>> "varney & company," right now, stuart. stuart: thank you, dagen. that was brief, short, sharp to the point and i will take it, thank you very much indeed. all right, politics and money, yes, that's what we do and do we have news on both fronts for you today. good friday morning, everyone. item one, more presidential tweets overnight attacking the freedom caucus, naming names and they are firing back. this is war within the republican party. next item. two senate democrats say they will support judge gorsuch for the supreme court, that breaks the total opposition that senator schumer wanted and a leaked audiotape shows democrat senator mccaskill leary of a

filibuster. and making foreigners pay up when they illegally dump on us. wilbur ross says billions go uncollected on the show. more positive signals on the economy, we are earning more. personal income figures sing to show gain. this backs up the growth trend for the economy, oh, amazon, here we go, considers a new line of attack on grocery stores, facing the change of retail and their stock along with apple, facebook, microsoft, apple, netflix, hit new highs. and it's a friday, "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ food, glorious, food ♪ ♪ don't care what it looks

like ♪ >> very good. very good. good choice of music. you hear that, obviously, we're talking about food because amazon wants you to skip the grocery store and buy packaged goods, maybe cereals, cookies, with the manufacturers with amazon as the middle man and not the grocery stores. liz: this is one of the common sense, i should have thought of this before. food companies blow billions of dollars a year on packaging, on marketing, making the products look good on the outside. maybe if you look like circa soviet union 1954 packaging and better quality products on the inside, that's what this means. what they're doing is they're essentially saying we want to ship food, yes, directly to consumers. it's general mills, mandalay is in on that, to and hit wal-mart and costco. they're saying more efficient packaging for faster delivery. stuart: it's nothing to do with packaging.

liz: yes, it's everything to do with palms. they're doing pop-up for toys, and nike is in on it, easier packages. if you lower the costs you could get faster delivery. stuart: why do i just feel like i've been silenced on my own program. liz: you have. stuart: you do make a very good point there, but the losers here are the grocery chains. ashley: the wal-marts and targets and costcos. they have been invited to amazon's headquarters in seattle next month and amazon is going to put the big high pressure move on them to say, look, dump the wal-marts and to liz's point you don't have to pay the money on the packaging. stuart: the wal-mart, the oreo's are a high margin. liz: they're left out of it, but general mills and mandalay isinvited and it's how it's packaged. stuart: it's a delivery system more important to me than the package. ashley: i think it's a

massively brazen move by amazon. the gauntlet has been thrown down. stuart: it's a very, very story. we don't often lead with a story like that, but that's a good one. here is a lead, this is war, president trump calling out the freedom caucus again, an overnight tweet storm getting nasty. the president is naming names. here is the quote, one of them. if mark meadows, jim jordan and roule labrador would get on board we would have both great health care and massive tax cuts and reform. joining us now, david mcintosh who stands with the freedom caucus. david, this is escalation clearly. will you guys bend at all? >> you know, stuart, let's remember why they are opposed the ryan bill. it didn't do anything to lower the cost of insurance premiums. stuart: so you won't back. >> we want that and they want

that and we're ready to pass the bill when those things are added to it. i have talked to the speaker and he's working on things. and i don't think it's going to be war, but i appreciate them standing firm to keep the president's promise to lower the cost of insurance. stuart: does this move the ball forward? the president comes out with these tweets. he's attacking the freedom caucus, and you're saying that if you could get this, you might be in. and i'm asking, does this move the ball? >> you know, i think it's a distraction. i'm down here in north carolina, mark meadow's home state. they, standing with i him. they don't like the bill the way it's produced in the house. he's telling they don't have to kill it, we can make it better. i think the tweets disracquet from that, but he and the speaker and the house will come together and i think will get a bill that's an improvement and frankly, delivers on the promise to really get rid of the expensive obamacare regulations. stuart: okay, look, i have to

express my opinion here. i've got to cut straight at this. number one, i would rather have obamacare light, if that's what you want to call it, rather than full on obamacare. number two, i think it's a mistake to derail the president's legislative agenda right from the get-go. response. >> i agree with you that we need to get so the pro growth agenda. i think it's easy for him and the speaker to get it on track and what i hear is privately he's telling people, yes, pass this bill so we can get onto the tax cuts. publicly, speaker ryan is saying that and you're right, that's the right agenda. i think we can get both. it won't be perfect and still lots of problems in health care, but i think we can see some relief for the-- particularly the preexisting problem that jacks up premiums, 40, 50%. stuart: you won't get the moderates on board, you won't.

>> they will, if you do it as a fix to the high risk premium pools, rather than get rid of the regulation. that's a promise and one i think we can live with. stuart: i've got to get to this fast. do you think we can get a compromise bill in front of congress, in front of the house before easter? >> i do. stuart: really? >> i think that next week is the opportunity. both sides there want to get to a yes. and i think they'll put aside the petty and the personal, and say, okay, nobody's going to get everything, but we'll get to a bill that everything gets something better and we'll get it done. stuart: you might just have moved the markets, david mcintosh, we'll see. we appreciate it, yes, indeed. check the futures, how are we going to open up? it looks like slightly down. remember it's the end of the quarter so there will be backing and filling as the mutual fund guys and algorithms backwards and forwards to measure up by this afternoon.

down lightly on the opening bell. and joe manchin and heidi hidecamp they've announced support for president trump's supreme court pick judge gorsuch. come in rich lawrie, fox news contributor. am i going too far that there is a breakthrough for the republicans and judge gorsuch? >> yes, and you need more. you need some in red states, some like pat leahy that respects the process. stuart: does he? >> yes. stuart: senator leahy? >> he said a day or two ago i'm not going to be in favor of the filibuster and hammered on twitter from the left and now he's up in the air. i think it's close whether the democrats get there or not. if they get there and successfully filibuster this guy, it will be the first time in american history there's been a successful partisan filibuster of a supreme court nominee.

it will be unprecedented. stuart: but you think that unlikely? >> i think it's close, but there's a strong chance that chuck schumer a playing a double game out there. telling the base we're going to filibuster gorsuch and do everything we can to stop him. andat the same time, look, this is not a good process, and wait and see if you filibuster the next pick. and they filibuster and nuclear option comes down and it's smooth sailing for any pick. stuart: the next time around if there's a next time around in the trump presidency and gotten rid of the 60 vote requirement and down to 50, then the next guy or lady, whomsoever it is will cruise through. >> which it would be student for democrats to do this. maybe the next is not as good, maybe it doesn't unify or a conservative replacing a liberal.

so it's dumb to do this fight, but they're asked to show they're at least doing the fight. stuart: there's no doubt that gorsuch will be the next supreme court pick? >> he'll be picked by the end of next week. stuart: there you go. >> and i'm trying to move the market. stuart: if you talk about the supreme court, you won't move the market. >> i never move the market. [laughter] >> pre-season game, colorado rockies versus the padres. what happened? a swarm of angry bees flooded the stadium. so everybody lying down? they're trying to get away from the angry bees. the truth is-- i didn't know that lying down got you away from the bees. ashley: looked like they were attacked by a bear and playing dead. stuart: it was only delayed for a couple of minutes and then the bees cleared out. how about that? a break through for elon musk's spacex.

they launched a satellite into space. the breakthrough, they used a reused rocket. the first time it's done. it's making space flight cheaper. a professor said he almost vomited after he saw a first class passenger give up a seat for a soldier. tucker carlson took this guy on. you're going to love it. tucker won. yes? please repeat the objective. ♪ thrivent mutual funds. managed by humans, not robots. before investing, carefully read and consider fund objectives, risks, charges and expenses in the prospectus at thriventfunds.com.

>> all right. we've got the price of oil back at $50 a barrel even though we are swimming in the stuff. there's over 500 millions of barrels in storage in america, but we've gone back up to $50 a barrel. now this, we've got, i'm going to call this a traffic and infrastructure story, a real tragedy, massive disruption. that's a fire and it caused a bridge to collapse on a major highway in atlanta. ashley: yeah, interstate 85. anyone who knows anything about atlanta knows that you spend a lot of time in your vehicle. it's a traffic nightmare on the

best of times, but when something like this happens on a bridge over interstate 80 north of downtown in the ritza area of buckhead, you know there's going to be trouble. they're calling this a transportation crisis. this section of interstate 80 will be closed quote, undefinitely. they have no idea how long it's going to take to get this thing sorted out. a state of emergency was declared for atlanta and fulton county. and everyone is saying what the heck caused that? no one was injured. the road was closed before the bridge collapsed. some speculation, a large storage of pvc pipes under that bridge. that's one speculation, it's burning so hotly they don't think they can get to it until early this afternoon. stuart: good lord, that's a story and a half. pastor robert jeffrey said this on, that president trump would

not lose his base. >> the reason that evangelicals turned out in the largest margin in history to support president trump was to confirm justices and defund planned parenthood and as long as he delivers eventually, i think disappointment for the failure to appeal-- repeal obamacare. stuart: and now he's going all out and it seems that the president is attacking his base and may pay a political price for you. what say you. >> i think that friends shouldn't let friends tweet when they're under the influence of anger and frustration, we ought to stop the tweeting for moment and continue the conversation. stuart, look, i actually think we're going to get to the point of repealing obamacare, all this week i've been having

conversations with the white house, with the republican leadership in the house and the leadership and members of the house freedom caucus. look, they all want to be at the same plate and i think we're going to get there. he think we need to step back, take our blood pressure medicine and move forward. stuart: this is the morning after these angry tweets from president trump directly at the freedom caucus. from your conversations and you know these folks, do you think they're going to bend, move a little away from their ideological purity, maybe you're one of them, will you bend a little and come back in there so we can get something passed? >> stuart, i think that's a mischaracterization of where they're at. i think they want to be at the same place the president wants to be. these are very smart people. dave bratt, an economist. you have mark meadows who is a business man. en of these members are not political hacks, these are folks that understand the insurance industry and the business and they want to make

sure that the acid test of this is passed, that is that consumers are paying less for health care in 18 to 24 months. look, they want to get there, absolutely, they want to be there. they want to be standing by the president. this is the president's base. and so, i'm very optimistic we're going to get there. i do think it makes it more difficult when we start tweeting these things that are, you know attacks. stuart: he's knocking you around is what he's doing, knocking you around. >> and i've encouraged the freedom caucus and others not to respond back in like kind. we need to sit down and have conversations and negotiate, not attack one another. stuart: i have to move to the professor at pennsylvania college and he said he wanted to vomit when he saw a first class passenger give up a seat for a soldier. here is the tweet. some guy gave up a seat for a soldier and people c thanking about them and i'm trying not

to vomit or yell about mosul. here he is on tucker carlson. >> you're blaming the soldier, and not the policy soldiers. >> absolute not. >> you're saying giving up a seat for a soldier in uniform made you want to vomit. you're not saying giving up a seat for the guy who made the policy, but for the soldier. the guy who was risking his life. why did that make you want to throw up? >> i wish we had the response. what do you have to say. >> let me give this disclosure as a marine. they'd been willing to give up a first class seat. they were giving up their lives so he could be a moron. stuart: i was going to follow-up, but there's no follow-up to that.

tony perkins, we miss you. new details on phil michelson's gambling problem. he forked over nearly 2 million for a gambling debt in 2012. will that cast a shadow over his appearance at the masters? we'll be back. i joined the army in july of '98. our 18 year old was in an accident. when i call usaa it was that voice asking me, "is your daughter ok?" that's where i felt relief. we're the rivera family, and we will be with usaa for life. or how high the pollen count, flonase allergy relief keeps your eyes and nose clear. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause nasal congestion and itchy, watery eyes. for relief beyond the nose. flonase.

