>> and a big thank you to heather, john and michael for being here this morning. john, we want to hear more stories about your family because you told one that we'll save for another day. >> happy fourth to you. >> mr. charles payne is in for varney. "varney & company" starts right now. >> dagen, thanks a lot. i'm charles payne in for stuart. stuart, by the way, busy barbecuing, celebrating his second july 4th as an american citizen. congratulations to you. and i would say throw a shrimp on the barbie and i'd be mixing everything up. >> a big story, first we'll talk health care reform debate, we're left where we started repeal and replace, they're two different bills. there's a push to fix obamacare. and it's called obamacare light. a lot of friction there. and then the president

wrestling this down to the ground and they're outraged. does this block his agenda. republicans are raising taxes or want to know illinois. there's a push for the budget to make the deal. there's a threat after veto still on the table. check out market futures. we're going to have an amazing start to the day. it's a half a session, i can tell you right now, we're looking back toward the record numbers, by the time the market closes at 1 p.m. you might be happier, you certainly will be in a moment because "varney & company" starts right now. ♪ >> since the signing of the declaration of independence 241 years ago, america always affirmed that liberty comes from our creator. our rights are given to us by

god and no earthly force can ever take those rights away. that is why my administration is transferring power out of washington and returning that power back to where it belongs, to the people. >> that was a very patriotic message from president trump over the holiday weekend but then, tweeted out this video. that of course of him beating up cnn, it's a doctored wrestling video from his wwe days and the mainstream media responding the way you think they would. i want to bring in amy holmes rasmussen. and here is the big thing. president trump's tweets, does it distract from his agenda. >> it distracts from his agenda, charles, i don't think that republican leadership are taking their legislative strategy from presidential tweets. i think that something that people forget, the president proposes, congress disposes. to the extent that president

trump's tweets might be making him less popular with mainstream independent voters and less able to use the bully pulpit, that's a problem. charles, i've got to say when i saw the tweet with wrestling with cnn does the president secretly have stock in time warner, every time he mentions that network, i'm sure the ratings go up. stuart:. >> he's definitely kept them alive. and the health care bill, mika and the face, the thing i worry about, republicans on the fence, susan collins and others who may be on the fence for critical passage of things like health care reform, going in and saying this is some reason they're not doing it because they voiced their displeasure about it. >> charles, i think we should have more faith in our elected representatives, particularly united states senators, i used to work for one when he was majority leader, they're

looking at the constituents and obamacare failing-- >> if independents are getting upset, these are the same people they're worried about their constituents we don't have anything passed yet. >> i'm saying that president trump may not be able to use the power of the bully pulpit. will the health care bill help or hurt them. >> will it help them or help the country? >> again, will it help the country? we know that obamacare is failing in many different places. >> that's the easy part, and got the republicans the power in the first place. >> exactly, we've discussed this before that 32 states, including the district of columbia they went from medicare expansion, of course they're looking at-- i'm sorry, medicaid, rather. >> medicaid, and you will i was saying was-- >> these are tied up-- >> every single day i watch the market, my main gig for 30 years and i watch the economic data i swear, golly, on friday,

the biggest story was manufacturing in the heartland at a three-year high, pound away because otherwise the people will never hear because the mainstream media will never, never talk about that. >> our elected representatives are not going to choose whether to reform or not reform obamacare because of president trump's tweets. >> i think some are looking for excuses not to. >> shame on them, charles. >> thanks, amy. let's look at the dow, we're not that far away from an all-time high. in fact, all three major equity indices are looking amazing this morning. your portfolio is looking great, so forget about the other noise for a moment. take a look at the 10-year, 2.31, made a sharp reversal, remember, last week. it had some people concerned, but also when it was in freefall it had somethi people concerned.

2.31. and on friday we saw oil rigs come down, too, we brought too many rigs back on-line, the sweet spot, no pun intended, around $50 a barrel. toyota released u.s. sales for june, sales up 2%. 2.1% from last june. i'm not sure what the estimates were on that, but we're going to be getting the oil sales in all day long and keep a look at that for something of a proxy on the economy. the tech stocks did get hit last week and take a look right now. by the way, they are looking pretty good in the premarket, but a special look at tesla this morning, the model 3 starts protection this week. >> they'll be rolling off the production line on friday. this is priced about $35,000, everybody is looking forward to this and i've got to say they did pre-orders on this, guess how many people paid $1,000 to get one of these? 300,000 folks. now, elon musk-- >> 300,000, how many can they

make? >> they'll roll about 35,000 a month by the end of september. if you order one now, you have to wait a the least a year for the car. i have to tell you that people are excited about this, they really want their hands on one because the others are-- >> those pop-up tesla's in the mall, only rivalled by apple. president trump's tweet about cnn and he did going up and nev been stronger. i want to bring in art laffer. there's so much going on in the economy, you can call it soft is a clear led hard data that indicator that we've got a strong prospect for the

economy. i do think that, charles, we need to get the corporate tax cut down to 15% and i do believe we need to get health care, you know, basically changed totally because it's an enormous tax on the economy. but those two bills go through, repeal of obamacare and the tax cut, corporate tax cut and this economy is off to the moon. it will be really fantastic. >> i want to ask you about that, the big tax cut and the senate the reform health care bill. there are rumblings about tax hikes also starting to he ooh-- emerge, art. >> i don't think there will be tax hikes in this administration, i can't see it anywhere, the senate or the house going for tax hikes. i think the border tax adjustment they were talking about has pretty much gone by the wayside. >> if you want 15% and go by cbo scoring, there are purists who say we've got to make up

with the revenue. what's wrong with the 20 or 25% tax rates and getting rid of the onerous regulations that president obama put on and the notion that you're still manufacturing with infrastructure on the best roads in the world, the best country in the world with no regulations in your way? >> let me just say this. if you reduce that corporate tax rate to 15%, there would be enough sheltering elimination just to pay for it, enough changes in the corporate tax forms that people use, enough tax taxes, and moving back into the united states and all the it's the other taxes located with it. >> all right, listen, you're the father of the supply side economics so i can see you're getting choked up there. >> i got a little choked up. [laughter]

