underwood. left to right want to be fake real. wake up america. that's harsh. have a great >> he mentioned next week. we'll be here on monday. >> hi, everybody, i'm gerri willis and this is "the willis report, the show where consumers are our business. tax cuts for millions of americans and small businesses. we'll detail the republican push for a series of new tax breaks. >> trying to get people back to work. we're trying to increase take-home pay. gerri: irs under fire for not doing enough to fight fraud. >> many americans are facing a theft in general with specific tax return. gerri: the irs can not spot a red flag flying in their face. growing consumer backlash against united airlines. should the airline honor thousands of super cheap fares mistakenly sold online. >> i was surprised by email. there was no apology.

no attempt hey guys, we made a mistake. gerri: also the nicorette shortage. ex-smokers scrambling to get their fix. we'll meet a man hoarding nicorette lozengeses. millions saw it. a target worker helping this 15-year-old prep for job interview. >> one of the best days i ever had. gerri: that young man is here tonight to tell us how it changed his life. how he now wants to help others. all that and more, coming up on "the willis report," where consumers are our business. ♪ gerri: we begin tonight with promised relief for the middle class. house republicans, not the president, are pushing a series of tax breaks through congress. now one of these, expands benefits of hugely popular 529 college saves plan. that is the same tax break the president tried to eliminate recently. so will the president veto these new tax breaks? we're asking republican congressman diane black of

tennessee. she is a member of house ways and means committee. welcome back to the show congresswoman. let's start with those five 29s, my friends. we heard the president say he wanted to eliminate tax break for these and americans have some $221 billion in college savings plans. republicans have a different idea. what do you want to do? >> oh, gerri, i can not believe the president would even think about taking away a provision that would help middle class families and their children to school to college. so what we did, we modernized this provision which has been there for quite some time, but we allow now students who want to use part of their college dollars to purchase computers, to be able to do so. and that really is a big help to all of the students we know. if you don't have a computer today, you don't really do well in college. so we're modernizing it, bringing it up-to-date. gerri: that is a big thing certainly for most middle class families out there. what about small businesses what will you do for small

businesses? >> small businesses we know that they need their capital in order to be able to grow. ultimately what this does is helps middle class, middle income folks be able to get a job and when businesses grow that is good for economy it is good for families, and it is good for wages. what we have is called 179 expensing bill which allows them to take a credit for purchasing equipment and property for their bizs. gerri: immediately right off up to 500,000 in equipment and property purchase. >> that's right. gerri: as i understand this, you tell me if i'm wrong, congressman, this is essentially expanding a tax break that has always been there? this is making sure this thing doesn't go away? >> that's right. you're correct. these are called tax extenders. we do this year after year. it has been done for years and years. we're making this permanent. we know that businesses have a hard time planning when you don't give them certainty. so what we're doing with this we're giving them that certainty making this a permanent tax

credit, rather than something that is just expanded every year, every two years. there are democrats -- gerri: charities right? what is the charity solution? >> yeah. we're allowing we're allowing businesses especially those that have food inventory they want to give to charities we're allowing them to use that as tax deduction? why not? this food is there to be thrown away. why not allow them to give it to people who really need charity? so that is provision that the president has said he is going to veto. i can not believe he would want to veto such a good bill as this. these are bills to help people at middle income and lower income. that is with we need for america right now, to get wages up and to get this economy moving. gerri: i got to tell you, the federal government wants to see tax revenues go up. we have federal tax revenues topping a trillion dollars right now which is astonishing to me. the president is objecting to

tax extenders making tax breaks permanent saying adds too much to the deficit. how do you respond to that criticism? >> first of all, these are tax extended year after year after year. and they do not get paid for. so it is really it is not right to say, well we have to pay for them now because we're making them permanent. they have not been paid for before. do what we need to do to help folks get jobs and have wages rise. this is a good thing for businesses. this is a good thing for the american family. gerri: it has been a long time since i seen him have concern for debt and deficit. we have 17 doll trillion in debt. that -- $17 trillion in debt. that didn't happen alone. representative, thank you for being on. >> thank you for having me. gerri: frustration with irs remains at a boil. tax refund fraud we're telling you about this week, set to triple this year to hit $21 billion. every american should be concerned.