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>> the masters tournament, to me, that's the first sign of spring. it begins thursday of next week and phil michelson, he reportedly once spent nearly $2 million to pay off a gambling debt. that doesn't look good. ashley: it doesn't look good. this was back in july of 2012. the only reason we know that because it's come out in documents as part after insider trading case in which a gambler who is associated, a gambling agent associated with phil mickelson is facing charges and shows a payment by phil mickelson to this gambler of close to 2 million pounds-- 2 million dollars. this was in 2014, he owned 48 million just under 5% of his earnings went to the gambling debt. the attorney inside it's not the first time payment made by mr. mickelson in that same amount or close to it. stuart: okay. ashley: to answer your

question, does it cast a bit of a shadow on him? yes, it does. stuart: he is 20 to 1 among the bookies for masters. who is favorite. ashley: dustin johnson, 5-1, jordan spieth, 7-1 and royer mcilroy. and he's-- can't dustin hit it 400 yards or something. ashley: down wind. stuart: i saw a golfer hit it 400 yards just the other day. i don't think it was with the wind behind him. a 400 yard drive. i think i saw that. greg norman said that dustin johnson is his pick. greg norman a good friend of the show on the program earlier this week. love that guy. next case, the market, it will open very, very soon and three and a half, four and a half minutes time. we will be down, back and

filling, the end of the quarter and the institutions square their books all over the place, probably. we'll be back.

>> all right. let's remind everybody, this is the last day of the first quarter of the year. when this kind of thing

happens, you can expect the mutual fund guys, the-- all of them, big institutions. >> the big money guys. >> big money guys, the guys who trade by computer. the algorithms, they are going to be all over the place and expect some changing up to 4 p.m. eastern time. we're off and running r running and we're down. 28, 30-odd points. and down 34, 30 points. not a huge move in any direction thus far today this friday. before we go to live action from the market, look at this, take a look at the major averages this month, okay? only the nasdaq has a solid 1% gain. the rest of them like the dow is down a fraction, thus far in the month of march. now, what's the biggest drag on the dow industrials? i'll tell you right now it's goldman sachs. if it wasn't for goldman sachs, which is a dow stock, then the

dow would be up for the month, okay? goldman sachs down big time. i think it's down about almost 7% in the month of march. that's how we've started. we are down 30-odd points and let's see who is going to cover this for us. ashley webster, liz macdonald and jeff sica and scott shellady. start with amazon, they want you to buy cookies and cereal and goods directly from the manufacturer. the stock is at an all-time high, 878 per share. now, tell me, jeff sica, with news like this, amazon on the entire grocery business, don't tell me you're going to short amazon. >> here is the next frontier for amazon. this is a market dominated by wal-mart, 800 billion dollar market.

so, what amazon is trying to do, especially for the urban shoppers who they want one-day delivery. so, you know, the one thing, the challenge that bezos has right now is to convince the consumer goods companies that this is worthwhile because keep in mind, this type of business is very-- is a very small percentage of what they do. so he needs to sell his vision and if he successfully sell his vision are they've going into a $800 billion dollar market, another good move for them. stuart: they're hurting the grocery market. liz: it's revolutionary and visionary as you point out, it's the future. the second part of this, the food companies spend a lot of money to make the packages look pretty on the store shelves. they may not have to do that anymore, instead making the product inside at that box better so maybe have generic looking packages. stuart: scott, look, i love

this stuff, i think it's highly futu futuristic, i see a company that's shaping the future. what say you? >> number one, it's not going to stop there. he's going to move into other markets like that and i love it because it's so aggressive. the other -- i try to think of the other agr aggressive things. in in an of time and he'll be able to pick up those malls and make them into mini cities and it's great stuff. i think he's going to continue to go better. stuart: look at the market, maybe listening to us, 3 bucks. 879 on amazon as of right now. now, let me take a look at the other huge technology companies which dominate the global technology scene. here we go. now, this is today. s this the ample's, amazon,

facebook, it's a mixed bag there, but all of them are very, very close to right at all-time record highs. too expensive, sica, for any of those for you? >> these trades are crowded, way overcrowded. i want to give a perspective, we have seven, seven all-time highs in the month of february and we had a win streak that went 15 years from the s&p and nasdaq to give you a perspective. that didn't give you in the dow jones, that hasn't happened for 120 years. so, to me, i think people love nasdaq, they've shown a lot of promise, great companies, but those trades are crowded and overvalued. stuart: address this question. those stocks on the screen right now, would you sell them? as a trading kind of person, would you sell them? >> i would sell them because think back to 1999, the sentiment is too high. these stocks are priced to perfection, they need to pull back, that's the only way i would buy them. stuart: i've got to say, i can

understand any of our viewers who have made a lot of money in any of those stocks on the screen right now, selling today and agreeing to pay the capital gains tax next april. i mean, i can understand people doing that. what do you say, liz. liz: there's a lot of self-moralizing belly aching going on in washington d.c. the intrigue skunk works familiar tri is full bore. the american people want policy changes, they want to work. i think they want tax cuts. and they're done. they're over it, what's going on in d.c. this bloated complacency of washington d.c. has to stop. it's got to go. stuart: that's where the action is, in technology. liz: they're saying it's the future. stuart: scott shellady, would you sell them? you're a trader, would you sell them and take the profit and pay the gains tax next year? >> that could be one strategy. and the other is owning puts so you can stay in the stock as they rally and.

>> a price less because you purchased the right to sell if it does start to tank. not including yesterday, nine out of ten days in the dow, we were down. that added town a 1 1/2% break. so 1 1/2% discount for nine out of ten days being down, still acts funny to me, i agree with jeff. i think these things are priced to perfection and i think you're going to get a better chance to buy them. i probably would keep a trailing, a trailing stop or own a put. stuart: you know, shellady, you almost got the buzzer there when you said put. put. we're talking masters, putting or something? >> get back to what liz said which is absolutely true. the market is 100% focused on trump and policy and that, but also keep in mind the tech companies are very, very dependent on weak dollar and very dependent on cheap component costs, bringing

manufacturing to the u.s. will ultimately increase prices and strong dollar is going to affect them. stuart: a limited time so i'm going to switch gears out of the big tech and look at mcdonald's, which is switching to fresh beef, quarter pounders and some restaurants are getting called out by wendy's. basically, they're saying hey, what took you so long. liz: where is your beef, mcdonald's? >> i don't think it's had any impact on mcdonald's 0 stock at all. 129 today and-- >> i don't get it. stuart: scott shellady, are you commenting on mcdonald's or talking to traders buying some puts. >> why highlight the fact you don't serve fresh beef number one and number two, it's giving me the idea your beef isn't fresh. you're bringing it to the forefront carry on as usual. stuart: and almost buzzing you

with the put suggestion, but okay with mcdonald's. ashley: scott, you're right. they say we're going to get the fresh beef to the stores hopefully by next year. see between now and then i'm going to try somewhere else. stuart: let me move this on. the dow industrials down 30. we were down 45 now down 30. look at lululemon, a big hit after a weak sales report. they're down a fraction today not much, but down $50 a share today. costs down at blackberry, remember them? the company lost less money so they're up 11%. strange how they work these days. budweisers will be renewed with fresh renewable energy by 2025. no affect on ab inbev's stock price there. the new company that owns them. americans paid a record in general sales, a precise number on the scene according to the

u.s. census bureau. if we're spending record sales taxes, we're spending a lot of money. is that what that means? >> you have the fact, you had a lot of people who were underemployed and now getting jobs and spending money. it's a sign of confidence that's happening. what i'm interested to see what kind of relief are we going to get with the new tax cuts. liz: i'm sorry, it's-- we nearly spend-- paid, paid, nearly a trillion in property and sales taxes. where is that money going? >> it's going to local government. liz: it's horrendous, property taxes have stayed at peak levels even during the housing crashing, so where is the money going? >> i'm smiling because you must have bought a new house. liz: no, i own a property and i'm going to buy a new one. i'm tired of these bureaucrats,

they've got to go. ashley: it's friday. liz: okay. stuart: an oculus riff, i thought it was a very, very big deal, but now we have the guy, the man behind virtual reality, he went to oculus and facebook, he's leaving. that's a big deal. ashley: he is. whatever happened to vr, virtual reality. i think a lot of this is political, he came under a lot of fire. he basically started oculus and bought out by facebook for some $2 billion. he came out in the middle of the presidential campaign, he was helping and funding a group that supported donald trump. and you know what that means in the silicon valley. oh, my god, he had to apologize. developers threatened to leave the platform that was using it because he was associated with donald trump. stuart: unbelievable. ashley: and he's kind of been hidden in the shadow. so i think his leaving isn't a

surprise. stuart: shellady, do you share my disgust at that. >> isn't it the party of inclusion, oh, unless you disagree with us, it isn't the party of inclusion. what a bunch of garbage. stuart: i thought you employed people because they're good at what they do. . liz: discrimination by the way? >> yeah. >> i've got to say with you to jeff and thank you to scott. great, gentlemen. thank you very much indeed. have a great weekend, all of you. stuart: we're stabilizing at a 30-point loss. next case. president trump reversing president obama's climate change agenda. up next, a former wall street analyst who says the greenies are basing their argument on outdated science. and also, a drexell professor who said he was upset after a first class passenger gave up his seat to a soldier. next.

>> friday morning, 14 minutes into the session and we're down 43 points for the dow industrials. today, president trump signs two executive orders and they are aimed at combatting foreign trade abuses. can you tell me in 30 seconds, these two executive orders. ashley: i'll do my best. order number one, basically, the trump administration wants a report in 90 days, essentially looks at the bad deals that president trump talked about on the campaign trail, that contribute to our trade deficit. now, also looking at possible cheating in areas of trade where people are not, you know, doing what they're supposed to

be doing. he's going to look at all the deals, japan, china, mexico, germany, france, on and on and where are we getting a bad deal and renegotiate. that's number one. stuart: number one. ashley: and deals with anti-dumping. foreign manufacturers sell goods in the u.s. a lot less than goods sold for the here in the u.s. he's looking for intellectual property theft and these things and recouping some of the duty taxes that we are not getting, as much as 3 billion. stuart: they haven't paid up. ashley: they haven't paid up. stuart: and the president wants them to pay up. ashley: how many companies give them subsidies and unfair advantage. this is what the president promised on the campaign trail. stuart: we'll get more on this in the next hour when we're joined by the commerce secretary, wilbur ross, on this show at the 10:00 hour. how about this? a radical opinion from one part of the climate science community. carbon monoxide, co-2 should

not be labeled a pollutant. the professor who holds that opinion joins us now. adjunct professor paul tice is with us. c1 you say do not label co 2 as a pollutant. are they not a pollutant? >> this is in response on donald trump's actions on climate change which in my view are superficial. it's a good first step, but ignores the elephant in the room. if you're serious about climate change regulations rolled back permanently, if that's the goal, then you really need to address the endangerment finding which the obama administration rolled out quickly in the first year of its administration. stuart: wait a second, are you saying that co2, carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. it didn't damage the climate, doesn't damage the planet, the atmosphere, is that what you're saying? .

