you know, that's -- the longer term effort is what about the, you know, their pork production and what happens with regards to costs, what happens with regard to competition? it will be much like the -- their production of chicken. >> congresswoman, congresswoman, i can tell you right now there is he' absolutely no doubt a lot of people share your concerns. you're breaking up a little bit and we're going to end it there. and we appreciate not only your

concerns, but taking your time this morning and i will say to the audience probably the other side of the argument just as a form of protectionism and the reason that the china is buying this company is for the reason they wanted out. they want our expertise so they don't have to maybe sell poison food to their own people, but this won't go away. and obamacare, the hits keep coming, $2500 tax that will hit older and sicker americans and remember when the president said you can keep your plan. it turns out that's not so if you're a smoker or have high blood pressure and the g.o.p. investigation into the kathleen sebeli sebelius, and all of these things and angles at the 10:00 hour. right now i've got your seven early movers in a down 4 # mark-- 42 markets. blackberry is actually stepping up reports, and blackberry up on that news report. and morgan stanley got an upgrade from deutche bank and think it's cool when one firm upgrades another firm and says

that morgan stanley. and lions gate, that stock is near certainly a july time high. this morning, guess, i don't know, e-mac might buy jeans there, had pretty good numbers and talking about the retailers, that's one doing pretty well. christie cream already mentioned with lauren on the floor. you can see, 1.90, but more important 14%, a huge move for the stock which had been more or less trading side ways for a while. and a medical appliance safety company. tremendous earnings, a small name and we wanted to talk to you about it because we bring you small medical names. up 24% and omni vision, a tech name that hasn't done much for long time, but last night posted amazing numbers and as you can see, an amazing start to the day. having said that, let's check on the big boards. we were down as much as 60 points on the open, you've seen the script and played out. we opened lower and work our way up.

speaking of which, the price of oil, down 64 cents, range bound, 92.97. next, a defense attorney tries to defend those two cases, these two cases, okay? we've got more examples of lois lerner tax exempt office, targeting individuals, not organizations, individuals. and doug schoen, the over one hundred visits to the white house, this stuff is getting personal. (announcer) scottrade knows our clients trade and invest their own way. with scottrade's smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online

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>> all right. let's check on the big board. and the chicago pmi number one

of the numbers this year in fact, got to go back to march of 2012. that's fantastic news and helping the market erase big gains earlier. we're worried about the irs scandal at least we were, that it would go away. a lot of people said, hey, congress is off this week, not so much because new details continue to surface. recently released public records show that former irs commissioner douglas shulman visited the white house get this, 157 times. raising the question what was said during the frequent visits? >> what would be some of the reasons you might be at the white house? >> the easter egg roll with my kids. charles: yeah, he said that. and fox news contributor and criminal attorney arthur aidala, how do you defend this? >> the easter egg rolls. charles: somewhere else, but-- >> and he could have done a much better job that that. i don't know if the

vice-president of the united states has been in the white house that many times. obviously, it raises eyebrows. obviously, we draw a presumption, what we call in the courtroom circumstantial evidence. >> it's not direct evidence, nobody there is saying, yes, i everheard the president of the united states tell him to do x, y and z, but circumstantially someone walks in the from the outside, here is an umbrella, it's raining out. charles: and let me set the stage. right there the jury is the american public and tell the american public who is looking at this, 157 times and something is wrong with that and the irs became a weapon for the white house. >> adeally i would have done my homework and see the last time the irs chair-- the guy under bush went there once. >> okay, that's a little rough, but i would stand up, i would look at them and say ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this is the man, the person in charge of basically all the money, so much of our revenue comes in from the irs. this is a period in the united states of america where we were

choking, 2008 when president obama came in we were choking financially. this is the guy who had to be-- the linchpin. >> with the white house to make sure that they're doing the job. >> all right. >> i'll get one housewife oh-- >> and how do you find out. how do the american people find out what was said between the president and irs commissioner doug shulman on all of those visits? do you need a special prosecutor? >> you probably don't find out. there's some sort of-- it's called a privilege. the white house has that kind of privilege, the priest. >> you can use executive privilege? >> there are exceptional circumstances when you can get around that, but in general the president of the united states, and we wouldn't want the president of the united states to have to reveal every conversation he has with all the people who work under him. so-- p> even though the president works for us and the irs commissioner works for us? >> well, you know, they don't

