the banks come crawling to me. everything you need to get a better mortgage. clothing optional. lendingtree, when banks compete, you win. okay! ...awkward. >> have a great weekend, everybody. "varney & company" begins right now. stuart: maria, thank you. the amazing amazon started out as an on-line book seller. today we're going to call it the dominant technology company. good friday morning, everyone. in a half hour amazon stock will go up 40, maybe, oh, 30, maybe $40. getting close to $1,000 per share. 946 around the open. why is this happening? well, it's profits are surging. its business plan works. plow money back into the business and grow some more. we follow this company on a daily basis. it's now king of the technology hill and the founder, jeff

bezos, he's now the second richest person in the world. right behind bill gates. and bezos has around 79 billion. he made 3 billion just overnight. let's not forget google. this is extraordinary. that's revenue up every single quarter for seven straight years, that's a juggernaut. that stock also going straight up at the opening bell today. all right, that's money. now, politics. it takes longer than 100 days to drain the swamp. oh, yes, it does. no vote on obamacare today, or tomorrow. it may be next week. and the left, no growth plan for the democrats. the new york times and democrat leaders call the president's growth agenda, a give away to the pitch. they don't like it. your money looking good. politics and that swamp is still there. but it's friday and we're glad you're with us. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪

♪ ain't no stopping us now ♪ ♪ we're on the move ♪ ♪ >> all right, okay, i'll go with that. it seems like there's no stopping, certainly no stopping the big, big tech names that have been on such a role recently. amazon is going to be around $950 a share as we said. alphabet otherwise known as google, up $33, they're above 900. talk about being on a role. they most certainly are. that's the focus of our market coverage today. the big name tech stocks going straight up again today. let's move onto the economy. very, very different story there. the economy only expanded, at annual rate of .7%. very, very weak. my prediction, the left blames president trump, okay.

kind of inevitable. let's bring in john lonski. who is to blame? >> the u.s. consumer, it's not trump's fault. u.s. consumer spending after grown barely 3/10 of a percent. stuart: why are they keeping the money in their pocket? >> the attractive job opportunities aren't there. we had a bit of a slowdown by employment growth in march and we're finding, too, that this recovery is getting on in years. and companies, in order to keep increasing sales, have had to come up with ways of allowing more marginal kourps, more financially stretched consumers, subprime consumers to buy automobiles and the like. and it's a drop by real consumer spending on durable goods, autos and the like. stuart: would you predict a downsback in the second quarter? >> oh, yeah, probably to

2 1/2%, if we don't, uh-oh. stuart: uh-oh indeed. tell me about amazon on a roll, $950 per share almost. you think it's overvalued. >> from the simple perspective-- you are paying something like nearly $190 for each dollar of amazon earnings. and for the s&p 500, that's $24 per dollar of earnings. this is not a cheap stock. it could be that there's a more attractive entry point at some point in the future when inevitably there's a bit of bad news that brings a share price down. still, it's a great company and has a great long-term future. stuart: but that's profits were up 40% year over year or quarter per quarter. >> that's a great number, but it's perhaps impossible to sustain that type of growth. stuart: the difference between amazon stock today and the dot-com bubble of 1999 or whatever it was. >> don't forget about that.

there was a lot of wreckage following the dot-com bubble and amazon is in high technology and hue technology is notorious for a lot of rapid unforeseen change that changes the companies. stuart: i'm calling them the king of the hill and you say that's too expensive for a stock of that name. >> if you're king of the hill, you can only go one direction, lower. somebody could push you off the perch. am i especially worried about amazon? no. at some point in the several several months you could get in at a more attractive price than today. stuart: john lonski. and i'm going to stay on many a son, their chief jeff bezos, their net worth is up there as amazon stocks go up. liz: breaking toward 80 billion. it's around 79 billion. up 10.4 billion since the

election. if these gains hold today and microsoft is under pressure, he could be the world's richest person net worth. and you know what he is interesting about him, is that his money, his net worth is up 65 billion plus in five year's time. stuart: look at that, see on the screen. he's up 10 billion. liz: that's what i just said, sips the election. stuart: 10 billion dollars. liz: you know what's interesting-- >> he hates trump. liz: he doesn't like trump's policy, but enjoying the trump rally and the trump ride. stuart: he owns "the washington post," and "the washington post" detests trump, is utterly contemptuous of it yet, he's made $10 billion since the election of donald trump. liz: he hasn't said anything about that. ashley: i feel so sorry for him. [laughter] >> and "the washington post" is now jeff bezos's blog and people need to look at it. >>.

[laughter] the blog. >> i said it's jeff bezos' blog. stuart: and it may be a muted opening to the market, we'll be up 15, 20 points at the open. strong sales and profit at alphabet. it's important because they'll be up 30, $35 at opening bell. ashley: you know it's interesting, the analysts are falling over themselves to raise the price target on alphabet/google, 1050. and amazon, jeff bezos is getting richer. >>, but they're buying the stocks at-- >> high mull multiples. >>. stuart: let me turn your attention to microsoft, i own a tiny sliver. will you look at that? the cloud business surged at

microsoft, however, sales of the surface tablets and laptops, they declined. the stock, though, is going to be up this morning. i think if it opens at that level, 68.49, 68.50, i think a new all-time high. liz: the cloud is up 50%. stuart: the cloud business. liz: up 50%. stuart: not that i understand it, but it's up high. gopro lost less money. . ashley: great. stuart: they were helped by flagship cameras. and exxon doubled its profits and the stock is up 1 1/2%. now, take a look at this, from the new york times. this is an article in the news section. it is not an editorial. it sure reads like it. look at that, the outline that mr. trump offered on wednesday, less a tax overhaul plan than a list with no price tags

attacked staring down mr. trump's 100 day in office, and businesses large and small. liz: says paul kirkman. stuart: that's an editorial. >> it's actually already, like when you go to the bar and an angry drunk liberal pounding on the bar putting down another scotch. and somebody was clearly typing when they were having an evening. stuart: and once you call "the washington post" a blog. >> i have a lot of liberal friends and that's what they're saying, but that's inebriated. that took two reporters to do that and it's a rant and of course, they're also wrong. they pretty much throughout say theres' no details. he's not giving any information. the next to the last paragraph of that news editorial is them saying, well, maybe there are no details because that will help the negotiation, that will go on in congress ap that's the point. the president is setting out a basic standard of what he expects and what he wants. knowing now, he's learned that

he has to go to congress, and there's going to-- it leaves room open for that. these things, if you're going to want jobs and increase in wages, and increase in the gdp you've got to have the people owning businesses, large and small business owners you've got to give them more money so they can expand and hire more. this immediately goes back into the system. the new york times knows it, but they didn't have any success for president trump. he will succeed in this and the american people will feel the benefits. stuart: okay. the new york times is a blog, is that what you're saying? >> actually, they are, too. stuart: wait, wait, wait. facebook's mark zuckerberg is giving his employees the green light to take monday off to protest president trump's immigration policies. no repercussions if you take the day off. zuckerberg says he wants his employees to feel comfortable expressing their opinions. and forget what you heard yesterday, the republicans will not vote on a health care bill, maybe until next week.

not enough yes's. they are delaying the vote until next week. maybe next week. all right? that wraps up our a-block. more after this. we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork... your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you, too. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done.

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>> qualcomm is a chip maker and guess what? it has cut its forecast for the future. that stock will be down about 2%. weak revenue at intel and growth at its data centers slowing. intel is going to be down 2%. that's money. politics, congressman louie gohmert said on fox and friends there may be a health care vote on friday, that's today or saturday. >> the rules committee met last night to make sure that they've got the bill done before midnight which opens the possibility of having a vote on friday. stuart: okay. then speaker ryan said this. roll tape. >> i think we're making very good progress. don't have -- we're going to go

with when we have the vote. that's the decision we'll make when you have it. something tells me you'll be the first to know when that happens. stuart: congressman louie gohmert joins us now. welcome to the program, always a pleasure, congressman gohmert. what happened? you didn't have the votes. >> apparently. i really did think there was no reason we would not have the vote. the freedom caucus, the conservatives have compromised and compromised yet again. you think about it, you know, if you're-- >> louie. hold on a second. stuart, no, think about it. stuart: you compromised, you compromised. demanded and demanded and got your way and now the moderates who won't come on your side. >> no, look, we have been told for two months that this bill is a repeal of obamacare. it repeals obamacare and we finally gave up on demanding

repeal and said, look, let's just get at least a little bit of repeal in that will bring down premiums. and by the way, why don't we anow states to get a waiver from obamacare because you say it's been repealed, so, why wouldn't you jump at that chance to say, oh, you want a waiver? well, there's nothing left, we repealed it, sure, you can have a waiver. why would you balk at a waiver, you just repealed everything, i don't get it. stuart: the whole thing makes the republican party as a whole, look bad. >> it does. and i hate to say this on television because it sounds like such a wild idea, but, stuart, it's almost as if there was some kind of force in the republican party that did not want to see trump succeed. i know that sounds crazy, but it's almost like that. stuart: you think it was-- >> it's crazy i know, but the feeling is there. stuart: you think that there's

something going on amongst moderate republicans or whomsoever that anti-trump within the republican party? >> i don't know, but we did bend over backwards and we compromised again and again. look, we agreed to what we thought was the mainly demands of i don't really see a reason why we don't have a vote today or tomorrow and go ahead and pass this thing. it gives trump a victory and we really wanted to see that happen. i really thought it would happen, i don't know. stuart: clearly there's going to be a lot of pressure over the weekend and early part of next week. can you handicap it for us? what do you think of the chances they'll get a vote next week and get the 216, tell me. >> i don't see a reason we didn't have a vote today or tomorrow. i don't know, stuart, it's whether we can overcome any potential feeling that people

hope trump doesn't succeed. we need to get this done so we can move on and that's why we've bent over backwards. stuart: i can't believe there are people in the republican party in congress who do not want to see the president's agenda even succeed partially. >> well, i know, it's just crazy, but if you go back and look september and october leading up to the election, there were people that were campaigning on issues that were 180 degrees the other direction from what president trump was exchange on. stuart: okay. >> so, you have some different agenda items that may be in conflict, but we have got to help america with the premiums that are just devastating families all over america. stuart: okay. louie, will you please come back soon, maybe next week and tell us how the arm twisting and sausage making and horse trading is going on?

>> i will be happy to. and i hope it will be how glorious the president finally has his win. stuart: we'd like to see that. >> it won't be the congressional win, it will be the president's win because congress as mmussed this up pretty good. stuart: that's the outcrew we're lo-- the outcue. president obama has speaking gigs and some are not happy. elizabeth warren ways wins.