>> that's what i'm saying. stuart: how much of that opinion is shared by the rest of the climate science community? >> probably not at all e right. >> i should qualify, i've spent my entire career on wall street. i've been in the energy sector for 20 years, i am not a climate scientist. stuart: so what you're saying is, if you really want to get to grips with combatting the climate science departments, you've got to roll back the idea that co2's are a pollutant. it's an administrative change that you've got to make if you want to go after the paris climate accord, for example. >> or look at the clean power plant or if you want to look at the original rule that precluded basically building any new coal power plants. stuart: what's been the reaction when you say this kind of thing. you're not going to be a very popular guy. >> i would say 90% of the responses have been favorable and 10% had a been kind of nasty grams in that category.

stuart: really? have you still got a job? >> yes, nyu sterm is probably one of the last refuges, safe places for conservative thought. stuart: it seems to me, we were always talking, the science is in, co2's are a pollutant and we've got to cut down on emissions, this is what we've got to do. no argument whatsoever. along comes president trump and scott pruett epa and they're reese versusing that. are you on board with complete reversal of climate policy. >> i'm not on with completely reversing that. it's a mixed message. the paris agreement, whether we stay in that. stuart: do you want to roll it back? >> i think we have not had a public discussion about manmade climate change and whether carbon and other greenhouse gases are causing that man made climate change and we cannot

have that conversation in the congress. obviously, that is not the right place to do it. it's become such a political discussion. the epa, given their technical background, i think is probably the closest we will come to an organized public debate and i think in the first year, that the endangerment rule was rolled out and carbon dioxide was labeled a pollutant there were a number of problems i think with that process. it was rushed. the actual source research that they used, we had -- we have ten more years of information. ten more years of climate model misfiring and i think we need to look at it with fresh eyes. probably scott pruett is the best set of fresh eyes because he comes at it apparently from a more skeptical view, which i think is probably the right approach. so, if the trump campaign is-- administration is serious about making permanent change around the climate change bureaucracy, they really need to address and

revisit this rule. stuart: professor, we're going to take a sound byite from what just said and run it in the next two and a half hours. >> just don't give my home address. [laughter] >> good stuff. check the market scan, please, most of the dow 30 in the red, but the loss on the dow is a mere 37 points. candy maker mars, they make twix, m & m's and all different stuff, investing in america big time. could this be more trump economic optimism? the full details after this. kevin, meet your father. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom?

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>> m & m's maker, who is it? the mars people. where they are the latest company to tout job growth, they're bringing capital and investing in america. ashley: they are, 17 million dollars upgrade in the u.s. supply chain, as you mentioned, snickers, m & m's. if you look at mars and what they own, it's everything. wrigley's, pedigree pet food and so on. they've made an upgrade to the food chain and adding 250 jobs just to do that this year. and they're the latest that

they say you're trying to get in the good books of trump, but they say, no, it's the way we do business. stuart: incredibly wealthy. ashley: very acceu successful. stuart: and spacex reused a rocket and reused it to launch a satellite. liz: no one has done this before. 6:30 p.m. eastern time kennedy space center this took off and basically it boosted a satellite for a phone and tv services for central america and south america. it came back, stuck the landing on a barge in the atlantic. why is it important? the most expensive part of the rocket is the booster. it could lower the cost. and he's talking about people going to the moon, the moon, and elon musk is a chief rocket designer so it's a win. ashley: what are you some kind of rocket scientist? i am. stuart: i've got to--

>> to liz's point that's a massive saving when you can reuse the booster rocket. liz: the rockets are usually destroyed and now he's recycling them. stuart: liz, you're on fire this morning. liz: really cranky friday. what's going on in washington. >> at the top of the hour, top of 10:00, president trump, boy, is he going to battle with the freedom caucus or what? in my take, i will pose the question, is this a good negotiating strategy? hour two is a mere three minutes away. for walking me through my first options trade. well, we're all about educating people on options strategies. i won't let this accomplishment go to my head. get help on options trading with thinkorswim, only at td ameritrade. or how high the pollen count, flonase allergy relief keeps your eyes and nose clear. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause nasal congestion and itchy, watery eyes. for relief beyond the nose.

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stuart: shall we call it what it is? it is war. president trump versus conservatives within the republican party. it started 24 hours ago with a presidential tweet calling out the freedom caucus. it continued overnight. two more tweets, naming names. the caucus is not taking this lying down. conservatives are firing right

back. congressman amash says people don't like being bulllied. it is childish. this is what happened a week ago, the bill to end obamacare failed. the president couldn't bring conservatives on board and now he is attacking them vigorously. remember, "the art of the deal"? the president's book? the president as great negotiator. the tweet storm raises the obvious question, is attacking conservative as good negotiating strategy? let's see if anyone in the freedom caucus comes around and let's see if the president is in fact attacking his own base, that is the people who put him in office. this may well be a case of a business guy running head on into politics. a ceo can tell people what to do. a president can't always get exactly what he wants and this president is very new to the art of politics. so here's where we are. obamacare is still with us. the republican party is split.

it is not acting as a governing party. the president has not so far negotitated a health care deal. the trump growth agenda at very least delayed. this is not good. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: it is happening this hour, live white house action. president is meeting with former secretary of state condoleeza rice. this is the second meeting since the election. the white house did not keep details on topics of meeting. we'll give you headlines when and if they emerge. i have breaking numbers right now on the economy, the latest read what is called consumer sentiment. this is important, emac. what do we have? liz: down. a little more pessimistic. 96.9 is the reading.

wall street expected higher. are they worried about the economic agenda not moving forward, division in washington, d.c., gridlock and dysfunction is the concern. stuart: sentiment index is relatively high level. liz: 17-year high. stuart: dropped a little bit when they expect it to go up. not seeing market reaction. liz: no. stuart: why the market isn't going down some more. still holding with a 44 point loss. it is down 40 points what could be some dismaying news on consumer confidence. in fact the market coming back, look at that. big tech names, all at or near all-time lies. amazon, facebook, microsoft, netflix. those are stocks where money has been pouring in for a long, long time. extraordinary gains. look at amazon. am i reading that right? ashley: up 1%. stuart: whoa, $885 per share. that is an all-time high.

886.26 was the actual high. who cares. only a dollar away from it. what a company. get back to my take, shall we. president trump doing better with the freedom caucus. joining us matt schlapp american conservative union chair. is that a god negotiating strategy because some say the president is attacking its own base. what say you? >> i think it's a mistake, stuart. i agree with what you said, with every aspect of it, only one piece i would add, i think the big mistake that was made on this republican healthcare bill they failed to bring in the freedom caucus in creation of the bill. they were cut out from the very beginning. that is why they were fighting and negotiating the whole time. the good news, there is a lot of members of freedom caucus who understand that not passing a republican alternative is simply not acceptable. stuart: well, that is very important. if they get to that understanding, that derailing the president's legislative

agenda from the get go, if they begin to understand, that is not a good idea, i can see how they might come around to agreeing to something. we had david mctointo be, president of cluck for growth. you know him for sure. >> i know him. he is a friend of mine. stuart: i won't insult a friend of yours. i wouldn't do that but look, he suggested maybe there is room for them to still come together. that the tweets overnight didn't do any good but conservatives do now the understand the importance of getting something done. so maybe there is some movement here? >> i think there is. ken buck from colorado, who is a hard-charging member of the freedom caucus come out for the health care alternative. congressman ted poe, brian babin, quietly there are a lot more members of the freedom caucus who would vote for an alternative. they want the most free market republican alternative they can

possibly get but everyone needs to understand you have to have a vehicle get started in the house to get something done. killing the vehicle in the house allows us to get nothing done. stuart: matt, can't you bang the conservatives over the head. i know you chair the union. >> we're not doing the union part so well stuart. stuart: that is true. here is my opinion. i would rather have obamacare light what you label it, than obamacare full on what we still got. i would rather not see the president's legislative program derailed on day one. i want a deal. don't you? >> look at what that deal is. it includes a complete entitlement reform of the medicaid program. it means all the taxes are gone. it moons all the mandates are gone. this is more change to health care we've seen from republican perspective in decades. so we have to understand, look, there is the "art of the deal" in all this. legislation is about compromise and pushing it forward. simply political malpractice to

go back to our supporters incomes election saying, sorry guys, we couldn't get it done. that is not acceptable,. stuart: well-said, matt schlapp, well-said indeed. give my best to the freedom caucus. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: justin amash, member of the freedom caucus calling out president trump saying he is a bully. roll that tape. >> most people don't take well to being bullied. it is constructive in fifth grade but, it may allow us a child to get his way but that is not how our government works. stuart: hey, that is kind of strong word, a child can do this, but not the president. erin elmore, campaign spokesperson for the trump campaign. welcome back. good to see you. >> good to see you as well. stuart: there wassing strong words about congressman amash about tweets overnight. >> first time he gone public. stuart: what is your response?