>> i don't know what happened, i think a liberal put a fly in there, just kidding. >> illinois, they're going bust, all of the things, so, of course, what do they want to do. >> raise, at thats. >> they'vevery state has tried raising taxes and it's never worked, but maybe this time for illinois, they can drive the last business down to tennessee here where we welcome them with open arms. >> and the only thing you've got to worry about is the traffic. all of that new congestion. >> isn't it wonderful? you know, the places that have no traffic are going to be illinois, california and connecticut. >> yeah, it's a high class problem. art, always a pleasure, thank you very much. >> thank you, charles. >> you're about to see some videos, some amtrak train derailing in washington state. it's near a golf course and 267 passengers on board. there were know he serious

injuries. four cars on the train totally off the tracks. the cause now still under investigation. the house and senate, well, they're on vacation, the july 4th break. questions are now for some lawmakers, they're willing to cancel their august recess and they want health care and tax reform done to have it done by the end of the year. that's next. ♪

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>> checking the price of gold here, getting hit pretty good. gold has been spinning its wheels and a lot of people used to buying gold, buying bitcoin. gold really in a holding pattern. and laptop ban, with the details. we're going to keep allowing you on with the laptops, but, no, if you need certain security requirements, we'll let you have those.

lots of pressure from airlines, one of them, the airline for united arab emirates is allowing the laptops on board. we'll wait and see how this goes. charles: they're not known as a terrorist hot bed. i don't know how they pull it off, i never do, uae. it's a boomtown and doing business with the west and you never hear about that. >> the theory is that they're going to hide something inside that laptop. charles: thanks a lot. gerri. i want to bring in congress man andy biggs. start with you on health care reform. is something at this point better than nothing? are we getting back to that rationalization or perhaps realization? >> well, i mean, it's -- something has to happen. i mean, we can't just not get this done. i mean, this is a promise we made, but the obamacare is just

failing so badly and it's going to continue to be a massive drag on the economy and people's ability to get health care. so, something has to be done. charles: again, we know that. that's how you guys were propelled into power, you've gotten the states, local elections and of course, house, senate and the white house. so, that part of the narrative everyone gets. but there is some growing frustration you had seven years of complaining and now there doesn't seem to be a cohesive plan. >> you know, i think there was a plan and we passed literally dozens of bills over the last six, seven years, which would have been a great plan, but once things got going, we had a president who would actually sign one of the plans and some of the people who previously had voted for those plans, those repeals, those replacement type plans, they kind of said, well, they kind of got cold feet. so, i think the pressure needs to stay on, which is why i ask that we stay in congress through august, we have to keep working. this is the big timber.

we've cleared the underbrush and clear the big timber and cutting it down. charles: let's talk about the tensions on both sides of this timb timber. one side, freedom caucus and conservatives, believe in smaller government and advocated for this. on the other side states that accepted medicaid expansion and have their own individual things that they want. so you've got core positions, four or five folks on both sides of that divide and you wonder which side is willing to give up or give up the most? >> that's why we have to take some time. i mean, we shouldn't be fleeing this. we should be getting together. we shouldn't be negotiating publicly, we should be getting together and hammering this out. and i think that's what's going to happen. i mean, we've got a lot of work to do. the senate still has to get this done and i like what president trump tweeted out last week, he said, look, hey-- by the way his favorite way to communicate.

i think we do a delayed repeal and work on reforms and get those in and he tweeted that out, that was jumped on by a couple of senators, that's not a bad plan, but will that get 51? i don't know. charles: yeah, no one knows. although it felt like the conventional wisdom was that was dead on arrival, but certainly rand paul, and they voiced some-- this is what the american public wanted. maybe when the republicans started saying repeal and added "and replace" they dug a hole. the messaging part of this, another area it feels like the republicans have been really, really weak on. not articulating to the american public, we're not going to take anything away from you, we're going to make it better for you. is there some central person or entity working on that? >> well i think that leadership is trying to get that message out. the narrative is controlled by the other side and they've been very effective while waiting here today. i saw four ads or so that just

say, hey, don't do anything with obamacare. and yet, when i go out and talk to groups and individuals, they get it. obamacare's got to go. they get it, they want the repeal. they get it that we can reform this thing over time. what they want is predictability, certainty, access to health care and they're not getting it now and they all get that, but we're doing, you know, we're not getting our message out there as effectively as i'd like. people are out there pitching, we're pitching, but we're not getting the hits that we need to. charles: quick before i let you go. i want to ask you about the bills on sanctuary cities and case law says it's dead on arrival in the senate. and it's a head-scratcher, who would be opposed to this? >> there's nothing racial about these bills, even some of my

liberals in arizona said this is common sense legislation. i don't know why anybody would obstruct this. i'm actually, i remain hopeful even though people say this isn't going to happen. certainly kate's bill is worthwhile and the sanctuary city also a no-brainer. charles: representative biggs, happy fourth and thank you for being with us. >> happy fourth. charles: there are plans to cut waste from the irs. find out how much we can safe, we're talking billions. susan rice agrees to testify before the house intelligence committee. big deal.