really work for us. >> yes, they do, they work on the taxpayer's nickel. >> we pay them, but they don't work for us. you know what i'm saying. charles: the best thing you say you go for a hung jury? >> i would just try to say. charles: no way to-- >> he was in there to update the tax policy. you need to look the at facts. let's say theres' legislation pending about reforming the tax code. there you go. that's a good reason. a lot better than the easter egg roll. give me a break. should is a say i was meeting with so-and-so, geithner or somebody to discuss policy or chief of staff to discuss how we were going to change this code or the deductions. >> when he says easter egg roll, does that tell you something about his state of mind. >> yes. >> what does it tell you. >> he doesn't have a real good. if he had a good answer. >> two things tells he didn't have a good answer, but contemptuous of the whole thing. a lot of people in the administration when they go before congress they act like they're above it all and bothered to be there. eric holder with the ice showdown and this--

>> and okay, arthur, i think i'll still keep you on retainer. >> would i hire you. >> you did pretty good on the short notice, thanks a lot. have a great weekend. time now for your morning gold report. yesterday, gold was over 1400 as you can see it's holding there now and 11 bucks, 1400 on the nose. hey, france in recession, record high unemployment in the eu. what's the socialist plan? sell presidential wine. speaking of socialist a toilet paper shortage in venezuela. police seized rolls in a covert operation. what else did they find? you'll find out what else. ♪

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>> let's check on the big board. the dow went positive and trickles into the negative column and up about seven bucks again. the chicago pmi number was huge and did a big job getting the market up this early in the session. okay, guys, in honor of margaret thatcher here is what happens when you run out of other people's money. police in socialist venezuela say they've seized nearly 2500 rolls of toilet paper in an overnight raid on a secret warehouse storing scarce goods. >> unbelievable. >> liz, you can't make it up. >> and seized diapers and liters of fruit juice.

this is a country under price controls and currency controls. that's what happens you have empty store shelves and people waiting. literally, i have friends down there, literally waited for hours at the grocery store around the block. the lines starting, for meat, milk, for sugar. so there's a food shortage going on and you don't see it in the media. >> it is a bad problem and of course, more on the socialist front. how bad is it getting in cash-strapped france? the french president is selling wines from the presidential cellar. can't get worse than that. >> especially when france has been criticized for the grey poupon spending and the leaders are saying, listen, we're trying to shake up the wine stocks, the amount in there. it's not a lot they're selling. but the news is out they're trying to cut spending which i don't think they are, that's not a good headline for france. charles: in the meantime, in the free markets america, we got

consumer confidence numbers out the highest number i think since 2007, july of 2007, the markets not reacting necessarily to it, but again, much better than what's happening in the socialist countries. look what we have for you that's new in our jam-packed hour, the next hour of "varney & company." we've got more problems with obamacare, i know you're not surprised. monica crowley is going to join us and she certainly isn't surprised. speaking of europe. we will tell you how the 13-year-old spelling bee champ could teach the socialists about hard work and never giving up and why america became great in the first place. you don't want to miss this. ♪ [ male announcer ] when the world moves... futures move first. learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. and trade with papermoney to test-drive the market. ♪ all on thinkorswim.

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charles: here is what we have in this new hour of "varney and company". new challenges for obamacare, senators won a debate on fund-raising for the law. one of those joins us. the biggest producer in the world, attacking the pentagon means one thing, it wants our expertise and will stop at nothing to get it. the spelling jeb is proof of the triumph of the american spirit. what european use can learn from this kid. and what is worth more? the internet sensation grumpy cat which inked a movie deal or this are 2,000-year-old egyptian statue that will be live in the studio? a new hour of "varney and

company" is here. [appla ♪ charles: we checked the big board. we are up, two positive economic reports, chicago p.m. on advice to year and consumer sentiment virus in six years. maybe we should be higher but we are in the plus column. another big story, scandal in washington, what we're calling president obama's dog and pony show that his attempt to stay above the cnbc, his approval numbers living, his attorney general in hot water. what is the president to do? march in front of a group of college kids in front of the white house and blame republicans for higher student loan rates. monica crowley is here. you have seen this before. >> meantime swift this white house. he will try the conventional approach to handling scandals. this is what presidents in trouble do, deny, dislike and try to distract, get the press to move along past those issues