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and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business. >> the news broke monday that president obama, former president obama would be paid $400,000 for a second speaking engageme engagement. senator elizabeth warren and bernie sanders have been criticizing taking the first one. here is what "the washington post" says about it all. and now democrats are in the position to decide whether former president obama would take $400,000 and in some cases, it's just that, posturing.

tammy, i don't object with people getting the market rate. >> and clintons 7 million, averaging $200,000. what obama is making ten times the average salary of americans, but-- >> the market will pay him that, come on. >> clearly it will, besides the hypocrisy that mr. president obama himself said he's not going to be president to enrich a lot of wall street fat cats. it's hypocrisy and same with elizabeth warren troubled by this. we know that the clintons made millions of dollars doing the same thing, she endorsed hillary clinton as well. so, she may be troubled, but she'll still support them. this is what the democrats have to face. this kind of hypocrisy on serious issues that affect americans lives. liz: you know, just last white house correspondent's dinner last year president obama made fun of hillary clinton saying, you know, her goldman sachs speeches, maybe i'll take my material tonight and use it in a goldman sachs speech.

he made fun of her, he is making $60 million in a book deal. and making money off of politics. ashley: i don't have a problem with it at all. 400,000 if they're prepared to pay it, take tech lecture why his regulations were so great. stuart: i'm all for the market with that kind of money. liz: and the democrats ran-- >> hold on a second. we're coming up on the opening of wall street. two stocks are dominant. amazon and alphabet otherwise known as google. m amazon going up. and alphabet 34, 35, way above $9 the -- 900 a share and moments from now, the dow will probably hit 21,000. back in a moment.

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>> now, there's a lot of background activity that will be the backstop to the market today. first of all, extremely weak economic numbers coming out of the first quarter. we're only growing at .7%. that's about as weak as it's been for a long, long time. other story, the big technology

companies are reporting simply spectacular earnings, certainly, that's true of google and amazon. you can see their stocks go straight up at the opening bell. and by the way, we're going to open only 19 points away from the 21,000 mark, the trump rally is holding. this morning, we're off and running and open for business. where do we open, there's the question, 20,984, 20,987. we're going to hold at that, a very modest day. ashley: jinx. stuart: did i jinx it? maybe i did. and still plenty of green on the left-hand side. let's cheer up, everybody. we're up 2 points. we're up 1 and-- okay. check out the -- let's get to the good stuff, shall we? amazon and google. show me where they opened, see if i'm right. yes, i'm right. amazon opening up $30 a share close to 950. look at it go up 30.

google better, they're up $36, that's 4%. 928 on google. surging, that's the only word to use, surging two big tech stocks. hoout microsoft, their cloud business surged. the sale of their surface tablets and laptops declined. the cloud business doing so well, that lifted microsoft to another all time hey [trumpets playing] . stuart: they're playing trumpets because i have a little microsoft. and 3% lower on starbucks, it's dropped below $60 a share. on the other hand, exxon's profits doubled. cost cutting and higher oil prices clearly helped, and the stock is up 1.3%. it's friday morning, special day. who is here? ashley webster, elizabeth mcdonald, jeff sica, scott shellady, still in london in

the cow jacket. i've got to start with amazon and alphabet. they're up at the opening bell. what's going to stop them? >> keep in mind with amazon, they had two quarters analysts thought of disappointing and now they've come through with a blockbuster number and beat profits, and quarterly profits grow by 43%. i don't think anything's going to stop them. the only thing i will say with amazon is amazon is trying to get more into the logistics and shipping business. they're really moving towards the amazon prime. their goal in the next ten years is to have deliveries within 24 hours nor 80% of the population. stuart: really, that's their goal? >> that's their goal. in order for them to do that, they need to spend money and keep in mind the last two quarters they were spending money and why they were disappointing. now they've benefitted from spending that money. stuart: okay. jeff-- i'm sorry, scott shellady in london, come on in, please,

because i want to talk about amazon and google. i've seen analysts projecting $1,000 for both stocks. i mean, do you see anything to stop them getting to $1,000 for amazon and google? >> no, and this move in technology, stuart, has only just begun. that's the way forward for at least the next five years and i agree with jeff, maybe even 10 and it's the cloud, the technology in the cloud, technology in data mining and technology in what it's doing to the retail sector, are only just beginning. i mean, think about this. this is the stat for the weekend that we often go home and think about, that 90% of retail is still generated from bricks and mortar. so, only 10% of this has been chipped away at. so we've got 90% more to go on bricks and mortar and the bad part about this excitement that we're all seeing now, is this move to technology is terribly deflationary and that's why you don't see us grow because we're getting rid of people and making kiosks, taking away

stores and doing it on-line. that's the problem. there's a flip side to what technology is doing. stuart: scott, that's fascinating. the impact of big earn m technology companies on the global economy and on all of us actually. let me go back to microsoft for a second. as we mentioned, it's hit an all-time record high this morning. despite the fact that the sales of that surface tablets and pc's, despite the fact this they're down on those sales, the cloud business is going straight up. >> it's going up double digits. it looks like it's nearly doubling year over year and if they did not have the server in the sky business, where the box office operations are handled for the companies in the sky for microsoft. it would chop off more than a third out it's quarterly sales. microsoft, amazon, google. the growth rates for the cloud business now double from what they make from their separate businesses. >> and this cloud--

why is the cloud business so important for so many companies? like amazon and like microsoft? >> because, first of all, there needs to be more data backup and the big issue has been security. what we're seeing in technology growing by leaps and bounds. stuart: if i back up everything in the cloud, my backup as you put it, i back it up in the cloud, that's more secure than if i did it myself? >> that's correct. stuart: that's how it works? sticking stuff up in the cloud. liz: amazon would be in the red without it. >> you rent the space. stuart: that's what it is. you're renting storage space. >> so another good at this time bit out there. amazon web services aws, i think their revenues are up four-fold in four years. think about that.

almost half of the internet traffic is going through. stuart: that's the cloud business. look at the top of the screen. facebook up a buck 80 this morning. they don't report their earnings, their performance until next week. where are they going from, 150 on facebook? >> headlines from the live streaming murders and don't hit it-- >> i think if you think that apple and amazon's earnings are good. wait until you see facebook's earnings, they're better. stuart: that's an all-time high, facebook, close to 150. they don't report their numbers until next week. let me talk about this gdp report, we got it about an hour ago. our economy is expanding only at annual rate of .7%, maybe that's why the market's turned a lel south. what do you say, scott? >> well, i'm going to say this, i think the new car smell with the trump administration has

turned into a used car smell. we've had one good number which was a jobs number, a couple of jobs numbers ago, if you would have blind folded me and gave me the other data points since, i would still think that barack obama is still the president of the u.s. and we're not creating growth. it's a problem any president was going to have to deal with. the change to a tech lodge economy rather than service economy. we have 1/2 percent below full employment and we can't get any wage growth. these are pointing to technology deflating the economy and prices. ashley: it's just the first three months. give it time. bank deregulation doesn't mean that banks are going to throw money into the economy. and not going to build a factory in 30 days. it takes a while to take effect. i think starting in this quarter we're in now, you're going to see significantly better growth.

liz: this is an overhang, he's right of 11 straight years, we have not broken through 3% despite the immaculate recovery talk of the democrats. >> the tax cuts are mandatory because the optimism that all business owners have needs to be translated to execution. it's imperative. right now, as scott said, we're just in a holding pattern to make sure these-- these proposals come to fruition. stuart: i've got to check the big board because we did turn a little bit south. not that much. we're down what, 12 points and that's it. just shy of 21,000. individual stocks, here we go. some of them making news. the chip maker quality com has cut its forecast. it says apple continues to interfere with the payments that the company is owed. and that will continue during its legal dispute. qualcomm is down 3 1/2%. general motors, good story here.

higher sales at general motors. pickup trucks, and suv's selling very well in north america. by the way, their profit margin in north america is 11%. better than their margin anywhere else in the world. gm up just 41 cents. the soft serve at consumer products company, colgate-palmolive, down. and how about gopro, the story is they lost less money. the sales of their flagship cameras and camera drones did well. not enough to bail them out and they're down another 5%. gopro holding there at $8 a share. i've got a couple of items on airlines for you. back to that. united settling with the dragged passenger, and southwest airlines is going to end any possibility of overbooking flights. looks like the airlines are responding to some pressure here, do you think? >> i think they are, absolutely. what was it, $10,000 now as incentive. stuart: united.

ashley: united and delta i think goes up to 10,000. yeah, it took a really radical situation for them to change their policies, but at least they're doing it. stuart: i'm going to make a market in overbooking. i'm going to deliberately book on a flight overbooked, front up to the desk and say, i'll take that. what do you say, sica. [laughter] >> it's a red herring. stuart: wait a minute, what's a red herring, scott? >> they can go up to 10 grand. they'll start the building at the old 800 level and now full well, somebody's going to raise their hand at 12 or 1500. it makes them look good saying they'll pay up to 10 grand. but i'd be surprised if it got over 2. stuart: you're probably right. >> in an industry that's become less consumer centric to survive, and when you have these incidents and then these tok token gestures to support the

customer, they really have to execute on this, because i think that everybody who flies on an airplane feels beat up after they got out. stuart: by the way, jeff sica, i believe-- i'm going to wish you a happy birthday. >> thank you, thank you very much. liz: ah. stuart: you're young enough to be my son. i won't ask you how many years you've been separating your birthday, i wouldn't do such a thing. congratulations, jeff, you made it through another year on "varney & company," incredible, i'd say and scott shellady, you better come back from london, soon, son. you'll get a british accent. check the big board, down 18 points, that's where we are, 20,962. a warning from president trump. he says, quote, there's absolutely a chance of a major conflict with north korea. we're on that story, all right. more varney after this.