>> truthfully this is not about him. who is elected donald trump as president. it is not congress people. it is the american people. donald trump is not beholden to republican as are democrats. he is carried about the american people. these people are worried about constituents. their constituents are on board with donald trump. they need to get on the program. stuart: i understand, he needs to get unity in the republican party to pass health care and tax reform. he needs unity. >> he does. stuart: is it good tactic to go after him in a tweet storm? >> we know what donald trump does. here is the thing, the "art of the deal." in a negotiation no one gets exactly what they want. they meet somewhere the in middle. that is what we're working towards. personally i think health care, so smart, president trump put it on the shelf, they all realize obamacare is not a sustainable model. stuart: it holds up tax reform. it holds it up. >> it does. stuart: if you have obamacare in place you as you do, obamacare

taxes in place, which affects your ability to change other taxes down the road. >> president trump is so smart. he will let them bury themselves. i will call you out. i will start working on tax reform, do nothing on health care. on your shoulders not mine. they are not passing it. stuart: i hear you. you know what you're talking about. president trump says he wants to reach out to democrats, work with them on health care and taxes. now we find that two democrats in the senate have switched sides. they're not going to filibuster judge gorsuch. they are going to support him. is that a breakthrough? you have to say it's a breakthrough. you're with the trump campaign. of course it's a breakthrough. >> truthfully donald trump is not a partisan man. he is here to represent the american people. a lot of people used to be democrats voted for donald trump. people never registered to vote, voted for donald trump. a lot of republicans and democrats are waking up realizing our world of politics has changed forever as we know it. we will switch sides and be fluid. brilliant for our country. brilliant.

stuart: it's a possibility that president trump forges something of a new coalition with some of the endangered democra in the senate >> couldn't have said it better an myself. stuart: say . erin, thank you very much as always. >> always a pleasure. stuart: we have to bring you the story on amazon, really another spectacular story. they want cheerios, oreos and other big-name brands to start shipping their products directly to customers, with of course amazon in the middle, not the grocery store. big deal. liz: again creating major chaos i'm sure at walmart and costco and target trying to get into the grocery business. hundred billion dollars sector. you know what? don't have to go to them anymore. come to us, you, food maker, we'll ship directly to the consumer. there are two things, ashley and i were talking about it. we know how much food manufacturers spend on glitzy, advertising and packaging to pop

on store shelves. amazon, got general mills and mon and you don't have to spend on packaging. getting food faster to us. stuart: ash, also about taking away high-profit margin items from grocery stores. ashley: yes. this is a huge assault. think about it, amazon infighted top food makers to come to seattle, their headquarters, get the presentation, power point presentation from jeff braise soes. forget walmart, forget costco. you don't need to go there. directly ship your goods to the consumer through amazon. it has to be pointed out, walmart and those guys still absolutely dominate the grocery store sector. what amazon is trying to crack it and get in there, they still have a long way to go. stuart: there is contradiction. grocery store stocks are all up this morning. that is because amazon is only meeting general mills and others

next month and we had very solid numbers on personal income this morning, good for grocery stores. there you go. we have, i will call this a massive inferno taking over a stretch of i-85, a bridge there over, in at lant. i-85, that is major turnpike there, closed for the foreseeable future. ashley: transportation crisis is what it is being called. stuart: we'll said. a sheriff in ohio calling on president trump not only to deport illegals but shutter their businesses and, who hire them. shutter businesses which hire them. he is going to be with us in a moment. president trump signing a pair of executive orders this morning to fine and punish trade cheaters. we'll get the details from his commerce secretary, wilbur ross later this hour. it is all in the second hour of "varney & company." ♪

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stuart: down 40 points on the dow industrials. remember please, this is the end of the first quarter. there will be chopping and changing as we approach 4:00 eastern and close of the market. look at goldman sachs, that has been the biggest drag on the dow industrials in the month of march. if it wasn't for goldman sachs very poor performance the dow would be up for a month. goldman sachs has lost 7% for the month of march. something completely different for you now, politics a sheriff in ohio is calling on president trump to shut down businesses that hire illegals. he has written a letter. this is what he writes. i urge to you take a stand and do the right thing by having immigration and customs enforcement sent to ohio, specifically, butler county. we need to get these businesses

shut down that hire illegals to fill vacant positions. sheriff richard jones wrote the letter and there he is. he joins us right now. sheriff, good morning to you. welcome to the program. >> hey, good morning. stuart: you're a tough guy, however, let me raise this with you. supposing i was illegal. i'm not. supposing i was illegal. i to to a business, here is my social security number, i stole it from somebody else, i'm a legitimate guy, i'm here legitimately hire me. the business hires me. you come along and say, hey that guy is legal i'm shutting your business. the business did not know they were hiring an illegal. so what you're doing is pretty nasty. >> it is not for sissies. i'm telling you right now, these businesses, these businesses, these businesses do know what they're doing, and it's cheap labor. what they do, they work them from daylight till dark. then when they get injured, they

tell them to go away, they fire them. they can't go anywhere. house them in places where four or five families live. they work the hell out of them. they take jobs away from americans, these businesses recruit these people. i have information they recruit them from other countries. they have people that go out and hunt them down. we're in between two sanctuary cities in butler county. we've got the city of cincinnati. their mayor is supporting sanctuary cities. we have dayton on the other side. then there is butler county. we're one of the fastest growing counties of in ohio of 88. lots of illegals and people coming here and they work, they work them and people say they, americans won't do these jobs. that's not true. they're used to be american drywallers. there used to be american roofers. they have run them all out of business. it is continuing. i have asked the president of the united states, they have had not had any work place enforcement eight years when

obama was president. last one was under bush. i'm asking this president who i supported and still support to this day, come in and do work place enforcement. you don't have to do a lot. but again this is not for sissy ies. stuart: not for sissies, i got it. you're taking a very strong stand. saying it is not for sissies, you're a tough guy. how popular is it in your county? >> it is very popular. it is popular in our state. trump won the state of ohio even with the governor of ohio working against him and never supporting him. there wasn't much support from elected people in the entire state. i was about the only one period. i was one warm-up act when i went on stage with him here. it is very popular. we've lost many jobs here and -- stuart: sheriff, i'm almost out of time. you would be demagogued to death. they come at you, taking hard-working people, you're

separating, they will say it. there are political points to be scored when people say that kind of thing about guys like you? >> not in this area. i didn't grow this moustache because i'm weak. this is real man moustache. it goes with my personality. i'm good with it, i've been doing it way before trump is. stuart: sheriff, if you not careful you will be back on the program? you know that, don't you. get you out of the bed in middle. night. >> i know i will be back on it. stuart: sheriff, you're all right. thank you for coming in soon. thank you, guy. now this. the eu, that would be the european union, says it will not hold any trade talks with the brits until they leave the european union. tell me about this? ashley: this is, uk wants to talk about the divorce and the new deal to run parallel, at the same time. the eu fighting back a bit today, saying look, only as long as there is quote, sufficient progress made on the divorce will we even think about the

details of a new rip. they're not out and out saying no, we'll do the divorce first, then we'll reyou knew the relationship. only when quote, significant progress is being made. there are, but there is some language in there that appears to be giving the uk some breathing room. they talk about transitional agreements. there are fears once the two years is up on article 50, fall off a cliff, you're done. not happen. it will be stretched out longer. stuart: this is another example of political noise, ignore it. brits are leaving. who knows what the terms are. ashley: it is embarassment for the eu. so they're not happy. stuart: there you go. president trump targeting the freedom caucus sending tweet after tweet, taunting, challenging that group. could his actions alienate his own base? good question. two democrats breaking ranks, saying they will support judge gorsuch for the supreme court. will more follow them? we'll be back. ♪ your insurance company

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stuart: if you watched the show yesterday you saw lululemon took a whopping great big hit. not much of a rebound today. yes, they have to the weak sales to report and they're only back up 53 cents on a 51-dollar stock. no rebound. costs down at blackberry. the company lost less money. so the stock is up 15%, okay? your budweiser will be brewed with, using renewable energy by 2025. no effect on the stock obviously whatsoever. we thought you would like to know. how about this one? facebook announces oculus

cofounder parma lucky, leaving facebook just one year after launching their virtual reality headset otherwise known as oculus rift. all right, ash. ashley: what is the real story? stuart: what is the issue? ashley: he got involved in the trump primary campaign. got involved in a scandal, revealed and involved funded a pro-trump group called nimble america. it suddenly became out in public knowledge and he was attacked, as you can imagine, silicon valley very anti-trump. developers threatened to walk away from the platform of oculus. in other words not building programs for this virtual reality headset he had helped could found. and he basically said look, he tried to apologize on social media. i don't want what happens to me should not reflect on the product. i have all my hart and soul in the product but i feel like i'm tainting it. he is disappearing into the shadows. he has been there a year and he is gone.

he is the victim of political pressure. it is a real shame. great story. young kid, homeschooled. college drop out who loved to tinker with things and came up with the oculus rift in the garage. stuart: not a elite. a strife -- a striver. get rid of him. we like trust fund boys in our company. facebook launching a satellite into space on a, wait for it, reused rocket. first time that has ever been done. big story for elon musk and a lot of other people. back in a second. no matter how dusty the room or how high the pollen count, flonase allergy relief keeps your eyes and nose clear. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause nasal congestion and itchy, watery eyes. for relief beyond the nose. flonase.

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♪ stuart: who is this? what is the song? ashley: the blind. stuart: the blind.

is that the name of the song or the band? ashley: the band. stuart: the band is sublime. the song is santa maria. thought you would like to know. ashley: thank you, austin. stuart: viewer request? so confusedded. i know who they are. dow jones average -- 4point. president trump is tweeting again, going after the freedom caucus again. i quote. if representative mark meadows, jim jordan, raul labrador would get on board, we would have great health care and massive tax cuts an reform. joining us dan holler, heritage action for america vice president, he vigorously supports the freedom caucus. is that correct, sir? >> we certainly support what they were trying to do, stuart. they were trying to make sure

health care would have been great. stuart: okay. i'm not going to get into it like that. do you think this is a good strategy on the part of president trump to go right after the freedom caucus? >> i think president trump is frustrated, and he has every right to be. what he was looking forward to do driving down premiums for the american people and that bill wouldn't have done it there was bad leadership within congress made this the viable vehicle to pursue health care reform. the fact it is being blocked it is frustrating but ultimately he should hope the policy gets done and done right. stuart: look, from my point of view, argue away all you like, from my point much view i would have rather have obamacare light you put it, than obamacare full on which is what we've got. second point, i don't think it's a very good idea to derail the president's legislative agenda right from the get go. i think the freedom caucus should move a little and stop their idealogical purity, get on board and let's get tax reform

and let's get health care reform. i just, go ahead. go ahead. >> stuart, it is one of the biggest mischaracterizations entire debate that the freedom caucus has not moved. there are a lot of things conservatives don't like about the bill paul ryan is pushing. so many things. what the freedom caucus and conservatives said, deregulate a bit more, get rid of obamacare insurance mandates, roll them back, premiums go down we'll be okay with the let's of the bill even though we don't like it. the freedom caucus has budged, has moved. one thing they are insistent upon making sure premiums going down for the american people. if you know anybody subject to the obamacare increases that is laudable goal. they should be held up as heroes trying to make that happen. not bludgeoned. stuart: ted poe left the caucus. he wants republicans to be party of government. he wants something done. he wants a yes. what is wrong with that?

wait a second. can't you bend, just in this one instance? you can't possibly, just come a little bit away and say, yes? because you know perfectly well, that this whole bill will be changed radically when it gets to the senate? >> stuart, so many people on the conservative side have been the. they think this is a bad bill. they said they are okay with it if you can actually get some more regulations repealed. because the bill as is not going to drive down premiums. it will not help the grandmother who tweeted him yesterday saw 40% increase in her premiums this year. this bill will not do that. get a bill that will do that that is what president trump promised. that is what congressional republicans ran on and if -- stuart: what is wrong with phases two and three when some of your concerns will be addressed head-on? what is wrong with that? >> secretary price can certainly do a lot from hhs. he has to go to rule making process. he has subject to litigation. temporary is not good.