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to cut that budget and maybe he should. charles: you have been talking about stuff like this for a long time. it might be breaking news, but you've been screaming about this for a long, long time. >> it's a big problem and we should keep our eye on it. >> we go through every agency like this, and it's going to be phenomenal. speaking of phenomenal. we've got a half day in the market, but look at the futures, guys. this is near the high of the session, the dow, nasdaq, s&p all going back up from last week, somewhat shaky start, but this is the first half of the second year, first part of the second half of the year and it looks like it's going to be phenomenal. i'm not sure we have enough time in this session, but keep in mind, we've got the jobs report on friday, this could be the week that we break out and make that next leg higher in the stock market and it begins today. right now we're looking at huge, huge gains at the open. if you haven't started already, okay. ment it's going to head to 26.

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>> opening bell just 30 seconds away. keep in mind, on friday, we saw some critical economic reports, one a chicago area manufacturing at a three-year high. the other part, consumer sentiment, the first half of the year, the highest consumer

sentiment going all the way back to 2000. and that's at 39 point percentage gap between republicans and democrats. we're set up today and we've got business news coming out on manufacturing on the nationwide basis, so this opening bell is going to be critical. we're going to start higher and a good chance we could get enough data today to take us closer to all-time highs across the board. let's start with the dow. you can see it starting to pop there. those are your 30 stocks, the green are winners and two-thirds are higher. looks like a good day for the dow. and banks were up as technology was fading and that takes us to nasdaq, a rare, rough outing, 13% for the year and almost double the other indices and has come out of the gate with gus so. and gerri willis, jeff sica.

and is this perhaps the second leg of the rally? >> i think it might be the 10th leg of the rally. the reality is we've had five stocks that have been the leadership, the five tech stocks that were up at their peak 30%. the rest of the market being up only 8. right now, as far as this market is concerned, as far as the way i look at the market, it steers a lot of rhetoric and they're anticipating that everything washington is promising us is going to come to pass. so a lot of this might just be a flat market back and forth with a lot of fits and starts before we get any upward momentum. >> here is what i like about what's happened so far this year. this is based on reality. about earnings. everybody says it's about the white house agenda and i think you have great fundamentals even going into the middle of the year here. charles: scott, i tend to agree with gerri. i don't know a lot pricing in anything that happened per se particularly the last couple of

weeks. the data has been good. the first quarter earnings were phenomenal and maybe it justifies where we are and we're looking for a catalyst, but this rally feels real to me. >> the catalyst is going to have to be the other numbers and back filling the economy. the earnings have been very good. if you take a look at the citigroup economic surprise, how much we're disappointing in expectations, we're back to 2012 levels which is in the heart of barack obama's tenure. we need to see more out of chicago, that's something good out of chicago for once, by the way. we need to see those numbers come in and backfill and earnings is what it's about until now. if we get something out of washington, i think that holds us where we're at. i don't know if we're going to get something shooting higher because of washington. charles: let's talk about tesla. elon musk saying that the model 3 production will begin this friday. scott, in addition to buying a second or third, are you

finally going to buy the stock? >> not yet. i think we're ahead of ourselves when it comes to electronic scars and self-driving cars. i want to see a little more proof in the pudding. we've got to see a lot of the new cars today that aren't electric cars on the road. if we see cheap gas continue to get cheaper, i think he struggles. charles: wow, what do you think, jeff? >> well, i think, first of all, for the record i find tesla owners to be very, very annoying people. bottom line. [laughter] >> why? are they condescending rich liberals who have gotten a tax break even though they have seven-figure incomes? >> they look down on us who like to drive cars fueled by gas and here something when we turn the ignition. >> hear the engine. >> instead of silence, i like to hear something instead of my own breathing and the reality is, musk has-- he has a challenge here, he

wants to produce a half a million cars a year. they have not been a mass production company until now, now they're offering this lower end cars so they can manufacture more annoying people driving them and they want to get to these numbers. reality, musk has not done a good job managing cash. he made up for it last time, but this is going to be a major, major challenge for him. >> you've got to give him points, give him credit or really, you know, riding the envelope here and actually doing something new and exciting and getting people excited. hundreds of thousands of people pre-ordered this car. charles: not only that the stock price, you've got to-- the stock goes from 20 to almost $400 a share and a couple months ago people were begging people to go short this. and the market thinks he may pull it off. >> charles. >> one thing, they had the

higher end car and they were an exclusive club now they want to make it more regular, more normal so a lot of the people that buy it to be trendy are now going to see more of these on the road. i don't think that's going to help their brand. the exclusivity. charles: i hear where you're coming from. real quick, scott. >> if you think this guy is the next thomas edison, jump in. if you don't, there's time to wait and see how to pans out. charles: i think a combination of tesla and p.t. barnum. and jeff, helping the white house reach the tax reform, do you think they're focusing so much on corporate taxes first rather than the individual tax? because this is easy to pass, easier to pass, i think. >> yes, and they could pass that now. they could pass that now, it's not going to take much time. it's what reagan did. i believe if they do this, that will put some momentum behind the next round. we need the corporate tax cuts