>> news from facebook. they say they're not going to punish employees who take time off to join pro immigrant protests on monday, ash. ashley: they say if you want to go ahead and do it, go ahead and do it, we're not going to hurt you. they take a step further, those employees who would contract through other companies, they, too, should have the same protection. if you don't allow them to protest, security staff, those people that are hired by facebook. stuart: oh. ashley: they say we may not want to contract you if you suppress the right to protest. stuart: that's imposing a political view on another company. i don't think you should do that. ashley: that's what they say. stuart: none of this negative stuff ever hurts their stock. facebook is at an all-time high. liz: it's a national labor day,

socialist day. ashley: anarchists. stuart: back in the day we'd be out with little red flags, some would. ashley: and school of economics-- >> blowout numbers for amazon. this could be the stock of the year, straight up. shea is with us, from boxed, a frequent and valued guest on this program. what you do it-- why are you laughing. [laughter] >> i love okay the show and every time i'm on the show we hit a new high on the dow or nasdaq. stuart: you're private, your stock. >> ahead a little bit and then the market goes up. stuart: it's not your stock, you don't have a stock, you're privately owned. >> amazon had a crazy run, we were back in the green room and we checked it's like 34 $37. if you bought then that would

have been a great play. stuart: are they your competitor. >> anyone who sells oreo cookies, i give them side-eye. when you think of bulk, you think of sam's cluck, and pj's, rather than amazon. stuart: you bring up the name costco. they're going to institute, i think, their own delivery service and that's what they're doing. >> yeah. stuart: they're more your competitor than is amazon. >> i agree with that. stuart: how are you going to respond to that? >> so, it's discipline. when you think of vis-a-vis amazon. the minute we chase amazon and the everything store the minute we're running 100 meters against usain bolt. i think they've got that. but delivering bulk, we've got one of the state of the art. stuart: hold on a second, what are you delivering in bulk.

toilet paper, paper towels, diapers? >> between paper towels, cookies, biscuits, chips, cleaning products, the items you would actually find in a warehouse club off line. stuart: how many tights do you have available? >> right now 1500. stuart: 1500. >> we keep it curated and helps on the back end with operational costs and pass that savings right back to the customer. stuart: we invited you on, yo you're doing something unusual. >> i always do something unusual. stuart: you're going to automate your distribution centers and not going to layoff or fire anybody. >> that's why i'm excited to be on your show. there's been talk on your show and journalistic outlets, basically automation taking jobs. so we have now, if you guys came to just across the river here in union, new jersey, we have what we think is the most eight mated and i guess the most technologically advanced

fulfillment center in the world for consumer packaged goods, but we made a commitment to our staff no one is going to lose their job. stuart: you're the most automated better than amazon. >> when you look at consumer packaged goods and what we sell, this is the most, one of the most if not the most advanced fulfillment centers in the world. stuart: how big in union city, how big. >> 150,000 square feet. stuart: how many people work in it. >> right now-- or will work in it. >> a little over a hundred and after we turn on the automation and it's still over 100. that's our commitment. stuart: what you're about is computing power. applying it to a distribution and on-line selling, that's what you do. >> i would say yes. that's what makes us unique. we're a technology company that has a retailer store front, but on the back end-- you know my philosophy in terms of people and for example that got you here, we're old school and believe in that pact with the employee.

the folks that work eight, ten, 12 hours a day at the fulfillment center when it was manual those are folks that got me here today. suddenly we can afford the automad software and to say, hey, now it's going to take over-- >> and you make a profit, a thin profit and plow it back into the business. >> absolutely right. for us it's about the growth. if you think about the shift to on-line, everyone is going after market share rather than the ebitda line. stuart: do you wish to tell me-- >> here comes the question. stuart: the gross revenue. >> you usually ask my salary. going to get there. stuart: gross revenue? >> we've been open about it, from less than three years, in the garage and tape gun in my hand. crossed over nine figures.

stuart: in what? >> and what is-- >> 100 million to 999 million, somewhere in there. stuart: oh, that's-- publicly, you press the button and-- >> i want another 30 seconds with this guy. how many investment banks are you talking to about going public. two or three? >> that's a really good-- >> three or four? >> we have been talking to a lot of folks. here is why, i think if you look at public or private companies that sell oreo cookies and wipes, venture back private companies there's one in the country right now and that's our company. so, i think we're sitting in a great position. but for us, we still want to go-- >> are you going public, yes or no at some point? >> at some point yes. stuart: but not in the immediate feature. >> i thought you meant the

company, that's kind of low, but net worth, not after i give it all away. stuart: oh. stuart: stop it, stop it. come back and see us soon. boxed.com. b-o-x-e-d.com. you're all right, sir. check the dow industrials friday morning, 20 minutes into the session and we're down 17 is points. lots of red on the left-hand side of your screen. how about this? espn posting a poem to its website honoring a fugitive cop killer who is on the fbi's most wanted terrorist list. you can't make this up. that's a cliche, but you really can't make this stuff up. more varney after this. yet some cards limit where you earn bonus cash back to a few places. and then, change those places every few months. enough with that! (echo) with quicksilver from capital one you've always earned unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere.

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>> espn, you know, the sports people, they published a poetry to an accused cop killer. >> this target female sports fans and did a special five poets on new feminism. and one said it's for the one time black liberation army member hiding out on cuba on a murder charge of killing a police officer. how did this happen? that was the question.

espn saying look, it's an oversight on editorial, for selecting a poem. we apologize ap take it down. how did it happen in the first place. stuart: and liz, am i right, the leftist are hurting us and why they're hurting you gos. >> an anchor said, yes, it's hurting us, i don't know what the percentage is, if you ignore that that's blind. how is this feminism shooting a new jersey trooper in the head? >> an extraordinary story, we'll have more later in the show. thank you very much. amazon's ceo's jeff bezos, he's outspoken crit he can of president trump. well, he's taken in, raked in more than $10 billion just since the election of donald trump. my take on that three minutes away. with this level of engineering...

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stuart: the man who has made

more money than anybody else after the donald trump election, the same man who is president's principle hater. jeff bezos, founder of amazon, big stockholder of course. since the november 8th election he has made $10.4 billion. that is how much his stock has gone up in value. he is the second richest person in the world, worth about $79 billion. he is owner of "the washington post" which is one of the most stridently anti-trump newspapers around. that newspaper loathes mr. trump. three headlines just from today. we set a low bar for mr. trump, he still failed to meet it. the dumbest part of trump's dumb tax plan. three huge failures that will haunt trump's presidency. all of that just today. amazing, isn't it? he makes $10 billion in six

months but spews contempt for the president who helped him make it. jeff bezos, another technology multibillionaires hate tax cuts. you may think that is contradiction. the rich opposing something that helps them. what is with that? we should point out again that in america wealth is not taxed. jeff bezos will not pay tax on his $10 billion wealth gain. no he will not. we tax income. so the left can cheerfully call for higher taxes on the rich, secure in the knowledge, that they will not pay. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: all right. as we speak the dow is down 15, 16 points. we just received the latest word on consumer sentiment. emac? liz: 97.0, a 17-year high.

in march it was 16-year high. convergence between democrats and republicans, democrats were pessimistic. democrats are more optimistic of. can mean more consumer spending ahead. 10-year yield hanging in there. could go up a little bit on this news. stuart: bottom line consumer confidence, consumer sentiment at a 17-year high still? >> still. stuart: got it. what is coming up in 30 minutes? president trump will sign another executive order. what is in this one? ashley: to do with offshore drilling, expanding it. past administration, trump administration has been overly restrictive that is on offshore energy exploration. so the executive order will direct a he review of the locations of available for offshore oil and gas exploration and certain regulations governing offshore oil and gas exploration.

interior secretary zinke said it will be a complicated process. many communities banned offshore drilling in their waters. it is complicated issue. the bottom line, energy independence. stuart: he wants to encourage it. ashley: exactly. stuart: check the big board. there has been no movement exempt for the dow industrials, after the consumer sentiment report, a 1-year high. amazon different story, firing on all cylinders, several big-name technology stocks. stellar profits at amazon, google's parent, alphabet, both are way, way up there. microsoft, facebook, both those stocks as well, hitting all-time record highs. this is quite a day for big tech. come on in managing partner at chatwood investments ed butowsky. is there anything stopping these big, big-name technology companies? >> stuart, i've been at this almost 30 years.

i have never seen anything like this. these are companies with real earnings, they're hitting on all cylinders. what can stop them? competition and people coming in new businesses. but right now, right now, amazon is priced, based on their price earnings to double the revenues next year. that is what people are expecting for amazon. google? everything is google. i can't think of anything that i do in my life where i don't go to google to search something. they're making money every time i go, stuart. unbelievable. stuart: i saw an astonishing statistic about google. their annual ad revenue is getting close to $100 billion. i find that absolutely incredible. i got to move on, ed. i want to talk to but the gdp report we got today. we're only growing at a .7% annualized rate of growth. that is very, very weak. who gets the blame for that? because president trump you had a little time in the first quarter, or is it president

obama? >> there is absolutely no question, anybody who blames this on president trump is just using politics. eight years the economy was in rigamortis. nothing he attempted helped the economy. it will take a while to reverse. trump administration, plans, exactly what we need. it will take a little while but it will happen. anybody who is fighting the reduction in taxes and reduction in regulations is basically saying, i like having a frozen economy and i like things not growing. i like more taxes so on, so forth. that is not what we need. the only solution is what president trump is implementing, the blame, 100%, goes back to the obama administration. stuart: okay. real fast, what about the debt? if we cut taxes with no offsetting revenue increase, that debt does go up very sharply. that is the way it is going to be at least for the next year,

is that not a problem for the market and for investors? >> well, it is going to be a problem in lots of different buckets. it is absolutely going to happen. we'll have a deficit rising. as a result of that our debt will rise. it will be year, year-and-a-half before you see this kick in. we have no other solution. we were left with a horrible situation. only cure is what we're implementing now, if everything gets passed. we have no other choice. we can wish and hope but that will not get us there. we have to cut taxes. we have to reduce regulations. we will suffer because we suffered for eight years. we have to pay the price right now. stuart: i got it. ed butowsky, thanks for joining us sir. see you soon. thank you. >> thank you. stuart: some say president trump riley hasn't delivered a big win in his first 100 days. he is dealing with a very divided grand ol' party, republicans. freedom caucus members, tea party, moderate republicans

they're all over the place. seems like that at the moment. who is with us now, former house majority leader eric cantor. welcome back to the program. good to see you again. >> stuart, it's a pleasure. stuart: how do you feel now? no longer in congress, is my premise correct, that this is badly-divided republican party? >> listen i think as we look at the new administration, what president trump has done, it is agree entirely with your prior guest saying stuart, we have new, energized business community in america because finally there is a partner in the white house and the administration and not an adversary. i agree entirely. and that is the last eight years has been a real divisive message coming out of the white house. now it is up to president trump to unify republicans, focus them on what secretary mnuchin and gary cohn, director of the nec

yesterday said in unveiling the tax plan. everyone needs to be focused on economic growth and that is a message that donald trump ran on and the message i believe that this new tax plan is going to be about. stuart: the tax plan is being vigorously criticized as a giveaway to the rich. what's your response to that? >> that is classic reaction on the left, that they're always going to try and carp there needs to be more wealth redistribution. for those of us who believe in the free markets, who believe in the private sector, and now in my current position as vice chairman of mulis and company, travel the world. people in the business community marvel what america is about, our capital markets, our system of free enterprise. when you have a tax plan that goes in and helps investors, small businesses, large businesses families and the working men and women of this country that's got to be a good

thing because we need growth if we're ever going to get us back to the kind of prospects for a future life of standard of living that continues to go up. we need growth first and foremost. stuart: is there any temptation on your part to be back again? do you miss it? would you like to be part of this? >> i learn in life, stuart, i never say never. mulis and company is a great company. we're a growing firm. i feel very privileged to be where i am there. i'm good right now. having been a student of policy at the intersection now of politics it and business, i think we're in a very exciting and opportunistic time. stuart: you know what we do on "varney & company"? we do politics and money. if you ever want to come back and do politics on the program, you're a welcome guest. eric cantor, thanks for joining us today. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: yes, sir. now this, attorney general jeff sessions is in long island today.

