needs to get jobs. >> is trump doing things to help your family. so get on that agenda. maria: get on the economic agenda. always a pleasure, have a great day, everybody. "varney & company" begins now, here is stuart. stuart: maria, thank you very much indeed. a chaotic administration, so far investors don't care. how long will that last? good morning, everyone, what did the president know and when did he know it? that is the kind of question the white house is now facing, chaotic indeed. reports today about the trump's teams contact with russia before the election. there's a fbi investigation into what general flynn said to russia's ambassador. vice-president pence reportedly kept in the dark. and as for the president's he's been tweeting out a strong defense. it's a political firestorm. investors want to know if it ent --

interferes with tax cuts and deregulation. investors ignore it all. watch this, the dow closed yesterday at 20,504. it's up since the election. we may be going up a little bit more at opening bell today. half an hour from now, certainly, no retreat for the dow. what a ride it's been. today you'll see the retailers head to the white house. they're going to lobby hard against the import tax proposal. later, prime minister benjamin netanyahu arrives for a news conference with president trump. you'll see it all. i promise you. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ >> the live action presidency shows no signs of slowing down.

two big events in the white house. president trump meets with retailers and later holds a news conference with benjamin netanyahu. let's start with the retailers, who is attending. >> who is who, eight large retailers and the ceo's of the company, target, best buy, gap, autozone, walgreens, j.c. penney, joanne's stores, tractor supply. they're all coming to meet the president and lobby against what they call the border adjustment tax. in other words, they're the ones unfairly targeted by paying more money for their materials, the consumer is going to get hit and hurt them. stuart: it raises prices. >>. ashley: it raises prices for us all. stuart: the border tax, a proposal 20% on everything that comes into america. clearly the retailers hate that because it would raise the price of everything and certainly a lot of what they sell. liz peek is with us, fiscal

times columnist. >> no, i don't like the border tax, no. stuart: it seems this meeting goes to the heart of tax reform because the border tax is a big part of the overall tax reform package. >> it is, but the problem i have with it is, again, it's picking winners and losers. you have a big group of companies coming today to advocate against it. there's an equally big group of companies that are pushing hard for it, that's our major exporters. it seems to me if we make it attractive for companies to manufacture in the united states through overall tax reduction, and lesser regulation, i'm not sure it makes sense to put on a whole other series of what is effect a regulation and it disadvantages small companies. small companies are not able to change their supply companies as big companies are, they're going to be hurt by this. the other thing they have to say retail is the biggest private employer in the country. retail is a mess right now. this is not going to help that industry. stuart: what you want is forget

about some border tax. what you want is individual and corporate tax rates cut now. >> absolutely. let's get this economy rolling. ashley: how are you going to pay for that? that's what the border tax is supposed to do. stuart: it brings in billions of dollars that cuts individual tax rates. >> that's true, you can look at other kinds of dedubses. i favor some changes in the mortgage deduction, and other things, which i think, look, this is an opportunity to really talk about what should our tax policy be promoting in this country? if it makes sense, we have six different ways to promote home ownership. when home ownership, face it, just created a gigantic problem for the economy. i think there are other things we should be looking at. stuart: okay. liz. we heard you. >> sorry. stuart: not sure i agree with all you've got to say, but there you are. >> okay. stuart: moving swiftly to the markets, please. a series of record highs yesterday, the market is

actually poised to open just a little bit higher, certainly for the dow industrials today. i want to give you that number again, the dow jones industrial since the election. i'm going back to liz peek despite i don't agree with what she has to say about taxes, but there you have it. are we going to go up some more? >> am i out of the dog house? . i think the whole issue is the agenda. if we keep seeing progress on tax reform, however that manifests itself, and stripping regulation back, yes, then i think the market is going to continue to respond, because earnings are going to go up and that's really the big issue here. stuart: i think the split in the republican party over obamacare and tax cuts is going to hold it up and the market is going to realize that pretty soon. that's just my opinion. moving on. the other big story of the day surrounding the recent events in the white house, the resignation of general flynn,

for example. the trump administration is blaming leaks. the president tweeted out this this morning, thank you, eli lake of the bloomberg view, the nsa and fbi should not interfere in our politics and is very serious situation for usa. mr. lake appeared upon yesterday, about this very situation. judge napolitano is here this morning. i want to draw a distinction. you've got the mess in the white house did general flynn lie, and mike pence left out in the dark. did the president know. that's one side of it. it starts with leaks, leaks from the federal bureaucracy which are illegal and amount in my opinion, amount to sabotage of the administration. what say you? >> well, i agree with you about the sabotage, i don't think it comes from the federal bureaucracy. i think it comes from the deep state. from the intelligence community which stays in power no matter who runs the cia, who runs the dna, who runs the congress and who runs the white house.

mike flynn, before he left the military, general flynn, was the director of the defense agency, he was a spy. he knows, with absolute certainly, that every conversation that the russian foreign minister has with an american is going to be recorded by american spies. he knew that his conversation or conversations would be listened to. but he did not know that some of the spies listening to him hate his boss and wanted to harm his boss, by-- >> trump. >> by leaking transcripts of it. stuart: sabotage. >> you're correct whoever did this, a, committed a crime and never prosecuted for it. the same leaked the nonsense about donald trump in a hotel in moscow. they know how to leak, they are professional spies, they are professional leakers, their fingerprints appear nowhere. did mike flynn get fired for telling a white lie to mike pence?

absolutely not. he got fired because he was a threat to the intelligence community that he and president trump are preparing to shake up. and you see trump's preparations as recently as two minutes ago with the tweet that you just read. stuart: in a series of tweets out this morning. all of them. >> every one of them is don't get in my face. and he means the entities that he doesn't want to get into in his face. nsa ability to listen real-time to every conversation. fbi, has its own intelligence people. theoretically they work for him and they're-- >> this is sabotage inside the trump administration and general flynn is a scapegoat. >> this is a pinprick, wait until they go for the elbows

and ribs. >> he's got to walk through a firestorm. >> yes, he did lose a valuable asset. because as a former spy himself, general flynn knows these people and knows how they operate. now, he's gone. stuart: our problem, we're a financial program, we follow the stock market. our problem is if the firestorm surrounding the administration, if that breaks out into the schedule for a tax cut, the schedule for obamacare repeal, the schedule for all the rest of it that we want to do to grow the economy, then wall street has a problem. >> yes, yes and that's what we're here to monitor and liz, i'm in the dog house on this show every day. [laughter] >> that's true. >> can i come back to this-- >> wait a second, you want -- you don't want a consumption tax. you don't want the border tax.

>> i thought we would do this on the 11, i don't want any tax and neither do you. i certainly don't want a tariff. why don't you call it what it was it's a tariff and they'll retaliate against us and ms. peek knows that. >> you're outnumbered. stuart: a huge subject. i want to -- a couple of stocks, individual, let's check them. humana, it's the latest health insurer to ditch walking away from obamacare, announcing it will leave the obamacare exchanges next year. humana says it was unable to manage the costs of the sick patients that came to it. the stock is going to go up. look at the white house, retail ceo's set to arrive there this hour. this one is all about, as we keep saying, the border tax, the border tax, that could be a very contentious meeting. we're on it. the latest on the oroville california dam collapse, didn't collapse, actually. the evacuation order has been lifted ap residents allowed to

return to their homes and authorities are warning more heavy rain could be on the way. watch out. we've got a winner at the westminster kennel club, rumor, the five-year-old shepherd from wisconsin beat out nearly 2,800 dogs to take home best in show title. more varney after this. t your, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis.

>> we want to keep you in touch with a live action, apple stock, warren buffett has been increasing his stake in that company, that stock. it closed yesterday at a new all-time high and opening a few cents higher and higher nonetheless. alibaba reportedly taking a passive stake in groupon and groupon premarket is up 14% higher. i've got a new fox news poll, look at this, 52% of voters agree with us, they want a tax cut in president trump's first 100 days.

ain't that right? >> yeah, that's right, and following that, 49% want obamacare revealed. they're saying-- that's about twice as many as want the border wall, so this is loud and clear message from the fox news polls, they're saying cut taxes first. stuart: now, what did you just say from the guy who runs aetna? >> chief executive speaking this morning, saying the obamacare exchanges are in a quote, death spiral. stuart: right. ashley: because of rising premiums because healthy people are getting out and just the very sick people pushing the premiums. stuart: aetna says that obamacare is in a death spiral. that means you've got to do obamacare first and you can't do tax cuts. >> and humana to pull out and look at states like tennessee, georgia, mississippi, left with one insurer in many of these counties. stuart: wild stuff, isn't it? live action news for a live action presidency. you've got it. take a look at the white house,

because meeting their shortly, the president and some retailers, the ceo's of major retailers, again, this is all about -- this meeting is all about the border adjustment tax, an import tax, call it what you like. joining us now, a congressman from ohio who sits on the tax committee that is essentially a tax writing committee. welcome to the program, very good to see you. let me get right at it. i don't think there are the votes in congress for a border tax, an import tax. i don't think the votes are there. what say you? >> well, good morning, stuart. what i would tell you is to make america great again, we have to make america competitive again, we have to do some things, especially cut the business tax rate and individual rates since 70% of businesses are, you know, are pass-throughs, and in that effect, we have to look how we do that. the border adjustment tax is something i have a concern with. i've said there are three issues with it. number one, does it pick winners and losers? i think we know that question

already, we have people at the white house today. number two, who is ultimately going to pay for it? and number three, does it meet the wto standards, the world trade organization standards? i've been asking those questions now for the last four, five, six months. i don't have the answers yet and that's where i think there are not enough votes yet to support a border adjustment. stuart: right, which means the whole concept of a tax cut package is pushed further down the road. if you can't agree on one of the major facets of that, bord border, you can't get a tax cut package through congress. >> i disagree, there are ways to get it done. we need to start looking at it and prioritize it and bringing these rates down. the corporate tax reductions are necessarily to make us more competitive and they're the ones that employ the people and reneed to reduce rates on individuals as well. let's face it, corporate taxes get passed onto the consumer anyway, we keep harping on

corporations, let's bring that down so they have the available cash and dollars to employ more people and get this economy growing. stuart: i understand entirely what you're saying, but we're a financial program and we follow the stock market very, very closely and we know that investors, they want a tax cut. they would prefer to have a tax cut first and obamacare reform seco second, but they've got to wait now on the tax cutting proposal. if you can't get an agreement or in front of the president fast, you might have a market selloff, what say you. >> we should be able to do two things at once, work through obamacare and at the same time come up with a tax plan that makes america competitive again, which is reducing rates and i think we should be able to do that and we'll work hard to get that done. stuart: congressman, you're in the center of the firestorm and we appreciate it. >> thank you.

stuart: the amazon story of the day, always one. reports it wants to use the alexa voice controlled speaker to replace your home phone. kiss your land line goodbye. good story, i think that everybody has done that already. mark cuban took a shot at president trump's job creation plan. you're going to hear what he's got to say one moment from now.

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>> i want to repeat that bombshell news from aetna. the ceo says obamacare is in a death spiral. ashl ashley, what does that mean for reform. ashley: the ceo says it's imminently in collapse, no way it's sustainable. there's an unbalanced amount of sick and other customers. you've got to reform obamacare first. >> what the major insurers are saying. liz: the insurers are pushing to do it. aetna says it could follow humana in ditches the exchanges entirely by next year. stuart: humana is out. how about this from the billionaire investor mark cuban, he sapresident trump doesn't understand the changing job market. >> he's meeting with all of these companies, he hasn't

gotten to understand that the nature of work is changing. technology is changing how jobs-- how people are hired, the jobs they're going to do. he's, you know, he's shuffling deck chairs on the "titanic" by going and talking to the companies and dealing with five and ten and even 25,000 jobs at a time. now, look, there's nothing wrong with trying to get more jobs, that's a good thing, but in any given month, our economy gains and loses 5 million plus jobs. stuart: ed butowsky is with us from chapwood investments. mark cuban seems to be saying, in my opinion, that you're not going to get gigantic factories and stuff. >> i know, mark, and he's a rich man. let's not take his economic view in terms of what he thinks is going to talk about the economy. he sits there and talks like he knows what donald trump is

thinking, i can't imagine that they-- >> the proposals, do you think that brings jobs back to america? >> no question, 500 billion will go directly to the bottom lines of earnings for the s&p 500 companies. mark my words, you get the tax cuts. stuart: regardless of the president jawboning industries, that's going to happen. >> that goes along with a strong world economy. stuart: does that fuel a leg up on the stock market? . we need to go down, stuart, before we go up. we've got to go down. stuart: we're going up a tiny fraction today. back to live action news. we're going to see those retail executives troop into the white house any moment from now, you'll see them. they are absolutely railing against the border tax. we're on that one and we're also on the stock market, of course. opening bell, a couple of minutes, we've got strong economic numbers.