with them. today he has a bunch of college kids and will talk about their student loan program, set to expire on july 1st, the student rate, loan rates are set to double so he will be selling this to the kids, one of his constituencies, both times they came out in droves, he will talk about loan forgiveness. what he will not tell you is the house of representatives, the republican house already has a plan to avert a crisis july 1st and the only difference between what the president is putting out and what republican is a couple percentage points in terms of the student loan -- charles: the entrance will be republicans will lead student loans double, i am trying to fight them and this is the most important thing going on in d.c. don't worry about anything. >> the irs, don't worry, don't look over here, look over here. what he is really arguing to these kids is part of this distraction, a lie because the house has all plan, there are no such discussions between the house of representatives and the

white house about solving this problem. charles: the bottom line is republicans don't want those rates to double. before he came on in the first hour we had doug schoen, liz macdonald asked a great question about whether we could find out what doug schoen spoke about at the white house, 157 times. arthur talked about executive privilege but you say not for doug schoen. >> he could be compelled to testify if they put a subpoena on him, bring him back whether it is congressional open hearings or private testimony, they could compel him but the white house might be able to exert executive privilege over their side of the conversation meaning. tool and meet with? valerie jarrett or jetblue or bill daley? meet with the president of the united states? i thought for a long time we are heading for a constitutional crisis over benghazi and the irs can the land this might be where it takes place where the white house invoked executive

privilege and says you cannot have access to any of these records. charles: maybe doug shoen will get a better answer than the easter egg hunt. now back to laurin. netflix leading the s&p. >> top performer on the isn't the 500 but also for the year, up 150% this year. the news for netflix is as of thursday this will be a member of the nasdaq 100, many mutual funds will track netflix because they're tracking the nasdaq 100 as a result of that. this is a huge performance and the stock's performance to date, if you look at netflix over the past year it is up 250%. charles: netflix is a monster stock but they have done some good things. thanks a lot. the scandals catching up to president obama. the polls are turning against him and the media is turning against him. the question is how long will the me deal told the administration's feet to the fire everybody wonders?

media research center's kim grant, i guess the ap part of it sort of turned the tide with respect to the media but i have seen some tendency of the media to forgive the president, how long can we expect the media in general told the president accountable? >> we already have a disturbing signs that the networks are sort of dropping of this. we haven't had much network coverage of the irs scandal for about a week since los lerner took the fifth. we are perhaps headed into a two year system like a second term of bill clinton where you have the professionals, the print press, the cable news is covering this, that segment of network news that would rather cover whether beyonce is pregnant is going to try not to cover this and that is where we are right now. charles: having said this, monica talked about a serious constitutional crisis with all

these things. it boils down to something likk this could the media continue to ignore it? would they be forced to get into share the story with america? >> part of it is what government does. when they are hearings, then the media feels compelled to cover it. when the administration takes steps like putting people on administrative leave, those are the things that are newsworthy that if you skip the them you really show that you are not very professional. and so for the most part they didn't cover lois lerner being put on administrative leave. that was not an issue they were excited about. we may be in danger of the people who dictate what the news is for example for moms who watch the today show, they are going to try not to do this story and so we have something like mr. schulman going to the

white house more than 150 times, that is not something the networks have covered. that is not our concept that they have ever expressed. if you are in the know, you know that. if you were watching tv you have no idea. >> quick question. bob schieffer a couple weeks ago on cbs this morning, the sunday show. he let it slip when he said the mainstream media has the power to determine the shelf life of any given scandal and that is largely true. we have seen on nbc platforms chris matthews and others referring to benghazi and the irs and other scandals as, quote, careful as a way to minimize this. the biggest scandal of all time--the arms of the government being used against political opponents is just a careful. >> if this is one of the ways the news media will be enormous power over our political culture in which it defines as a scandal and one that defines as a

so-called controversy to use the time they use, when the a key road story the other day that even the ap scandal was an alleged scandal you know they are desperate to say it is not a scandal. charles: looks like it is business as usual and i am glad monica said careful because i'm afraid even to pronounce it. we need you to keep their feet to the fire because i don't think it will go away. now back to china. a country growing so fast, eating better, demanding better quality, that is why china is buying the largest pork producer in the world. julia can't covered a career. what do you make of this? one of the knee-jerk reactions was they are going to import their way of doing business. at some point will americans eat bad pork and won't be any accountability for the shareholders and all these kinds of things? >> you haven't seen anything.