why can't this government agency protect taxpayers? joining me tax foundation president scott hodge. welcome back to the show. we've been covering this tax fraud situation all week long, it adds up to a lot of money. let me be clear how this hits average americans wallets. irs sends somebody else's refund to scammers, to burglars, really. what do you make of that? is the irs doing enough to stop it? >> well it is a huge problem obviously. in corporate america too, with thieves stealing people's identities charging fraudulent things to their charge cards -- gerri: talking about taxpayer dollars here. this isn't a private sector problem. this is a public sector problem. >> well personal problem for all of these people who go to file their tax return and find out some thief already filed a tax return stealing their tax refund. and that puts them into this terrible problem with the irs where they have to prove that their identity has been stolen. they have to work some times

months if not years to try to get the refund back. it's a terrible problem for people to be put in sort of this tax purgatory simply because some thief got their identity and filed a fraudulent tax return on their behalf. gerri: right. this could go on for years and years. >> exactly. gerri: so interesting to me, scott, because there is the president out at stanford with a bunch of ceos, hobnobbing it up at the ivy league college and talking about cybersecurity what needs to be done. meanwhile his own irs agency back in washington, sitting on its hands not doing a darn thing as far as we can tell about this problem of people having identities stolen. the irs is right in the middle of that. they need to do something. what steps should the agency take? >> they need to expand their computer systems which they're trying to do but not fast enough. they're not simply keeping up with the amount of theft going on. the thieves are really one step ahead of the irs. part of the problem the irs

relies on so much additional data in order to confirm everyone's tax return it makes it very difficult for them to get that amount of confirmation before they send a refund out. part of it is, they're too quick to send out refunds sometimes. gerri: right. >> and then they're not doing auditing quick enough to be catch those thieves in the act of fraud in the government. gerri: you heard what the irs commissioner says john koskinen we don't have enough money, a budget, they get $2.9 billion every year. this is more than the sba and i.c.e. combined. this is a big chunk of change. and lots of he will embarassments with this agency, right? we talked last week, i believe about a new ig report out on the agency that says, they're hiring back people who failed tests to get into the irs. these are people who have failed to pay their taxes. this isn't a question of do you have enough money. this is a question are you

capable of making the right decisions? i think there are fundamental questions we have to be asking tonight about how good after job the irs is doing? are they competent? what do you say to that? >> well, i no, i don't think they're competent. i think they have been asked to do too much. part of the problem is the congress has forced them to manage all of these programs to the tax code. like the earned income tax credit which now has about $15 quintillion a year worth of fraud that goes through that program alone -- $15 billion a year. working for pay credits and other credits taken advantage of by these kinds of thieves who see this pot of money out there that congress is trying to help people with. they're also, big targets for thieves and fraudulent people. gerri: let me tell you how bad this gets and how confounding it is to an outsider. when you have your refund stolen basically somebody with p.o. box they make like they're you, right? they file for a refund.

they file a tax form. >> yep. gerri: they say they're you. they don't have your address. they don't know anything about you, other than having your social security number and your name. they make everything up. so the irs never asks the first question about the fact that this person is filing with a different address, different number of kids in the family, different amount of money that they made in the year, nothing matches the irs, doesn't even care. how can that be? >> just in some cases they're taking advantage of the senior citizens who may not earn enough to file a tax return. so they're actually taking they're pretending to be those people and taking advantage of that as well. so it is happening in many, many ways. thieves are simply one step ahead of the irs. and what we need to do is get the irs to get up with modern times, modernize their computer systems, and stay try to stay ahead of the thieves. they're simply not doing that.

gerri: scott, thank you for that. >> you're welcome. gerri: unbelievable. what we need is a competent irs, one that can do the job. we need them to do. we give them our money. it is appalling. now we want to know what you think. here is our question tonight. have you ever cheated on your taxes? log on to gerriwillis.com and vote. i will share the results at the end of tonight' show. i won't share anything with the irs. vote something anonymous. still a lot more to come at this hour is there anything president obama won't do to sell obamacare? what was he thinking when he made a video hamming it up in the oval office? the government keeps making empty promises about thieves stopping them from getting their hands on your info. it is up to you. next we'll show you one big thing, one big thing you can do to protect yourself. let us know what you think. tweet me @gerriwillisfbn or send us an e mail through our website, gerriwillis.com. we'll be right back. ♪ man: ♪ this new mom is struggling