>> all right. we've got 45 seconds until we start the trading session this wednesday morning. let me remind you, this market has gone straight up in the most extraordinary fashion and we're expecting a tiny fractional gain again at the opening bell. which is now 20 seconds away. do you realize yesterday we

reached 20,504. we are up and this is a number i love to repeat, we're up,2172 points just since the election. i can't remember an explosive rally like that and i go back quite a few years. bang! it is 9:30, it's wednesday morning. where did we open? where indeed did we open? a tiny fractional loss, a one point loss. mixed bag on the left-hand side of the street. up a half point. i'm going to call this basically go nowhere thus far. check the s&p why don't we. that's a record high as well. 500 stocks in at that index now worth more than $20 trillion. who is here covering the extraordinary market? i will tell you shall the star of fox business maria bartiromo. thanks for being with us. chapwood's ed butowsky and our own stars, ashley webster and

liz macdonald. talk is cheap. we've got the retailers meeting at the white house shortly. the issue there is the border tax, i'm get to that in a second. what we saw moments ago, strong economic numbers, specifically retailer sales were up nicely in the month of january. inflation is moving a little higher. and the empire state manufacturing thing, whatever that is. ashley: this blew away the estimates. stuart: that's strong. so what you've got now is a market we've got slightly higher on some stronger economic numbers. now, the border tax. these retailers are meeting with president trump, they hate the border tax and they're going to lobby against it. maria bartiromo. maria: well, they're basically saying if you tax us at the border, we are going to pass that onto the customer. we're going to have pay more for the products and the customer is will have to pay more for the products. they're making a case, it's more costly for the consumer.

you've not another case made by the manufacturers, ge and boeing, they say bring on that border tax. stuart: i think the retail guys, ed, i think they're going to go in there and bang the table and say, please, don't do this to us, mr. president. >> for 300 million of us, i hope they do. that's going to be passed on directly, a 20% tax, basically onto your life style. stuart: do you think if we did get a border tax, do you think it would be bad for the stock market? >> i think it would be very bad for the stock market. liz: yeah, look at kohl's is saying it would lose two-thirds of its profits from this tax. you look at urban outfitters, half of its profits would be lost, cut in half. lululemon, 30% lower and best buy says they would tip 2 billion into losses from 1 billion annual profit from the border-- >> can i throw one thing in, with all the hysteria about a border adjustment tax, the fact is many countries have a border tax or a vat tax. whatever you want to call it. and in some regards it's a

catch up. 100 countries. ashley: they're going to be lobbying, kevin brady and orrin hatch, tax writers, not just donald trump. liz: let's hold on a second. taxes fix the outsourcing of jobs problem and i think it's going to hurt the middle class workers if you do it and-- >> it will hurt the companies during the obama administration, kohl's and the sears. liz: and the smaller guys. stuart: let me enter a prediction of my own, i don't think that the border tax will have-- i don't think it's in congress and. liz: the koch against it. stuart: some republicans will vote against it on the campaign trail, cut taxes the way you promised. ashley: that's the money that's supposed to offset the corporate tax. stuart: they're going to say to cut corporate tax rates and you'll bring back a couple trillion dollars from overseas. liz: a stronger dollar. stuart: and lower rates.

maria: that moves the needle on growth. stuart: inside baseball. two items on obamacare, first off the health insurer humana pulling out of obamacare completely next year. second, the ceo of aetna says obamacare is in a death spiral. those two stocks are up because they're exiting obamacare. what that does for the legislative pipeline, presumably it means if obamacare is collapsing, you've got to deal with it now before you deal with tax cuts. i don't think that's good news for the overall market. >> you've got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. do both simultaneously? >> can the republicans in congress do that, maria, i think not. maria: and obamacare, that's a tax cut, that's relieving small and mid cap businesses huge, let's not look at that as a tax cut of its own, it is. stuart: in the trading session, that means we're at 20,523.

if you'd told me that we would be there on february the 15th. >> oh. stuart: just a couple of weeks ago, i would have said you're crazy, not going to happen. >> yes, you would. stuart: american airlines pilots not happy with their ceo because he did not attend the meeting with president trump. is this pushback from within that has meaning. maria: the unions are all in for trump, we know this. the unions want jobs, more opportunities and that includes unions at the airlines. it's interesting to see the workers pushing back. stuart: it's politics turned on its head. maria: it is. stuart: and in favor of trump, a republican. what a life. a couple of individual stocks we'll show you right now, apple, an all-time high. i believe it's gone up this morning well above 135 level that it hit yesterday. and we've got, yes, apple at 136 as of this morning, that's another all-time high. pepsi says it made 1.7 billion

profit in the fourth quarter. the stock is down 1%. angie's list, a business review website, basically, made more money than the analysts were expecting, but the-- and the stock is down 34% over the last year. today's bounceback nearly 7 1/2%. wyndham hotels, brands new days inn, ramada, super 8. made a billion-3, not good enough. down 6 cents. another hotel chain, hilton, lost 387 million. that stock is down a fraction. 42 cents. alibaba takes a stake in groupon, groupon is therefore up 17%. how about facebook? launching a new app letting you stream video on your tv. tell me how it wor, cole. nicole: this continues on facebook's idea, don't forget that mark zuckerberg said in the latest reports that he flags this as a trend.

and getting more ad dollars. you can watch anything from your friend's posts, maybe they're showing you their favorite dog from the westminster dog show. you can watch your friend's posts and flag videos to watch later. it's not like twitter, twitter has livestroming for nfl and pga. you can only watch it on your phone. facebook continues to expand and allows you to watch it on big screen, putting video first and competing for more tv ad dollars and only continuing to make it more of the behemoth than it is. they have the uncanny ability to have users come back and they continue to have user growth for daily active users 1.8 billion so they continue to really try and trump the other guys. here is a being look at the other guys that do streaming. facebook is slightly lower. netflix, alphabet and amazon are growing. watch you'll be able to watch this on the big screen.

stuart: and i have a question for ed butowsky, people on this show said that facebook will be the first trillion dollar company. >> that and apple. they said you're going to get more bang for your buck by advertising on facebook. a lot of revenue growth based on the new app. stuart: they take tv advertising revenue directed towards facebook as opposed to everybody else who has tv ads. >> they're pinpointing who they want. stuart: is the stock going up? >> i'm not good at this and. liz: you can make a lot from the happy goat video and-- >> users going to facebook, the story line, that they've got such exposure to so many people. stuart: maybe i should get a facebook account. >> you don't have one? >> the show has one, i don't have one personally. >> i'll set one up for you. stuart: no, don't. [laughter] >> i do like the sound of this one. the president of microsoft says

we need a sort of geneva convention for cyber security to help plan for state sponsored cyber attacks. sounds good to me. liz: protects civilians in times of digital war. it's smart, i read the postings, the tech companies should band together, three quarters of the world's companies will be hacked and we'll lose from nations states hacking and tippingpoint was north korea going after the movie "the interview" and sony, that was an attack on free speech, the life blood of the internet. stuart: a good idea there. ashley: because the tech companies are the first responders for attack from another country and that's why they need to band together. maria: the question are they doing it, the first step there and preventing cyber hacking and cyber atakes. stuart: your update on the popular youtube star pewdiepie.

google owns youtube and he's the biggest star on youtube, they've pulled him from youtube, dumped him from ads. that's a big problem for alphabet, google, i expect that's not affecting the stock. >> how did he be the biggest star. stuart: 50 billion views. liz: 53 million subscribers. stuart: have you ever heard of him. maria: i've not heard of him before this, i'm sorry. ashley: incredible, he has his own channel. >> what a recalled would we live in. stuart: 15 billion views and we've never heard of him. have you ever heard of him? >> never heard of him. have you. maria: i haven't. >> my daughter told me. maria: there you go. stuart: the dow jones industrial average touched all-time record highs moments ago and still up 20 points and we're up 2,172 points since the election, go figure. i want to thank everybody who appeared on this historical program.

maria bartiromo, ed butowsky, one and all, thank you very much indeed. check it again, look at it now, we're up 22 points for the dow industrials, sorry, 20,525. getting ahead of myself. wishful thinking, maybe? retirement just around the corner. another big day at the white house. happening moments from now. the president meets with top retailer ceo's. the big issue, they're going to talk border tax. and later in the day, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu holds a joint press conference with our president. you'll see it all. this is the live action presidency on fox business. ♪

>> very close to an all-time

record high. 22 points higher for the dow industrials. we're well above 20,500. don't you love that green? that's the state of play in the market. meanwhile, in the white house, president trump holds a meeting with retail ceo's, they're talking about that border tax proposal. basically it's a consumption tax joining us now is someone who knows a few things about this. the founder and ceo of kind, they make kind bars. i eat the kind granola every single day of my life. there's a free commercial for you. i want to talk to you about the consumption tax, about the border tax. you're the ceo of a company, i presume that you import some of your material. i guess you're against the border tax? >> i generally think it's not going to be so helpful to consumers or to anybody. stuart: are you vigorously pounding the table against it, lobbying against it? >> i have so many things going on in my life, including each

of the public policy that i'm here to talk about that's not my core issue, but i hope that's going to be amended or changed. but the economy-- >> i'm sorry, you're against it. >> yes. stuart: pretty clean cut answers on that one. >> yes. stuart: daniel hates it, am i putting words in your mouth? >> i don't think it's sound policy. stuart: i like your product, by the way. >> 100% of our products are made in the united states. stuart: oh. you didn't tell me that. >> 100% of our products are made in the united states. we import some ingredients. almonds are grown in california so substantially all of our products is sourced from and made in the united states. maria: i would just say to you, if you were to see a 20% border tax would that move you to raise prices 20%? >> no, i mean, it actually would benefit us, a lot of our competitors make their products and so they're much more

ingredients from canada and china and other countries. we would be benefitted. i'm thinking more of a, american citizen that i don't think it's helpful to our economy, but kind would probably benefit from that. maria: so you're not going to raise prices. >> well, i don't know that-- we need to evaluate once we see how the impact. i don't know if that would actually impact and reverberate across all of our procurement issues. stuart: daniel, let me introduce you to maria bartiromo who asked a couple of good questions. maria: that's the core of the issues, are you going to raise price. >> if our raw materials end up costing more we'll be forced to pass on. liz: will you layoff workers. stuart: are you having fun? [laughter] >> i hope not. i hope that we would not. that would be the last thing for me to do. if for any reason our sales go down and, you know, i live in a little bit of a bubble, we're blessed over the last at the point years one of the fastest growing companies because we make products with ingredients

that you can pronounce. i can't envision that we would be laying off workers, but hopefully won't harm our economy to the degree. stuart: ladies and gentlemen, welcome to "varney & company" d bartiromo. that was very good, maria, thank you. maria: you just told us 85% of your product is made in the u.s., largely almonds and made-- no, 100% of the product is made in america, most of our raw materials are almonds, and 85% of almonds are grown in california. maria: there you go. you're not going to get hit with a border tax and not raise prices. >> well, cashews from. stuart: talk about hostile questioning, i'm sorry, daniel. maria: i'm sorry. stuart: let me point out this good man has pledged $25 million to an organization called feed the truth. >> yes. stuart: you want to make the processed food companies accountable, so you're spending $25 million of your company's money to hold them to account.

>> it's my money and-- >> what have you got against processed food? i eat it every day, what's wrong with it. >> and special-- >> the president likes it. >> the concern that i have is that special interests for too many years have had no real accountabili accountability. we as companies have our brands and social contracts with our consumers. if we do something wrong they won't buy the products. and when you have special-- >> what are you saying, that processed food kills you, you're saying that, it hurts you, is that what you're saying. >> yes, in some ways. more particularly, when people abuse their rights and hurt the consumer, we need to make them accountable. example, when the sugar industry, we found out for 60 years has been misleading the public and pointing the finger at fat for heart and that stuff and we think that paying for

nutritionists and scientists to say something not in the public-- >> i think you've done a good job of positioning your company very much in the favor of foodies. there is such a class of people known as foodies. ashley: big time. stuart: you're with them. >> hopefully more than food whyist, hopefully someone who wants to enjoy something delicious. maria: i'm with you, processed food, bad. stuart: a little salais salami good. and look at this, the dow is up 20,535. lots of green on the left-hand side. do we love it? daniel, don't you love it? >> bring me here more often. stuart: are you going public or are you public? >> hopefully we'll stay private. stuart: why? you can cash out and make yourself a billion. >> and you're worried i'll have

short-term resolve-- >> and the latest company to come under pressure, to stop selling trump products, how about that? we've got details for you. stay right there. look closely. hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. golfers like me have played these holes thousands of times, generating countless data points. the microsoft cloud helps me turn that data into insight that used to be invisible. here, intuition would tell me to lay up with a 3-iron, but the analysis from the cloud tells me to go for it, and use a driver for a

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>> oh, breaking news on under amour, it concerns president trump. >> doesn't everybody these days? the ceo of under amour kevin plank kind of walking back and he expressed support for president trump, how great is it, we have a pro-business president in the white house. that sparked outrage on social media, a #boy dot-- boycott under amour. one said that wasn't smart to do. steph curry responded negati negatively to the words. and maybe it wasn't a good idea to have an opinion in highly political climate. maria: 400 million they pay steph curry, maybe should take it back. stuart: what kind of a-- because of tepid-- >> here is the argument. you support trump, it's not the

cool urban life style that the shoppers of under amour are about. stuart: okay, so. that's all his argument. maria: when you buy an item at under amour you have to say what political party. liz: go ahead. stuart: wait a second. we've got more pressure on companies. take a look at the supermarket chain. wegman's they're pressured to drop president trump's wine. ashley: that's the supermarket chain. the store is being told by now, the local chapter of the national organization for women saying you need to take these trump wines off the shelf. they carry 237 virginia wines, five varieties come from the trump winery. the store says, look, our role in retail is to offer choice, however, if sales of a product drop, we don't sell that product anymore, but the n.o.w. chapter in virginia says we've got to boycott this store. liz: an important footnote, this wegman's store has been selling wine from the same

winery before the trump company bought it now they're making a fit about nothing over wine. stuart: they caved. another company caved. that's the story. one more. ashley: they're not going to remove. they say we will-- if sales fall off we'll remove it so they're hanging tough for now. stuart: okay, they may cave. get it right. happening now, the white house, president trump meets with retail ceo's. maybe not such a friendly chat. you'll get my take on that in a moment and basically, it's all about the border tax. the retailers hate it. back in a moment.