stuart: look what you've given us, i am suffering and whole country suffering under obamacare and we've derailed the legislative agenda. >> stuart the only reason the legislative agenda is derailed moderates in the republican party literally said they will not pick up the phone to talk to conservatives negotiating a bill better for the american people. moderates from the republican party derailing this, not making things better. stuart: dan, we're on opposite sides of fence. doesn't work for me. i want things do done. i appreciate your argument. appreciate you coming on board. all good stuff. thanks for being part of the debate. come back again. this ain't over. thanks very much. >> will do. stuart: dan, thank you, sir. two senate democrats, that would be joe manchin, west virginia, heidi heitkamp dakotas, say they will vote for the confirmation of neil gorsuch for supreme court. juan williams co-host of "the five" on fox news. he is with us this friday morning.

juan, it is really a pleasure to see you. >> very kind, thank you, stuart. i must say i was watching your interaction there, i was thinking you are so passionate about the idea of get something done but it is interesting on other side of people who view themselves as stalwart conservatives? stuart: i am a conservative. i'm a free market guy. i want as little as government possible. i feel you have to play politics. >> i told you here previously that you didn't think this would happen. you are incensed, you feel like this will stop the trump train? stuart: what it doesn't derail it. it will derail it. if you don't have a deal on obamacare, very difficult to go forward on tax reform. >> i agree. stuart: i think conservatives held up and blocking a very good program. >> the point i want to make, on far right there is opposition from the bill heard from mr. holler, would not reduce

premiums and insure as many people and on the far left, guess what same indictment on that bill. maybe it wasn't a good bill. stuart: i don't care whether it was a good bill, or a bad bill, it was something. it would have done after awful lot so get rid of some key aspects of obamacare. let me move on for a second. two democrats in the senate agree to vote for gorsuch. >> right. stuart: that means that mr. schumer, senator schumer's attempt to have a total opposition from all democrats, that has been broken. >> right. stuart: where do you stand on this? you would vote for gorsuch, wouldn't you? >> if it was just a matter of qualifications i would vote for gorsuch. given what happened to merrick garland i would be appalled. stuart: tit-for-tat, vote against gorsuch. >> not rewarding bad behavior on the part of people who obstructed merrick garland for a year, denied president obama his constitutionnal right for someone to sit in the seat. stuart: this is about a valid person to get on the supreme court.

>> in that was it, merrick garland would be there. merrick garland is better qualified. stuart: you would obstruct gores you such because merrick garland -- >> we have republican senators, if hillary clinton wins, we settle with a eight-member court. they were not willing to give to the seat. stuart: i'm surprised at you juan williams. i thought you would put a decent man on the supreme court. there is a decent man. >> there is merrick garland. stuart: because we can't have merrick garland we can't have gorsuch either? >> that is my position. stuart: wrong again. >> we have political parties, stop paralysis and name-calling and dysfunction. what this means the court is not functioning at capacity. that is not good for america. stuart: it will. mitch mcconnell says gorsuch will confirmed hell or high water. >> he will need eight. stuart: if he gets eight -- >> "nuclear option." stuart: exactly. >> there you go. stuart: we will go to 51 votes, put them them supreme court. next time around, next opening

come up we'll use 51 votes to get on supreme court and left will lose. i will bring this to your attention. >> certainly. stuart: want your opinion on something else here. the direction sell professor. you're familiar with this. >> oh, yes. stuart: he was disgusted after an airline passenger gave up his first class seat for uniformed soldier. i got all of that. the two appeared on tucker carlson last night. what is your opinion of this professor. >> ridiculous. first of all, you know me for a while, i believe in kindness and i think idea that someone gave up a first class seat out of respect for our military is totally appropriate and to be applaud. if this guy has a problem with some behavior by the military let's have the argument. in terms of contributions, sacrifices of our armed services i don't have any issue. stuart: i importantly would do anything with this professor other than publicized his point of view. i wouldn't fire him. i wouldn't ban him. no. free speech society but i want to hear what he has to say. >> that is what i'm saying. when i go to ballgames, i go to

a lot of ballgames, baseball is about to start, there is show of great patriotism, people forget, their kids in the good seats they're not getting sent out to fight these wars. i think to myself, is this cheap patriotism or the real deal? i remember the nfl, turns out the nfl, washington football team whose name i won't say, they were charging the military for these displays of patriotism. i was appalled. stuart: you won't say washington redskins? >> no. but you, you should say washington football team and you should say the great washington football team. stuart: i have a few seconds. >> what? stuart: i don't know, why i lost interest in baseball? >> really? stuart: i don't know why. yankees fan for a long time. >> that's why. [laughter] stuart: ouch. >> you can root for the nationals. you can come over. stuart: who are they? [laughter]

juan, always a pleasure. shake that hand, buddy. thanks very much, pal. see you later. live action president, oh it rolls along today. two executive orders on trade. one report on trade abuse. two, fine foreigners that dump goods in america. we'll discuss that with the commerce secretary himself. also the running theme on the program today, president trump's battle with the freedom caucus. we have an ally of the freedom caucus on the show in the 11:00 hour. see how he thinks about the tweet storm. ♪

♪ ashley: president trump taking on the freedom caucus over twitter. david macintosh, president of the club for breath told us that is not such a good idea. roll tape. stuart: does this move the ball? >> you know i think it's a distraction. i'm down here in north carolina. mark meadows's home state. they are standing with him. they don't like this bill the way it was produced in the house. he is trying to tell them, we don't have to kill it, we can make it better. i think the tweets really distract from that, but he and the speaker and house will come together and i think we'll get a bill that is improvement and frankly delivers on the promise to really get rid of the expensive obamacare regulations.

stuart: okay. ♪

stuart: price of oil still $50 per barrel, even enormous amount of supply, 500 million barrels in the united states, still 50

bucks despite the supply. how about at&t, the company wants to build a nationwide broadband network only for first-responders. only for first-responders entire network. liz: cops, firemen, people that run ambulances. basically they're crowded in with other consumers and businesses on the same network. so there is a lot of delays in responding to emergencies. at&t, you know what, congress, you had the idea after 9/11. we'll pick up on it. called firstnet. 40 billion bucks. they will get government money to buildout a network for first-responders, dedicated to first-responders alone. stuart: who will pay for firstnet? liz: government kicks in. will give dedicated unique wireless spectrum. stuart: at&t pay as chunk with government money. that is not a bad idea. liz: that is kind of cool. stuart: it is end of the first

quarter. april 1st let's not forget that, stuart. initial public offerings market, end of first quarter, end of march, came back to life. number companies offering shares to the public was increase, wasn't it, lizzie. liz: it was an increase. stuart: not much? liz: last year was disasterous, hit 2009 lows. they're thinking maybe ipo market can pop back up to 150 ipos which is was in 2015. stuart: only one think snap, only one making a significant move. liz: butch of others. stuart: i want to get to battle of burgers for wont of a better expression. mcdonald's is switching to fresh beef for quarter-pounders in some of its restaurants fairly soon. how did wendy's respond. liz: burger wars are on twitter. wendy's having a field day trolling mcdonald's.

you use frozen beef in most of your burgers and all the restaurants. they tweeted again, we'll stick to fresh beef. mcdonald's you can have the ice chips in your serving. someone ordered up a snack and we're supersizing it we're going after mcdonald's. stuart: lizzie, thank you. next case. trade related orders coming today. trade representatives will report on trade abuses. he wants a comprehensive report from all around the world. second consecutive order. tells agencies, get out there, collect the fines. levied on foreigners when they dump products on us. wilbur ross is the commerce secretary and he joins us now. mr. secretary. i'm ply from that, there are a lot of fines we're not is that accurate? >> believe it or not there are billions of dollars of fines that have never been collected and the principle reason for it is that the clever exporting

countries set up shell companies here to be the importer of record but they don't really have a lot of financial resources. so by the time we come around and extract the fine, there is nobody there to pay it. this new executive order will require them to put up cash, put up letters of credit, or get bonding from an insurance company so that we have someone to bo against when we win the trade case. stuart: okay. obviously you know that a trade war is on a lot of people's minds. and the idea of a border adjustment tax, some people think, will give us trade friction, trade war. how committed are you, sir, to a border adjustment tax? >> well, two things. first of all, i would observe we've been in a trade war. that is how we ended up with a 500 billion-dollar trade deficit.

the difference is that now our troops are coming to the ramparts. it is not just the invading forces. as to the border adjustable, excuse me, the administration has not yet taken a position on it. it is a very complex issue. it is a very important issue. and so we want to see all of the details of it as the ways and means committee and speaker ryan flesh them out and then we'll be in the position to take a position. stuart: i want to ask you about, you are a business guy. that is how you made your money. you spent your entire life in business. and suddenly, you're in the middle of the political world. president trump seems to be having a little trouble in the political world, but have you, sir? you're running slap bang into the politicians. >> the politicians are business people too but the way they

conduct their business is radically different than the way a business person would do so. i found washington is very curious place, it is extremely process oriented, rather than the way the business community is mainly results-oriented. that mind set is something that the president and i and the other cabinet secretaries are going to try very hard to change. stuart: i've got 30 seconds, sir. not a lot of time. can you tell me one thing that you would really like to change about nafta? >> yes. i would like to reduce our deficit of, from the other two trading partners to something much more manageable. stuart: that's it? you would like to he reduce the deficit with canada and mexico? that's it? >> yes, sir. stuart: and you're results oriented, that is what you're going to do? >> we're going to try and do it without disrupting the total level of trade.

hopefully we'll accomplish it by actually increasing the total of trade, but changing ratio of our exports to our imports. stuart: got it. wilbur ross, commerce secretary. mr. secretary, thanks very much for joining us, sir. >> thank you. stuart: thank you, sir. got it. the dow industrials paring our loss. down 30 odd points. washington very much in focus. back in a moment.

stuart: can you believe it? some people in our audience who are unhappy with me because occasionally i will share my life experiences. here's this from jim. stuart, any chance you could, stop talking about yourself. not a chance, jim. however, the production team put together a little montage highlighting your point. roll tape. let me explain something. i hitchhiked around the world. you agree with my reasoning there. let me tell you, stuart varney, tell me why. i. me. i'm just astonished. i often said i had american white t-shirt. i want it to be a breakthrough. that is my reading of it anyway. i was in iran. i'm not suppose to go to you just yet. just me. one day i will write a book about it, probably not.

nicely done, production team. liz: hilarious. ashley: its your show. what is it called? "varney & company." have every right to talk about yourself. stuart: thank you very much indeed. liz: you plan to retire and write autobiography the word according to me. that was pretty funny. we were talking about this before, we come from working class beginnings. stuart: yep. liz: we love the american dream. we're about the american dream. i think when you talk through the prism of me, i'm excited. i got here. i worked hard. we're strivers. we made it. you're trying to give that message to the viewer. >> yes. a can-do attitude is. liz: i dug myself out of the hole from the beginning. stuart: talking about you again. very kind to say those things. jim, turn your set off you now, this is really all about me and i will be back. yes?