♪ ♪ to get the skates just right ♪ ♪ now she's holding on for dear life ♪ announcer: you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent. thousands of siblings in foster care will take you just as you are.

gerri: president obama signed an executive order today, that will improve sharing of cyber threat information between the government and private sector. the president's ultimate solution? add yet another government agency to keep an eye on the nation's security. but who knows how long that will take? and even if it will work? instead you have a solution you can use right now, to keep bad guys from opening credit in your name. joining me president of consumer education at consumer sesame.com, john ulzheimer. john, credit freezing is that a good way to try to protect yourself? >> so the credit freeze or more formally referred to as security freeze is basically like the fort knox of credit report protection. once you place the freeze on credit reports ain't nobody you do not have a relationship with getting into that credit report.

gerri: better than fraud alert, better than anything else, credit freeze, security freeze. walk through how you do that because, i'm not really sure how to do it. i need to know whether it will cost me money. start with step one. who do i call? >> right. so this is very important when you're placing a security freeze on your credit reports which is very different than credit monitoring you actually have tor3 go to each of the three credit reporting agencies individually. there is no one-stop shop to plays a freeze across all three reports. each them independently equifax.com, experian.com, transunion.com. gerri: what i'm telling credit bureaus do not share information with anybody who tries to open credit in my name right? >> you are playing the freeze which is formal process you have to go through. essentially order the credit reporting agencies to, not release your credit report to any lender with, who you do not have a current relationship with. if you have a current relationship with a lender they

can continue to pull your credit report for account management purposes but someone you do not have a relationship with absolutely not. >> all right. they will want some information, step two. >> that's absolutely right. they will want your information. you may feel uncomfortable giving to them, giving what we read about with respect to anthem. want your name address date of birth and want your social so they can actually find and compile your credit file and so you're essentially setting up this account with the reporting agencies where you will then manage whether or not your credit report is in circulation or it is continued to be frozen. gerri: so do i have to give them my social? >> you've got to give them everything. you have to give them the four four crown jewels of identification, name address social, date of birth. gerri: next step step number three, you will set up an account, right? howe does that work? how do you do that? >> gerri, think of setting up account with airline for frequent flyer miles. log in credentials and user name

and password. you're setting up account. as part of this you will have to give them all the information pick your log-in, pick the password. you have to go through what is referred to as authentication. authentication is what they're going to put you through so that you can identify yourself. so they will ask you questions only gerri willis would know answers to. once they feel comfortable that you are in fact gerri willis on other end of that computer screen then they will allow to you proceed to lock the credit file down. >> okay. so, you are an expert on this stuff. you saw what happened with anthem. we're talking something like 80 million people out there impacted. have you ever seen another breach of this magnitude, the size sort of the severity of this issue? >> no. anthem is checkmate. anthem is absolutely checkmate. you know what? the information that was stolen from anthem is as valuable in 20 years as it is today. gerri: oh. >> people will not change their names. people will not change their social. you can't change your date of birth.

so, this information which can be bartered, sold on black market, who cares what they will do with it next 12 months. what i care about what they do with it next 20 years. it is not necessarily the volume that has me concerned, it is what was taken. i would much rather see them things steel like credit cart numbers, that garbage can be changed. you don't have any liability for that. if personal information is really brass ring for these guys. gerri: great information. although john, i will disagree with you on one thing, that date of birth i keep trying to make myself younger, it doesn't work. >> you and my wife have the same problem. gerri: john, thank you. >> okay. have a good weekend. gerri: you too. happy valentine's day. coming up united airlines is still refusing to let people fly on super-low-priced tickets they purchased from the airline. are lawsuits about to fly? deadline for obamacare open enrollment is this weekend. we have a new poll on the law.

our commander-in-chief becomes comedian-in chief and wield as selfie stick to tout

♪ [camera shutter clicking] ♪. gerri: yeah that's your president. got a selfie stick. likes to have pictures taken of him. the leader of the free world, using some interesting tactics to get americans on board with obamacare. the deadline to sign up is a few days away but will these ads really work? we're asking paul howard, senior fellow at manhattan institute.

you and i have different reactions to this. i was sort of creeped out about i. the leader of the free world, the guy we trust with the button for nukes acting like 12-year-old. seemed like so out of character for what i presume to be the man in the over all office. i found it disturbing. >> maybe i'm beyond the ability to be shocked at this point. last year we had president on sack gal fa knack kiss show "between two ferns." zach galifianakis. he is president of the united states and he thinks he can do no wrong and we're getting this. gerri: listen to the president. he went on and on. it didn't stop about what we showed you. there is more to be seen. play that. >> deadline for signing up, the deadline for signing up for health insurance is february -- >> not like any other wednesday. >> that's not right. >> wednesday. >> february -- man. >> wednesday. >> february 15th.