. .

stuart: this will probably not be really friendly chat when the retailers emerge from their meeting with president trump. they may say there was a frankvg this get-together is border tax tension. retailers hate the proposal to tax imports. it would raise prices for

everything that comes into america. they are already realing from online selling. amazon is killing them. the tax is not popular with many conservatives either. they want tax cuts and want them now. get on with it and grow the economy. and the tax is unlikely to be popular with consumers. who wants higher prices? what is at stake here is more than just an import tax. it is about a shift in how the government raises money. at the moment, we tax what we earn. the border tax would shift us towards taxing what we buy. from income taxes to consumption taxes, that is at the heart of this huge tax debate. the democrats will without exception vote against a tax that raises prices, the border tax. some republicans will have their doubts too. in short, it is not a sure thing that a tax reform package that includes a border tax will have the votes it needs to pass. that is not what investors want to hear.

they have pinned their hopes on big tax cuts. what happens to the stock prices if they don't get them? that means the meeting going on in the white house now will have a lot to do with the trump rally on the stock market in the future. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ stuart: is that fleetwood mac, singing what song? seven wonders i'm told. happening at the white house, the meeting of retail ceos. it is about to happen. they're arriving at the white house. they will be talking about the border tax. let's repeat this. liz, the retailers don't want it. i mean are we clear on that? liz: you're absolutely clear on

that. they say it will annihilate their bottom lines. kohl's says they will essentially lose 2/3 of their profit. lululemon, more than 1/3 of their profits would be eaten by this best buy would tip into annual loss for a border tax. $1.2 trillion border tax they have to pay, in form of higher prices or layoffs. stuart: charles payne is with us. he always does his homework on these subjects. watch his show at 6:00 at night on the fox business network because you learn something. what have you got to tell me about retailers and borders tax that i don't already know? the. >> everything. liz: said is correct and you know that. very few big businesses pay that high corporate tax that we talk about. stuart: right. >> retailers do. and in the last reporting period autozone paid 34.7%.

gap paid 45%. target paid 34%. tractor supply paid 36%. these are ault foilings going into the white house at this moment. meanwhile the big companies, yeah, president trump, do it, do it. ge, do you know how much g. paid last quarter in taxes? stuart: tell me. >> none. they got benefit of back 776 million. stuart: they're in favor, industrialists, the ges, boeings of this world they're in favor of the border tax? >> right. stuart: but the people paying now a very high rate of corporate tax, the retailers, they hate the border tax? >> they're living on a string. these companies are in trouble but they employ a lot of people. by the way when president trump brings back factory jobs and people need to get gear for that work, they want to go to tractor supply. they want to get the stuff. they want to make sure they don't overpay for it as well. stuart: let me go around the block here, do you think, charles payne, if we get a border tax, it is passed into law and happens, is that bad for the stock market.

>> the border adjustment tax presented by kevin brady would be devastating for a large part of our economy, particularly, retail sales this morning, coming back. stuart: coming back indeed. >> it will send them back home. stuart: bad for the market? ashley: bad for the market. tax reform, not tax hikes. stuart: bad for the market? liz: gas prices go up because we have to pay the border tax. stuart: to wrap it up i don't think we'll get a border tax. i don't think the votes are there. i just don't think you could get that through congress. liz: you can see the argument. 100 countries around the world slap a vat on our export. stuart: that is the argument. when those gentlemen and lady cans emerge from the white house, some point in the next hour come to the microphone will make a statement. i'm sure they will say it is frank exchange ever views. i'm sure they're banging the table, mr. president, we don't want a border tax. also happening this morning, live action presidency, here we go.

we're expecting benjamin netanyahu's arrival at the white house to meet with president trump and first lady melania. that will occur later this hour or the next hour. you will see it. fed chair janet yellen is on the hill again. delivering day two of her report on congress. there is just talk of one -- wait a minute. where is this coming from? talk of one rate hike? >> last friday, two voting members of the fomc, bullard and charles evans, maybe 1% will be good enough this year. liz: one rate hike. >> one rate hike, rather than three. that was televised before. stuart: wait a second. we got strong economic numbers this morning. >> we do. yellen said data on jobs and inflation are right where the fed would like it, hinting more than one hike but to your point, charles, non-voting member said maybe one, probably not in march. maybe in june. liz: talking quarter point rate hikes. gradual. that is what janet yellen says gradual or you tip into recession. stuart: i don't think the market

cares if we get three or four? >> i think it cares about the fed. stuart: sign of growth. it will be a sign the economy is strong. >> it would be but they're very ham-fisted. the market has no confidence once the fed starts actively hiking rates they will stop. that will hurt the market. the market is a forward-looking mechanism. they have very little confidence in janet yellen. if she overplays her and hand, by the way i don't think she will, it will hurt the rally. liz: sorry. stuart: more breaking news on obamacare. coming thick and fast. replacement possibility for the obamacare? ashley: possibly scenario being put forward by congressman mark sanford and rand paul today. they will be outlining their, somewhat conservative plan for the obamacare. it would repeal the individual employee mandates, protect individuals with preexisting conditions. expand health savings accounts. also takes away taxpayer subsidized abortions. stuart: those two gentlemen

getting in their view of obamacare replacement before the official republican plan is presented to us all? ashley: correct. stuart: that is political opportunism, that is my personal opinion. there you have it. [laughter] there have been a number of provocative actions from russia as of late. secretly deploying a new cruise missile. jets buzzing a u.s. destroyer in the black sea. that russian ship, patrolling just a few miles, 70 miles off the coast of delaware, it is now 30 miles off the coast of connect cult, in groton, connect cult there is huge submarine base inside the waters there. lieutenant colonel ralph peters. what do you think the russians are up to? , ralph? >> [speaking russian] stuart, doesn't that make you miss the good old dies of idealogical spies like kim

filby. now it is all about money and hookers. it is kind of sad. what are russians up to? they're taking advantage of turmoil here. pushing the envelope -- the spy ship, that is really not a big deal. stuart: it is always there. >> that is for show. what really, really matters what is a potential game-changer, willful violation, they do not deny it, media crows about it, the violation of the 1987 intermediate range nuclear treaty, inf treaty. they're deploying ground launch ed cruise missiles, expressly forbidden. they're used for war in europe and intimidation. if we don't call them vigorously on that, more deals are fine. putin keeps pushing the envelope and we keep folding. stuart: do you think president trump should, what should president trump do in the face

of what is clearly provocation. what should he do? >> he needs to stop saying putin is a good guy. he needs to get his national security team together on one pro-american voice and say to russia, not only aren't we going to lift sanctions, there will be more sanctions and punishment if you keep buzzing our ships, keep violating treaties, keep slaughtering men and women and children, if you keep fomenting further unrest and death in eastern ukraine. this is not a republican or democratic issue. this is an issue of american security. and there will always be vultures here in washington who try to make points either way when a president has problems but right now we need to be unified against russia, and the president has to lead. stuart: thus far president trump has restricted his tweets certainly today, to complaining about the illegal leaks that he thinks are coming from the federal bureaucracy, the intelligence services.

he is not yet tweeted out a direct response, i don't think he has done it yet, to what the russians are doing. last, sir, 20 seconds to you, ralph, where is this thing going? >> domestically, it is going to get worse and worse because the russians clearly were active and are active here. they have poisoned our system, and we've got to clean it, we have to clean out the poison. internationally the russians are on a roll. they're hurting nato and hurting the eu, rampaging the middle east and destroying our credibility. president trump needs to lead resistance against putin. stuart: ralph peters, always a pleasure. thanks for joining you again, thank you. >> [speaking russian] stuart: right. leading democrats quoting tweets from a fake twitter account from general flynn, embarrassing themselves on camera. you will see it all. the white house of course, that meet something takes place now. retailers are right there, they

don't want the border tax. they're pounding the table with president trump we believe. the market is still up. back in a moment. ♪ hey nicole. hey! i just wanted to thank your support team for walking me through my first options trade. we only do it for everyone gary. well, i feel pretty smart. well, we're all about educating people on options strategies. well, don't worry, i won't let this accomplishment go to my head. i'm still the same old gary. wait, you forgot your french dictionary. oh, mucho gracias. get help on options trading with thinkorswim, only at td ameritrade.

stuart: new all-time high for the dow industrials early this morning. we pulled back just a fraction. we're still up 23 points. 20,528. look at this, proctor & gamble hit a two-year high. that is the stock price. after activist investor nelson peltz his hedge fund disclosed he has got a stake in the company. he is buying into proctor & gamble. watch that thing go up. how about apple? i believe that's a new high. it touched 136 earlier.

still up 50 cents, 135.53. it is all still happening. so is this. retail ceos are meeting with president trump right now at the white house. top democrat -- we'll get to that in a moment. top democrats, including speaker pelosi, congressman elijah cummings, apparently duped by a fake twitter account they thought belonged to general michael flynn. here they are talking about a message they thought was real. watch this. >> just this morning flynn tweeted, and this is a quote, scapegoat. end of quote. scapegoat. he basically described himself as a scapegoat. >> i didn't know until i heard from our colleague that the tweet of general flynn today was scapegoat. scapegoat. you know what a scapegoat is? that means in a community where people want to absolve themselves of guilt, they get a

goat and they heap all of the ills on to the goat and then they run the goat out of town. stuart: not sure that message was correct. what do you say, ash. ashley: incredible to me. it was a complete fake account. in short this tweet from the alleged flynn said, while i accept full responsibility for my actions i feel it is unfair that i've been made the sole scapegoat what had happened. if you just go to the account profile, it is labeled under, parody account. they jumped all over it and saw were commenting. really quite remarkable. they need something to quickly condemn and without doing research. stuart: why is that not on the front pages of "new york times." liz: "new york times" reported the account and had to correct it. oh, that was fake account. ashley: fake news. they held a press conference on it. how embarrassing. stuart: yes, we'll leave it at that. >> something tells me are really on twitter themselves. stuart: probably not.

take a look at the white house. liz: they're reading "the times." stuart: there is meeting at the moment, retailers, ceos, big retailers, they're in there they're talking about a border tax. they don't like it. come on in please, sarah huckabee sanders, deputy press secretary to the white house. sara, my understanding is that president trump believes that this border tax, the border at justment tax, i think he said, it is too complicated. he doesn't like it. retailers don't like it. possible coming out of the meeting today that boarder tax will be dead? >> i'm not getting ahead of the president and meeting and any announcement he may or may not have but what i can tell you this group and retailers, business owners all across the country are extremely excited to have president trump in the white house. stuart: yes, but, sara -- >> we have a president who actually cares about the economy. stuart: which understand that. look we got that. but here is these retailers, they do not want the border tax, and that's what they're going to be talking about today.

and as we said, president trumpc about it. this is not a big support the border tax day, is it? >> probably not. i think you know as well as anybody that that is not something that the president loves but again i'm not going to get ahead of him or anything that may come out of this meeting as it is taking place. stuart: you're in the white house. you have to be looking down the road at likely form and shape of the tax-cut package that will arrive at some point. i don't think there are votes for that package if it includes a border tax. what say you? >> look, i'm not going pretend to know exactly what congress is going to be willing to accept or not accept but what i do know is the president is extremely focused on massive reform. i think that is why you have got so many business owners that are excited and willing to come and sit down and talk with this president and be part of that process and be part of that reform. and i think we'll have some good things come out of it today and coming weeks and months as he

continues to do meetings like think, there is some, there is a frenetic pace of presidential action here. there is one thing after another. it gives some people the impression that it is chaotic at the white house. your come men, please. >> i certainly wouldn't use that word. i think i would say energized. this is a very aggressive president. he made a lot of big and bold commitments to come in and shake up washington. that is exactly what he is doing. he is following through on the promises that he made throughout the campaign, to shake up washington from the inside out. he is made no secret about the fact that he was going to could tom in take on big, bold reform. that is exactly what he is doing day in and day out and i think the reason we have such a strong economy right now because businesses have confidence in a president that actually really cares about the economy that we haven't seen in a long time. stuart: the president seems angry about the leaks which some people believe come from the intel community.