if the deal is approved the company will own smithfield but i would say the goal on the chinese side, the deal will be partially financed by the bank of china, is to provide higher quality food for the chinese middle-class, growing middle-class eating more meat than ever before, drinking more milk, more dairy products. charles: they want every aspect, are they trying to improve all the aspects of their lives? >> exactly. when you start seeing these foods scandals break out in china over the past decade and it starts to add up think if you are a mom or dad who is middle-class trying to raise a family and get your kid to college and have to worry about your food. it is very encouraging from the chinese side and the u.s. side with the company said is you don't have to worry in terms of the american products, they're going to be sourced from the same place, the quality will be the same but we have to watch this because you don't really know what could happen. charles: but quickly, connect

the dots, the populists are saying ma and pa having more sprint in this area, being able to demand more from the government does this suggest that some point there could be some form of democracy there? are we on that path in china? >> many democratic needs throughout the country. in china the people vote with their pocketbook ended is a 1-party system and the communist party, the only thing they care about is their legitimacy and stability and that is what matters and they will do as much with a middle-class as they can to make sure they stand up. charles: i want to bring you in on this because you have foreign-policy expertise. chuck hegel has been talking about these attacks, the idea that the administration hasn't done a lot about this and quite frankly i can't remember when they have done a lot about even the currency manipulation. why isn't the administration doing anything about this and

are their hands completely tied? >> i was stunned to see the defense secretary come out with a kind of stating the obvious. he said the cyberattack is an invasive and insidious threat. of course it is and has been that way for years and years. china only acts in its national interests as most nations do. i come to thinking about a quote put in my book last year when my book came out a couple years ago, nature chinese military general. he essentially said this would be more aggressive, being more aggressive, the ocean in terms of strategic interests but what we are carrying out against the united states is economic warfare. buying smithfield farmers and the computer hacking into our defense system is less about military assertiveness than economic assertiveness and the middle class, the one stabilizing force we know throughout history is a rising middle class which is why the

chinese communist leadership to your point more economic choice will lead to demand for more political choice so you will get -- the stabilizing of the middle class and keeping that going. charles: in the meantime we can't expect much from the administration in terms of being boisterous with respect to cyberattacks or currency manipulation. to the latest unintended consequences of obamacare, this example from the los angeles times of all places. a hidden tax on obamacare. the los angeles times, the american enterprise institute wrote it and he joins us now. not sure how surprised you are they ran with your peace and it is interesting that we continue almost every day or weekly to find out obamacare has a lot of hidden goodies. >> that is right. when you look into the bag of tricks you find a few more unpleasant surprises.

this is a tax that started earlier this year. there are a lot of these less earned taxes, part of a way to finance less obviously what was the big expansion of government spending and subsidies in obamacare, one on flexible spending accounts for several decades, what was put into the law in 2010 but kicked earlier this year, a limit on how much you could contribute your flexible spending account, that you couldn't put in more than $2,500, the tax-free contributions out of your paycheck which are exempted from federal income tax and payroll tax. charles: what do you make of the reports that there will be more pressure on people with high blood pressure, overweight people, smokers, essentials what i make of the talk they end up paying more money is maybe you will lose your provider, maybe you will lose your doctor because you may have to move on to a new plan so essentially if you are fat, overweight, and you

smoke, you could lose your doctor. >> we are mixing categories of little bit. you are employing -- employer wellness incentives in many employer plans, mixed evidence as to how effective they are but that argument is if people who have unhealthy habits are given some financial incentive to change, lose some weight, exercise, don't smoke, that will reduce the total health care costs not only for them but my that is more than the particular issue which is an explicit tax which is imposed through the policies of the affordable care act. charles: thank you, we appreciate it. congratulations. lot of people picked up your peace, we will see you soon. the smart phone wars are just heating up, samsung, apple, google android, samsung has a new product entering the market. should appleby worried? we have clayton morris, telling us more.

charles: former microsoft executive plans to create the first u.s. national marijuana brand, he wants to import marijuana illegally from mexico and build a company that becomes a leader of recreational land medical marijuana but the use, sale and possession of marijuana is still illegal under federal law. unemployment in the euro zone hit a record number, 12.2% in people, 19.4 million people out

of work, in four young people jobless. and record began in 1995. new rules out of nicole petallides's the art copy please, starbucks saying if you are a smoker in you want to step out and light up you better stay 25 feet from the entrance. that policy goes into effect tomorrow. let's take a look at the big board turning negative despite news in chicago p.m. on and consumer sentiment and a samsung many coming out, is apple worried? .