>> paul, is the president getting desperate? >> look, i think that they have already have storyline for declaring victory. they low-balled estimate back in i think october, november said nine million is our foal. they will be above that this weekend. they will declare victory. important thing to note nonpartisan cbo said in january, 12 million estimate. well below the cbo estimate. they will try to find a way to declare victory. gerri: trouble will be with the tax filings because people don't realize, that you have to pay a fine or fee if you don't have coverage. people who did actually sold obamacare, may have low-balled what they earned of the previous year. tell us about those problems. >> sure, when you signed up for obamacare in 2014 last tax estimate was 2012. that is out of date immediately. tax experts said as many of half of all filings for subsidies could be incorrect could be too high, could be too low. millions of people come april 15th could find they owe the government money. that will be a very rude shock. gerri: want you to comment on

the fox poll. folks were asked is obamacare was good thing or bad thing results split at 47. what do you make of that? >> approval for the law has held steady. most people still don't like it. i think where you fall the law largely depends whether are or not get big subsidies through exchanges and you got insurance -- gerri: if you get the cash check from the government you're so happy. >> if getting a check for government, you like it. if you're paying for it. gerri: who else can we send a check to. that seems to be the modus operandi for the government. who can we send a check to put us back in the office. >> a check, cell phone, some give way. gerri: giveaway. >> somebody pays for it eventually. >> i know there has not happened yet. there is challenge to the obamacare heard by supreme court at beginning of march. seems to be conventional wisdom in ubs warburg ton that challenge is going to succeed. what will be impact? >> look trying to predict the supreme court will do i find it hard to win.

if the supreme court could not get five votes overturning law before it started in 2012 how will they get five votes to overturn the law when put in place a year-and-a-half. i find it hard to believe. gerri: i think they're working on work around already, an executive order that would allow them to say, supreme court, you're right. we're changing rules. >> pressure is on republican governors. if the plaintiffs win, republican governors will be in the position of having to say do i let everybody lose these subsidies? do i just buy into the federal exchanges? obama will be happy when republican governors do that. gerri: paul howard, good to see you. happy valentine's day. later in the show the young man that went into target look fog are a tie to wear to a job interview is here. the picture on target became an internet sensation. we talked about it on the show. what is is doing now has everybody talking. united airlines grounding passengers with a big ticket mistake. is it legal? here is your consumer gauge.

we'll be right back.

♪every day is so wonderful♪ ♪then suddenly♪ ♪it's hard to breathe♪ would it be ok if i sat here? ♪i am beautiful in every single way♪ is she serious? ♪i am beautiful in every single way♪atever! new girl! ♪yes, words can 't bring me down♪

♪so don't you bring me down today♪ ♪ gerri: welcome back to the willis report. in a moment, our legal eagles debate, if united airlines customers have a case against the air carrier. but it's time now for a look at other stories in the news. it was a good day for your 401(k), the dow closing over 18,000 for the first time this year. the s&p closed at an all-time high. traders rallied over strong economic data from europe and hope greece can work out its debt talks. congress made it official by signing legislation to build the keystone pipeline. urging obama to do the same. republicans are delaying sending the bill until after their week-along recess. they want to be in town when obama vetoes it. the university of

michigan reported its consumer index dropped sharply. the biggest concern among consumers little or no wage growth. as new englanders continue to dig out from three major storms that left 6 feet of snow on the ground, residents are bracing for another winter blast. the national weather service issued a blizzard watch from cape cod to maine warning of snow and winds gusting to 70 miles an hour. those are some of the other stories in the news tonight. and back to united airlines, they told us today, special information just for fox business, they are not backing down on their decision to cancel all tickets bought during a recent computer glitch. now, that glitch allowed thousands of folks to buy first class seats across the atlantic for as little as 70 bucks. there's talk of lawsuits. do these folks have a case. lisa weil and peter oden. i will start with you, peter. do these folks have a