desperately, but we need tax brackets to be lowered and they could do that now as a sign of good faith and as a sign of what's to come. we need massive tax reform. it's got to start. >> from that same poll, 38% of folks don't want the corporate tax cut. so, they're weighing in against it by a pretty fair margin here. of course, people want to protect themselves. they want their own interests taken care of. charles: it does feel like, scott, especially if you pound the table and must be 15% tax cuts. like a wet kiss to the so-called globalists coming ahead of the american public again. >> i've got a new poll and 100% of the people that i polled want congress to do something, just going! . it's all hot air until we get something done. charles: it is. all right, guys, let's check the big boards. the market is open now, and up 96 points, again, we're not far away from the all-time high so

every time we have the fits and starts and a small dip. don't panic, lads. let's take a look at the tech stocks and supports that led the year. maybe rotation, maybe consolidation, but looking pretty good this morning. the only one unchanged is google, alphabet. and check general motors, they released june sales down 3% from a year ago. the stock's a little higher. wall street was expecting year over year decline and that's why the news items headlines aren't hitting the sticks. the big news, crude oil up to 46.56. a lot of people were talking a three handle last week. two rigs down on friday, that's good. they're up 122%, maybe too many came on too fast. consequently your gas prices are pretty good this holiday week. $2.23 that's the national average for regular gas. in fact, there are six states below $2 a gallon and missouri, good old missouri on the edge

of $2. amazon story of the day because there's always one, amazon is hiring seasonal customer service associates to work from home. this is the help with holiday shopping, like the idea? >> yeah, i love the idea. first of all, they're doing it in 35 states, but giving people who may not have the ability, people who have to stay home, maybe raise kids, the ability to work at home and make money and giving these same people the ability to transition into other work, to move up. i think everything amazon's done for the job market, a lot of what they've done has been very positive. this is just another positive step and this is going to be a very, very big season. >> let's be honest here, i mean, on the flip side of this, they're literally, tens, perhaps hundreds of retail jobs that go away in part because of amazon's success. >> the flip side, they're killed brick and mortar and shooting down other industries altogether. i say you might as well pay for these jobs now, because this

company is so big, so massive, so sprawling, just huge. >> if you really want to be safe. teach your kid some manners just in case. >> the sec letting people file ipo's in secret. >> there haven't been enough companies coming to the well and trade low after they come out. they're trying to encourage the companies to come forward and silicon valley allows the companies to go on and on and on with private dollars and trying get them to go public. i have bad feelings about this, i'd like to see consumers get into the stocks with as much information and empowerment as possible. charles: scott, i agree. i think that already investors don't read the prospectives enough and know what they're investing in. >> i would agree 100%. maybe this goes along the line of the less regulation bin. i think we saw a lot of firms

kind of come back from wall street or took their stock back because they didn't like the things they had to do to file to stay a public company. this will be interesting to see how it works out. i agree with you, the consumer needs as much information as possible and this just might not be the way. >> plus the fact that the ipo's -- i've been involved in ipo's for decade. the process is very discriminatory and most of the good shares go to select group of people. charles: right. and when we say good shares, the hot stocks, hot ipo's, heavy hitters get allocations. >> i was involved early on in facebook and i remember the allocations and looking at facebook allocations going to the big spenders at these firms. >> that's absolutely right. so many times, individuals get shut out of the marketplace and they can't get the best prices and buy it after it's spiked. i want to see real people in the markets. charles: especially with the unicorns. >> and the solutions would look

at how much they make off of these individuals and they would say, if we don't make enough money off these individuals, we will not give them the ipo shares. so, there is that element of discrimination that i think needs-- >> i think it's more important now. because the unicorns have become multi-billion dollar companies and the exit package. you do get allocation all of a sudden, maybe something is wrong. >> right. charles: thank you for jeff and scott. one final check of the board before we take a break. dow up 118 points. are you nervous? you shouldn't be. make your portfolio great again. and national security advisors to president obama will testify, the tarmac meeting, hillary. all on the table. forget tweets, president trump is getting down to business calling the leaders of japan, saudi arabia, all ahead of the big g20 meeting this week and we're on top of it.

more varney next.

>> all right. folks, let's check on the big board down there at the highs of the session. 118 points higher and the s&p 500 all 11 sectors are higher as well. a strong start to the second half of the year. target rolling out private label brands. what's going on here. nicole: target is trying to be focused and boutiquey. they have brands of their own, some of which are doing well and some they've decided to phase out. some that are very popular that people know, including marona for women and moss imo for the men, and they're launching more

than 12 lines of their own. they're going to be apparel-based and home goods-based so you can look for some of the new labels in the women's area. new day. 30 million people go through target. they're even going to use real people in their marketing, so, maybe everything has a chance to be famous in their marketing promotions, but they're making this for everybody. >> all right, well, i know that the stores with home sections, home goods sections do better than the other stores so they better pound away at that. that's a hot area, thanks, nicole. the u.s. navy patrols near one of the disputed islands in the south china sea. gerri willis has the details. >> in the past six weeks we call it a freedom of navigation operation. that's how we term it. a complicated thing coming up here. this lays claim to the titan island and that's what china

does and several other countries do the exact thing. keep in mind here, trump is telling china, you've got to deal with us. and we're not laying back and helping with north korea. charles: the honey may have come off the rose. they have the islands and putting weapons and assets on them. that could be a spark between both countries. thank a lot. former security advisor susan rice may testify about actions during the election campaign. joining us pete hoekstra from michigan, and she claims that she's been targeted because of race and gender since this news came out. your reaction to that? representative? >> good morning. charles: good morning. >> good morning, charles, you're coming in and out a little bit.