your comment on that? >> look, i certainly wouldn't say we're excited about that but -- stuart: he is angry. >> right now he is trying to focus on the things that frankly most americans care about, it is not parlor games press writes b whether or not they have a jobs. whether their kids go to good kids. whether or not we fix the broken health care system forced down our throats by the lasted a administration. that is what the white house is focused on and wish media would focus more on than and you seem to do more of that than others out there. stuart: thank you, sarah huckabee sanders. >> thanks for having us. stuart: as we said, retailers meeting in the white house. shortly prime minister benjamin netanyahu he will be walking into that white house with his wife and meeting with the president and the first lady and then there's going to be a press conference a little bit later. you will watch it all on the fox

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stuart: "fox news poll." look at this. that is the white house. of course in there they are meeting with the retailers. maybe you will see retailers address the cameras after the meeting. we'll see. >> look at this fox poll, 52% of the people want tax cut in president trump's 100 days. ashley: cut taxes, put money in my pocket, then we'll build a

wall and. they have been watching "varney & company." stuart: we've been pounding that a long time. we'll see what happens. obamacare, two big stories there. humana is dropping out as of 2018. they are gone from the obamacare exchanges. much second story, a ceo says obamacare is now in a death spiral. this thing is falling to pieces. liz: it is chaos. aetna is following humana pulling out entirely. humana is the first one to pull out entirely out of the exchanges. people are being stranded. they don't have insurance to buy in exchanges. these guys are pulling out. the president signed executive order, irs don't enforce the mandate tax. stuart: right. there will be how many million people who don't know if they have got coverage, what price they have got coverage and what coverage they have got. liz: 11 million. went into the exchange. stuart: that means, charles, in my opinion, congress has to deal with obamacare first because it is collapsing.

you can't have that happen. >> it is collapsing but disingenuous health insurers are so funny. they wrote the bill for president obama and built themselves two years of coverage. in other words if they lost money they make good to them. as soon as that expired they left and jumped ship like rats. i'm glad they're adding extra expediency. they're not heroic at all. stuart: they have jumped ships and stocks gone up since the election. how about that? the white house, we're waiting for the end of the meeting with retailers. we'll await for the arrival of prime minister benjamin netanyahu. from israel. he will be arriving at the white house with his wife. they start a series of meetings, and that will include a press conference a little later. mr. trump, president trump and benjamin netanyahu. that is a must-see. we're back on it in a moment. ♪

stuart: number if it moves the market. latest amount of oil in storage. is it up, is it down? it will affect the price. liz: 9.53 million, triple the estimate. stuart: of build? liz: build. huge build. triple what they expected. the seventh straight week of gains. oil going slightly down. stuart: i think it is keeping oil prices in check. we have more and more supply. ashley: we're cranking it up. stuart: there is balance around 52, $53 a barrel. no impact on the stock market. couple months ago, oil moved, stocks moved. webster ratio. it is gone.

liz: get it out of mothballs. stuart: 20,536. energy stocks, mixed bag, no serious moves there. as we keep telling you the president is meeting retailers, ceo's from the retail companies as of this moment in the white house. later meets mr. netanyahu from israel. look at this. this is a headline, you can tell, the dirty secret smart democrats know but won't admit about trump. that is quite a headline, isn't it? who wrote it? i'll tell you, former clinton pollster, doug schoen. that man who claims to be a democrat. you better tell us -- i know you are. what's the secret that you are talking about here? >> well, the secret is that donald trump has taken the democratic base and in the last election, he won 60, 70% of the white working class voters, and you know what?

that is the key to democratic revitalization. without it, no matter what happens with the republicans in the washington, the democrats will still be consigned to be a minority party. stuart: as you know, doug, there are 10 senate democrats up for re-election in 21 months from now. >> i do. stuart: are you saying that those 10 senate democrats had better get behind president trump or they face a loss in 2018? are you going that far? >> no, i'm not going that far. i'm saying if they just join the resistance to trump it will hurt them. they have to cooperate where possible, oppose where necessary, but be part of what i would underscore as the loyal opposition, stuart, not people just in the streets. it isn't the '60s after all. stuart: have you seen any sign yet of, what i would call moderate democrats, middle of the road democrats, people like you, doug, have you seen any sign yet they're coming out of their long hibernation? >> not really.

there has been some rhetoric from these 10 that they are going to cooperate with trump but that was a little earlier. you now with the resistance, they have been more and more hostile to the president and more and more oppositional. so it is a delicate balance for them. but i make the point, if they just oppose, stuart, we will get a very bad result as a party in 2018. stuart: do you have any inside track on the vote which will take place, i think fairly soon to run the dnc, the democrat party machinery? i know there are various candidates, including keith ellison, far left, do you have any idea who are the front runners at the moment because that is very important for the party? >> that is, stuart. keith elf lesson and tom perry, former labor secretary under president obama.

i think smart money is on keith ellison still. he may not have on the first ballot an absolute majority, but i think he is the front-runner because the organized activist left typically has been more powerful in the party, perez is more the institutional party of the supporters of president obama whereas the elizabeth warren faction and the bernie sanders faction are with keith ellison. i should add chuck schumer as well with keith ellison. stuart: that is astonishing but it is not good news for you guys, centrist democrats. if keith ellison runs party apparatus, i think you have a problem, i think you would agree with that. >> stuart, let me make news on this program, if keith ellison takes over the democratic party i am one step further outside of the democratic orbit because his world view and that of mainstream democrats like me are completely at variance. stuart, i see this as potentially calamitous for the

democrats, on a personal level for me. stuart: you wouldn't ever become a republican, would you? >> you know, there are a bit too conservative, particularly on social issues but i could be firmly an independent drawing from both sides. frankly as we've said on this show, i believe we need a third party in america and keith ellison will only hasten its development. stuart: doug schoen, you did indeed break news for us there. we appreciate it. thanks very much indeed for joining us. >> thank you, stuart, always a pleasure. stuart: thank you. now, as you know, i'm sorry, let's move on from this, as you know at this moment in the white house, retailers are meeting with president trump. at issue, we've been saying this all day is the border tax issue, probably called the border adjustment tax. it will be a 20% tax on everything coming into the america. now retailers hate it. joining us now is david french, senior vice president at the national retail federation.

david, welcome to the program. i'm sure that you share your colleagues and trade association membership with its opposition to the border tax. my point would be, i think you got the votes to defeat it. i don't think we'll see a border i think you will lay that heavily on the president today, am i right? >> absolutely. the voters who elected president trump are the very same people who are going to pay the consumption tax that the border adjustment will become. this is a hidden consumption tax, a hidden national sales tax, it will increase the cost of everything consumers buy from food to fuel to clothes and it is going to be very expensive proposition next year. stuart: now when the retailers emerge from that meeting some of them may come to the microphone and make a statement. i suspect if they pass any judgment on the border tax, what the president thinks about it, if they make a negative comment

on it, i think the border tax is dead. in other words, that meeting could kill the border tax today. am i going too far, david french? >> well there is a lot of skepticism about a border adjustment in the senate already. many senators have been very clear a border adjustment is too complicated and too dangerous to consider. the president has said, that a border adjustment is too complicated, we agree with him. i think that we expect a productive meeting today at the white house, david, it seems to me the whole idea of tax reform is beginning to shift, changing a little. we seem to be changing or shifting away from purely taxing income and moving towards a situation where we also tax what we buy, what we spend our money on. you probably don't approve of that, do you? >> well a consumption tax means consumers pay. and that's, that's a concept that we're familiar with in this country because of our state sales taxes, but we really

haven't ever supported a national sales tax along the lines of a european vat. and that is, this plan isn't a vat truly, but it is very close to a vat. and i think consumers will be very unhappy when the average family's, when the average family's costs go up $1700 as result. stuart: you're referring to the value-added tax which is common in europe which is added on to huge income taxes as well. i want to go back to retailers themselves, we're told, charles payne coming on the show earlier, it is major retailers who are indeed paying very high rates of corporate tax. well over 30% for some of them. and if the president gets rid or lowers the corporate tax, that's very good for the retailers. so on the one hand, you oppose the consumption tax at the border, but you're all in favor of dropping the top rate of corporate tax. that is basically your position,

isn't it? >> absolutely. retailers have traditionally paid highest income corporate tax rates in the country. we pay roughly 35% effective tax rates on, on our bottom lines. we've always supported income tax reform. our goal with this meeting, our goal in fighting the border adjustment is not to kill tax reform. it is to save tax reform. we believe tax reform is very important. we believe getting to a tax rate in the 20s would be competitive globally will help to preserve jobs, will bring jobs back to the united states and strengthen our economy and give consumers more money to spend and that is good for retailers and frankly good for everybody. stuart: how do you feel about being a lobbyist? that is what you are. lobbyists used to be wildly up popular? >> that has not changed. i represent a great industry that creates millions of jobs. we're very pleased to be on the front lines of this issue.

stuart: pleased to have you on the show. david french, thank you very much indeed. appreciate you being here. >> thank you. stuart: look at the dow jones industrial average, please. will you look at it now? we're up another new high for the dow. you have never seen this before. we're up close to 50 points, 20,553. >> can i add on to what he was talking about? stuart: please. >> there is another aspect. these companies are americana. walgreens founded in 1901. jcpenney 1902. targets a roots go back to 1902. tractor supply, 1938. they here millions of people. these are more essence of president trump than bowings of the world and ges of the world who would like to see him crushed. i'm getting a lot of good twitter pushback on our segment. people out there somehow believe we have factories now in america churning out underwear we can do this because we have alternative sources. we don't have alternative sources. this would be massive immediate tax on a lot of people watching

the show. i'm not sure it is the right solution. stuart: remember, the bricks and mortars retailer are under the hammer of amazons of this world. liz: they have been loaded up with debt by the private equity crowd. to your point, charles, a lot are small businesses. they could hire 50 million workers. how does the tax create middle class and blue-collar jobs the president campaigned on? stuart: i don't see the support for the border tax in congress. >> these people pushing this in congress, they're conservative idealists. in other words, they're so intimidated by president trump lowering individual taxes that we need to make up for it on paper. they don't have any faith in supply side. they don't have any faith what ronald reagan did could be duplicated. they don't have faith and immediately punishing with people, don't have the guts to go with lower taxes reinvigorate the economy and covers of treasury fill up. stuart: you're right.

eventually they fill up. >> not initially. stuart: you get a whopping great big deficit, deficit and a 1/2. >> we'll whittle it down. stuart: you got that down, sir. breaking news thick and fast as always from defense secretary james mattis on nato. ashley: yeah, this is quite remarkable. he he is in brussels speaking with nato allies and "mad dog" mattis is laying down the law. he starts it all off saying look, donald trump and the united states has a strong commitment to nato, however, you better start picking up some more money on your defense spending, otherwise we will moderate our commitment. here is some of just of a couple of lines. you know, look, trump's defense secretary, show support for common defense. if you don't want america to moderate its commitment. this is the other line. americans can not care more for your children's future security than you do. stuart: yes. liz: that the point there? u.s. has militarily supported

europe and canada, while they put gigantic welfare entitlement states, right? that money went into welfare an entitlement state spending, not their defense. stuart: europe is incapable of defending itself. they rely upon the united states to defend it and spend money to defend it. ashley: so the message -- stuart: three generations they have not spent money on defense. ashley: the message is pay your fair share, otherwise our commitment may not be as strong. stuart: music to my ears, however, hold on a second. there is a second side to this. ashley: yeah. stuart: if the europeans start spending a lot of money on defense, germany rearms. how do you feel about that, bearing in mind -- ashley: not great. liz: good point. >> i think germany and less so than japan. they both at some point need to ditch their pass sy individual constitutions anyway. stuart: you're right. you're right. liz: general mattis's general statements by nato will be taken by media as invitation to russia. there is that angle as well. ashley: you're right.

stuart: a lot going on. we're trying to keep up with it. frantic pace, never a dull moment. i like that. thank you very much indeed. we have got the meeting in the white house. prime minister netanyahu arriving at the white house very, very soon. we are a furor if i can use that term, leaks and lying in the white house. that is ongoing. we have a stock market rally taking us to 20,552 for heaven's sake. the market going straight up. come on in with us, tony perkins, who is with us now. tony, welcome to the news flow. live action news all happening. >> good morning. stuart: i want to get straight at this. you're a man of god. i think as a christian, you're a christian man. how do you feel when you see some of the deportees who are, have been living in america for a long time, they have not committed a crime, they may have

been brought here as children and now they're he deported? i know this is a small proportion of the deportees we've seen recently but i want you to tell us, how do you feel, as a man of god, how do you feel about those people being kicked out of the country. >> well, there is two-ways that you look at this. you look at it from a personal standpoint and that you do have empathy and you have concern. you want to work through the policies so that we have an equitable immigration policy but then you also look at the law and what the law says as a nation of laws, we have to abide by the law. now you're speaking of the d.r.e.a.m. act. i mean what's happening here we're waking up from a nightmare of eight years of lawlessness. essentially what's happened is, we had, you could put it in the context, you had a sheriff who decided not to enforce trespassing laws, all of sudden, all of sudden all the cases of trespassing. then the people get upset.