case? >> absolutely not. they have no case whatsoever. listen the airline made a mistake. the consumers that bought these tickets knew they were exploiting the mistake. under contract law that's called mutual of mistake. no judge will ever make -- >> you're absolutely wrong. it's unfair and deceptive practices under the law. once you issue that confirmation, that receipt that you have the ticket, you being the airline that's it you can't pull back and change the price. was it a mistake? yes, it was. so they can sue the third party, the people who made the mistake. but they can't hurt the little guy. gerri: you guys are talked about two different laws here. let me tell you about a department of transportation rule. if the consumer receives confirmation then the seller of airplane transportation cannot increase the price to the consumer even when the fair was a mistake. >> exactly. gerri: let me finish my

sentence. even if the fare was a mistake, which it was here. (?) >> contract law has to apply to this. that's assuming there was a valid contract. not when there's no meeting of the minds. let me finish the answer. there was no valid contract because the consumers that bought these tickets knew it was a mistake. and you know they knew it was a mistake. they had to know -- >> no, they thought they were getting a great deal. >> a ticket of someone who appeared on our show. the money was taken out of her account. this is a binding contract. this is a confirmation. >> a meeting of the minds. gerri: confirmation is what's required. >> that's a meeting of the mind. >> if she's going to claim that she thought she was buying a ticket -- gerri: that's not even part of the conversation. that's be the not part of the conversation. >> companies give away deals and tickets to entice you -- >> but they active those. >> come on.

you can't be thinking as someone on the computer -- >> they won't hide it. hey, the other day there was an advertised special, $60 by jetblue to washington, dc. they put it at the front of the website. they won't bury it. >> that's not my problem as a consumer whether you active it or not. i buy the ticket, you have a contract with me. >> if this were an arm's-length transaction. if these consumers were engaging in an honest transaction, they said they were buying in dutch crone owes. no judge will believe that. (?) many airlines have gone along with this and said okay, we screwed up. we're not making enough money. it happened with delta recently. united is on record saying we make good on this type of thing. this happened over and over again. when you look at united they rank number two on most-complained about

airline. nobody likes united. this is one of the reasons. >> exactly. >> but contract law says there was no contract. >> there was. >> and these people -- gerri: why not? i don't understand. what invalidates the contract? >> you offer consideration. that's the money for the ticket whether it's a dollar or $500. you get the receipt back, that is then a meeting of the minds. that is a foreign contract. that's contract 101. >> prove that. gerri: i don't think we'll go anywhere else on this topic. thank you for coming on the show tonight. fascinating conversation. later in this show, a random act of kindness sparked a viral sensation. the target worker helping the teenager prep for the job interview. thatthat man will tell us how it changed his life. the merger between expedia -- limit your options. we'll talk about that. stay with us. ♪

♪ gerri: when it comes to booking your next vacation or business trip it now appears you have just two choices it's either expedia or priceline. that's its affect to buy orbitz for over a billion dollars. the ten most popular travel websites now controlled just by two companies. what does this mean for all of us? fair compare rick is with us. rick welcome back to the show. are we going to have fewer choices? what will happen to consumers as a result of this deal? >> sure. yeah consumers love lots of choice. they like to gain things. you talked about united buying your tickets in danish corona. some thing. (?) orbitz has the same price for -- expedia

different. they were competitors. i guarantee after this merger, they won't be competitors. you will lose some of that gains manship. >> you call it gamesmanship, i call it saving money. >> yeah. i think most people believe airline ticket prices are game. they want to play in that game. they feel if they shop a lot, they can find a better deal or find a coupon. that's what consumers love to do. >> i love a lot of players to save money. it's not just fun and games, but keeping inside your budget. >> absolutely. you're trying to save money by shopping as much as you can. picked the right day to shop. that's what we're at fair compare. gerri: here's what i found surprising. i did not realize the degree to which so many of these players are under the umbrella of just a couple of companies with this deal. the travel websites that