i'm glad that susan rice is going to be testifying. there's lots of issues, obviously, she can talk about what they perceived as russian involvement in the 2016 election. she can also identify why the administration decided not to do anything. you know, was it because they saw there was no material impact on the election? she'll also have to address the issue of unmasking. how often was she unmasking people, why were these individuals unmasked. who were they? was it for national security or for political reasons? hopefully the committee gets information beforehand that enables them to be prepared for this hearing and it will be an interesting hearing, although it will be in secret. charles: and that rubs a lot of people the wrong way because if there are any revelations out of this, how do we know? what would be the next step? could something ultimately happen where she appears before

the american public? >> i doubt that you'll see her testifying in public in front of the american people. you know, i had wished when the intelligence committee said that she was going to come and testify, they would have laid it out to her and said, number one, you're going to come, you can come voluntarily or we will subpoena you. there will be a public portion of this and there will be a classified portion. obviously, a lot of this information, especially what the russians did, i mean, we still really don't have a good insight into what the russians actually did, other than hacked into the dnc and into john podesta's e-mails. other than that, what else did they do or what were they planning to do? i think a lot of that could be covered in public testimony and i think the american people would want to hear that. charles: i am pretty sure you're absolutely correct. i have one more for you. the president spoke with shinzo

abe of japan. they spoke about the threat and putting pressure on the regime and the g20 meeting is coming up. what do you think is going to happen with respect to a united global front to finally diminish the threat that grows every single day under this rogue regime? >> well, let's not be too optimistic here in terms of a global strategy. let's just hope that, number one, we can get the south koreans and the japanese all on the same page. obviously, that's been a priority for this president from the day after he was elected. he's put a lot of emphasis in having top level meetings and trips and engagements with japan and south korea. let's get them on board. let's get the chinese more involved in this process. not to give words of encouragements about you to change north korean behavior and let's make sure we get the democrats and republicans and the u.s. senate on the same

page so that north korea sees a unified front. if we can get russia, our european allies on board, that would be great. the real country to watch here though is what is iran going to do. charles: representative hoekstra, thank you very much and thanks for coming in. check the market, the dow 30, look at that, folks, just about all green. only 10% of the stocks down. we are at the highs of the session. we close at 1 p.m., but at this pace we won't be far from an all-time high. illinois isn't the only state with a budget problem. new jersey's government is shut down, but that didn't keep governor christie from getting some sun. that's up next. you always pay

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>> just crossing fiat chrysler june sales down 7% compared to june of last year. those showers, however, up. remember, again, wall street is expecting lower year over year sales so that's not hurting stocks as of yet. in the meantime, illinois in real bad shape. that might be an understatement and the state votes now to raise taxes. jeff flock joins us from chicago. is the governor, who is a republican, going to veto this, jeff? >> oh, absolutely. i think he absolutely will. he said he would yesterday.

you know, he didn't get any of the reforms he wanted, charles. he said he would agree to a tax increase if they reformed the pension system, if they reformed the workers' compensation system. if they put a sunset provision in the tax increase. they he didn't get any of that. he said, yeah, i'm going to veto this. the question is, do they have enough votes to override the veto. 15 republicans voted against the governor, essentially and voted for the tax increase, they said it's gone far enough. we're going to get downgraded if we don't get a budget by wednesday i think is the drop-dead that's when people kind of come back to work and rating agencies if they don't have a budget, they might downgrade illinois to junk. it's a tough situation, there's no good answers here, charles, we've got a lot of unpaid bills. you keep up spending and that's the way it goes. it's difficult no matter how you cut it. charles: jeff, we know it's a

cautionary tale. buddy, thanks a lot and happy fourth of july to you. >> thank you, sir. charles: a quick check of the big board, we're near highs of the celebrate. congress is on break celebrating the fourth of july. meanwhile, we'll here trying to help your portfolio. we'll be right back. three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

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♪ charles: well just three more hours of trading on wall street. if it keeps like this we can petition to keep it open all day, guys. at this rate, maybe we'll be up 3, 400 points. president trump hard at work at july 4th holiday. spoken with leaders of saudi arabia and china. sew is now preparing to speak with the leader of italy in addition to germany's angela merkel and france's macron. we'll he bring you any headlines comes out of those. this of course as congress is home for the holidays facing constituents as senate health care reform bill is wait and see mode.

one of the things that we see governors are speaking out urging senators to rework it. illinois is about to go bust. third year without a budget. $25 billion in debt. this is not the only state with tough decisions to make. we'll have a lot more. the second hour of "varney & company" starts now. ♪ charles: check it out, check it out. dow at the highs of the session, up 149 points. looking absolutely phenomenal. all 11 sectors of s&p 500 up as well. look at the 10-year. there was some anxiety when it was free-falling. there was anxiety when it was rebounding. 231 is a pretty good number. that does not scare anyone. the u.s. economy heading in the right direction. oil is really the story. came on late last week.

great day on friday. picking up on that ahead. whether a dead-cat bounce remains to be seen. president trump tweeting a video, showing him taking down cnn some say, hey, that went too far, including political commentator ana navarro. roll tape. >> i think if the president of the united states is taking things way to for. this is incitement to violence. he will get somebody killed in the media. charles: in a statement cnn quoted it is a sad day when the president of the united states encourages violence against reporters. clearly sarah huckabee sanders lied when she said the president had never done so. we'll keep doing our jobs. he should start doing his. bring in fox news contributor tammy bruce. tammy, seems a little high per bolick in my mind, that was incitement to hurt reporters. >> it was a joke. it was a body with a cnn logo.