they hire a new sheriff who is enforcing trespassing. that is what we have. we're a nation of laws. now, we look at particular cases of some innocent people, we have to look for a way to look at there but appropriately through the law. we have we have to be a nation d by laws. stuart: talking about the retailers who are meeting with president trump in the white house. you say if a ceo, of any company take as political position, ultimately they lose, lose support in the marketplace, lose political support and lose the support of their employees. and your example is target. take us through it, please. >> right. well, target decided to unilaterally weigh in on the crazy bathroom policies. they decided to want to force their customers to have to use the restroom and changing room, men with women, women with men,

and they have taken a lit in their stocks. while you pointed out the stock market continued to go up, retailers are doing better, they have actually seen a decline. their stock has gone from $85, down to about $65. they have lost $10 billion in assets. what is happening, they had to cancel two major projects that they had on the drawing boards. quite frankly, if you want to see a live rendition of csi, you got a good chance if you go to target because increasingly you have crime scenes in their restrooms and in their changing rooms. stuart: do you think it will be the other way around if a ceo of any corporation came out full-throated for donald trump, president trump, you think that the stock would go up and that that ceo would receive a lot of support? >> well, i mean, there is incidents of that. you saw a few years ago when chik-fil-a weighed in, took a stand for natural marriage. they had overwhelming support from their consumer base. here is what i advocate. if you make widgets, make widgets.

don't get involved in the culture wars. ceos of these major corporations and retailers should do what they're created to do, what their stockholders warrant them to do, that is do business. leave the culture issues to those who do culture issues. stuart: that's true. >> we're doing quite fine. stuart: so many of them are end abouting to the pressure which is being applied to them. there is a whole string of retailers who won't carry trump products. >> what is happening here, stuart, is that the left, who lost control of the levers of government, they had obama his pen and phone to do all of this. they have lost. they can't win elections. so they're squeezing corporate america. we saw it in north carolina. they're trying to do it in texas. what they're trying to do, they're trying to leverage influence with the corporate boardroom. i'm saying what you see with target there is pushback and there is liability for corporate ceos who want to side with the loud liberal activists. they need to just do business and allow others to deal with these cultural and social issues.

stuart: well-said, tony perkins. always, thank you very much for being with us. we appreciate that. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: i want to comment on this very subject from charles payne, because tony perkins very clear there. you make widgets, sell widgets. don't get involved in politics. sounds like good advice to me? >> it is good advice but we have activist corporate culture, the company i always pick up on, not issue of sex but conscious capitalism, remaking of the way we think about making money, creating profits, hiring people, howard schultz is big behind this. ward schultz from starbucks. we've seen some of this stuff play out at his place. some of the same sort of political ideology. stuart: yep. >> but also if you look at shares of the container store. look at that stock since it has gone public, the container store. they went and said we'll turn the corporate world upside down by treating things differently, invoking social ideology instead of purity capitalism. textbook reason why you never

want to do, much more than target. look at two, three-year chart. stuart: talking starbucks? >> starbucks, is also ugly but the container store. stuart: oh, the container store. >> they took it a step further. we'll be conscious capitalism on steroids. we'll show the world how it is done. we'll invoke a sort of social ideology and merge it with capitalism. it doesn't work. stuart: absolutely. >> doesn't work. stuart: are you sure that they went down because of their political stance? >> because they, they actually acted on their political stance and it is not good for profits. stuart: ashley? ashley: i don't think consumers particularly care what a company thinks, if they buy their products they will buy their products. it is dangerous world. it's a world where you can say what you want to say. >> unfortunately like starbucks it becomes more intrusive. stuart: we've never seen pressure like we are now variety of companies to oppose president trump.

we have the news this morning out of under armour related to that. liz: politicizing clothes is annoying. i think it is fine for target to enact policy. it is free market. private sector company. make their own choices to see if it works. stuart: look at the stock market. it is worth looking at up 66 points. this rally just continues. high of the day, 67 points. president trump has just said that tax reform is one of the best opportunities to affect and influence the economy. just said that? was that in a tweet or some sort? in the meeting with the retailers. you will hear him say this momentarily. essentially our president just said tax reform is the best way of influencing the economy. in other words, get out there, cut taxes, see it grow. look at market. now we're up 67 points. by the way we did get some reports this morning, fairly strong numbers. ashley: yep, retail sales. stuart: retail sales in january they were up nicely. inflation is actually picking

up. ashley: yep. stuart: then there is this thing, help me out on this. the empire state manufacturing index. i could care less but -- >> i love it. focused on consumer and resale sales, electronics, best month over month gain since june of 2015. same thing with clothes. best since last february. sporting goods, we talk about the guns and ammo. might be time to buy on weakness. we're seeing people, this is manifestation of positive sentiment into reality. stuart: we'll get the tape shortly of the president in that meeting with the retailers. the key phrase that has moved the markets is, president trump believes that the best way to influence the economy is through tax cuts. liz: yeah. stuart: that is the key sentence here. liz: latest finding from the "fox news poll." that is what people polled want number one in the first 100 days is tax cut plan. stuart: look what you've got here.

on the one hand, you have got a political firestorm surrounding the white house. general flynn. ashley: yeah. stuart: phone calls to the russians. leaks from the intelligence community, that is a political firestorm. ashley: yes. stuart: wall street could care less. give me the tax cut. give me deregulation. i will give you a rally. that is what we've got. 60 points higher, 20,566. we have strong economic numbers to boot. what am i missing, charles payne, oh, great one. >> nothing. stuart: just a few seconds to go, you will see the tape from president trump at that meeting with retailers. this happens every day. he holds a meeting with industry groups. ashley: yeah. stuart: there is a brief tape from him meeting them and talking to them. we get the tape. we run it. and market reacts. live action news, live action presidency. the market reacts. that's the story of the trump presidency and tv news. liz: it's a switch from the last eight years where it came to

democrats they thought tax hikes was the way to growth. train of thought made all local stops on tax hikes with the democrats. they thought that was the way to go. we're in and bra new world where rational common sense thinking. democrats are behind the eight ball. they have not come up with their own economic growth plan yet. >> you're right, it is common sense. why i don't think the democrats thought it was the way to grow the economy. i think president obama was too worried about readdressing the wrongs of yesteryear, releveling playing field and redistribution. they know tax cuts will crush the economy. liz: tax hikes. >> the whole thing, if hurt the so-called rich it was worth it. stuart: okay. we have been given what is called the wrap. that means we have a few seconds to go before we roll the tape of president trump in the white house. 10 seconds, now nine seconds. i will count you down to this. listen, everybody.

>> my favorite subject. retail. how are you? >> terrific. good morning. >> so it is nice to see we have great retailers here today. we'll go around the room and all introduce ourselves. some of you i read about on covers of business magazines. great to have you here. thank you very much. i'm pleased to host all of you at the white house, ceo's, some of the great ceos of our country and biggest of the retail industry which is very important to the country. it is supporting millions and millions of jobs. really one of the great job producers. probably would you say almost number one? pretty close, right? >> number one. >> it is number one. there is a lot of confidence in our economy right now. there is great confidence level. you've been seeing that in the stock market. you've been seeing that in businesses. and you have been seeing that on

every chart that is taken. there is evidence by the jobs report that just came out for january, 227,000 jobs added. my administration remains very focused on the issues that will encourage economic growth. that's what we're all about. we have a lot of plans to moving back into various state, including the state of ohio, the state of michigan and pennsylvania. we have a lot of, a lot of companies moving back in, coming back into the country, bringing the jobs with them. we're cutting regulations big league. we're really cutting them by massive amounts. the auto indtrleft a week ago. they were here in the same room and they're very happy what we're doing and everyone is. financial inconditions city, we're having a lot of industries in. we're cutting regulations in just about every industry.

i can't think of any i do not. if we do we have a major story, okay? i think every industry, we're cutting some more than others. you have a big regulatory problem and we'll take care of that. because i want more jobs. doing it because i want more jobs. as you know the overregulation caused our economy an estimated $2 trillion a year which is incredible. cost your businesses tremendous amounts of money and time. i've taken executive action of creating a permanent structure of regulatory reduction, of one by one. basically one regulation, two are out. we knock out two. we put in one, but to put in one you have to knock out two. that is the least of it. but it is an important sim is bowl. >> sure. >> and in addition to reducing government regulations we'll also reform our tax code to help middle income families and american businesses to grow and thrive and tax reform is one of

the best opportunity to really impact our economy. so we're doing a massive tax plan. it is coming along very well. it will be in in the not-too-distant future. it will be simpler, you're talking about big numbers of savings. we're talking about middle income and very much for business. and the businesses for middle income, because you will employ a lot of people. so we hope you're going to do that. we're going to provide tax relief for families. we're going to simplify very greatly the tax code. it is too complicated. we're going to bring down the number of alternatives and i think it is going to be, just a much, much, simpler tax code. in fact h&r block probably won't be too happy. that is one business might not be too happy what we're doing. other than h&r block, i think people will love it. we'll lower rates very substantial lip for virtually

everybody for everybody in every category including personal and business. and i just want to go around the room. i would like you to introduce yourself. and then i will tell you a little bit more and you will tell me what you're looking for. but we want jobs, we want jobs brought back to the country. we want them brought back fast. we want you to expand your stores. you tell me why you will or why you won't. tell me why you won't i will talk to you a little bit, vice president mike pence. so go ahead. >> i'm jill, with joanne's fabric and craft stores. >> good. >> art peck, with the gap. >> very good. >> -- best buy. >> i'm b >> i'm bill rhodes of autozone >> ryan cornell at target. >> target; right? >> thank you. >> eric stanford with tractor supply >> j.c. penney.

>> i read a good report on you. >> so maybe we go around the room a little bit. i guess we can let the press go now; right? you suggest that? thank you, all, very much. stuart: i'm waiting to hear if the president answers any of the questions. they're always shouted at the end of these meetings, and he rarely answers. has not answered that one. reporters can't resist the opportunity to ask a question directly to trump. he can't answer. there's a female answer that says that's it and everybody leaves. look, what i got from that tape was that on the bottom of your screen, president trump said tax reform is one of the best ways to influence the economy. in other words, he wants tax cuts. ashley: yep. stuart: there's no mention there -- not in that tape, none that i heard about the border tax. liz: nothing. stuart: which probably came up in the meeting. it's just tax reform helps the

economy. and look what happened to the stock market in that time. up 66 points. am i right? did i pick on the right sentence there? liz: upping you did. ashley: absolutely. stuart: that's the gist of it? liz: yeah,. stuart: we see this -- ashley: critical for the market and the strong economic turn data, which he should. stuart: he's right on both accounts. the market is up. that is good. look, everyone, talk about a live action presidency. it has been nonstop. he is getting things done. he is dominating the news, and he is making waves. by doing all of this, is presidency looking disorganized? perhaps chaotic? look at the action today. first thing this morning, he railed against illegal leaks by obama holdovers in the federal bureaucracy. that was first thing this morning shortly after dawn. and then meeting with executives from the big retailers, they hate the proposed border tax, which may be the centerpiece of the whole tax reform package and tax reform is key to the explosive stock rally and the market and the economy as you

just heard the president say. within the hour, benjamin netanyahu arrived at the white house. in this administration, america and israel are firm allies. but this will not necessarily be a cozy chat. there is conflict over the recent expansion of west bank settlements. the pace remains almost frantic. we are barely a quarter of the way through the president's first 100 days. no reason to expect him to slow down. in other words, it may look to some like chaos, but his supporters, it looks like he's doing what he said he would do. the live action presidency is not going away any time soon. joining us now is martha who specializes in the president's first 100 days. >> in the chaos. stuart: that is the impression. it's chaotic. would you say that? >> yeah. i love what you just said at the end there because there are there's out there that is this is exactly what we voted for. it takes chaos. it takes reform.