why is that? latino gang violence, specifically ms-13. liz: in the last 16 month, 15 homicides, more than half, eight, are teenagers. he is in central islip. he is pushing for a new, federal, state, local law enforcement effort to get rid of these guys. there is estimated 200 of these gang members on long island along. in town of brentwood, 40% of the population was born in central america. they may have ties to these gang members. they're the worst, jeff session this is the worst problem we're dealing with right now. ashley: unaccompanied minors to emacs point, end up very vulnerable to the gang system. they end up becoming part of the gangs. they are the most violent gang out there. stuart: unaccompanied minors let into this country by president obama encouraged to come in, some end in gangs. ashley: they do. stuart: not good. thank you. check the big board. we dropped a little bit more. we're down 25 points.

this is the last trading day of the month, remember. president trillion says a major conflict with with north korea he is possibility. we'll tell you what the president said about that after this. ♪ are allergies holding you back? break through your allergies. try new flonase sensimist instead of allergy pills. it's more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. using unique mistpro technology, new flonase sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. most allergy pills only block one. and six is greater than one. break through your allergies. new flonase sensimist

stuart: all right. pretty much a go nowhere market despite the performance of amazon on right-hand corner of your screen. we're down 18 points as we speak. don't forget about gold we ran up close to 1300 bucks an ounce 10, 15 days ago. we're at 1266. dead flat today.

happening right now, secretary of state tillerson at the security council. focus there? north korea. president trump says this about the conflict with kim jong-un. roll tape. >> there is a chance we could end up having a major, major conflict with north korea. absolutely. stuart: yes, absolutely, says the president. look at this. new propaganda video from north korea. it shows the white house in the cross-hairs and the u.s., a u.s. carrier going up in flames. that propaganda from north korea. look who is with us, author of the new book, "dear reader, unauthorized biography of kim jong-il." welcome to the show. >> thank you. stuart: kim jong-il was the father of today's leader, kim jong-un. >> correct. stuart: there is a great deal of speculation about kim jong-un,

the current leader, is he crazy or rational? >> he is very rational. his campaign slogan was said do not expect any change from me. all the billboards in north korea. kim jong-un, kim jong nam recently murdered was passed over because he wanted to change. he wanted open relationships. he wanted to denuclearize. kim jong-un promised to stay the course. they are following the same script for 70 years while the rest of the world thinks they are insane. they play us like a feddy, he is rational to respond to diplomacy? >> they boast about their strategies, just like any super villain like the movie, incredibles. they talk about their strategy, we will engage in bombast but always escape hatch for adversaries. we have never seen such an insult, this is humiliating, we won't suffer this, if you give us oil to allows to save face. they brag bit.

stuart: president trump is will not do that or feed them or give them oil. he is standing very firm and upping ante. >> he is deal maker. he is rattling the sabre. syria there was no notice there. he struck no one saw it coming. the fact he, vice president pence, administration publicly escalating rhetoric this is rhetorical strategy. stuart: i will ask you to speculate, nonetheless it is a good question. if north koreans would launch a mess sill, don't know what is on top, a launched a missile heading out to sea, and shot it down and we can do that, what do you think the north's response would be? >> they're only choice is continually escalate. their entire propaganda, according to them, we started the korean war. we're waiting 60 years to finish the job and kim jong-un only man keeping north koreans safe from americans coming in and killing them all. if there is any kind of melee they have to step up otherwise it looks like weakness which is the worst possible thank.

strtthey meet our challenge which mes escalation? >> inevitable. stuart: inevitable. >> china doesn't want 25 million who don't speak chinese crossing the two rivers. they are trying to do some negotiation on the back end. stuart: do you think the chinese can calm them down? >> he have this tried but i mean north korea revels in the fact they're a small country size of pennsylvania and basically pushing around china, japan, south korea, the u.s. this is point of pride for them and good reason. stuart: do you think they will go to war? >> no way they will not go to war with them. he is not erratic and they have nuclear weapons. seoul has 10 million people south of north korea. stuart: michael, fascinating book and great appearance. thank you. >> thank you. stuart: check the big board. we're down 30 points. purchase a go-nowhere market. that is not much of a downside move. we're still at 20,950. that's where we are. big night for football fans,

first round of the nfl draft on espn. that network is very much in the news for other issues. a, they're laying off dozens of on-air talent people because of cord cutting. they have also got a problem with politics. i believe that the anchors are commenting too much on politics. they don't stick strictly to sports. someone disagrees with me, the nerve, coming up next. at angie's list, we believe

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hey you've gotta see this. cno.n. alright, see you down there. mmm, fine. okay, what do we got? okay, watch this. do the thing we talked about. what do we say? it's going to be great. watch. remember what we were just saying? go irish! see that? yes! i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote.

family time is awesome! show me the radio disney music awards. just say it and see it with the x1 voice remote. and you can catch up on all the rdma buzz... with artist interviews... past performances... and more! available now on xfinity on demand. xfinity the future of awesome. and to find out how to catch exclusive videos featuring rdma host jordan fisher. and the ardy goes to... watch disney channel presents the 2017 rdmas. april 30th on disney channel. >> with the first pick in the 2017 nfl draft, the cleveland browns select, miles garrett, defensive end, texas a&m. stuart: that was the highlight of the nfl drafts first round. it did air on espn last night. now separately that network is

in the news for all kinds of other reasons, sweeping staff cuts. at least 100 employees will go. long time anchor linda cohn says inserting politics in sports has hurt espn. here is her quote. that is definitely a percentage of it, people leaving the network, people turning off the network. i don't know how big of a percentage, if anyone wants to ignore that fact they are blind. jared mack joins us, fox news radio guy. i say politics is hurting espn but you disagree. >> politics versus nationalism. there is a difference between red and blue, versus red, white and blue. there are different political issues became a matter for espn, whether about colin kaepernick or people talking about giving courage award to caitlyn jenner or michael sam. it is not about which side. i believe espn kind of blows the way the wind blows or the way they believe the wind is blowing. stuart: come on, they're

dominated by leftist politics. >> maybe, maybe not. stuart: aren't they? >> my belief, they think what does the audience want. stuart: hold on a second. espn website. >> yes espn w.com. stuart: they post ad poem in praise of joanne chesimard who is a cop killer hiding out in cuba for last 35 years. that is on the espn website. >> my belief they don't know which side of the they are. when i first started in this business sportscaster, no race, no religion, no politics. sports is the toy store. with when we go into the toy store we don't want to hear about serious parts of life when i put on espn, i don't need to hear a sportscaster take on political mat earth. that is why i'm tuning into sports to not hear that. stuart: are they going to get rid of politics? they won't get rid of on air people. >> they didn't fire the draft and still broadcast that last night.

stuart: why. >> i'm making a joke. stuart: very funny. i don't think their ratings covering the draft would be hurt. that was very, very strong. >> stuart, it is across all media like a paradigm shift we're going through. i think we all agree there just as many billboards as there ever were. advertising is what we're about. billboards are still there, just they're getting misplaced to new places. and the content, it is not about content what people are watching, fewer people are watching because we consume on our phones. highlights in the 20 seconds. stuart: that is the problem. >> instead after three-hour nielsen-rated program. stuart: i will say this, cord cutters are the problem at espn and they're not necessarily cutting the cord because of politics. >> right. stuart: they're cutting it because they want to get rid of cable access. they want to go to their phones. that is what it is. >> if you want to give people another reason i had it, keep talking politics in sports when i want to get sports and highlights. stuart: finally got it right, max. not bad. >> secret to every great

marriage [laughter] stuart: come see us soon. thank you, sir. later today, president trump flies to atlanta. he is speaking to the nra, fun fact. here is the first president to speak in front. nra since ronald reagan did it way back when. we're on it. live look at capitol hill please. no vote on replacing and repealing obamacare. mod ass freedom caucus can't get together to seal the deal. we'll take to you washington after this.

stuart: president trump will sign another executive order. this deals with expanding offshore oil gas and drilling and exploration. take you there shortly. next case, check out the big

board, virtually flat, down 29 points, look at this. royal caribbean cruises raised its out look. announced a new share buyback program. the cruise line, the best performer in the s&p 500, up 8%. good gain. let's get back to health care. republicans are split still. now we're hearing we'll not get a vote until next week on the new replacement, repeal of obamacare. next week at the earliest that would be. who's to blame for this delay? house freedom caucus member louie gohmert was on this program last hour. listen what he told me. >> almost as if there is some kind of a force in the republican party that did not want to see trump succeed. i know that sounds crazies but it is almost like that. stuart: joining me now republican congressman chris collins. louie gohmert is implying some kind of traitor section of the republican party. what do you make of that?

>> oh, i have to respectfully disagree with louie. it. he is a good friend of mine. i don't see this at all, stuart. this is ideology of freedom caucus, versus common-sense approach of many of the rest of us. the freedom caucus, call it a clean repeal of obamacare going back seven years to where we were not dealing with preexisting conditions, the expansion of medicaid that took place in 31 states, things like community rating and guaranteed issue. they wanted to go back to just eliminate obamacare, make believe it never occurred. we'll go back seven years. you know, stuart, we lived with obamacare for seven years. we did expand medicaid in 31 states, 14 which have republican governors. we can't make believe we can go back. this is where the discussion, call it the compromise, which is not a bad word has occurred. we have come up with a compromise with some states rights issues which are important to the freedom caucus,

tenth amendment, allowing governors limited shun to waive out some of essential -- option. we're very close to getting it done. this is not someone trying to put a stick in the eye of donald trump. stuart: now you say again, very close to getting it done. we have been hearing that for a long time now. >> yes we have. stuart: handicap it for me. what are the chances getting it done next week? >> you know i hate to handicap it but i give it a 90-10 we will. we're down to a handful of votes. some folks i think have misunderstanding of what the macarthur amendment does with the limited waiver opportunity on essential health benefits. as they have time to sit down with leadership team and talk through exactly how this amendment will work, we will get those five or six members on board, and that is what we need to get this over the hurdle. we'll not get any democrat votes.