expedia will own and operate, expedia, hotels.com. hotwire, orbitz, cheap tickets. so you have a consumer out there shopping thinking there are a million different options. there's only two. priceline, booking.com and kayak. that's what they own. when you look at that, it's basically expedia versus priceline right now. right? >> yeah, in the united states that's definitely true. and also orbitz recently had e-bookers in europe. you had trip advisors that was spun out of expedia. you're talking about a huge number of some of the largest websites out there. you have cheap zero air out there. (?) so, yeah but you basically -- here's the problem, they are all brands of each other. some of them market to different segments. some of them market to different players. and you have basically one master company owning all that. it's the same thing that we had just gone through

with airlines. now down to four airlines that control 80% of the traffic in the united states. this is a huge experiment. the funny thing, gerri orbitz was created to kill expedia. it was established in the late '90s and at the turn of the century because expedia was owning all the airline customers. they all put in money to kill expedia. it was labeled t2. the expedia terminator when it was originally done. >> is this going to be an antitrust issue. you have just two players in a big field. >> we saw what happened with american merlz. it took them forever to get through antitrust. they were disallowed through antitrust. there may be some antitrust issues here as well. gerri: i have to ask you this. some talking about a potential rise in air fares. we knocked on airlines for not cutting prices because jetblue prices went through the toilet. do you see air fares

going up any time soon? >> just as a matter of fact delta today tried to raise air fares by matching american airlines. absolutely. the airlines will continue to probe higher. that tells me the economy and extra dollars in pockets has demand up and the airlines will continue to probe and try to pocket more of that. gerri: happy valentine's day. thank you for coming on the show. >> you too. gerri: good news. last week we told you how employees at a north carolina target went above and beyond the callcall of duty. a teen went to buy a job. they showed him the right aisle fitted him his tie and gave him tips to boot. last night he go to got the job. joining me now is the newly employed. yasir moore. yasir, i'll start with you. what was going through your head when you walked into that target?

did you expect those folks to give you so much help? >> no, not really. i just expected to buy a tie and to go home monday. they helped me so much, i got the job. gerri: tell me what they told you. what kind of advice did they give you and did you find it useful? >> found it very useful. the advice they gave me. tuck my shirt in. keep eye contact. shaking hands firmly. make sure. [inaudible] gerri: i think that's awesome. so you're going to be starting a new job very soon at the chick-fil-a david will be your new boss. david, what did you make of yasir when you first met him. when you're looking for job candidates, what are the qualities you're trying to find? >> sure. sure. so when i first met yasir yesterday evening,

i already heard great things about him from my team that already interviewed him. when i first met him last night, he gave me a strong handshake. look me in the eye. smiled. got a great impression. during our interview, i could tell he had a desire to grow. young candidates can come in -- gerri: when will he start his new job? >> he came in today for paperwork. we found out his availability. we're getting his uniform order. he'll hit the ground running next week. gerri: yasir you're only 15. which is not very old in the world of work. you're getting a head start. what advice do you have for young folks trying to get a job. it's not easy for female yourforpeople your age. >> i would say always bring your a game. don't let nothing bring you down. if you want the job do everything possible you can to get it. and don't make no lame excuses. gerri: i love that.

i love that. i have a few people i need you to talk to for them. you want to help other folks out there, how do you want to do it, and what's your message going to be, yasir? >> me and my mother, we wanted to make an organization a nonprofit organization to help young men and young women like myself. it's called -- we named it first expressions. and i think this will be the best thing ever because we help people like myself, young men like myself, young women like myself, help them get jobs. and we also help our economy. and we just help -- we want to be a better place all around. >> first impressions. i like that. david, yasir made a first good impression. what would be your advice to people, you're interviewing people all the time? >> the same advice. we see candidates come in. the ones that are dressed nicely, they come in, shake our

hands, they smile they're engaging, enthusiastic, create eye contact, show that hunger to growth, that's so important. when they have that hunger, they develop and grow. that's what we're all about. gerri: yasir, when you start that new first impressions let us know. come back on the show and tell us about it, will you? and david thanks for coming on. thanks to both of you for being here. have a great valentine's day. >> it's our pleasure. gerri: that's a nice story. right? wow. still to come on this show, the shortage of nicorette loss engz has people riled. there's the man who was hoarding them. ♪ @?