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charles: the battle to take on apple's iphone, the samsung s 4 one is a smaller version of the popular galaxy line of funds, fox and friends host whitmore as is the gadget guru of the entire network. what do you think? was your first impression? >> they tried this last year with the three one and it was slammed publicly because it was so slow and get this clunky slower version of your f 3, larger screen and faster and better, why would we pay for this kabir phone. it seems they are coming back-they're going after the mass market is about price points and the budget phone. looking at this, a beautiful big

screen, the screen on the new mini won't be as crystal clear, it will be a little less sharp and pictures won't be as good. charles: for me the samsung when i saw the phone initially the reason it made an amazing impact is in part a bigger screen, the resolution and all these things. do they take a big chance of diminishing the brand so to speak when coming out with a new version? lesser screen, takes away all the pluses from the product? >> one of my big complaints about samsung is they throw so much crap in it as it is. to have a phone that peels that back i call it decaf, the decaf version, not quite as good but pulling back some of the features. maybe it is less filling but not as bloated. they may be doing the smart thing, giving more access. charles: people considering buying a smart phone, you have an apple offering and the mini,

which one? >> the smart phone race is so wide open, you have compelling phones across all spectrums, we are talking the blackberry line, the keyboard, if you are into the brand new nokia phones coming out for windows look beautiful all aluminum hardware, the atc 1 is the best of the android phone this, the samsung galaxy phone, what we will see from apple in a few weeks, the big announcement in a few weeks, the fall of this year if you are thinking of buying a cellphone way until the fall of this year to make a decision because you have a host of products in time for the holidays and -- a cornucopia of phones. charles: a plethora of riches when it comes to these phones. it is still marketplace and there will be winners and losers. even though it is a giant market place i don't know if there's enough for all the names you mentioned the. someone has to win and someone has to lose. >> you brought up a great point

which is should appleby worried? apples its back and wait and this marketplace, middle-market budget that apple wants to play in so far they haven't, the apple is a high end flow. will they sit back like they usually do with the midrange i.t. had and say there's a marketplace for a 7 inch ipad. now there's a market for the midrange budget phone. will they release all budget iphone? that will be interesting to see if they see there's a market. charles: you want the next generation of everything, the big news you are talking about that investors are looking for is the next giant leap frog for them. >> we heard that from tim cook. he said we are going to come out with new product categories, that is not anything they currently have could shake things up again, sprinkle the fairy dust every one wants from apple once again. charles: monica is with the blackberry. >> old school right there. charles: up next a live report

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>> did the president is beginning at the white house about preventing student loans from dublin on july 1st. peter barnes joins us from washington. what is through the play-by-play >> reporter: the president is going to hit into a little bit of political theater here in the rose garden in just a couple of minutes. he is going to talk about this problem the student loan rates are scheduled to double on july 1st reduction from congress and something the president can sign. he did this last year and extended the low rates through july 1st this year, but there would get to 68. the president is pushing republicans to adopt his proposal to keep rates down and he was to surround himself with college kids while he is putting the pressure on. >> all right. thank you very, very much.

i'm going to ask you because you already mentioned that the gop has already passed measures to make sure that rates don't double and there are really may be small differences, but the presidents perhaps is going to really lay it on pretty thick that the republicans are holding this back. >> and this is of the first time we have seen this pattern. we know the college kids, college-age adults came out in droves for him and 08 and 2012. democrats want to keep that constituency of. when the locking kids in the voting cycle you have them for the rest of their lives. this has happened before. republicans put out a plan. they don't want to see rates double either. so they put out a plan. the white house and the president has no intention of meeting with republicans to try to get a meeting of the mines and some sort of compromise, no discussions of a scheduled whatsoever. once again the president is going to go out and exploit this issue for political purposes.