if everyone walking with cnn logo you can say that. it was a gif. it was something done up a long time ago. it was clearly was ridiculous. but this comment from cnn is the same station, the same network that was really struggling with the notion that the murder of the president in this shakespeare in the park dynamic was art, right? there was a segment after the kathy griffin decapitation of the president where jake tapper laughed with his panel that were effectively blaming trump and saying that was no big deal, everybody needed to get over it. but suddenly this is incitement. last time i checked there was only one guy still in the hospital. that was steve scalise. last time i checked it was a bernie supporter, a fan of rachel maddow, committed leftist, who went on to a baseball field intending to murder 22 gopers. that is not being really discussed at all. i have a feeling ana navarro doesn't even know the condition

of steve scalise. i don't know if he has been referred to recently on cnn at all. this is our reality. americans are laughing at this. the president turned into the biggest troll of all. lastly there are some weird counting of his tweets, assessing how much percentage was dealing with policy here is a news flash for all the liberals. the president is not governing through twitter. he is doing other things in the meantime. he is making a difference. he is accomplishing a great deal but they're stuck and distracted by this. and it tells you look, why cnn is doing badly, ana navarro is noted as gop strategist. that would be why the gop is doing badly. the reality the american people know what the president is accomplishing. they know the twit are dynamic is humor. they enjoying the fact he is exposing the media for what they are. charles: we know for a fact to your point core president trump supporters enjoy tweets. there are some older establishment types who i don't think, don't like president

trump, they feel like they're doing him a favor hey, maybe if you lay off of that, your message will echo beyond your core audience. >> this is what i find very strange about that. do they think if the president stops tweeting the media will be nice to him or something will change? he already accomplishing a great deal. he signed more bills into law than the previous presidents. we know what he has been able to accomplish in the foreign policy field when it comes to national security, et cetera. the actions on executive order, on issue with criminal illegal aliens, ms-13, et cetera. i don't know what is going to change if he stops tweeting because the media will simply find something else. charles: i don't think they want him to stop tweeting but maybe tweet more of the stuff you're talking about, the message you're talking with all the successes because the mainstream media will never talk about that stuff. >> his supporters, people who are watching the press briefings, et cetera, they're not expecting the president to inform them about exactly what he is doing in 140 characters on

twitter. governing the nation is larger. his supporters understand that. the american people understand that. this is really about, if the media will not do their job, if they're not, it will be about his individuals, his supporters coming on talking about what he is accomplishing. frankly the rest of the gop, paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, and others finally supporting the president. i don't think the president should be reduced to having to move his message on twitter. if the people want, if media wants him to do that because it is easier for him. charles: point out twitter that said, that tweet, that cnn tweet does not vie you late any of their policies at all. our next guest leading push to designate a day in july, national day of civility. joining us is congressman mike johnson. congressman, you know. in light of all the things, our conversation, i'm not sure how much you could hear. still having trouble with your earpiece. tell us about your, the national

day of civility, if you can hear me please. >> i can hear it. okay. charles: tell us about your thoughts, this national day of civility. what are the bowls there? >> sorry, charles. we're having a little audio problem here. the commitment to civility is a document that we drafted back in january after a meeting of the fresh man class. we have 50 members of the incoming class of the 1is -- 115 congress signed on. we want to return to basic level of decorum. even when we disagree, we can do it in agreeable manner. idea we would encourage productive dialogue again, respect each other and civility in public actions and good thing for all of us. charles: i find this interesting eminated out of the freshman class. those in d.c. for a certain

period of time, barnacles of ideology and frustration might get in the way. considering the backdrop, particularly with representative scalise being shot at a baseball practice, maybe this could actually get some traction? >> well, i hope it will. we have extended an invitation to the whole congress to sign on to it. i expect when we get back after the independence day holiday we'll have hundreds of additional members of congress sign on. steve scalise is one of my dearest friends. we've been friends over 20 years in louisiana. we're praying for his recovery. i think his tragic shooting really caused renewed interest in this idea we have to get together. we have to return to basic level of respect and civility in the congress because we're the elected leaders of the country. if we can't do it, we can't expect others to do it. all we have is control over our own actions and i think at the end of the day you will have a lot of members on congress on both sides of the aisle willing to step forward to take the leadership role.

charles: we got a lot of lip service. it lasted for 48 hours before it felt like another donnybrook down in d.c. congressman, i want your thoughts on health care reform. a lot of states took the low-hanging fruit. they were seduced by president obama to take medicaid including louisiana. governors becoming more and more vocal about the gop plan. how do you twice reconcile this? >> it's a very important issue in a poor state like louisiana, relatively poor state. we do have a lot of people who are on medicaid right now. the important point that we're making is, under republican plan, we're merely slowing the growth rate. everyone says, there is these dramatic cuts. really it is only slowing the rate of growth. so in 10 years we go from $380 billion on annual expenditure basis on medicaid from federal government to 500 billion. under obama care model it guys

to 650 billion in the time frame. it is not draconian cut everyone says. by replacing obamacare, what we are going to accomplish here, we'll allow states the flexibility to prioritize again the people that medicaid was designed to support. supposed to be a vital safety net. charles: with all due respect, i understand exactly where you're coming from. i looked at all the numbers, apparently governors, even some red state governors don't have enough confidence to stay okay. they want the drive very train as it is right now uninterrupted. >> that is the right word, charles. the problem it is not a sustainable model. you know very well the cbo says entitlement spending will eclipse gdp by 2030. that is not 100 years. that is around the corner. we have to prioritize people medicaid was designed to support. elderly and children from poor households and those with disabilities.