we need about 215 republicans. and we have very, very close, stuart. stuart: the standing at republican party is at stake. >> i agree. stuart: the fact i think we're not having a vote today or tomorrow, is a second failure. the another one is too much. the standing of the republican party would fall through the floor if that happens. >> i'm not hung up whether it was done today or next friday. as long as we get it done, we fulfill a campaign promise everyone of us on the republican side have made. the president made a campaign promise. america put us in charge. we owe it to america to get this done. at same time making sure that health care works for all americans. we're very close to it, stuart. but i couldn't agree more. it is an obligation of the republican party to deliver on repeal and replacement of obamacare. stuart: you're down to five or six votes, that is all it takes? you need five more you get to the 215 or 216. >> very close.

stuart: sausage making over the weekend. you're in the middle of it. >> there you go. stuart: chris collins, thanks for being with us on the program. >> good to be with you, stuart. stuart: it's a big day on wall street for my next guest. he is the founder and he is the ceo of china rapid finance. that is china's largest consumer lending marketplace. it just went public here in new york. joining us now zane wong. nice to have you with us. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: why do you go public on the new york stock exchange? >> china rapid finance is leading online consumer lending marketplace in china. so we're very excited to reach this milestone. so to go to public give us opportunity to serve the huge untapped consumer credit market in china with 500 million people with access. it will be great for to us get there. stuart: sir, i've been looking at the numbers here.

you've got 15 million loans in china with just two million borrowers. that implies that your borrowers go back to you for more than one loan. is that what is happening? >> we actually facilitate 15 million loans, come from two million borrowers. so average borrowers.5 times. they actually borrow 10 times in 12-month period. we're providing revolver for our borrowers. this is great. stuart: that is sure is. that is repeat business. >> yes. stuart: what is the average size of the loan that you're handing out? >> so this is what we call low and grow strategy. we start with let's say $100, help people get started with very affordable rate. typical rate we're charging is 21% interest versus banks charge

18% across the board and 2% cash advance. we're providing affordable rate, low amount, short duration. have them go through consumer credit card type of loans. stuart: that is assassinating. zane wang, congratulations. you've gone up, stock is up from the get-go. pleasure to have you on the show. thanks for joining us, sir, thank you very much. >> thank you for having us. stuart: thank you, sir. better check this on out too. mark zuckerberg's facebook says, it is not going to punish employees who skip work to join a pro-immigrant protest. what is this all about? ashley: scheduled to take place may 1st. labor day, may day parade in russia, moscow. mark zuckerberg on facebook saying we're committed to fostering an inclusive work place where employees feel comfortable expressing their opinions and speaking up. we support our people recognizing international workers day. what is interesting, stu, not openly saying this to their

employees, they will keep a very close tab on employees of contractors that facebook hires, they too are the give e ability to express their opinions and thoughts. which is interesting because then you're terming another company what they should be doing with their employees. and they're suggesting if you don't allow those employees, these contracted workers to protest, we may not want to renew our contract with you. stuart: would they say no punishment if you attend a demonstration in favor of president trump? liz: going to ann coulter speech. stuart: going to ann coulter speech. liz: liberal faculty teachers lounge stuff. we lived for eight years. stuart: remind everybody, may the 1st. ashley: may day. stuart: it is may day, traditional socialist day parade. there will be huge he protests through moscow and probably london as well. ashley: socialists, communists anarchists they all come out. stuart: if you want to go attend, work for facebook, fine

and dandy, no punishment whatsoever, if you're a contractor, don't you dare stop people from going. stacked against conservatives, is it. never touches the stock price. facebook yet again all-time record high. it reached 150 bucks per share. okay, next one. more on the retail ice age. empty malls being turned into call centers for online retailers. that is interesting. liz: this is really interesting development out of west orlando. it is called the west oaks mall. this is one indication of what they're doing. so sears, this was an anchor store at the mall. the mall is a ghost mall right now. bed, bath & beyond is using it as customer call service center. florida state department of transportation. they're being turned into, we talked about restaurants, clinics, movie theaters, bolling alice. ashley: churches. liz: churches. stuart: thank you. liz: warehouses for on-line retailers. stuart: if you think about it, if you're a call center, you have a lot of people working,

right? labor intensive. ashley: right. stuart: they have parking right outside, an ex-mall. how about this one, portland, oregon, canceling the annual rose parade receiving anonymous email threatening violence if organizers didn't block a local republican group from taking part in the parade. what? ashley: portland, oregon, is the city of roses and the rose parade is big deal. this local county republican group is walking the parade many times before. they get this email from the give rise up.net. if these members of the republican party are in the parade, 200 people will rush in there and drag and push them out. you see how much power we have. we will do this. rather than just, increasing police, they decided to cancel the whole event. stuart: that is incredible. that is the hecklers, veto, isn't it? say you're going to disrupt, so they cancel it. ashley: organizers first said to

republican party members, maybe you should leave the party and we'll go ahead. no, we have every right to be there, which they do. stuart: good lord. ashley: so they canceled the whole thing. stuart: this is the united states of america. what is going on? good question. we'll deal with it. dow 30, still down a little bit. 20 points lower. another pay day for former president obama. first booking a $400,000 speech in front of a wall street audience. now, another $400 to talk to a tv network. we're on that one too. back in a moment. ♪

♪ ashley: now this. the one and only scott shellady says the new car smell with the trump administration has turned into a used car smell and hear's why. roll tape. >> well i'm going to say this. i think the new car smell with the trump administration has turned into a used car smell. we've had one good number which was jobs number, a couple of jobs numbers ago. if you would have blindfolded me gave me all the data points since i would still think barack obama is still president of the u.s. we still have this

problem we're not creating growth. back to my first point, it's a problem that any president was going to have to deal with but this change to technological economy rather than a service economy is going to be the big problem that they're going to have to deal with. it will be very difficult to get growth why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis.

stuart: not much action for the dow industrials. amazon and google going straight up. they're dominating stock market trading. we'll get to that in a second. look at microsoft. the cloud business has surged, even though they have a decline in sales of their surface tablets and laptops. even though sales there declined the cloud business is so good, it bailed them out. new high for microsoft, 68.38. star bush, cut its profit outlook. it says we'll not make so much money going down the road. that is good enough for the a 3% cut in stock price. stock cuts, higher oil prices helped exxon. the stock is up. now this. president trump addressing the nra convention in atlanta. this is first time a sitting president, ashley, the first time since 1983? ashley: 1983. think about that.

that is 34 years ago. first time he will be a sitting president talking to the nra. stuart: what this i see? sound on tape from ronald reagan? roll it please. ashley: ah. >> does my spirit good to be with people who never lose faith in america, who never stopped believing in other future and who never back down one inch from defending constitutional freedoms that are every american's birthright. stuart: no president has stood before the. [ra since when donald trump will be in atlanta. look at this, president obama's speaks fees leaving some democrats kind of upset and stunned. senator elizabeth warren said during an interview or siriusxm radio promoting her book, she responded to president obama's big pay day, with this quote. i was troubled by that. one of the things i talk about in the book is the influence of money. i describe it as a snake that slithers through washington. joining us us now, lawrence jons

host of the blaze. you're smiling, warren, why is that? >> hey, stuart, brother because elizabeth warren is full of so much hypocrisy like some on the left. she received $435,000 a year at harvard to teach one class, one class. just like bernie sanders received, he has three houses but claims to be a man of the people. i think these people are dirty capitalists just like the rest of us. they try to pretend like they're so poor. stuart: hold on a second. i don't have a problem with president obama commanding a fee of $400,000 a speech. that is capitalism. if you can make the, mate i can, no problem with them at all. >> the problem pretending they don't do that. there is certain i am prosecution amongst many liberals that these people are men of the people and women of the people, that they live these modest life-styles.

until you find out bernie sanders wants a private jet. so these people claim to be for the people but they're really just capitalists just like the rest of us. stuart: you and i have seen a real revolution in american politics in the last generation. maybe shorter time. the revolution to me is, it used to be that poor people, middle class people, voted essentially democrat. now, those same people vote republican. and it is the rich, it is elites who vote democrat. that is a sea change in american politics. >> well, there is a certain delusion when it comes to your hollywood celebrities and the rich. they live in their own bubbles. what happened with the democratic party, is they stopped listening to the people. they kept telling the people what they were for and social issues and causes. but none of that stuff matters to the american public when they're broke, and when their health care is failing. when you have isis attacking us.

so what you have is the hollywood celebrity and the rich, living within their box and their bubble and they really don't contact, make contact with american public. stuart: this is a day 99 of the trump presidency. we will, we were hoping that president trump will be able to drain some of the swamp in the first 100 days. looks like we're coming up short. what say you. >> well he is coming up short because congress can't do their job. these idiots. they asked us to give them the house, we gave them to it. they asked us to give the senate, we gave it to them. we gave them the presidency to top it off, they can't do their job. i was telling my colleagues, i had a certain representative contact me, he was telling me the speaker want me to do. dude, we sent you there to do a job. i don't care what the speaker wants. we sent you there to fight for us. seems like these people are drinking the kool-aid and they just can't do it.

stuart: sounds to me like you are disappointed with the republican party? >> well, they're incompetent. i mean we have been fighting for years, a lot of these people unseated republicans. all we want them to do, they have every single house, whatever they want, they can get passed. looking at immigration order the judge struck back. it is up to congress decide get funding. it is true. pass a bill. let the president sign it. why can't they do easy stuff? stuart: good question, lawrence jones. i had an answer here and now i would give it to but i don't. welcome back to the show, brother. we'll see you again real soon. >> thanks, brother, i appreciate you. stuart: check that big board. same ol' story. we're down, what, 20, 30 points. that's where we are. the last trading day of the month of april. the economy barely growing at all in the first three months of the year. president trump says cut taxes, get rid of red tape. the left says, it is a giveaway

to the rich if you do that. so here's my question. what is the democrat's growth plan? i will ask the question again in my take at the top of the hour. your insurance company

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et.al. here is what some you responded to what i was saying just yesterday. first from joanne. no wonder the democrats lost. they can only relate to rich california millionaires and silicon valley. well-said, joanne. another one from john. the only reason socialist democrats tack to working americans to lie about taking their money for legitimate reasons. you're laughing. why? ashley: because they're absolutely right. how donald trump ended up in the white house. the middle of this country, the heart and soul, the working people of this country have been ignored for so long, laugh about the east and west coast liberal elites drinking their lattes, there is a lot to be said for that. stuart: yes. ashley: because it's true. they do not consider -- stuart: i just pot the feeling in the last election campaign that we, the strivers of this world are looked down on. liz: that's right. it was never like this. this is not your parents democrat party.

the last eight years was upside down. the democrats were never like this. they were about tax cuts, about growth, about the blue-collar worker. now we have president obama coming off of a vacation on a yacht with bruce springsteen, david geffen's yacht, writing memoirs, hanging out with hollywood elites. ashley: 400,000 speaks fees. liz: they're right. democrats will not get back in the white house unless they acknowledge what went wrong. stuart: world turned upside down, the elites, democrats are the elite. richer people vote democrat. liz: but democrats don't get that. they don't understand that, not yet. stuart: everyone, we've had our say. there is more to come. we'll be back. break through your allergies. try new flonase sensimist instead of allergy pills. substances. most allergy pills only block one. new flonase sensimist.