>> de think he tries to exploit it to the point of letting a double? >> i don't think he is going to go that far. he knows where his brothers. >> well, you tell have a hard if you don't vote democrat, but you don't have a brain when you get older and vote republican. the 2013 hurricane season begins tomorrow. forecasting a 211 hurricanes for the six months season, but three is six turning into possibly major storms. meteorologist. it's going to be a pretty bad hurricane season. >> yes, we had that forecast out on march 27. we pioneered a method that we think is going to gain people looking at it over the coming years as they're looking at the upper air temperatures in the tropics in the late winter. >> it's going to be a bad season?

>> yes. i think it's going to be a very active season. i'm particularly concerned this year about a more classic season resurfacing a lot of storms out in the middle of the atlantic and then of course, sandy. that was early in the season conformable storms. think we will see a lot of a classic long track storms and come off africa, a lot more activity in the absence this year, whether it's back toward the western caribbean and toward the united states. the reason why is we are in a pattern very similar to the 1950's with the pacific was in its cooling load, the atlantic is still warm, so the onus for major hurricane activity shifts to the atlantic. >> with our without your methodology community have been one of the best appreciated. it looks like you are between body building competitions, you have to bulk up a little bit there. >> i am competing next week. >> okay. send a some pictures.

the secretary of homeland -- health and human services secretary break the law when it comes to fund-raising? some top senators want to know. we all want to know and they're calling for investigation. taking this opporunity. always have to, to run the classic for nancy pelosi. >> we have to test the bill so that you can find out what is senate away from the fog of the we went out and asked people a simple question:

how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪

♪ >> three top republican senators are asking the health and human services inspector general to investigate a secretary, kathleen sebelius, after reports that she was raising money from private groups to promote obamacare. one of those senators is joining us now by phone. senator, thank you for taking up the time. >> thanks for having me. >> and thank you for pushing this issue. what exactly are you guys looking for? here's what we're trying to find out. one, is the secretary raising money from people she regulates. to, and maybe more important, is she doing an end run on congress to back is he creating an entity and raising money outside of the government to do what the congress has refused to do? that is illegal.

the constitution does not permit it. and if you will think back about 25 years, aid is what got oliver north in trouble in the latter years of the reagan administration when he -- when congress said, don't find it armies in nicaragua toward rebel armies, and he did it anyway. and he worked with an outside organization and raise money. we're trying to find that the tax. charles: let's go to your first point. let's say she is or has done this sort of arm-twisting, if you will, over the very businesses that will be regulated. they will be compelled, i think, you know, to have to give money. if you are on the other end of this and the regulator comes to you and says, hey, we need cash, your going to start it over. >> sure. the health care is a dominant part of our society now. billions of dollars sloshing around. if the chief regulator of all of

the health insurance companies comes and says, we won a million dollars for some worthy purpose, they're going to feel compelled to give it. that is why we have laws against this. this is not just for health care. is true for every part of government. charles: the second part of what you are looking for, the fifth end run around congress, my own personal opinion, but it feels like their is a certain amount of disdain and contempt for congress by the administration. this will be just may be part of what we have seen for a long time. i think one of the reasons it exists is to be quite frank congress is not seem to stand up to the white house. >> we are doing our best. we need a few more votes in the senate, but you are exactly right on your first point. our founders, at least most of them, did not want the king, so they created congress. many administrations have chafed at the limits that congress puts on an executive. the obama administration has been more flagrant and most. the president has made a recess

appointments when there have not been -- and we were not in recess in the senate. we have sued him about that and won in court. the education secretary is using waiver authority increase the national school board. they have more czars and the romanovs. and now secretary kathleen sebelius appears to be saying if congress refuses we will to do it anyway. charles: we appreciate your time this morning and also the efforts the guys are making. obviously we would like to touch base with you soon. but the story really is. appreciate it. >> thank you very much. charles: the obamacare hits just keep coming. new report just now says the health care insurance rates could go up as much as 146%. 146%. i may note that had to knock you off your socks. >> and we are starting to see the stories of more and more frequency. in terms of state and how they're going to handle all of the blizzard of mandates and regulations and the taxes that are all part of obamacare,