we'll give states flexibility to do that we'll ecology them to do that. i think we'll be successful. charles: great idea, national day of civility. appreciate you coming in. have a great 4th of july. >> charles, appreciate it. you too. charles: tesla founder elon musk will start production of the model 3. gerri, you have details. >> that's right. they will produce 100 of these in august. 1500 in september. by december, they will be producing 200,000 a month they say. they had 400,000 preorders for what is every man's tesla. price tag $35,000. when they first started talking about this, people were super excited about it. but the big question what we don't know, can they turn themselves into mass production company? can they make that change? what they have been doing so far is really producing specialty cars, at the margins, small numbers. this will be a big change in production for this company. we'll be interesting to see if elon musk -- charles: another big test as he becomes more of a true legitimate auto company.

thanks a lot, gerri. coming up. securing our border. the house officially passes "kate's law." the president officially testing prototypes of the border wall. we'll look at that. president trump continues attack on mainstream media, tweeting this over the weekend. tweet me with your thought as you've been. stay with us. "varney & company" will come right back. ♪

charles: look at that, folks, call it up 160 points. the high of the session. dow jones industrial average

very, very close to its all-time high. only two stocks dragging us down. caterpillar is off eight cents. nike off four cents after a huge session on friday. this rally led by walt disney, consumer staple name. of. now this we had a "kate's law" and as well as a bill targeting sanctuary cities. we have art from the national border patrol council. border crossings are going down. >> they did go down when the new president took over, but we noticed numbers are going back up. that is a concern. charles: what would you attribute that to? >> i'm not so sure. sometimes we figure the honeymoon period might be over. now these individuals crossing

realizes some people's agendas were not what they were going to be at beginning. we heard talk about the wall and let's build the wall. there are too many obama holdovers within the agency still. maybe their sense of urgency about border security is not as much as the president of the united states is. charles: of course, if they are paying close attention to politics here at home, looks like the republican party is tripping all over itself to get large parts of president trump's agenda going forward. maybe that is emboldening these guys? >> that might be it. i think that might be it but our main concern we've been seeing, some obama holdovers within the agency. that is a real issue we need to look at. there is sense of disrespect. several weeks after the new second he tear of homeland security was put in place, the new chief, acting chief was put in place. charles: their pictures went up immediately at border patrol stations. we're still seeing that president trump's picture is still not up at these stations. that is very disrespectful in our eyes. charles: not just disrespectful.

how does not do your job, particularly as important a job as this is? >> all i can say, i mean the way we're seeing it, we have many so individuals that are hold overs from the obama administration. we're seeing some of those holdovers people hand-picked by the obama administration, getting promoted within our agency still. maybe their sense of urgency not sense of urgency the president weighs was or. charles: to start building prototypes for border wall. that will happen sometime this summer. what do you want to see from these prototypes? >> we want real security. every he one concerns themselves with the walls but bottom line we need agents, agents retained and kept here, true quality agents within the agency. we're seeing a lost agents leave, go to other agencies, go to other departments. the wall is fine. we want that, we need it, but the bottom line we'll need

agents to be on the other side of that wall to make that physical apprehend sun. charles: is there a way, specific design? do they need tourette's or a moat? something that -- turrets, moat. maybe something make job of agent easier to accomplish? >> some areas with the triple fencing, that is the way to do it. some type of triple fencing. comes down to the same thing. i told a lot of people, concern themselves with the walls. when you have a home, you need walls, roof, need windows, you need doors. you don't just need walls. or else you don't have a home. that is the way i attribute security within our borders. we need the wall. we need agents. we need better equipment. we need vehicles. we need people actually committed, committed to when they arrest these individuals, there is true sanctions against them. you have to have consequences for individuals we arrest. charles: great stuff, man. really appreciate it. thank you for doing what you do. we appreciate it. thanks. >> thank you for having me.

charles: china's president reportedly told president trump, negative factors are starting to hurt the relations between the two countries. again, that honeymoon, gerri, starting to fade a little bit? >> china thinks there are lots of things piling up including negatives, triton island, earlier in the show, u.s. destroyer sailing within territorial sea limits of island which china claims but so do other countries in the region. we have big arms sales to taiwan. china hates that. u.s. sanctions on chinese bank. adding insult to injury, human rights efforts in china, not so great. that from the state department. china sees it as piling on. we want their help with north korea. charles: if they're not happy now, wait until a week or so they get steel tariffs. china can't get away with everything. it was a great meeting. you have to fix some of these things. we don't just want lip service. guys, thanks a lot. four states expanding

conceal carry laws. nra calling 2017 a successful year for gun rights. we're all over that story, we celebrate the birth of our nation. the united states of america. the president had patriotic words over the weekend. >> since the signing of the declaration of independence 241 years ago, america always affirmed that liberty comes from our creator. our rights are given to us by god, and no earthly force can ever take those rights away.

charles: take a look at ford shares. 23% drop in passenger car sales. suvs and trucks continue to rock and roll.