it takes an ugly situation to get to the underlying reform that is really at the basis of that. but what they're in trouble with now is that the picture is one that is messy in terms of human relationships at the white house. that's not a helpful story for them. they need to project a feeling that there is a grown-up in charge. that everything is going exactly as planned. and the chaos needs to happen where reform is centered. the kinds of things that you're talking about. discussions with benjamin netanyahu. the issues of substance i think people are comfortable with if those things feel a little bit shaken up. but this, you know, top layer and the michael flynn issue and all of the insiding and the leaks and everything, that's not coming across well. stuart: the concern is that this chaotic situation is bite him in the white house, the administration will bleed over into the legislative schedule. tax cuts, obama reform, deregulation, get rid of dodd-frank. i mean, if the chaos there drifts over into this part of

the administration, we've all got a real problem. will it drift over? >> i mean, think about the kudos that he got for the people that he appointed for most of these positions; right? everybody said, look, this is the most impressive cabinet that we've seen in a long time. he's lost one of those individuals right now. for people like mattis, people like kelly are giving people a good sense of confidence. those people need to be put forward. they're part of this equation needs to be what people are talking about and seeing. and that's going to take some reorganization in the white house, and we expect that perhaps we'll see something along those lines. stuart: talk about live action news. few moments ago general mattis defense secretary speaking in brussels telling the europeans, you know, arm up. get a backbone. start spending some money on your own defense. that is major news. >> it's huge, and he expects the commitment to be similar in proportion to what the united states is doing. this is not -- i don't think -- a revolutionary idea

to expect people to hold to the commitments that they made to nato. that's what we're talking about here. stuart: yeah. >> you think about the president on the campaign trail that nato need to be in a slightly different life. there was so much hysteria and reaction to that. now we're seeing what he's talking about. and we do have that commitment when people are -- have skin in the game, there's a different feeling amongst the t. stuart: and now we're waiting for the rival of benjamin netanyahu at the white house. that could be a little contentious because president trump has said it's not helpful when the israelis add to their settlements on the west bank. this might not just be a kumbaya session here. >> i think that president trump wanted to make very clear during the campaign was that the united states and israel are staunch dedicated allies, and he felt i think justifiably so that that relationship had been damaged dramatically over the course of the obama years. so i think he reset that part

of it. i think benjamin netanyahu walks in highly respected to this meeting at the white house with a good, you know, red welcome mat put out for him. but he also through out that marker that you just mentioned where he said, you know, we don't want to see new additions to the settlement. he always likes to sort of put down parameters of negotiation and make it clear he's not going to be a push over. but at the same time, he is respectful and welcoming. so, you know, we'll see. i think they're going to hope that by the time we do our show tonight, this is the focus of the conversation and not some other thing that gets thrown in between. stuart: you never know. you do not know. live action news. live action presidency. >> glad we got to talk about it now. stuart: in a calm. martha, everyone. good stuff. >> good to see you. stuart: all right. check that big board -- look at this. now we're up 77 points. we're closing on 20,600. clearly investors are ignoring what we're describing as political chaos surrounding the administration and the white house. look at that.

now it's up 78 points. ashley: they're responding to the tax cut and tax reform messages coming from president trump. stuart: yes. ashley: that's what they want to hear about. stuart: he's gung-ho for tax reform. that's what he wants. he says it and the market goes up. ashley: yeah,. stuart: how much oil do we have in storage? liz: triple than expected. 9.3million or so. that's triple what they expected. stuart: and yet the price of oil goes up. can you figure that one out for me? i can't. ashley: we'll get back to you. stuart: look who's sitting right there right next to me. his name is sean, star of this program. capital wave strategist kind of guy. he has been a raging bull. is that accurate to say? >> yes, it is. stuart: you're the guy who said we would pretty soon get to 20,000 and that was before we got to 20,000. >> and we're fast approaching 21,000. there are lots of principle reasons that the biggest one for me, the fundamental reason is supply and demand. something that should be concerned about because if you

want to get into the market, you need to get into the market. that principle reason being supply and demand, there are about 333 listed companies in the united states. there were about 6400 in 1997. since 2003, there have been over $5 trillion of share buy backs. so we have fewer listed companies, fewer shares outstanding, and capital being created. that capital is chasing those shares. nowhere to go but up. stuart: that's very -- number of companies listed diminishing. >> about half. stuart: share buy backs about five trillion. >> that's going down. stuart: not in the open markets. >> correct. stuart: now talk to me about earnings because i'm told profits are very significantly up, and that helps the market too. >> well, they've been really -- have sunk probably for six quarters in a row, seven quarters almost. and now this is the first turn around, so we're seeing improvement in earnings. this is another reason the market is going higher. markets are anticipating continues to get better from here out, then the market has

nowhere to go but up again. in terms of big in terms of supply and demand. we have improved earnings. if we get 4% growth in the united states. if we get global growth and bond prices start to tick up -- excuse me, tick down and yields start to rise, some of that money is going to come into the market. the market really has such a firm bit under it, it has nowhere to go but up. yes, it's always going to be prone to down draft and slippage. but the fundamental case for being bullish is as solid as it has ever been. stuart: so for the benefit of our viewers, many of whom will be saying i've got a little cash here. i have a little cash there. i'm a little worried about putting it into the stock market at this point. says don't hold back. put it in and put it in now. you're saying that? >> yes. because you can continue to wait. you can continue to look for a pull back. you may never get it. it's smart to get into the market. just be smart in terms of being defensive if your

profits start to slip. if you go backwards a little bit, then you can get out and wait for the dip if there's going to be one and get back in. but we may not get that. . stuart: okay. i'm going to throw this at you. i don't know whether you've got an answer for me or not. i'm one of those people who believes that the big move will come in real estate. i think we've got more to go on the upside from single-family homes than we do from stocks at this moment. but if i want to get into real estate without owning the home, without becoming a landlord, how do i do it? is there an rei, a real estate investment -- >> there are a lot that investments can look at. i'm not in it currently right now. i think the real estate is a little bit soft, it's firming up, but it's not anything i want to jump into right now. but investors want to get into the real estate, that's the best way to go in. you can get out any given moment of the day. and whether there are property.

there are all kinds. you can slice and dice any which way. so any way you want to play the real estate market, you can play through the stock market. stuart: you can have the cake and eat it. we asked you to bring along stocks that you like. i don't have time for all of them, but you did pick out macy's. you like macy's. >> yeah. stuart: why? >> well, i was on your show in january and saying we were going to buy macy's, we started buying it that afternoon. i like macy's for some reason. number one the bad news is mostly out. but it got hit really hard in january because same store sales were down 2% in november and december. but if you look further into the numbers, their e-commerce sales are now about 23% of the total sales. that's up from about 19% in 2015. so their e-commerce sales are improving. and underneath all of this if you take are the stock market value that outstanding shares times their price at about $32 a share, and you add in the net debt that macy's owes,

that's about $17.5 billion. the real estate that they're sitting on has just been valued at about $21 billion, an investor that owns a small piece of macy's. and they're trying to make some changes on the board level. but that's $21 billion worth of real estate for a company -- in other words, you're getting the real estate for 21 -- whatever the price of the stock is, you're getting the retail company for free. stuart: so what about microsoft? [laughter] i own some. waiting to move? >> no. microsoft has got a firm bed under it. they keep expanding their cloud business, and it's a terrific company. stuart: look at this rally. we've seen this every day for the last five days i think is what we've seen. you start off fairly slightly higher, and it builds momentum. any news on tax reform? any news on a tax cut and president trump did say something about it a few moments ago. market goes up. now we're up 83 -- 85 points. ashley: not only that, the leaders have been financials

for recently and some tech. but then the rest of the market is going to pick up too because as the money comes out of the leadership and looks for cheaper stocks, more valued stocks, they're going to go to these stocks that haven't performed as well. so the market has a long way to go, there's going to be a nice rotation, it has a few legs to go higher. stuart: have you ever seen anything like this? because i've been doing it for 40 years, and i'm not sure i've seen this before, frankly. liz: no. ashley: the pace of it? . stuart: yeah. as of right now, i'm going to do the math. we are now up 2,200 points since the election. i can't work out. liz: estimated 2 trillion in global market value. equity value. stuart: global market value. liz: 2 trillion. that's a lot. stuart: it goes up as we speak. you sit here, talk about tax cuts, it helps the economy. ashley: janet yellen yesterday basically said the economy seems to be humming along well. and you have a president who's saying tax reform is the way to get this economy even more fired up. liz: and in fairness, she

got -- janet yellen spoke with elizabeth senator warren and said you know what? this whole saying that banks are not lending, bank lending is at highs surpassing 2008 levels, at highs -- they exceeded highest level since 1980. >> we will probably get incremental increases in terms of interest rate. that's going to be positive for the market also. stuart: well, if the economy is strong and this morning's numbers suggest, yeah, there's growing strength there. ashley: yeah,. stuart: then you can expect the federal reserve to raise interest rates. >> yeah. stuart: but this time around the market likes it. the market wants higher interest rates because -- and this is just my opinion. ashley: yeah,. stuart: because it signals that the economy is strong. ashley: correct. right. stuart: that's what's going on. ashley: they can't handle a quarter of a percent hike, there's something wrong. stuart: everything turned upside down. unions support republicans. what's going on? >> the universe we're in right now. opposite world. where am i going next? i think i'm going to stick with the stock market rally because it just keeps going

up. by the way, when i check out which groups of stocks are going up significantly, i check xlf. that's the etf for financial companies. you buy xlf, and you're getting into a variety of bank stocks and investment stocks. keeps on going up. now it's up another 17 cents. 24.50. >> again, financials have been leading this rally. and xlf is indicative of exactly what they're doing. that's the right etf to up with a watch. stuart: now look at the bottom right hand corner of your screen. we're about to hit we think 20,600. why not? up 92 points. ashley: more money coming in. yeah. stuart: this is the time of year when a lot of people i think, straighten me out on this, i think that they are allocating their funds within their 401(k). or their -- your plan. this is the time when you can say i want more into stocks or more into bonds or more into cash. evidently, they're putting a

lot of it into stocks. >> and there's also a lot of money that has been on the sidelines prior to the election. that money missed the rally, the trump rally, and they're now going to be chasing it probably throughout this first quarter. so i think this has a good, long way to go. stuart: really extraordinary. we're going to keep that on the bottom right hand corner of your screen. a 92-point, 94 -- you're almost at 20,600. there you go. you see? look at that. ashley: there you go. stuart: now 20,600. liz: wow. it was just 20 trading days ago we hit dow 20,000. stuart: wait a second. it was only 20 trading days ago that we hit 20,000. liz: correct. stuart: and it was november the 22nd when we hit 19,000. liz: correct. stuart: so you have gone from 18,332 on november the 8th. ashley: yep. stuart: to 20,600 on february the 15th. liz: correct. stuart: i don't think i've ever seen that before. ashley: nope. stuart: i'm older than most of you. even i have not seen anything

quite like that. i'm just -- liz: of course now the bears are being creamed right now. the bulls are on the march, bears are on the run. but then the talk is, well, the markets are taking the elevator way up, and then they're going to take that rocket ship escalator ride down because when will the tax cuts really take effect? when will they coming into the economy? 2018 maybe? are we ahead of ourselves? . stuart: nobody is going to say it goes up forever. nobody is going to say it goes up in a straight line. a lot of people are going to start to say at some point this thing levels off and comes down. ashley: yeah, and add another buying opportunity for those who haven't jumped in. stuart: that's what shaw would say. >> if you look at the markets since 2009, it has pretty much gone up in that straight line. we've had a few dips here or there but nothing monumental. so why would the market turn around now when optimism is high and investor sentiment is highs? there's no reason for it to back off significantly right here. unless there's some major in terms of the trump administration. something falls apart or some

scandal that breaks up the market and enthusiasm for tax cuts and everything that the donald is, you know, proposing. . stuart: okay. one of the things that we cover consistently on this program is the live action presidency. and, boy, do we have live action to report for you. >> 24/7. stuart: tweeting right after dawn. a meeting with ceos about 9:30. coming up, a meeting with the prime minister of israel benjamin netanyahu. now, the assumption is that these two allies american and israel are going to have a real friendly nice ol' chat in the white house. that may be the case. but there is some contention here, and that is president trump's statement that it is not helpful when the israelis expand quite dramatically their settlements on the west bank. herb london is with us this morning. he's right here on the set. and i'm going to segue -- with great difficulty away from the stock market going to record highs and bring you in on the meeting with benjamin netanyahu. i say there is an element of

contention here. what say you? >> i say it's primarily an effort to appease those in the state department and appears the united states is even handed. i think that this will be a very cordial meeting. very different from the meetings that have taken place at the white house for the last eight years. netanyahu is not going out the back door. in fact, you'll find that netanyahu and the president get along famously. one the embassy will probably will be moved to jerusalem. stuart: that's news. >> and all will require is a change in the sign. there is an embassy there, but it's not called a embassy. so you just put up a different sign. stuart: yeah, but politically you know that's a bombshell. >> the symbolism is extraordinary. and, again, if you do nothing, that's also extraordinary. but i think the president is going to move on this front. secondly, i think that the president would like to talk to netanyahu about some some solid informal condominium in that part of the world with

israel being a member of the sunni alliance. india, saudi arabia, jordan,. stuart: a new alignment. >> new alignment. stuart: slightly under the table that maybe don't publicize israel's involvement in this. >> i said israel would be an unregistered member. stuart: but that's a complete reversal of what we've had for a generation to generation. >> that is correct. stuart: . radical reversal. >> but keep in mind israel is working with egypt in the war right now. all under the radar. nobody is talking about that. but israel is sending its apaches across the border to fight with the egyptian army. so there's a close relationship between the sunnis and israel right now. who would have guessed that saudi arabia would send to jerusalem to talk about joint. if i were to tell you ten years ago, you would have said you're smoking. stuart: smoking.