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stuart: no wonder people are unhappy with politics and politicians. finish i don't think that we, the people, are on the same page as beltway people. surely what we want is action on the issues that affect our lives. but that's not what we're hearing about from washington. oh, no. the d.c. crowd is far more interested in investigations, special prosecutors, who knew what and when, who met who and where, who leaked what to whom and why. the names in the headlines are flynn, nuñes, schiff, putin and any and all russians. none of them has anything to do with jobs, taxes, health care or economic growth. none of them. the democrats oppose the president's policies, to they play the political game to defeat him. regrettably, lawyers and courts are now major players, and that

is a very sad thing to report. hold on, the third hour of "varney & company" will cut right at it, and we're about to begin. ♪ ♪ it takes two, baby -- stuart: this is music from my era. >> your generation, baby. stuart: your grandfather's. [laughter] marvin gaye, it takes two. oh, i remember it so well. here are two varney favorites with us this hour, fox news' martha maccallum and nigel farage. we'll get to them in a moment, both of them on the show shortly. breaking now, attorney general jeff sessions meeting in st. louis with federal, state and local law enforcement about efforts to combat violent crime. we'll bring you the news from that meeting as it comes to us. also happening this morning, president trump meeting with the national association of manufacturers.

he's expected to sign executive orders aimed at foreign trade abuses. we'll take you there live when we can. next case, your money. check out that big board. the dow's been holding with a modest loss all morning long, down 40. remember, this is the end of the quarter, so you'll have some backing and filling as we approach the closing bell. the price of oil, well, it's at $50 a barrel. this week it's had its biggest gain in a long time. opec's expected to slow down output. that's why oil's at $50 a barrel. a look at the major averages this month, only the nasdaq is in with a gain of -- well, both of them, the s&p, the nasdaq, small gains. the dow at this point for the month of march is down. how about goldman sachs? why is the dow down for the month? because of goldman sachs. goldman is a dow stock, and it's down 7.5% in the month of march. if that goldman stock had not

been part of the dow, well, the dow would be up for the month of march. got it. i want to get back to my take, top of the hour, and bring in martha maccallum. first 100 days host on the fox news channel. always a pleasure, martha, welcome back. >> great to see you, stuart. stuart: look, i'm saying that you and i, and we the people, we want to know about issues about jobs and security and all the rest of it, but what we're getting is investigations. you have the same problem. >> i totally agree with you. we try to do the same, take on the same challenge that you're presenting here every night on the first hundred days because we ask each other, okay, these are the huge stories. obviously, we have to address the russia story, it's a huge story. but there are almost parallel tracks of this presidency that are going on, and you look at what's happening with the economy -- as you say, the dow down in march, but it's been a pretty good ride so far. you look at what's happening with trade, the potential for tax reform, and this is what, as you guys all talk about, wall street is waiting the hear. and i think the gorsuch vote is going to be a huge factor -- stuart: yes.

>> -- in indicating if there is any glimmer of hope for any potential of bipartisanship going forward. and i have to say right now it looks a little gloomy. stuart: well, we've got two senate democrats who have said they will vote in -- >> heitkamp and manchin so far, but it takes eight. stuart: hold on -- [laughter] isn't there also a leaked audiotape from claire mccaskill where she's a little leery of a filibuster? >> yeah. you know, this is the glimmer of hope that we have right now. i think that america has. and i say this in a completely bipartisan way. if you can put together enough of these senators, and john mccain is also working on this behind the scenes. he really wants to see if they can pull together enough of them the avoid this precipice of the nuclear option in this vote. because really when you think about it, stuart, what they should be working hardest on at the white house, i think, at this point is finding a coalition, right? are there caucus members, freedom caucus members that they

could potentially peel away? members of democrats that they could potentially peel away and put together a group of action folks? stuart: yep. >> that are willing to say, you know what? we love or we don't love donald trump, doesn't matter, we want to work for the american people. and potentially, that could help them in 2018 if they think broadly about it. stuart: but you're talking about a different coalition, a new coalition -- >> well, that's what we saw in this election, right? stuart: that's true. >> trumpism is not republicanism, and it is not being a democrat. stuart: it's not. >> that may be why he's having a tough time putting things together, but he needs to sort of figure out who his constituency is and try the peel off some of these members and say, look, you are with me, actually. that's an articulation that we haven't seen happen completely, but maybe they're working on it. stuart: i know it's your job to follow the first hundred days. i'm having a very, very hard time following this investigation story, the nuñes story, the flynn story. i mean, i don't know many people who really can stay on top of it and report exactly what's going

on, because it's so confusing. >> i mean, it is multilayered. and the saddest part or goes back to what we're talking about, because really the most important thing for the american people is to understand that russia absolutely is trying to influence elections here. they have a very sophisticated arm that works on, you know, penetrating social media everywhere they can. they actually look for certain districts where they can do that in an effective way whether it's in europe, ukraine or's estoniar whether it's in the united states. this is an up-and-running, functioning arm. we need to get our arms around that, understand how to combat that and kind of put this other garbage more to the side. stuart: yes, please. let's get on with the real work. one more issue. silicon valley, in my opinion, has utter contempt for president trump. you see it all the time. but they have benefited from his presidency so far. amazon's jeff bezos, for example, he owns "the washington post." he is utterly contemptuous of

president trump, and yet his net worth has gone up just this calendar year by $10 billion. and he's the principal opponent of president trump. >> what a shocking reality that when you talk about tax reform and lower regulations that affect businesses across this country, that you see growth, right? stuart: exactly. >> so these guys are benefiting from it. but they live in a completely different world, you know? i mean, they live in a very small ivory tower of technology in silicon valley. they're not worried about whether or not their taxes go up, it will never touch them. but the rest of the country will grease the wheels of the economy by many of these moves. and look at consumer confidence in march. stuart: right. >> that's a stunning number. the strongest number since 2000, i believe, 17 years. stuart: let's remind our viewers that jeff bezos is now worth $75 billion. he's made an extra 10 billion this calendar year. that's not taxed. that's wealth accumlation.

we don't tax wealth. we tax income. so here we have these multibillionais who sa oh, yeah, we should raise taxes on the rich. >> oka [laughter] stuart: the strivers of this world who earn income, they're the ones who are going to be taxed because we're fitting to tied on this program. >> hypocritical. stuart: martha, you're doing great, 7:00 eastern on the fox news channel. >> thanks for having me. stuart: i want to focus on amazon, one of those big companies, etc., etc. first of all, the stock, will you look at that? $888 per share, all-time high for that company. here's why. they're just -- they're going directly to the manufacturers of packaged goods, and they're saying why don't you sell directly to consumers. we'll be in the middle, forget the grocery stores. i think i've got that right. that's what they're doing. >> they invited them to a three-day summit in seattle in may, and it's general mills, monday lay.

so basically it's saying, you know what? you don't need to deal with the big box stores -- walmart, target, costco -- use us, because we're going to do free shipping. so, and ash and we were all talking about it, it's also saying to them we want the ship your goods faster and cheaper to a wider sphere of consumers because this is the wave of the future. it's internet shopping for groceries. it is a sliver right now what's happening, it's an $800 billion sector, but they're saying we know what's coming down the road, and millennials are buying food online. >> to lizzie's points, the walmarts, the costcos, do they invite all these people in and say, look, here's what we can do for you? it's going to be interesting to see how retailers respond and react to this, because it's very aggressive from amazon. stuart: short term you've got to say amazon is, again, launching into a whole new area, and it's the grocery store chains who are going to pay the price. >> right.

to ashley's point, he's right. walmart has sam's club moving big with groceries online, jet.com, this could be a food war between amazon and walmart right now. [laughter] >> fascinating, isn't it? stuart: you know, america moves fast, really moves faster than any other country, and that's a fact. next, nigel farage. you know what? he was in california raising money to break up the state into two parts, two wings, you might say. now, what in the world was nigel farage, the brexit guy, doing calling for the break-up of california? well, he's next, and he's listening to me now. i know he's listening and he's smiling. we'll be back. [laughter] ♪ no matter how dusty the room or how high the pollen count, flonase allergy relief keeps your eyes and nose clear. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause nasal congestion and itchy, watery eyes. for relief beyond the nose.

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campaign for the break-up of the united states if president trump continues to support the brits getting out of europe. you know who's perfect for this? that guy right there. s that is nigel farage, he's the man behind the brexit deal in the first place, and he's a fox news contributor. what is going on here? please tell us. >> well, i think what mr. yunger has done is make himself look a complete and total idiot. he's comparing the united states of america -- which has a common culture and a common desire to be a nation -- with the united states of europe that he wants to build and wants to impose upon the peoples of europe. so brexit has happened, trump was a supporter of that project, and now, frankly, this idiot -- because i can't think of a better word -- says he'll campaign for ohio to break away from the usa. i think the european union just lost whatever credibility in the usa they had. stuart: okay. i've got to bring up this, because when we learned that you were part of the movement the

break up california into two parts, interior and the coastal elites, when we heard that, the first question to us was what on everett is nigel farage, the brexit guy, doing trying to break up california? you want to explain yourself, nigel? >> yes, i do, please. [laughter] okay. tim draper, successful californian businessman, takes the view that california is too big, too centralized, too badly run, and it would be better to be broken up into smaller units. he's believed that passionately for a long time and, you know, think about it. i mean, there are 200 countries in the world with populations smaller than california. i happen to be in california at an awards ceremony as a speaker, and i was invited to go and talk to a group of people who were thinking about making a change, but the l.a. establishment will say it's impossible. and i guess the moral of the story is what brexit proves is if you want something enough, it can happen.