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stuart: truly dismal numbers on the economy today. it's hardly growing. in the first three months of the year, we were just about dead in the water. we need economic growth, and we

do not have it. this is not good. so what are we going to do about it? well, president trump has outlined his growth plan; cut taxes, cut the red tape, get rid of the drag on the economy from obamacare. that's the plan. you may or may not like it, but that's what the president has put on the table. the left clearly hates it. it's a giveaway to the rich. that's what they say. finish okay, but what is the democrats' plan? frankly, i don't know. has anyone seen one? during the election all we heard was tax the rich, rein in the billionaires, wicked wall street. is that still their growth plan? are they still the tax and spend party? sure looks like it. here's my point: if the president's plan does, indeed, give us growth, the democrats will have to come up with a new policy. and for that, they'll need to sweep away yesterday's leadership, turn away from socialism and rediscover the virtues of capitalism and growth.

take that. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ >> does my spirit good to be with people who never lose faith in america, who never stop believing in her future and who never back down one inch from defending the constitutional freedoms that are every american's birthright. stuart: the great ronald reagan addressing the nra, and any moment now, president trump leaves for atlanta on the eve of his first 100 days in office. he will be the first president since ronald reagan back in 1983 to address the nra. that happens today. also happening right now, the house just passed a bill which will fund the government for another week, one week only. it's a stopgap measure. it stops any government shutdown.

to the big board, no real movement for stock prices, certainly not for the dow industrials. we're down, what, 14 points. i want to get back to my editorial, top of the hour. dismal gdp number this morning. the economy, well, it's stalled. i say we need growth. herb london joins us, london center for policy research president. welcome to the program. >> thank you very much. stuart: i asked a rhetorical question, where is the democrats' growth plan. i don't see it. >> i don't see it either. fdr once said he's introducing government programs only to save capitalism. if you use that word in the democratic party today, it's a pejorative. you have a party that cannot dwaish between socialism and democratic parties. it's the party of transfer payments. you cannot get growth out of transfer payments. now, if we're going to spend other people's money, there's no question that you're not going to see economic growth.

taking from peter and giving to paul is always a wonderful thing for paul, not so great for peter. there are many more peters than pauls. stuart: president trump has unveiled his tax reform plan. there are significant cuts. this is my opinion, significant cuts for middle income taxpayers and for just about everybody across the thing here. but the left is blocking that part of the plan. they don't want a middle class tax cut. i don't get it, herb. >> well, i think you do get it, because i think what you'd like to see, the democrats are very much interested in having more dependents. the more people on section eight housing, the more people on food stamps, the better for the democratic party. these are the people who vote for the democratic organization. it is a very, very sad state of affairs when the democratic party no longer understands the need for economic growth in the be united states. stuart: okay, well, answer this. the democrats will say that is a giveaway to the rich k and you'll just explode the deficit. where are they wrong? >> el w they're -- well, they're

wrong because even if you were to tax the rich at 90%, the fact is you could not generate enough revenue to offset the difficulties that you have with the transfer payments that have been introduced by the democratic party. there are not enough rich people, not enough billionaires and millionaires in the united states to offset the extraordinary government expenditures that we have in the united states. stuart: unfortunately, that's the third rail of american politics. you try to rein in those transfer payments, and it's very difficult to get it through congress. >> very, very difficult, indeed. but there is no 40 question that after -- no question after you got through social security and medicare and medicaid, you've got real problems. there is no doubt that the united states has to start looking seriously at restructuring each those programs. stuart: but we're not going to; therefore, there's a debt crisis coming. >> there's a debt crisis coming, and it's already here. when you have $20 trillion in debt and you're looking at a finance payment for the debt that is roughly equivalent to the defense budget, you've got a real problem on your hands.

stuart: all right, herb, stay there for a second, more in a moment. i want to bring in senator james lankford, republican from oklahoma. i want to ask you about one small part of the trump tax plan, and that is the 15% maximum tax rate on small business. subchapter s, pass-through accounts. i think that's the biggest cut for the middle class that's out there. do you have 60 votes in the senate for that part of the tax plan? >> well, let's go find out, would be my call. 97% of the businesses in oklahoma are small businesses, and that is true for many parts of the country as well. so the house has already put out a proposal, white house has put it out, the senate will put out a tax proposal in the next few months. we're going to sit down and find the common ground, but i would hope a simplification of the tax system both for individuals is and small businesses especially will be a part of that process. stuart: i think the republicans want that, very much gung ho for it. are you going to get any support from the democrats at all?

>> i think we will, and we're going to walk through this process together. the reason i say that is, there are elections that are coming in many of these states, in the senate especially, where that senator is coming up for election in a state where trump won that state. so there are many of those now-democrat senators that are having to face the music of people that say, no, i like this new direction, don't block it. stuart: are you going to tell the us that you are convinced, you are sure that we will get a tax cut -- [laughter] you're smiling. i know you're most unwilling to assure anybody, i understand that. >> yeah, i -- listen, the last thing i can do in the senate is assure anyone of anything. [laughter] stuart: understood. can you give us your maximum amount of guarantee that we will get a middle class tax cut at the end of the day this year? >> i can tell you it is coming up, that is the focus, and we'll see what happens with our friends on the left that decide if they're going to block it or get on board. i would say the american people will be the key factor to be able to push their senators to

say, no, we really do want tax simplification. we will be permanently stuck here until we change the status quo. that's the regulatory scheme, and that is also tax policy. stuart: all right. senator lankford, thanks very much for coming on today, we do appreciate it. >> you bet. glad to do it. stuart: herb london, your reaction to what the good senator just said. >> well, i think he's raised an interesting point on whether or not the republicans can get any democratic support. the one thing they have is the elections that are coming up in the senate. many more democrats are vulnerable than republicans. stuart: that's true. >> it'll be quite interesting to see how democrats in states that have been won by trump respond to this kind of proposal. stuart: i believe there are ten sitting senators, democrats in the senate, who are up for re-election next year who are in states that were won by trump. >> exactly, exactly. stuart key point. herb, thank you very much, indeed. if we turn our attention to the stock market, you will see there are four big-name technology

companies which are dominating the action, and all of them hitting record highs at some point today. amazon, alphabet, microsoft and facebook. all way up there. lenore hawkins joins us now, tematica researching is where this good lady comes from. all right, it's been an extraordinary run for the big name, the titans of technology. call them what you like. would you be a seller of them now? >> not yet. i mean, the valuations are pretty insane, but like you were saying, we're in an economy that just isn't growing, so anywhere you can find growth -- and these guys have been able to grow in ways that is very difficult today. so invesrs are obviously going to flock tthe place where there is some signs of growth. stuart: see, that's what our viewers want to know. they want concrete information here. most of our viewers, i should say many of them, have a piece of microsoft or amazon or google or apple because most people, if they're in a mutual fund, have got a piece of it.

and they want to know, how far is this run going to go? look at that chart. it's simply extraordinary so far. do you think that amazon and google can reach $1,000 a share? >> in this market be, i think it's possible. but we are seeing signs of weariness, that things are starting to top out. like you were saying, right now those guys -- the top big five companies, the amazon, google, alphabet, apple and microsoft -- they're reaching nearly $3 trillion in market cap. and to put that into perspective, a year ago their total market cap was $2 trillion. that's an incredible amount of growth in a very short period of time. but when you look at, say, amazon, this year credit suisse is expecting that about 8200 stores are going to close. to put that into perspective, at the depths of the financial crisis, we had the total number of stores closing in 2008 was 30% less than what they're expecting this year. amazon is just destroying retail across the board. and when you want to talk about enterprise computing, that is

all about the cloud. and that is dominated by amazon, alphabet and microsoft. stuart: you know, let me sum it up like this: lenore hawkins says enjoy the ride, it anticipate over, don't sell -- it ain't over, don't sell yet. >> but careful. i'm getting very nervous. stuart: of course one is, everybody is. of course. lenore, thanks for joining us. appreciate it. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: let's get to health care. the republicans will not vote on the health care bill this week. not today, not tomorrow. there's just not enough yes votes. they're delaying the vote until next week, maybe after that. next up, we're joined by the former lily usa president alex azar, he says the changes to what the gop previously called obamacare lite are minor. ♪ ♪

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stuart: like it or not, we've got to get back to the health care issue. that gentleman is alex azar, former lilly usa president and former health and human services deputy secretary under george w. bush. okay, welcome back to the program. always good to see you. >> thank you, sir. stuart: are you saying this compromise that has been reached -- they've not agreed to it formally yet -- you don't think it goes far enough in getting rid of completely obamacare? >> no, i think it does a great deal to obamacare. it's the largest structural reform to an entitlement program in our history with the medicaid changes, and a second largest structural reform with the changes to the obamacare individual market subsidies. my point would be the compromise

here, the mcarthur compromise to the freedom caucus, they're fairly minor changes, honestly, but it got the freedom caucus onboard. and then through this jiu-jitsu, they went from being the group that was keeping obamacare in praise to now it's the moderate -- in place, to now it's the moderate and liberal republicans they put the spotlight on. stuart: that's right. it went too far for the moderates and liberal republicans, so they won't support this compromise. you know, it makes the republican party look like it's just not prepared to govern. that's what it looks like. >> well, stuart, i think that's a really interesting point because the house is the easy part. the house republican caucus is the one that really ought to be voting for whatever the party be has come up with usually, and i think the republican leadership took their members for granted and didn't build enough of a case here what's the problem we're trying to solve -- not just repealing obamacare, but what's the replace, what are the problems you're trying to solve and how do the solutions they're proposing meet them. that must be done in the senate.

how otherwise are you going to thread the needle between rand paul here and sue collins here and get something through 52 senators in the u.s. senate that meets their needs while reforming medicaid and while taking down individual subsidies in the individual insurance market and getting rid of hhs as the economy star. stuart: what you're suggesting ain't gonna happen. >> i think we're is % of the -- 1% of the way there, honestly, because the united states senate -- that's all we ever talk about, is how hard it is to get anything through the senate. even with reconciliation. you've got to get these members together s. and let us not underestimate this. the house is asking for the two largest changes to entitlement programs in the history of our country. you need the president, the hhs secretary, leadership, they've got to be out there talking, educating people what's the problem and how does this solve the problem, each element of it.