[laughter] >> but it happened. not suggesting that you do. . stuart: but what you're saying, that is really dramatic stuff. >> it is dramatic. stuart: because you have not seen anything even approaching this for a long, long time. now, let me reverse this. if what you say is correct, and you get this kind of realignment of power in the middle east with jewish people in america start to vote republican as opposed to always voting democrat? >> part of the difficulty is that jews do not know how to pull an r lever. they're only accustom to pulling a d. it is true that israel is an important factor in how the jewish vote goes in the united states. but it is not the overarching factor. there are a number of factors that go into that equation. i think that close israeli american alliance that we have had before will undoubtedly lead to more jewish votes. how many? difficult to say. stuart: will you please stay

there? we want you to be a commentator for us when mr. netanyahu arrives at the white house. we need your expertise on that one. so stay with us, please. herb london. i want to bring in dana loesc loesch. free-body diagram guest on this program and a fine contributor to it. dana, welcome to the program. >> thank you, stuart, for having me again. stuart: i want your comments, please, on what we're seeing on the big picture here. it appears chaotic at the white house but at the same time, we appear to have a legislative process that's moving forward with the reform of obamacare and then tax cuts, and we also have a whopping great rally on wall street again. seems to me that investors and an awful lot of voters are ignoring the chaos and focusing instead on growth in the american economy still to come. what say you? >> stuart, i think you're onto something. the chaos, a lot of the chaos that we see seems to be media created, quite frankly. when you look at everything that has been accomplished so far, all of the things that

have been ticked off. plus i would like to see the complete gutting of obamacare, and i would like to see something entirely new created because that's something that cannot be saved. but all the chaos and everything else is a media distraction. all of this stuff just this morning i was talking about all of the leaks that are concerning michael flynn and how this is unfortunate here you have political elements within the cia, not to talk about all the agents that work with it. but some of the various political elements and other intel agencies that seem to want to play petty politics meanwhile the american people are just saying you know what? can we make sure we can keep our health care? can we get our tax cuts? is this something that we can accomplish? they're worried about how they're going to put food on their table and how they're going to pay their premiums. that's why they voted the way they did november 8th. stuart: what do you make of this border tax issue? i'm pretty sure it was discussed with the retailers by president trump this morning. a border tax of 20% everything

coming into america. it's a huge consumption tax. i don't think it's going to pass. i don't think there are votes there for it. but what's your opinion on shifting our tax system away from taxing income a little bit and moving it more towards taxing consumption? >> i'm actually a huge supporter of consumption tax. i think it's a really good idea. and with that, it sort of makes equal all of the other things that we bring in across our borders as well. mexico is one of our top three trading partners, so i think it's important to make sure that we maintain that relationship. i just -- i'm with you. i'm not quite sure that that's something that will pass, but i would love to see congress move towards the consumption tax. i think that would be a great idea. stuart: do you think things are -- i was going to say do you think things are calming down at the white house. but i really cannot say that, bearing in mind what's happening overnight. but would you like to see things calm down a little? would you like to see the president get a little bit more control of his

administration? >> yes. i think a lot of it is entirely overblown by the media. when i look at, for instance, the situation with general flynn, granted you do not mislead the vice president and ultimately that's what created that deficit of trust that sean spicer mentioned in his press conference yesterday. however, we shouldn't even be -- we shouldn't know about any of those conversations to begin with because that's not something that's authorized for release. and i hope there's an investigation into why and how it was released and who authorized it. that being said, it is business as usual, and i think a lot of these other things are put out there to distract from what's actually being accomplished with this new administration. even those people, stuart, who were doubting it are really happy with a lot of the things that have been coming out so far. stuart: dana, hold on for a second, please. i've got judge napolitano with me, and i do want to talk about these leaks perhaps from the intelligence community,

which seem to be really undermining this administration and certainly undermining general flynn. it seems to me like sabotage. that's what it seems to be. >> that's a strong word but some of the evidence supports it. one of my colleagues asked me a few minutes ago what business at the fbi what general flynn was saying and why were they listening to him? this is how these things get started. there is zero evidence that the fbi was listening to them. there is ample evidence that the nsa was listening to him. general flynn when he rammed the defense intelligence agency was the chief spy for the pentagon. he knows very well that everything he says on the telephone to the russian government is going to be listened to by american spies, and they will do with it what they will, including leak and embarrass him and embarrass the president attackers for. stuart: so you think this was a deliberate leak by the nsa, which is deliberate to undermine general flynn and

president trump? >> i don't know if it was the nsa that did the leaking. but the nsa is the central spying entity. it could very well have been passed on to some other group in the intelligence community. but i believe there are forces in the intelligence community that fear and loathe the president and want to get rid of his principle instrument general flynn, and they succeeded. stuart: dana loesch, i'm sure you've been listening to what the judge has said. your response, please. >> i actually would agree with him. and i agree with what we don't know either. we don't know exactly who -- what entity was behind leaking this. we do know as we said just from the last election and things that mike has said and james comey who go out there, and they get incredibly political, and they get behind one candidate or another. of course it would be the article that came out just the other day that showed how there was a faction of obama supporting that are in government, the career

appointees, these people brought in under the obama administration that would love to see this administration fail and perhaps maybe are able to leak information. stuart: dana, forgive me for interrupting you but the ceos of retail companies are emerging. they're approaching the microphones. i want to hear if they've got anything to say. listen in. >> first of all, i'm bill rhodes with autozone. last name rhodes. i want to start with. i've been in the industry personally for 22 years. to my knowledge, the retail industry has never been to the white house to meet with the administration and key members of his team, and we had that opportunity today, and we're grateful for that opportunity. today we had a very positive and productive discussion with the president and his team about the important role that the retail industry plays in the american economy. we as retailers provide 42 million jobs us directly and those that provide us

services. 42million jobs in america. we look forward to carrying on the conversation with the president and his team as we continue to look to move the interest of our industry, our employees, and most importantly, the consumers. the hard-working american consumers that we all served. we thank you very much. have a great day. . stuart: that's it. now, we did -- that was the autozone ceo. ashley: bill rhodes. stuart: bill rhodes. and that's the only retail ceo who was prepared to speak in front of the microphone. i suspect it was a fairly contentious meeting in which i do believe the retailers would have said don't -- we don't want the border tax. anything but the border tax. we want tax cuts for our profits -- for the corporations, but we do not want a border tax. liz: yeah, we're sure he got an earful. david french for the national

federation. he's saying it's unproven this border tax and the autozone ceo, he's saying he's never been invited to the white house in 22 years. stuart: and he did say it was a very productive meeting. liz: productive meeting. stuart: with the president. eye to eye on the border tax. ashley: and kevin brady and lauren hatch, the house and senate tax writers. so they're going to continue their lobbying. stuart: so the bottom line today in this live action news program is that you got a full-court press against the border tax. it's coming from the retailers, primarily. maybe president trump agrees with them that maybe it's not such a good idea. so maybe the border tax died today. ashley: we don't know. liz: we don't know. the ge crowd. >> with a smile on your face, you want it to die. you know it's an assault on the free enterprise system. stuart: it has nothing to do with that. >> you knowey just gives them more money to spend and however they waste.

you know all of those things. stuart: it has nothing to do with that. >> you know paris will raise prices from newspaper and iphones. stuart: it has nothing to do with that. my opposition to the border tax is that if you stick it into tax reform, tax reform will not pass. >> agreed. stuart: and i want more than anything else. i want a cut in the personal level of income tax, and i want a cut in the corporate rate. >> why don't we just get rid of all taxes? . stuart: because you can't do that, and you never will. stop trying to play that line. >> taxation is stepped, and you know it, mr. jefferson. stuart: and because i'm right on this, the market is going up. look, seriously if you get rid of the idea of a border tax, if you can bury it today, and you know that you're going to present to congress or present to the american people a tax cut package where you cut individual tax rates and corporate tax rates, the market loves it. that's why it's up. liz: let me give you the other side of this fight.

it comes from paul ryan and kevin brady and ge and dow chemical. they're getting a tax break on the cost of their goods sold. so that why the exporters like this border tax play. so there's pressure on that side. stuart: there is another side. and, ashley, you mentioned this earlier. ashley: yeah,. stuart: if you get a border tax, you pay for, with all the revenue you bring in, you pay for the tax cuts on. ashley: corporate and individual. stuart: it is paid for. it's called pay go. now -- >> i'm smiling because you're falling into this progressivism, liberal paid for. how about letting me keep the money i earn instead of worrying about giving me a tax break here and getting the money there? . stuart: you're arguing with the wrong guy. [laughter] >> trying to be who you asked me to be. stuart: london who was brought on this program to comment about benjamin netanyahu has had to sit and listen to all that's going on. do you have -- >> i have strong commentary.

i believe in the free market and my observation is that anything you can do to engage the free market with the exchange of commercial activity is desirable. the tax cuts would do an awful lot for america. you already see it. it's in the market. it's euro play when you look at the rise that has occurred in the market. stuart: that's great stuff but you, sir, are a democrat. >> i am? i used to be before i was mugged by reality. [laughter] i was a scoop jackson democrat, yes. 1,000 years ago. no question. but i'm a ronald reagan republican. stuart: i didn't know that. i'm sorry. i didn't mean to insult you. >> that democratic party doesn't exist anymore. stuart: it does not. >> almost every one of the democrats that i know from my generation are republicans. and like i said by reality a comment that was used by urban crystal, there's a lot of truth in that in that the world has changed very significantly. when i was a college student, i was very much opposed to aaffirmative action and today it's a radical position.

today i'm opposed to it and it's a conservative reaction. the world has changed. stuart: commenting on all things under the son. thank you very much for being here. stay there because we may yet need to use you for the market. take a look at the market. we've had it on the screen all morning. there's good reason for that because frankly, you've never seen anything like this. judge, you know you're a legal guy. >> a little artificial with the interest rates. gasparino was right. these people are taking free heroin from janet yellen, and they're leveraging it. stuart: paul ryan elsewhere has made a statement saying that we're staying with the timeline for tax reform. on schedule with tax reform. that statement may also be helping the market. as for what the judge just said, look, you and everybody around this table have never seen anything like what we're seeing now on this stock market.

>> and it's a bubble. it will burst. . stuart: what do you mean a bubble? it will burst? >> well, how much longer can you keep borrowing money at no cost and investing it at a profit? that simply can't last. stuart: a burst bubble means that the stock market comes all the way down. i can see a 5% selloff, but i can't see a burst bubble. >> unnatural accumulation of wealth based on unnaturally low interest rates. stuart: do you know what will burst the stock market bubble if it is a bubble? >> the truth -- [laughter] . stuart: that we do not get a tax cut this year. that we do not reform dodd-frank. >> agreed. stuart: and we make a mess of obamacare. you do all of that, and that market comes way down. agreed? >> the market is that donald trump will be able to deliver on the three promises you just articulated. stuart: okay. carl is with us and this is a -- carl, you're coming into a very important discussion here because if the chaos in the white house, i think it's legitimate to call it that, chaos within the

administration, if that bleeds over into the legislative schedule of obamacare reform and tax cuts and getting rid of red tape, if it bleeds over and interferes with that schedule, this stock market rally goes away and president trump looks very bad. what say you? >> well, first of all, let me say i was taken back when judge napolitano accused the head of the federal reserve of being a cartel leader pushing drugs. this is a sort of would you please get some adult super vision on napolitano right away? i mean, please,. stuart: i've tried for years, karl. go ahead, sir. >> i would worry about it. but i worried less about it i might in the normal administration because, look, the driving power for the the repeal and replacement of obamacare, the tax reform, those engines are being driven up on capitol hill. kevin brady has more to say about the timing of comprehensive tax reform than any white house official does

and, you know, many of the people, there's nobody at the treasury department, for example. there's no assistant secretary for tax policy. mark weinberger in the bush years was in office relatively early and played a major role as the assistant secretary for tax and helped driving the 2001 tax cuts. the trump administration has not yet in frame on these kinds of things. but thank god paul ryan beginning in october of 2015 said to his committee chairs you better figure out what we want to be for if we elect a republican president a year from now. and they're as a result in a better place to drive the kind of thing that you're concerned about that is the white house right now. stuart: karl, i don't want this -- an item of news that has come to us this morning. i don't want to gloss it over. it concerns mattis. he's over in brussels and talking about nato. essentially i'm going to boil it down. he's saying to the europeans you better start spending some

money on defense because we have been defending you for donkeys years, and it's about time you antied up, ponied up some real money of your own. what do you say to that? >> he has been saying what every defense secretary for 30 years has been saying. thoroughly unsettled the european by his comments and as a result might actually be in a position or mind-set to do something about it. i was in france the week of the inaugural and business leaders were there looking at president-elect's comments and concerned about nato. well, that's finally maybe going to drive them to do what they need to do to bring about the adequate support for nato. we have very few number of countries which meet the treaty agreement of 2% gdp for defense. and countries like greece. but some of the bigger countries, particularly germany does not devote the percentage of their gdp to their nato commitment that

they've already enshrined in a treaty. stuart: one last for you, karl, barrel in mind history, how do you feel about the rearmament of germany? >> i think there are enough constitutional constraints and nato constraints that it should not bother us. in fact, times in the past germany has had more than 2% gdp devoted to their national defense. and we weren't worried about it in the late '50s and '60s and in that case, we shouldn't be worried about it today. stuart: karl, thank you so much for joining us. stay there, please. i've got more coming up. i'm looking at that market that keeps on going up. we're still up 80 points. we had been just over 100. but we're 80 points up. that means we're up 2,200 points since the election. 20,584 is where we are now. that is truly extraordinary. and now the live action presidency shifts again to the rival of prime minister benjamin netanyahu expected at the white house very soon. he will arrive with his wife

to be greeted by the president and the first lady. you'll watch it after this. stay there, please, ♪