and looking at the liberal cost and the more conservative interior, you know, i don't think it's completely impossible. stuart: it's a stretch, nigel. i think you'll have to admit, it is a stretch. >> well, it may well be a stretch, but, you know, i was just there to bear witness. you know, i have to remove any doubt it is not me trying to break up california. [laughter] stuart: okay. that's all i wanted to hear, okay, because you've become very unpopular all of a sudden if you were that guy. [laughter] something more serious. you want the united kingdom, the brits, to enter into individual trade agreements with individual european countries. that's how you see the future of british trade with europe, correct? now, okay, i know that's your view -- >> yeah. stuart: what chance of this actually happening? >> well, in the short term that isn't going to happen. the e.u. will, for their negotiations, i think, hold together, and they're saying

today that they won't even talk about trade with us until we've paid some ludicrous bill of every 50 billion sterling. so effectively, they're trying to blackmail us. this is all rather stupid really because we trade at a big imbalance with the european union. they sell us far more than we sell them, and they're prepared -- these european politicians are prepared to put their crumbling dream of this european project above the interests of their own workers and their own companies. so this is their initial, starting shot. let's see where it goes. stuart: okay. one last one for you. the french elections are coming up, i think it's about three, four weeks' time. >> yeah. stuart: handicap it for us. does marie le pen stand a real chance of winning the presidency itself? >> well, she'll win the first round and then go into a runoff. she's tested, tested heavily. there are no more bad stories

about le pen to come out. macron is the pretty boy and has all the media support. i think when it comes to a head to hea ground on him. at the moment you have to say he is favorite, but what brexit and trump prove is that, actually, once that campaign starts in real earnest, it could happen. anyone that tells you marie le pen is cannot win is wrong. stuart: you know why you're popular in the united states? number one, you've got a great british accent. number two, you speak in sound bites, and number three, you never hold back. nigelnigel farage, thanks. all right, let's get on to mcdonald's. this has made quite a stir. >> yes. stuart: they're switching to fresh beef for the quarter pounder in some of their restaurants. >> in some, in all of them by the middle of next year. you're thinking, okay, so wendy's gets on twitter and

says, hey, mcdonald's, so you're still going to be using frozen beef in most of your burgers in all of your restaurants until then. just wondering. [laughter] stuart: ice chips? >> yes, they did. >> i know what mcdonald's is doing, but it's definitely backfired. stuart: not on the stock. >> no, you know. stuart: all right, everybody. new details on phil mickelson's gambling. he reportedly spent $2 million paying off his gambling debt back in 2012. does that cast a bit of a cloud over his appearance at the masters which, by the way, begins on thursday? we'll be back. ♪

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stuart: the masters starts next week, i love it. i think it's the first sign of spring. love it every year. phil mickelson reportedly spent nearly $2 million back in 2012 to pay off a gambling debt. all right, let's get into this. do we know any more about mr. mickelson's financial background? >> that was back in 2012. this has all come out because of an insider or trading case involving a well known gambler, billy walters, whose money phil

mickelson paid to pay off these gambling debts. it's all very kind of i don't want to say dodgy, shady, but it doesn't look great for phil mickelson. he's cleared away his role in any of that case, he's paid a fine, won't be testifying, is not charged. however, the attorney in that case said, you know what? this is not the first time mr. mickelson has paid a big gambling debt. stuart: not the first time? >> not the first time. that's according to the attorney in the insider trading case. but $2 million is quite a bit of money. he earned $48 million that year, so just under 5% of his salary, but this is not the kind of thing you would hear about jack nicholson or the greats. stuart: it's not the kind of thing you want to hear about. for those of us who really love golf, we don't like to see any kind of dark cloud over a star player, a popular player, a great player like mickelson. >> yeah, he's going to have

asterisk next to his name. stuart: no. >> it'll be a footnote. stuart: there'll be no asterisk on the record. >> i mean next the his name when people talk about him. stuart: it's a shadows. do you watch the masters? >> i do. i think it's comforting -- stuart: why would it be comforting to you, liz? >> because it's nice and slow like soccer like you watch. stuart: oh! that hurts. by the way, phil is now 25 to 1 -- >> yeah, he's dropped a little bit. who knows. stuart: and the odds-on favorite, the favorite is dustin johnson -- >> 5 to 1 last i heard. stuart: tricky business, betting on golf. how do you predict the winning of a golf game because they change all the time. >> and the weather changes -- >> we talk again how many of these guys can hit the length of four football fields? stuart: we heard about a golfer who teed off -- >> mcilroy. >> they're going to have to

start lengthening the golf course. [laughter] stuart: look at the big board, holding with a very small loss. that is just 30 points down. the running theme on the program today, what is it? i'll tell you, president trump's battle with the freedom caucus. up next, an ally of the freedom caucus. ♪ ♪ [pony neighing] what? hey gary. oh. what's with the dog-sized horse? i'm crazy stressed trying to figure out this complex trade so i brought in my comfort pony, warren, to help me deal. isn't that right warre well, you could get support from thinkorswim'in-app chat. it lets you chat and share your screen directly with a live person right from the app, so you don't need a comfort pony. oh, so what about my motivational meerkat? in-app chat on thinkorswim.

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stuart: president trump calls out the freedom caucus again. overnight a tweet storm. and it names members of the freedom caucus, and it goes right after them. joining us now is congressman thomas massie, republican from kentucky and an ally of the freedom caucus. thomas, you know the background here. two tweets overnight, one 24 hours ago directly attacking the conservatives in the republican party, the freedom caucus. has that attack made you change your mind in any way, shape or form and move more towards president trump? >> you know what, stuart? this is the most unpopular piece of legislation i have ever heard from my constituents about. 11 to 1, the calls are running for me to vote against this bill. so people -- you know, the freedom caucus is just representing the will of their

constituents i believe, and myself as well. stuart: okay. what about me? i want movement. i think that obamacare lite, as you call it, this bill -- >> yes. stuart: -- is much better than the obamacare full on which we now have. furthermore, you have stopped dead in its tracks the trump legislative agenda. you've derailed it on day one. i don't think that's worth it, sir, i really don't. >> i -- we think we're saving him. look, this -- obamacare lite is worse than obamacare. our objection is logical, it's not ideological. our objection is logical. if you remove the individual mandate yet keep in place the mandate on pre-existing conditions on health care, health insurance, you know what's going to happen? people are going to buy -- fewer people are going to buy insurance. the cbo said that. those will be the healthy people that don't buy it, and the price is going to skyrocket. stuart: thomas, that could be

fixed in phase two or phase three. it could be fixed. you can't tell me that it will not be fixed. >> well, phase two is supposed to be the pen and the phone, the administrative fixes, and we see how well that's going for our president and our administration in the courts. phase two will be shut down by the courts if it ever happens -- stuart: you can't guarantee that. you tonight know that for sure. >> that's our concern. well, we've got a pretty bad track record so far. [laughter] stuart: what you've done, you've given us obamacare full on for as far as the eye can see, and you have derailed the legislative process. you have. >> no. we've stopped something very bad. we've probably saved the gop from losing the majority in the next election -- stuart: that's your projection. >> this will be a disaster. stuart: well, i'm concerned -- >> let me ask you -- stuart: in 2018 if you've got nothing done, if we're still lumped with obamacare, still lumped with high taxes, you lose. all republicans lose because they haven't done what they said they were going to do.

you haven't even taken -- >> that's exactly, that's exactly the point, that's exactly the point we're making to trump. do what you -- stuart: you have to take a baby step. >> drain the swamp. a baby step towards socialism is not doing what we said -- stuart: a baby step towards socialism? please. >> yes. mandates, penalties, subsidies and bailouts are all in this bill -- stuart: which could have all changed in phase two and phase three. >> yeah. well, those are fairy tales, frankly. why don't we do phase three right now if it's so doable and necessary? stuart: so you won't move at all, despite what the president has done overnight? >> no, absolutely -- i will move. listen, stuart, the medicaid reform that's stuck inside of this bill is a good part of the bill. we should do it tomorrow. it saves $800 billion, and that's the part that lets us do tax reform. freedom caucus will vote for that, i will vote for that. let's get the stuff that we can agree on, get that on the table,

bring it for a vote. and the stuff we can't agree on, frankly, stuart, trump might need democrats if he wants to pass obamacare lite because it's not what conservatives campaigned on. stuart: it's going to be a long-running debate. sir, look, thank you very much for participating today. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: we'll have you back on, guaranteed. good to see you. >> all right. we'll see you, stuart. stuart: yes, sir. just a couple moments from now we're going to bring you tape from inside the president's meeting with the national association of manufacturers. we're going to be able to listen in right now. here we go. >> we have some really good news today. it's really fantastic, these numbers. today i'm delighted to welcome the national association of manufacturers to the white house. it's a great group of people. i know many of them well. and i want to thank your president and ceo, jay timmons, for being here with us today. great job. great job, jay. my administration is working every day to make it easier for

manufacturers to build, hire and grow in america. we're removing job-killing regulations and lifting the burdens on american industry like i would say have never been lifted before. we've done a lot of work over the last 60, 70 days, and i think you're seeing some real production. maybe -- i think we can say this, mike, like never before. earlier this week i signed an executive order to end the war on coal. we had coal miners up at the office. it was an amazing scene. you had very tough, very strong, very powerful men that were crying, actually. and they were crying with happiness. it produced more american energy and more american jobs, which is how i got elected in the first place. we have created a task force in every agency to eliminate wasteful regulations.

and today at 3:30 with the department of commerce, wilbur ross will be up, and we're signing two very powerful executive orders. it'll be something very important, very, very special. that'll be with commerce. one of the reasons we're here today is to announce the extraordinary results of a new survey from the national association of manufacturers. your survey shows that 93% of manufacturers now have a positive outlook on the future of their business in this country. 93. and it was just a few months ago at 56. that's a slight difference. [laughter] that's a slight difference. [applause] that's a 20-year record high, highest it's been in 20 years, and it's going higher. believe me, you can come back

next month -- [laughter] i don't know how much higher it can go. and so i'm very proud of that. we're all very proud of that, and the manufacturers are really starting to invest big money in a lot of things that are happening. it's a new surge in optimism which is sweeping all across our land. these survey results are a further vote of confidence in our plan to bring back jobs, lower taxes and provide a level playing field for our workers. the manufacturing companies represent and represented here today are just an extraordinary group of people. they're leaders, they're brilliant in so many ways. the field has not been a level field. jobs have been leaving our country, going to china and mexico and hot of to other places -- lots of other places. and you'll be seeing what's happening over the next few weeks. it should be very interesting for you to watch. as you know, the president of china's coming to florida, we're having a meeting, a big meeting

at mar-a-lago called the southern white house, which it actually is. it was originally built as the southern white house, a lot of people don't know. sort of strange how it got there. but it's going to be something, i think, very important, very special. i look very much forward to meeting him and the delegation, and we'll see what happens. but i am very, very proud of what you've been able to do in this short period of time. just this little, short period of time the optimism is so high. and i see the billions of dollars that are being invested by your people and your representatives in plant and equipment and jobs, and i appreciate that, jay, very much. congratulations. >> thank you. >> you may wish to say a few words? >> i do. i want to reemphasize for the media here that this quarterly survey of our 14,000 members has been going on for 20 years. and to the point you made, this was the highest level of optimism that our manufacturers have expressed in 20 years. >> that's fantastic. >> and the other, the other statistic that i think you'll

find interesting is the right track/wrong track question that our manufacturers answered. just the month before inauguration day the right track number was only 26%. today it is over 60%. so that's a huge growth as well. and that's because of the focus on taxes, regulations, infrastructure investment. we appreciate your commitment to investment in job creation and manufacturing, and we're going to deliver. >> thank you very much, jay. that's really nice. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. patricia, would you like to say something? pretty outstanding, what you've done. >> thank you, i appreciate being here today -- stuart: the president is, and the chairman there of the national association of manufacturers, jay timmons, who you just heard speak, they were referring to their optimism index. they've been running this survey for 20 years. they've just come out with the best result, the most optimism at any point in the 20 years that that survey has been taken. ash, i think this is the kind of

story which we want to hear more about as to opposed to investigations and probes and who said what to who and when and the russians. >> i absolutely agree. but if sean spicer came out right now and said i'm open for questions, the first question will be about russian collusion and all of these things, just ignoring this. what's great about these things, and the national association of manufacturers saying it's all about taxes, regulation, infrastructure spending, these are the things that get this economy going that affect everybody. jobs, jobs, jobs and confidence that the economy is exbanding. the mainstream media will not pick up on this at all. doesn't play into their narrative, that's the problem. stuart: right next to the president, jay timmons, is the head of the narc source -- national association of manufacturers, and he's on this program monday morning. all right. who's next? we're going to be joined by a patriotic millionaire. he wants to pay more in taxes. i'm going to ask him, why don't you just cut a check to the treasury? you can, you know.