it's got to be 24/7. that's how obama got obamacare through. this has got to be a full court press if you want to make these changes happen. stuart: clearly, we imposed an arbitrary deadline the first 100 days which was wildly unrealistic. you can't drain the swamp, you can't do big things in just 100 days. i think that's what we're finding out at this moment. do you think we'll get anything on health care this year? honest answer. >> stuart, i think we have to -- stuart: that's not -- i said do you think we will? >> i think we will. i think we will because we have to because they know that in 2018 it would be viewed as such a betrayal of the people who put them in office if in 2018 obamacare remains unchanged. stuart: okay. alex a, and -- azar, clarity is what we're all about. thanks very much for being with us. appreciate it, sir. >> thank you, stuart. stu suiter to the stock market briefly, we're down 30-odd points, but that's not the story of the day.

the big story is the performance of those gigantic technology companies. bottom right-hand corner of your screen, amazon up $16 now, that's nearly 2%. look at that level, 935. we also have alphabet google up 4.7%, a $42 gain on a company that size already worth nearly $600 billion, that is an extraordinary move. microsoft has backed off from its earlier all-time high. facebook's still at an all-time high. that's the market story. happening moments ago, president trump signing an executive order on offshore drilling. listen to this, please. [applause] >> thank you, mike pence, a really wonderful guy and my great friend and a truly great vice president. he will go down as a truly great vice president. many thanks to secretaries

wilbur ross and ryan sink key. very proud of the job they're doing. we're also pleased to welcome many members of congress and industry leaders to the white house, and i want to get them immediately back over there, because i know their going to be -- they're going to be voting on lots of different things, right? so we can't spend too much time about drill anything the arctic, right? but we're opening it up. this is a great day for american workers and families, and today we're unleashing american energy and clearing the way for thousands and thousands of high paying american energy jobs. our country is blessed with incredible natural resources including abundant offshore oil and natural gas reserves. but the federal government has kept 94% of these offshore areas closed for exploration and production. and when they say closed, they mean closed. this deprives our country of potentially thousands and

thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in wealth. i pledged to take action, and today i am keeping that promise. this executive order starts the process of opening offshore areas to job-creating energy exploration. it reverses the previous administration's arctic leasing ban. so hear that. it reverses the previous administration's arctic leasing ban and directs secretary zinke to allow responsible development of offshore areas that will bring revenue to our treasury and jobs to our workers. [applause] in addition, secretary zinke

will be reconsidering burdensome regulations that slow job creation. finally, this order will enable better scientific study of our offshore resources and research that has blocked everything from happening for far too long. to you notice it doesn't -- do you notice it doesn't get blocked for other nations? it only gets blocked for our nation. renewed offshore energy production will reduce the cost of energy, create countless new jobs and make america more secure and far more energy independent. this action is another historic step toward future development and future, with a future, a real future. and i have to say, that's a real future with greater prosperity and security for all americans. which is what we want. so i'm very proud of the people standing behind me. i'm far less proud of the people standing in front of me. [laughter] the media. but i have to tell you that this is a very important day, and i

want to congratulate wilbur and ryan and all of the people that have worked so hard to get this put together to quickly. and it's going to lead to a lot of great wealth for our country and a lot of great jobs for our country. so god bless america. thank you very much. [applause] stuart: all right. the president just signed the executive -- well, he's about to sign the executive order. what he normally does is he signs, holds it up for all to see. let's hold the camera on that whilst he's signing and holding it up. he does this every day. >> show and tell. stuart: what he's doing is he's signing an executive order which will open up and make easier offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling. i think he's got a problem with that. listen in just for a second. here we go. there's a question coming up. [applause]

>> who gets it? right here? [laughter] [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> i don't know. we're moving awfully well. we're getting a lot of things done. we are -- i don't think there's ever been anything like this. it's a false standard, 100 days, but i have to tell you i don't think anybody has done what we've been able to do in 100 days, so we're very happy. [applause] [inaudible conversations] stuart: okay, you heard it right at the very end, how you doing with your first 100 days? the president responds, we're moving very quickly. i don't think anybody else has done what we've done in the first 100 days. relentlessly upbeat, our president, president trump.

earlier he was saying, look, let's make it easier for offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling. that's easier said than done. >> it really is. president obama issued a ban on areas in the arctic, the atlantic and the pacific. they're undoing that, but there are many coastal communities in the u.s. that don't want -- stuart: they don't want it. >> up and down the atlantic ocean, a hundred cities and towns ban it. stuart: really? now we're going to take you to a steel plant in craw fordsville, indiana. mike tobin is there. you're telling me that that plant is doing well since the administration took office? >> reporter: you know, stuart, businessmen and asia are using the word protectionism referring to president trump's backing of the american steel industry. people here working in the steel plants believe they finally have a business-friendly president who's got their backs. business is booming in the steel industry.

companies like newcore steel saw the stock price jump, and the company is moving more steel out the door. >> i think the focus that this administration has put on manufacturing and an industry as important as steel in particular creates some bump for us also. >> reporter: this month president donald trump sent the commerce secretary to investigate complaints that foreign competitors were dumping steel into the u.s. market and manipulating the price. he promised to prioritize american steel for federal projects and promised to develop a robust domestic steel industry that would not depend on foreign suppliers for national defense. newcore has a pay incentive program that works all the way down to the production line, so actions at the white house that increase the purchasing of american steel have a direct impact on the lives of workers. >> the more we produce, the greater the bonus. so it's, it makes a huge deal to me. >> reporter: now, the company u.s. steel saw a big correction in their stock price after posting an unexpected bad quarter. but newcore steel here is what's

considered a mini mill, and analysts say they've been showing healthy profits. their stock prices are well above what they were pre-election. the ceo here says they spend a lot of time and energy investing in the infrastructure, investing in the staff when times were lean. now that their comfortable i asked him what do you do, he said make more steel. stuart: mike tobin, thanks very much. that's going to bring us to our next guest, drew greenblatt. he's the ceo of marlon steel. he was at the meeting at the white house, and he says the president is, indeed, making manufacturing great again. after this. ♪ ♪

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stuart: first thing this friday morning we learned that the economy is only expanding at a mere .7% annual rate. that is sluggish in the extreme. come on in, andy puzder, joining us now, former ceo of cke restaurants. andy, i know what the

president's plan is: cut taxes, cut red tape. i got it. do you happen to know what the democrat plan is for growth? >> there is no democrat plan. it's to recontribute income. in other words, to take a slowly declining economic pie and divide it more equally. the president's plan is to have a bigger pie that everybody gets a bigger piece of. the democrats haven't had an economic growth plan in at least eight years and maybe before that. so i wouldn't expect to see any be talk about economic growth from the left side of the aisle. stuart: but they're going to block the president's plan, and probably with some success too. >> well, they're scared to -- i've said in this before. they're not afraid president trump's going to fail, they're scared to death that president trump's going to succeed. they learned in the ronald reagan administration that if key economic policy -- conservative economic policy works, it's tough to elect progressives for many years thereafter. they really e don't want to see president trump succeed which would be the best for the american people, but it would be

a disaster for the unions, big labor, the democrats, the progressives, the bernie sanders and elizabeth warrens of the world. it would be a long time before they got back in power. stuart: okay. i want to talk to you about your, the restaurant business. you used to be the ceo of a couple of chains. i want to ask you about these big name american technology companies which are absolutely dominating wall street. we've got them on the screen at the moment. their stocks, almost all of them, are at or near all-time record highs. how are they affecting your former business? >> well, they affect restaurants like they do all retail, and maybe less obviously because people have to eat, but you don't have to buy a shirt. but what they're really, what they're really doing is they're changing the way that people purchase products. and when you change the way people purchase, you have to come up with a new business model to address the new purchasing habits. now, for example, more people are ordering digitally which is why domino's pizza's doing so well. more people want delivery.

again, domino's delivers, and you've got these new services that will deliver food, so not as many people need to go to restaurants. it used to be, for example, quick service was a convenience option. it was very low price and very convenient for a soccer mom wanting to stop on the way home and grab some burgers for the kids. now you can call, you know, you go online, you've got 40 different restaurants you can order from. it's economical, and they deliver it to the house. so the way people purchase is changing, and it's having a real impact on every industry, including restaurants. stuart: you see, we're asking when is this stock price run-up going to come to an end, and the answer is our analysts can't see it coming to an end yet because these five companies are stretching out into all kinds of businesses, non-technology businesses, non-silicon valley businesses. whether it's the car industry, fast food or whatever. can you see their dominance of the entire economy coming to an end anytime soon?

>> only from competitors. in other words, if there's somebody that can compete with amazon or google, then you're going to see a difference. keep in mind sears row buck, for example, right after the industrial revolution in the early 1900s was the amazon of today. they had that big catalog. they sent it all over the country, everybody ordered from the catalog. sears didn't adjust, but sears did get competitors. competitors came in, and you found that sears wasn't as big a giant as it had been in the past. that could happen to amazon. walmart's certainly trying to compete with them. it could happen to google. it's not going to happen anytime soon, but it could happen. stuart: we find it absolutely stunning and fascinating. andy, thanks for your input. we appreciate it. >> glad to be here, stuart. thank you. stuart: our next guest says president trump is making manufacturing great again. here's the quote from our guest: like us, he understands that by cutting back on burdensome and duplicative regulations, implementing tax reform and investing in infrastructure projects, manufacturers can

create not just jobs, but real futures. drew greenblatt is with us, marlon steel ceo. drew, welcome to the program. good to see you again, sir. >> thank you. thank you for the invite. stuart: now, you get steel, you buy steel from outside vendors, and then you turn that steel into something else. so my question to you is aren't you a bit worried about the president slapping some tariffs on imported steel which would raise your costs? >> actually, your prior guest from newcore, that's one of our vendors. we buy our steel from crawfordsville, indiana. we also buy from illinois. we only buy from american mills. obviously, we want to have competitive rates for our steel because that -- we export to 39 countries. we make everything in baltimore. so having competitive prices is critical. part of the problem is overseas

in many cases the governments are subsidizing the mills, and it's not fair to the local american mills when they're getting, when they're competing with countries overseas that subsidize their state-owned enterprises. so that makes it unfair and not right for the american worker. stuart: well, drew, as a steel company, what is the single thing that you most want from the trump administration? is it a lower corporate tax rate, 15%? is it some kind of control on dumping of cheap foreign steel in the united states? if you boil out down to a -- boil it down to a single issue that drew greenblatt, marlin steel really wants, what is it? >> 15%. that's going to cause a surge in american manufacturing. you're going to see us throttle the competition. right now our hands are tied. we're paying 39%. we're getting killed. wait until our american worker is only burdened with 15%. you're going to see the economy unleash, you're going to see

millions of american manufacturing jobs created. you're going to see a blossoming of the american middle class. it's an exciting time. 0.7% gdp, pathetic. it's unacceptable. the american consumer is hurt because there's less american choices. the american manufacturing worker doesn't have as many options. we're going to see very good, strong economic future in the next couple of years, just you wait. i can't wait. it's happening. stuart: i can already hear the critics saying from the left maybe and from the elites, ah, you're never going to bring back those wonderful manufacturing jobs in any serious number. it's not going to happen. we've moved on from being an industrial society to being a technology society. that's the criticism. what's your response? >> the jobs will be different. we'll get the jobs. the jobs will be much -- the pay will be much better, they'll be much safer. when i first bought the company