[airplane sounds] announcer: visit aarp.org/caregiving for information on how to provide even better care for the person who once took care of you.

gerri: a shortage of nicorette lozenges is forcing some ex-smokers to stock up. the manufacturer glass smith line temporarily ceased making them because they were having quality control issues. those depending on the lozenges have been stacking them up. hoarding them in their homes. with me is bob barrens. bob, thank you for coming on the show. (?) i feel your pain. i'm an ex-smoker myself. i know what you go through. tell me first about the habit that you had smoking. how many people in your family smoked, and how did you quit? >> virtually everyone in my family smoked at some point or another. my parents were heavy smokers when i was growing up. as they quit me and my siblings got into it pretty hard. started smoking around the age of 12 physical therapy12.became a heavy smoker by 13 or 15. pretty much smoke

continuously for 15 years. gerri: what was your habit? pack and a half? two packs? what did you do? >> at the worse, in college, probably two packs a day. marlboro reds. >> how long ago did you quit and how did you do it? >> i quit when i was 29, seven years ago. i had an epiphany that i was sick of smelling like smoke. going outside in the cold new york winters to smoke, and i said i was going to stop. i walked right across the street to cvs or walgreens and bought a box of nicorette lozenges. just like with cigarettes, it was love at first taste. gerri: what's so good about them? >> i could go on for a while, just say that you can do them anywhere. they taste, at least this flavor taste pretty good. it's actually like smoking. you're getting the same in thisnicotine kick, but you

can do it pretty much wherever. no smoke no smell and theoretically, at least no carcinogenic qualities. >> is it tied to what you do for a living? you're a writer. you write for the cw supernatural which is very exciting. if you're a writer, there's that deadline pressure. right? and i can see how that would be anxiety-producing. >> i mean, absolutely. and i certainly up my dosage when i'm on deadline. but i -- i assume there are other people out there like me who are addicted to lozenges with their own everyday stress have their own relationship to nicotine. gerri: tell me, what did you think when you couldn't find these lozenges? did you start scouring the neighborhood? >> i mean, it didn't -- i thought it was just a short-term supply problem. i didn't think much of it. and then i got in the habit of ordering it off amazon, on the web, and didn't notice how

serious the shortage was until maybe four months into it. when i noticed that the prices online were going up and up because of the old inventory was diminishing. and so i started getting nervous. i looked into it and found out that there was a problem. but there was no information about how long it was going to go on for. gerri: so we have a picture of your stash of nicorette lozenges. here there are. it looks to me that you're running out, my friend. is that what's happening? >> that's correct. prices got so high online. i think they're selling for $130 a box. and i finally reached the point where i said, i can't justify this purchase anymore. gerri: you're not going to start smoking anymore again, are you? >> i certainly hope not. the plan is definitely to deal with it cold turkey which i haven't done yet in my life. so... gerri: that could be the next

step bob. pleasure -- so interesting hearing your story. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. gerri: we'll be right back with our answer to our question of the day. have you ever cheated on your taxes. hey, your secret you total your brand new car. nobody's hurt,but there will still be pain. it comes when your insurance company says they'll only pay three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do, drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. with liberty mutual new car replacement, we'll replace the full value of your car. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

gerri: have you ever cheated on your taxes? we asked on you gerriwillis.com. 89% of you said no. that's impressive. and now here's the valentine's day story. one that will melt your heart. sissy is a schnauzer who went searching for her owner and found her 20 blocks away. there she is. nancy frank was in the hospital bed recovering from surgery and was told by her husband their dog had run away. soon after, security personnel found the dog running through the lobby and figured out the connection because of sissy's tags. the family said they have never brought sissy to the hospital before but nancy's office is nearby. what about that? i love that story of schnauzer. that's it for tonight's

willis report. "making money" with charles payne is coming up next. have a great weekend and a very happy valentine's day. ♪ lou. happy valentine's day. have fun. good night. neil: the isis threats are growing fast. why is congress moving in slow? welcome, everybody. i'm tom sullivan in for neil cavuto. d.c. is a ghost town. (?) lawmakers are on a week-long recess. that's leaving grow a pair author larry wondering, where is the urgency? larry, where is it. >> i don't see a sense of urgency. do you? they seem to be unwilling on a lot of levels to sit down and talk this through. unwilling to comprise give or take. unwilling to make a decision. because decisions have consequences, like losing your job if you don't make