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>> i'm nicole petallides with your fox business brief. stocks under a little pressure right now but having a great start to 2017, the last trading day of this month and this quarter.

right now the dow is down 24 points at 20,702 while the s&p is up fractionally and the nasdaq gaining 6. the dow and the s&p up six quarters in a row. well, we have some of the dow winners including apple. apple is adding 193 points to the dow for this first quarter, these are going also winners for the quarters as you can see boeing up about 14% during that time. amazon, 19% on pace for its third straight record close and of the year, another winner there. and apple up 24%. facebook, 24%. keep an eye also on blackberry, that's one of the most actively traded stocks. it's up 13%, better than expected quarterly numbers. start your day on fox business at five a.m. we'll see you there.

stuart: jay timmons, he chairs the national association of manufacturers, he was inside the meeting with trump as you saw, just came outside, addressed the microphones. listen in. >> national association of manufacturers surveys our 14,000 members, and the survey is about their outlook on the economy and on, on the success of their business. for the first time in many, many years, we had an uptick in optimism among manufacturers. it was 93.3% positive. to put that into perspective, one year ago the number was 56% positive. and to also put it into perspective, it's the highest,

it's the highest number for optimism that we've seen in our survey in the entire 20 years that we've been conducting the survey. another data point that we found to be very interesting that we were able to share with the president is the right track/wrong track number from the perspective of manufacturers. a month before he came into office the right track number was at a very low 26%. this last survey showed that the right track number was 60%. so we were very happy to be able to share that news with the president and let him know that manufacturers are very excited about his agenda -- stuart: and there you have it, that is the optimism index from the manufacturers at an all-time high. came out, said that. it did not, however, move the market which is still down about 20 points. got it. now this. our next guest, well, he's a millionaire. he wants us the pay more in taxes. here he is, i promise to give him an easy time. he is with us, he is the

chair -- he's the ceo of icetone usa. welcome to the program. >> great to be here. i appreciate you having me on. stuart: yeah, yeah, yeah, let's get at it. >> it's not us, it's rich people. stuart: why do -- you're a rich guy. >> i am a rich guy. stuart: why don't you pay more in taxes? you could just write a check. why don't you? >> it's like speed limits. if they were havingen tear, i could get to my farm in an hour and a quarter. stuart: there is nothing stopping you to write that check to the government. why don't you do it? >> it's like me putting a drop in the ocean. the point is -- stuart: putting your money where your mouth is. >> the patriotic millionaires and responsible wealth members, we are all feeling like we could pay more taxes. stuart: so why don't you pay more? >> it doesn't work. it works when the collective does it, that's the point. stuart: no, it works when you forest people like me to pay more -- force people like me to pay more. i pay enough already, why don't you pay.

>> bottom line, you know, the government has helped me, it gave me an sba loan. he got hit by hurricane sandy, the sba was -- stuart: so pay more. you're not answering the question. you can pay more, you want people to pay more, why don't you pay more? >> if i'm going to write a check, i would give it to a charity before i would give it to the government if no one else is doing it. stuart: but you're forcing me to pay more to the government. >> you must be a rich guy then. stuart: i'll tell you the difference. you have wealth. you've built up a company, and you have wealth. that wealth is not taxed, is it? is it? >> my wealth -- stuart: your wealth is not taxed. >> well, if i die, it'll be taxed. stuart: i know how you do it. you built up your wealth, you don't actually spend that wealth. you go to a bank and say, hey, i've got $100 million, give me a loan. you don't pay any money in taxes on that loan, you just pay a little bit of interest, that's huh you work wealth to your advantage.

but what you want is for people like me who are income earners, strivers, you want us to pay. >> wait a minute -- stuart: yeah, you do. >> income earners who make more than a million a year, that's what we're looking at, making a million a year in income. that's who i'm talking about, rich people who make all this money, capital gains. stuart: you want strivers to pay more money when you wealthy guys, you don't pay any money on that wealth, do you? do you? >> wait a minute -- stuart: look, you just gave me a set of tweezers. what's your company? >> tweeze a man. i sold it. and i paid my taxes. stuart: and that's all in the bank. >> i was a guy who was penniless in 1980 -- stuart: i don't care. all that money is sitting there as wealth, and you are not going to pay a dime on that wealth, are you? not a dime. >> yes, but when i trade the market -- stuart: yes, you're not going to pay a dime. >> $2 million in the market trade, i'm going to pay capital

gains, and i want to pay even more -- stuart: you just don't get my point. we do not tax wealth in this country, and you've got wealth. we tax income in this country -- >> right. stuart: -- and i've got m income. you want me to pay more, but you won't pay any more on your own. you know it. >> on my own? that's ridiculous. stuart: on your own wealth. >> we're not talking about my own wealth, we're talking about my lilleness -- stuart: you come on this program saying you want me to pay more on taxes, but you won't voluntarily write a check to the treasury, and you've got the wealth and i don't -- >> okay, stuart, voluntarily paying taxes is not paying -- stuart: do you understand why people get upset about this? >> well, of course i appreciate your position. stuart: good. >> we'd pay more taxes together if we had the money. jeff bezos who just made $10 billion the last quarter or whatever -- stuart: he's not going to get taxed on that. he's not going to pay a dime on that. >> well, he could pay more taxes. he could not voluntarily, we

need all -- here, here's the point. unless everybody's doing it, it makes no difference. if you want to ask about my philanthropy -- stuart: i'm not interesting in your philanthropy. i'm interested that you want me to pay more tax, but you won't pay it yourself. >> i want a millionaires tax in the states because -- stuart: and we don't pay enough already? i'm sorry, you totally lost me. there's nothing stopping you at all. you've got your checkbook on you, write it, united states treasury. >> it doesn't work for the society if just me pays it. it's just a drop in the ocean. stuart: terrible. >> that's how it works. stuart: i just think it is outrageous that wealthy people should tell strivers, people who make money in income that we pay more tax but you won't do it. >> you are talking about the american, hard working american people -- stuart: yeah, like me. like me. yeah, you are -- you're after people like me. you're after income earners, not

wealthy focus like you. >> we're after people who make more than half a million dollars a year, there are a lot of people who could pay more taxes. stuart: thanks for the tweezers. >> thanks for bringing me on. stuart: i'll calm down. >> happy place. stuart: tax cuts, tax cuts. we'll be back. laugh -- [laughter] ♪ ♪ don't let dust and allergens get between you and life's beautiful moments. flonase allergy relief delivers more complete relief. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause all your symptoms, including nasal congestion and itchy, watery eyes. flonase is an allergy nasal spray that works even beyond the nose. so you can enjoy every beautiful moment to the fullest. flonase. 6>1 changes everything.

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it's a good time to get your ducks in a row. duck: quack! call to request your free decision guide now. because the time to think about tomorrow is today. stuart: overnight president trump returned to his twitter account and blasted the freedom caucus. it was a direct attack again. congressman thomas massie, ally of the freedom caucus, he was on the show moments ago. he says if president trump wants a health care bill, he's going to need the democrats to help pass it. roll tape. is so you won't move at all. i mean, despite what the president has done overnight, you're not moving. >> no, absolutely, i will move. listen, stuart, the medicaid reform that's stuck inside of this bill is a good part of the bill. we should do it tomorrow. it saves $800 billion, and that's the part that lets us do tax reform.

freedom caucus will vote for that, i will vote for that. let's get the stuff we can agree on, get that on the table, bring it for a vote. and the stuff we can't agree on, frankly, stuart, trump might need democrats if he wants to pass obamacare lite because it's not what conservatives campaigned on. stuart: that man on your screens right now, former senior hill staffer, a man who knows his way around washington bigtime, joins us now. david, do you think perhaps it was a bad strategy on the part of the president to directly confront and i -- and attack the freedom caucus? >> i think he should have done it a little different way, but i think the freedom caucus is playing with fire. i just talked to a bunch of hedge fund investors, and here's what they said. and these are really big names. they said, look, the market's up because they expect a corporate tax rate of somewhere between 15 and 20%. if they killed health care, if the freedom caucus kills health care and they come in with a 30%

tax rate as the compromise for the corporate rate, it's going to be an escalator down for the stock market. and you could risk -- that'll be the freedom caucus market or the freedom caucus recession. they're playing with fire. the other thing i think that's not understood as you get into this, what's going on with the freedom caucus, they're really the puppets. the puppeteers are a handful of republican senators who are kind of mentors to this group. and one freedom caucus member told me, he said, you know, every time we get close to a deal and say, okay, let's do it, we get a call from one of these three or four senators who's making the calls, making the rounds, hold in there, you're copping out and all the rest. stuart: are you talking about senator cruz, senator rand paul -- yeah, you are? look -- >> bun go.-- bingo. stuart: both of those two were crushed by donald trump, the candidate, during the debate.

do you think there's something personal going on here? >> i don't know. i think what's really behind, from what i'm hearing, is that it's the border adjustment tax. why are the koch brothers, the club for growth, why are so many of these groups that would normally be behind the republican effort like this, why are they behind it? i am told a lot of it is the border adjustment tax. if health care got through on a big success, the momentum would have built. they are so afraid of that border adjustment tax. the opposition has nothing to do with the health care bill. it's typical in washington, things are never as they appear. stuart: that's true. >> wheels within wheels. and i think, i think you've got to look at this from the standpoint of, i mean, your gentleman, the congressman you just had on was delirious. look, the cost of health care's going to come down through the deregulation -- stuart: yes. >> -- frankly, that's what's going to do it. stuart: well said. i've got a hard break, david. sorry, but i've got a hard break

coming up. david smick, as always, thank you very much indeed, sir. fifteen seconds to neil cavuto, my blood pressure has come down, not significantly, but i believe there's a little tweak on the downside, neil, what do you say? is. [laughter] neil: here's what i notice about you, and it's a quality i love among so many. when you hit a guest to smithereenses, you always say, nice to have you sir. if i'm a guest, i'm saying, there's no way in hell i'm coming -- [laughter] but i do, you did seem a little bit agitated. stuart: just a tad. neil: i'm usually that way when they run out of the prime rib. are you kidding me? [laughter] stuart: or the cannolis. neil: good stuff, my friend. all right, we're picking up where stuart left off here, a lot of concerns about whether this thing is falling apart. m