>> i'm nicole petallides with your fox business brief. another day of records. right now the dow is up 72 points. it's an all-time record high for the dow, the nasdaq, the s&p, and the transportation index. taking a look, by the way, some of the movers of the dow

hitting a new high. names that are also hitting all-time highs financials including jp morgan and goldman sachs. home depot and apple among the winners. by the way, the s&p hit another high. it would be almost three and a half years since we had seven straight gains of the s&p. the nasdaq is at an all-time high. and verizon is higher. yahoo is higher as verizon has reached the revised takeover deal and could have a reduction of 200. the positive comments. liberty mutual stood with me when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. i just snapped a photo and got an estimate in 24 hours. my insurance company definitely doesn't have that... you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance

of silver last year at their 2 mexican mines. their recent mine acquisition in peru, once fully operational, stands to increase their production up to 75 percent. great panther silver >> tax reform is one of the best opportunities to really impact our economy. so we're doing a massive tax plan. it's coming along really well. it will be submitted in the not too distant future, and it will be not only good and simpler, it will be -- you're talking about big numbers of saving. >> bill rhodes with autozone. last name r-h-o-d-e-s. i want to start with. i've been in the retail industry personally for 22 years. to my knowledge, the retail industry has never been to the white house to have an opportunity to meet with the

administration and key members of his team. and we had that opportunity today, and we're grateful for that opportunity. today we had a very positive and productive discussion with the president and his team about the important role that the retail industry plays in the american economy. we as retailers provide 42 million jobs, us directly, and those that provide us services. 42million jobs in america. we look forward to carrying on the conversation with the president and his team as we continue to look to move the interest of our industry, our employees, and most importantly, the consumers. the hard-working american consumers that we all serve. we thank you very much. have a great day. stuart: unmentioned by bill rhodes there at autozone was there any idea that the border tax came up for discussion at the white house? i bet it did. it is not popular with retailers. more important was the

president's statement that massive tax cuts, and he used that word. ashley: he did. stuart: he used the word massive. best way to help the economy. up went the market on that news. that's what investors want to hear. big tax cuts coming. that's what the president implied. so now we've got -- okay. a 50-point gain for the dow industrials. we were up 100. but essentially we're going straight up. what have you got? liz: and the way the gop can put the tax cuts in is a budget reconciliation bill. not the super majority of 60 votes. stuart: that is important. 61 points higher for the dow jones industrial average. this is the live action presidency, and we're on it all the way through. moments from now, we're going to show you benjamin netanyahu arrive at the front door, and we'll show you that. and then he goes on for a press conference in the next hour 90 minutes with president trump. this is an important event. earlier on this program, herb london is with us, and he

suggested that this meeting netanyahu, trump is going to come out with a realignment of power, a realignment of support in the middle east. herb still with me. give me, again, 30 seconds on what you think this realignment is going to be. >> well, i think one of the conversations that's going to take place is whether, in fact, the sunni nations can take place. >> saudi arabia, jordan work together with israel as an unregistered member of this group to maintain order in this part of the world. keep in mind the tilt that has occurred with iran, there has to be a counterweight. this has to be the counterweight. stuart: ambassador john bolton is with us. you heard what herb had to say. that is a real turn around in the structure of power and alliances in the middle east. what say you to this? will go to has been i hope it works out. under obama for eight years, we've had this unprecedented tilt toward the ayatollahs in

tehran. so the sunni nations, the oil-producing nations of saudi arabia peninsula were extremely worried about this and obviously israel is too. and that gives the potential for confluence here. so i think netanyahu and trump are going to talk about two issues primarily. number one, what to do about the iran nuclear weapons program. and number two, what to do about the palestinian question. there's an opportunity here. i don't think there's any question about it. but i'm not a long-term optimist on the palestinian question as long as we continue to pursue the broken two-state solution. maybe they'll be moving on that as well. stuart: i think -- karl, i think you're still with us now. karl, president obama's relationship with netanyahu was fragile to put it mildly. it looks like it's a very different relationship between netanyahu and president trump. does president trump walk away from this meeting and this press conference as a political plus for him?

what do you think? >> well, i suspect so because you were kind to president obama. it wasn't fragile. it was frosty and down right nasty. you may remember in the first year, president obama had a meeting with netanyahu in which he hot boxed him in the private quarters of the white house and then refused to provide him something to eat or drink or moment to go to the restroom and then ushered him out the back door of the white house in the colonnade where they take the trash out. so there is the ladder of israel emerging from the west ring of the white house with a bunch of black trash bags next to him. so this is going to be off to a better start than that. but as both herb and john have suggested, there are some thorny questions. where is the administration on settlements? they begun to signal. they've got concerns about it. where are they on the two-state solution? they may be tossing that over. that may be problematic for netanyahu.

where are they on the issue of the sunni alliance? how would the sunni alliance work on these other steps? this is a very complicated puzzle and very complicated situation for netanyahu as you know his administration is under investigation for charges. stuart: john bolton, we hear it would be relatively easy to move american embassy to jerusalem in israel. what do you say to that? is that going to happen? >> well, it would be easy because all you have to do is take off the plaque outside the consulate and put up another plaque that says embassy. now, building a real embassy would be an amount of time. that's one of the promises that he has made that he hasn't tried to actualize. i'm not quite sure why. that will be subject of discussion as well. but this is a real opportunity i think to send an important signal in the middle east that the united states is back, that we intend to support our traditional allies like

israel, like the arab states of the arabian peninsula, like jordan to make statements about isis. there's a huge array of issues here, and i think as carl said, it's politically important for both leaders. stuart: herb london, you know, that press conference that's going to be held within the hour, that could be contentious. i mean, the american press could just look at president trump and ask him about spying and leaks and all the rest. nothing to do with benjamin netanyahu. that's quite possible. >> it's certainly possible. i doubt very much whether that will happen. i don't think the two-state solution will be a matter of any controversy at all. largely because it's dead. there is no two-state solution, at least for the time being. and what the president will say to netanyahu is these are negotiations between you and the palestinians. at this moment, it is not possible. the palestinians as well as the had a mass have one goal in mind. that is a state from the river to the sea. no israel. and so as long as that is the case, there's no negotiation that's possible.

the other part of this that i think is very interesting is that if the united states can establish firm ties to israel, it sends a message to people like cece. presidency see of egypt. when i met with cece, he said i love america but america doesn't love me. what you want to do is restore the confidence in egypts of the world. if united states can maintain that relationship with israel, it sends a message to the sunni nations as well. stuart: john bolton, i'm in my late 60s. do you think there's a chance in my lifetime, whatever lifetime i've got left, we're going to see genuine peace between israel and the palestinians? any chance at all? >> i think there is a chance. i think there's a solution here. just not the two-state solution. i think for the benefit of the palestinian people on the west bank they ought to divide it up between jordan and israel and give sovereignty to the part israel doesn't keep to jordan. i think we should turn the script over to egypt.

now, that will take some persuading with jordan and egypt because they don't want the responsibility. it shows how the palestinians have been abused for so many years by israel's enemies. but there's no two-state solution when with you don't have a palestinian authority capable of governing when there's no political stability for foreign investment into those regions. you need to connect the palestinian people to two real economies. you need to give israel real security, real peace. so i think there's a way to do it. people need to get moving on it. maybe this possibility of the saudis and the other arab states because of the threat of iran. maybe there's a possibility to try to drive that kind of opportunity. so we'll see. this meeting today is very important on that basis. stuart: i do have to ask you, john, real fast, about what the statement from general mattis earlier today, defense secretary, he's in brussels. he basically told the europeans "you're going to have to start defending yourselves. you're going to have to start

spending your own money on armed forces because we can't protect you and defend you with our money forever." that sounds like a pretty radical idea, john bolton. >> well, he used an interesting phrase. he said start spending up to the commitment you made 2% of your gross national product or the u.s. will moderate its commitment. look, i know a lot of people are upset about what trump said about nato. but we've tried for decades. i've participated in it to get the nato allies to spend what they commit to do, and they haven't done it. so a lot of arguments have failed. maybe this argument will succeed. i hope so because we need a strong nato to stand against the threat that russia under putin poses in the former republics of the soviet union and eastern and central europe. so i want to see a strong nato, and i want the europeans to live up to the commitment they made on spending. stuart: okay. let me stand down just momentarily from the up coming press conference and the visit of netanyahu. let me stand back for a second and summarize what we've seen so far. by the way, it's not even

12:00 noon eastern time, and there's an awful lot been happening in this live action news situation. first thing this morning we got tweets from president trump about the illegal leaks that are undermining his presidency and his administration. that was first thing this morning right after dawn. then we had a meeting in the white house between president trump and several ceos of top retail companies. the retail has emerged from the meeting. one of them said very productive meeting. and during the meeting, president trump said a massive tax cut is the best way to help the economy. i'm paraphrasing, but that's essentially what he said. right after that, up goes the stock market. now we're up 68, 70 points. the dow is at 20,573. i keep doing the math here. but essentially since election day, the dow industrials are up 2,200 points, and i've never seen anything like that before.

then we had news breaking about obamacare. humanna, big health insurer, out for good. totally out. aetna ceo said obamacare is in a death spiral. he used that expression. ashley: he did, indeed. stuart: which means this thing is collapsing, which means we've got to fix it fast, which means it will be priority number one in congress and not the tax cuts. all of this is happening. carl, last word to you. can you comment on this death spiral of obamacare and the need to replace it very, very quickly? >> yeah. well, look, republicans in the house are starting to divide on this question with some elements of the house caucus saying let's just repeal it and we'll replace it later. they need to repeal and replace at the same time because otherwise, republicans are going to inherit all the problems of obamacare without all the benefits of their solution. need to do it both together. and if they do so, it will be a spur to the economy, and i think it will also help the

republicans in the poll in 2018. stuart: karl, thank you for being with us. same to you, ambassador john bolton. we really appreciate you being with us, sir. >> thank you. stuart: herb london, we're keeping him. we've got three or four minutes to go. we're keeping this man around. i did not see benjamin netanyahu and his wive arrive at the white house and be formally greeted by the president and the first lady. i didn't see that. >> i think the formal greeting is important. he's not entering through the side door. that's a major break through. stuart: did you hear what karl said when netanyahu was at the white house with president obama? he was ushered out the side door and appeared with black trash bags -- i didn't see that. >> well, it was a clear repudiation of the israeli leader. there's no question what has happened over the last eight years. this represents a market change in the relationship between israel and the united states. you're going to see it today. it's the beginning of a very significant shift in policy attitudes. stuart: i don't think benjamin netanyahu is going to retreat one inch.

i think he's in this to win it. when i say in this, i mean the conflict with the palestinians. he's not retreating here. >> well, i don't think the president of israel can. frankly, if you look at ha them, they will we'll kill you right away. when you think about the politics in israel, and they're clearly passionate, there's no doubt left and right when it comes right down to it both believe in survival. and so if you're talking about survival, survival means that israel has to maintain the defense forces and the alliances that would allow it to retain its present position in the middle east. stuart: just an extraordinary day. live action presidency. i've been doing this for 42 or 43 years. ashley: about. stuart: you don't see this very often. i've never seen an incoming president with such an extraordinary degree of action. ashley: we've never seen anyone like donald trump. so everything he does is

blowing up the previous model, whatever that was, and every day is a lesson. it's fascinating. stuart: and he's changed the way we cover the news. ashley: yeah,. stuart: because the news is breaking live as we're on tv. you've got to keep up with it. liz: and moving the market. stuart: absolutely moving the market. look what happened when president trump said that one comment. just one sentence after he's meeting with the ceos. what was that sentence? ashley: he said get ready for massive tax cuts in the not too distant future. those two words there. massive tax cuts and not too distant future, markets took off. liz: and push that tax reform, tax cut plan and budget reconciliation this spring, meaning it could pass on a simple majority 51 vote, not the super majority 60 plus vote. but that issue, though, is deficit. so if you do budget reconciliation, you have to do offsetting and prove that it will bring it down in a reconciliation bill. stuart: now, i'm seeing something happen right there at the front door of the white house. ashley: yes. stuart: there's the first lady

emerging right there, and obviously the president is right with her. there's the president just behind the marine guards there. so they have -- they're on the red carpet. i presume that benjamin netanyahu is about to walk out and they will be greeted by the first lady and the president of the united states. neil cavuto, this now, sir, is yours. neil: all right. stuart, thank you very, very much. and as you've been indicating, this is a little odd here. as soon as benjamin netanyahu arrives, they're going to hop upstairs presumably to the east room to conduct their press conference and then go on with their talk. so press conference first. and we know how that goes. these things tend to be on the shorter side with this president, in fact, he's been running them about a quarter of the time president obama did. but, again, moments away now from benjamin netanyahu who a lot of times had sort of acrimonious relationship that's probably putting it some said that when he addressed congress, he not only failed to make it to the