california, as you say, could go up over 146%. that is probably a lowball estimate. we have seen in other states that rate premiums could go up as much as 200 percent, maybe even more because you have big government coming in to the private -- what used to be private sector enterprise. now it is so going to work the private industry in terms of health insurance that you're going to see premiums come, less access to doctors, but reduced care. charles: us the. zero one to go to. if they can stop this from happening but want to seek -- keep the political problem then they have to find a way to make pat -- taxpayers pay for this. that is the only way they can offer this. it is inevitable. and it is probably going to be worse than expected. >> and the ultimate objective of the far left on this white house, and they are on record saying this, i want to move the country eventually to single payer. when they have this man away and it will all be muddling along

and the taxpayer will be footing the bill more and more, you will see greater pressure to move the country toward a single payer system, i guarantee it. charles: i have heard a lot of ready where they say it is not an economic discussion anyway. less talk about this. if you are a smoker, overweight, you could actually be forced to pay more for insurance. smokers could be trusted to 50 percent more. that is an outrageous number. >> smoking, overweight, if you are doing anything that the government bureaucrats think is unhealthy and anything that they consider to be an healthy, they're going to levy more taxes. your premiums will be higher under obamacare, which is a huge irony, charles, because what the left was arguing, socialized medicine, these of the people that we want to help, lower income people, working-class people don't have health insurance. disproportionately those other ones said to be overweight, tend to be smokers. they will be hit the worst. charles: quickly, does this explain why we are building a new army of irs agents to go out

and the bourse this kind of stuff? >> how scary is that. supplier at least two dozen new agency going to enforce these things, especially regulations like this. there will be in every nook and cranny of your life. there will be watching what you have for lunch state. you better have a salad. charles: i better. a 13 year-old from bayside, queens, went to the national spelling bee and lost two previous rounds because of the hard german words but one the word this time, another german word. he won this time. we will tell you what the winning word was and what the lesson the world's use can learn from the champion. a great american up next. ♪ clients are always learning more to make their money do more. (ann) to help me plan my next move, i takecottrade's free, in-branch seminars...

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prices may be to blame. the shareholder vote, michael dell by all of her of $24 billion. holding that meeting july 18th to discuss the proposal. stepping up his effortt. the 13-year-old boy who won the spelling bee by trying harder. he lost two years in a row.

charles: first, the leading s&p.

>> reporter: gas prices are higher by about two and a half percent and for the month of may up 8%, and we were just talking to some traders, and they're very positive on bass and the companies that the on, of navy, banana republic, like in the summer's elections. they just got a strong set continuing to make the floor each month bringing in a broader array of shoppers. they're saying, the shopper response to the summer product is very strong and outpacing their peers. gap is a winner today, this week, and this month. charles: a lot of people falling into the gap. thanks a lot. 13-year-old lee york native seized the crown as the charity of spelling bee champ last night. he won by spelling the word knaidel which is a word for small massive bell. the first one. the thing alike, this is a kid who persevered. i think you could teach the kids of europe nothing more to.

this morning he had to contrasting stories, this could you actually lost the spelling bee and was not that two years in a row by a german word. went back and said, okay, i won't ever get knocked down again by a german word. the chances weakness into a positive and he wins. san news this morning. 40 percent of the kids are unemployed, and yet there are 6,000 pizza-making jobs that don't want. it is beneath them. two separate directions. >> and a couple of things going on. one is self motivation. this great kid who kept going. he stuck to it and said i will not be defeated. i will study more, work harder. that incentive came from within. he wanted that championship, and he did it until we got it. good for him. then there are government incentives. government incentives and mother and i will work hard. what we have seen in this country of the last five years have been not of war on the rich. it has been a war on success.

when you have a government, with its year, and western europe, does incentivizing that kind of hard work or perseverance and actually subsidizing laziness, that is what you get. now we have massive youth unemployment, you don't have that kind of self motivation because why work hard, why were carbon the government will get you a check? charles: i have to tell you, i am critical sometimes of america news. i mangos his last name a little bit, but a girl from the american islands to lost two years in a row and one this year. i love it. a famous internets copycat. the 2,000 cat from egypt. which one is worth more? we will find that after this. with the spark mes card from capital one, bjorn earnunlimited rewas for his small busiss take theseags to room 12 please.