19 years ago, we had three guys without fingers and two guys without eyes. everybody was hand bending 300 hand bends an hour, we had eight guys with arms the size of popeye, right? fast forward 19 years later, our guys are getting paid much better, they're holding clipboards, they're each watching five machines, and they're making 25,000 bends an hour rather than in the old days making 300 hand bends an hour. so the work is different, it's safer, it's cleaner, the pay is better, the benefits are wonderful. american manufacturers are getting paid on average $83,000 a year including benefits. these are stellar jobs. stuart: okay. >> our economy desperately needs these kinds of jobs. that's the future. it's not going to be the old days of guys with big arms like popeye, it's going to be instead monitoring a lot of fancy robots and high technology. american manufacturing's coming back, it's coming back fast. get ready. buckle your seat belt.

stuart: okay. [laughter] you made your point there, drew, forcibly. good stuff. drew greenblatt, marlin steel, thanks for joining us, sir. appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: now, listen to this one. this one really gets to me. the rose parade in portland, oregon, has been canceled after a threatening e-mail was sent to parade organizers. take me through it. >> yeah, this is the annual rose festival, big celebration in portland, oregon, which is the city of roses, and the parade kicks it all off. well, this year a local republican party group is in the parade, which they have been in for many years, but authorities received a e-mail that basically threatened to use several hundred people to go into the parade itself and pull out these republican members of this particular local group and pull them out so they couldn't take place. those organizers said, look, we're not, you know, maybe the republican party shouldn't be part of the parade, so the,

those members said, no, we have every right to be there -- stuart: yes, they do. >> so they got into a standoff, and the organizers said, you know what? we don't want problems, so we're going to cancel the parade. stuart: outrageous in the extreme. by the way, the parade is off, the festival is still on -- >> the festival is still on, but the parade kicks the whole thing off. just because someone doesn't like someone else's point of view. it's not america. stuart: absolutely not. we're down 35 points on the dow industrials, 20,945. the chipmaker, qualcomm, has cut its forecast. it says apple continues to interfere with the payments that the company is owed. it's going to continue to do so during the legal dispute between the two of them. that stock's down 1.5%. look at this, general motors. dead flat stock, but they reported today that they're doing very well with truck sales and suvs in north america, and their profit margin in north

america is better than any place else. 11%. soft sales at the consumer products company known as colgate palmolive down 1.5%. gopro lost less money. didn't help 'em, they're down 4%. even though they got some better sales with their cameras and their karma drones. gopro is down. now this, that man coming down the hallway, eric schomburg, he's a patriotic millionaire. we're going to have a civil debate about taxes with him. he'll be here in just a moment. >> civil debate, yes. ♪ ♪ whoa, this thing is crazy. i just had to push one button to join. it's like i'm in the office with you, even though i'm here. it's almost like the virtual reality of business communications.

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♪ ♪ >> i am jeff flock in chicago with your fox business brief. looking this hour at uber and the ceo, travis kalanick is ready, perhaps, to take on a partner as ceo. according to the journal, the company is interviewing current or former senior executives at cvs, walmart and disney about taking on that role. uber under a lot of pressure this year after 200,000 people deleted the uber app in protest earlier this year, sexual

harassment claim against uber in february, and then google, one of the uber investors, suing the company on charges that perhaps they stole some of google's technology. then there was that dash cam video of mr. call nick, didn't make him look very well. maybe a partner will be good for uber. ♪ ♪ you can count on, like what goes down doesn't always come back up. ♪ [ toilet flushes ] ♪ so when you need a plumber, you can count on us to help you find the right person for the job. discover all the ways we can help at angie's list. because your home is where our heart is.

thithis is the new new york.e? think again. we are building new airports all across the state. new roads and bridges. new mass transit. new business friendly environment. new lower taxes. and new university partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. learn more at esd.ny.gov stuart: that is marine one. that is the president's

helicopter, just landed at joint base andrews. he will get out of that helicopter, maybe he has already. i think not yet. not yet. he'll get out of the helicopter, he'll make his way to air force one a couple hundred yards away, and away he goes. he's going to atlanta. he's going to address the nra. it'll be the first time a sitting president has addressed the nra since ronald reagan did it back in 1983. whilst we watch that, i want to get back to the issue of taxes and bring in our special guest, a return guest to the program. his name is eric shone berg x he's what's known as a patriotic millionaire. we're going to have a civil discussion about paying our taxes. [laughter] >> good to see you again. stuart: how you doing, eric? welcome back, it's good to see you. cut the sarcasm from my point of view. i want you to tell us this: you want to pay more taxes. which taxes do you want to pay more of? >> i do believe the wealthy

don't pay enough taxes in this country, so let's focus on one area in particular i'm concerned about. we've had conversations about the fact that you're a hard working guy and have, basically, made yourself. i've got a lot of respect for that. under the tax system we have now, you -- a hard working person -- pays a higher tax rate than me who lives primarily off earned income. so that's one way in particular. and i will note there's a lot of talk about closing loopholes. the republicans do not consider that to be a loophole. they consider that to be good tax policy, but it's the biggest loophole that the rich benefit from. stuart: if i start a business and the business grows and i've got stock in that business, my wealth grows with the business, that wealth accumulation is not taxed. do you want it to be taxed? i mean, so long as i don't touch it, so long as i don't liquidate some of my shares in my company, there's no tax on it. >> yeah. stuart: do you want it to be

taxed? for example -- forgive me for interrupting. jeff bezos, he's got a huge stock ownership of amazon. he's now worth $82 billion. that $82 billion is not taxed. do you want it to be? >> so i do believe it should be taxed. i think there is some practical difficulties with taxing it op an annual basis, but it's one of the reasons i'm a strong supporter of the estate tax. that's precisely a vehicle to insure that people who have accumulated large amounts of wealth without it ever being taxed pay tax when, in fact, it's transferred to the next generation. i think that's eminently reasonable. stuart: wealthy people -- by the way, the president just emerged from marine one. he'll make his way to air force one. he's down to atlanta. look, wealthy people, people with real money, they don't pay estate taxes. they just don't pay estate taxes. come on. you know what they do. they're surrounded by an army of lawyers who will arrange trusts for all of the kids and the grandkids, this, that and the other. they don't pay that estate tax.

>> a, i don't believe that's actually true. there are mechanisms that people use to minimize their tax responsibility, but to me, the answer isn't work -- isn't, okay, let's not pay taxes at all, let's put in place a simpler system. stuart: but if you force people to pay tax on what they leave to their estate, then it's being taxed twice. >> well, you just pointed out, you just pointed out that jeff bezos is sitting on billions and billions of dollars of gains of wealth that have never been taxed. and more importantly, you are never going to sign a check paying an estate tax. >> well, i don't want get the point. >> you'll -- i don't get the point. >> you'll be gone. the people who are going to pay the estate tax are your heirs, your children. stuart: would you confiscate bezos as well? >> it's not a confiscation. taxation is the price we pay for civilization. look, you came from -- you decided to leave, you decided to leave the united kingdom. stuart: i did.

>> that is a place that traditionally has a hereditary aristocracy. part of the estate tax is to make sure that america remains a democracy. why would you want to recreate those conditions in this country? stuart: i'll tell you what, i'll do you a deal. you okay the reduction in the tax rate on earned income like, you know, strivers make, you cut that tax rate, and i'll give you estate taxes and make sure everybody pays. how about that? >> well, let's, let us remember that this is exactly what reagan did in 1987. the tax reform of 1987, which i thought was an excellent reform, did, in fact, equalize rates between earned income and unearned income. stuart: you want to --? >> that is not -- the republicans want to do away with taxes on earned income entirely. why do they want me to have so much more money? i don't understand it. stuart: why do you want me to pay so much more in taxes? i don't understand it, eric, but you're a good sport to come back

again. we had a civil conversation this time. >> thank you. stuart: better than last time. [laughter] eric, you're all right. you can come back. thanks very much, indeed. all right, the first night of the nfl draft was last night. we saw millennials become instant millionaires. quarterbacks went flying off the board. a lot of excitement. we'll play you the highlights in a moment. ♪ ♪

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>> the first pick in the 2017 nfl draft, the cleveland browns select miles garrett. [cheers and applause] defensive end, texas a&m. stuart: that was one of the highlights from the nfl's first round draft yesterday airing at espn. espn is cutting at least 103 employees, and their longtime anchor, linda cohn, says inserting politics has hurt the network. this is what she said: that is definitely a percentage of it, that's the cord cutters and the decline of the network. i don't know how big a

percentage, but if anyone wants to ignore that fact, they are blind. ash, you watch all kinds of sports. >> i watch any sport. i couldn't care less what they think about politics. they're there to give us the highlights, the scores and everything else, but politics stay out of it. espn has had a history of this going back to keith olberman who i personally think is a talented person but an ultra left-wing person who set the standard at espn in many ways. after president trump and what it's done to antagonize people in this country whether you like him or hate him, it's come out in espn, and i do think it's contributed to cord cutting. not the main reason, but certainly hasn't helped. stuart: i think you're right. next case, seattle city council have voted unanimously to give city employees an unpaid day off on monday. that's to take part in may day protests. may day's a traditional

socialist day around the world. >> yes. stuart: one member of the city council is urging protesters to kick up the protest a notch. >> yeah, she says we need to take disruptive actions like shutting down airports, like shutting down highways. huge backlash to this, stu. local business owners saying, great, you want to hurt us by tying up traffic? the mayor says that is just irresponsible, but that's what she's calling for. don't just take an unpaid day off, be disruptive. stuart: really, this is america? >> that's seattle. stuart: before we go, i want to get this on the record. the united airlines ceo will testify before a congressional committee on may 2nd. he'll testify on airline passenger issues. that will be may the 2nd. we're not done, but we will be back. ♪ ♪

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stuart: regrettably we're down to our last 10 seconds of "varney & company" it is fading fast. only three seconds left. neil, take it please. it's yours. neil: let me hear this back. we're fading, the last three seconds. and i got to the italian afterwards, if that is your thing. [laughter]. that is the business -- gist of it. who is the rich guy wants to pay more taxes? stuart: eric schoenberg, one of the patriotic millionaires. neil: it was terrific interview. got your point across without being nasty. stuart: okay. neil: what is he going to do. stuart: he stormed out. studio very upset. that is not true, no. he is still pushing for higher estate taxes. neil: right.