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charles: well, this segment is called old money and the companies behind them. brought along a couple of pretty interesting adams. tell us a little bit about the. >> we have two things here. the first is a fantastic egyptian cat dating to what we call the ptolemaic time frame,

304 debt 30 bc. going to be 150-$250,000, do expect it will sell for considerably more. charles: christie's has been on a roll, for sure. the cats played an real important role in aid to egypt. they have great significance. >> they were sacred to the goddess. interesting. people would go to her sanctuaries and then there would dedicate cat, usually academy would be deposited in the sanctuary, sometimes in a with sarcophagus, sometimes a bronze one. charles: is that what this was? >> most likely. large enough that they can't make it half in there. charles: the price seems like something that old, i don't know, would be worth even more. >> well, you know, it is like this, supply and demand like any other marthere are enough of ths out there to keep them from being he's the valuable, but this is particularly good one. charles: the condition is absolutely phenomenal,

absolutely beautiful piece. listen, you guys have this big modern art auction and set all kinds of records. the antiquities stuff seems to be -- is that fading? how you advise interest in the stuff that you so? >> welcome we don't have to revive, but market is really strong. if you look at statistics, a decade ago we gained internationally something like 40 million last year we did 43 million, so it is still absolutely a strong and growing. charles: where your international buyers coming from? >> all over the world, persian gulf, emerging markets from russia and asia, but generally americans and europeans. charles: let's talk about the piece next to the cat. >> this one, this is quite a bit older. it is from the cycladic arens of greece and dates to about 2,500 b.c. and should have been about this size when complete and the feed would have been ankle. we know that it was designed to be reclining, so placed in a

burial on its back. charles: it gives me this thing, eastern island, like it was maybe the thumb nail for the big east dryland thing. do you know the significance? >> we know that these figures were either placed hold into burials or broken in sanctuaries that is about all we know. we also know that there were painted originally. they would have been read for the here and the eyes and so forth. charles: i have to tell you, i think they're absolutely phenomenal, both for -- both of them. >> i am fascinated by antiquities sectors. charles: -- >> and cycladic is he's a popular because of the depiction of the human and artists like picasso were much influenced by ancient art. charles: i can see why. good luck, although i don't think you're going to need it. we really appreciated. we love doing these segments. you guys look like you have

another winner and. >> thanks a lot. charles: will talk to you again soon. more "varney & co." after this. ♪ [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain... [ thunder rumbles ] ♪ [ male announcer ] when the world moves... futures move first. learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. and trade with papermoney to test-drive the market. ♪ alon thinkorswim. from td ameritrade.

♪ charles: monica crowley is still here. the scandal of the irs is not dead. it will heat up next week with more congressional hearings, so what should we expect? >> congress was not in session. they had their memorial day break, but they're coming back on monday. the scandal is going to have a new set of life breathed into it because what we see so far is the government oversight and reform committee have been the ones primarily focused on this. we have some senate hearings as well. what will happen next week is it will broaden out. you will have to other committees in the house. leading the charge, ways and means an appropriation. what is interesting about the appropriations committee is there will be taking a look at how the irs is spending its money. the irs agents during the star trek video at the cost to you of

$60,000. there will be taking a look at how the address is spending its money. there is some pressure to actually defund the address until we get to the bottom of these very serious questions. charles: the bottom line is we have always been told, if you follow the money trail you might find the smoking guns. this might be a way to smoke of these guys even better. >> if you follow the money you can determine he said all of this into motion and how high it goes. charles: also the idea that there were targeted. the the chance to talk about their experiences. >> and as we're hearing more and more of these stories, the story gets more and more legs because you can put human faces to the abuse of power that was carried out by the irs. it is not just the amorphous groups, small, local to parties and individuals who are now going on our air and across the country telling years of the story. charles: they're going to be pretty hard break-in. have a great weekend. all right. it's all up to you now. go forward.

connell: thank you very much. we have a busy hour as a matter of fact, coming up with your retirement under fire in a couple of different ways, the latest on the report from social security and medicare coming out right now. we get jeff flock for that. questions about youth unemployment which is a huge concern for people over in europe. some are even using the word revolution. you will show you why we cannot be ignoring this problem here in the united states either. some loans are one of the reasons we should worry. growing amounts of debt for many. and now they're battling over a deadline of july 1st where interest rates on these loans are scheduled to double. then the money behind the game. the century old rivalry this weekend will be renewed, yankees and red sox, but the yankees' president is with us today, not necessarily to talk about that, but something bigger from a business perspective. holder interests and many are now being shared in other arenas , completely different sports. the presid