stock is higher. green arrows to the upside. new gun laws took effect. tennessee, concealed guns can be carried in public buildings. iowa, concealed guns can be carried in capitol. some passed laws that allow concealed guns on college campuses. tammy, what do you think about this. >> so many students say yes, this makes sense. and others are saying though we don't know what is going to happen. fear of unknown. but the fact is we do know. wherever there is concealed carry laws or where you can carry your weapon, crime has gone down, violence has gone down. this is without exception. so when you have young people saying we don't know what will happen, we in fact do. that is something important, publicly that should be discussed but of course the left doesn't want that discussed. there is good news actually even out of california. normally looking these are red states. in california, beginning of the

fiscal year, why all these are happening, california had through proposition banned magazines with more than 10 rounds. a judge there in california actually stopped that, arguing that of course that it was unconstitutional but more than that, you would immediately make so many calfornians automatically criminal because they were in possession of these elements. so that's good news out of california. we have to make sure that is sticks -- charles: for the most part, we've seen gun ownership go up, crime goes down. correlation is not just there for short period of time but over and over again we've seen that. >> for decades but the difference, beyond just gun ownership but ability to carry. charles: carry a gun. >> that is the messaging we've seen. also, like with the shooting in colorado, mass shooting, that shooter avoided these gun-free sown theaters and went to a fourth theater farther away from his house, that i should say was gun-free.

he avoided theaters that allowed concealed carry. charles: exactly. >> we have examples of lives being saved by firearms but also, bad guys not knowing where it would be safe to commit murder. that is what we want more of this country. charles: illinois about to go bust. third year without a budget. 25 billion in debt. not only state with tough decisions to make. we're all over that story. the governor of kentucky signing a bill, that allows public schools to teach classes on the bible using taxpayer money. we're all over that next. ♪

♪ ♪ party in the ussa charles: by the way beautiful scene, right? new york, not even looking at traffic lights. one of the reasons maybe, all the action is downtown, new york stock exchange, big board up 152 points. this is a huge, huge rally we're not that far away from all-time highs. remember last week a lot of fretting about big tech names? they're hanging in there pretty good. they're holding up creating support.

alphabet and apple as well. get to the budget crisis in illinois. lawmakers back after work, after they voted to increase the income tax by 32%. the state in its third year without a budget, it has $25 billion in outstanding debt. jeff flock joins us. jeff, this is, seems like there is no solution to this. reporter: yeah, there is no good solution, charles. just dug too big of a hole. here in in two hours. state senate reconvenes. they will see if they pass the same budget the house passed yesterday. it goes from personal tax income, income tax rate goes from 3.75%, to 4.95. as you report, a 32% increase t will bring in about $4.3 billion n. corporate tax goes up too. here is what didn't get done yesterday according to the governor. here are reforms that he wanted.

he said he would okay a tax increase if they onlily got property tax freeze. illinois has second highest property tax in the nation. he wanted to sunset the income tax hike. of the put expiration. didn't go for that. workers' compensation reform. it needs more friendly to is b wanted term limits from legislators. they would agree to themselves. there was never much hope for that. we'll see what happens when the senate comes back into session if they approve this governor says he will veto it. there may be enough votes to override the veto with governor breaking with the above. if we go out a budget, nothing comes without that either. no good solutions. charles: appreciate it. i want to bring in ted, the vice president of policy and spokesman for the illinois policy institute. ted, what is the endgame here.

ultimately, how do you see this playing out? >> well, charles, illinois has built the most corrupt, massive government in the states, it is sinking under its own weight. they have done that transferring huge amounts of wealth from the private sector to the public sector. economy is in shambles. the government is falling apart. tax hikes are not the solution. they will actually perpetuate the problem to keep illinois onn the path looks like bankruptcy at some point. charles: illinois, covering it for so long. looks like epitome of the welfare state. you soon run up against margaret thatcher's you run out of other people's money. they want the corporate and tax apple despite so many corporations fled the state. >> when you look at economy, illinois makes less today than they did 20 years ago. the government has not created a net new job in 20 years. highest black unemployment rate

in the nation. largest underwater mortgages in chicago. the tax hike is exact wrong policy to fix illinois. shows you the government elite, political elite will continue to tap the private sector until it falls apart. charles: this death spiral, feels like perpetual motion machine. to your point, middle-class families, black and white left the state. people getting a job working somewhere else to have left the state. folks getting government assistance, determining who the lawmakers are and keep electing the wrong people. >> the problem is, that the government elite, government sector is taxing to death the working class, middle class sector. you know, we missed that 2016 populist uprising we saw across the rest of the nation. a of this tax hike the working class and middle class will come back to say we can't afford this government anymore. people that can leave, will continue to do so.

people are leaving illinois in droves. people that can't will finally put their foot down. that will happen next. charles: maybe this he will vote themselves term limits, the peel will. ted, really appreciate it. >> thank you. charles: now this, the governor of kentucky signed a bill that allows public schools to teach classes on the bible. joining us is fox news radio host todd starnes. author of, the deplorable as guide to making america great again. will this law run into any constitutional challenges? >> i don't think so, charles. a number of public schools have been doing across the country for years, elective bible classes. not mandatory class. typically classes are taught off campus at nearby location. they're directed by people that have been approved and vetted through the local school boards. charles: should feel better about the recent supreme court ruling so, so it you does feel like maybe there will be less of a challenge than might have been just a week ago? >> oh, absolutely. as a matter of fact, look i'm

old school. i grew up in the southern states. we actually pledged allegiance to the flag and started our school day with a pray. this is public school, charles this is nothing new for those folks that live in the so-called bible belt. but i do have one slight concern. my question is, who will be teaching these bible classes? the department of education will be coming up with some sort of a criteria. but at the end of the day we're talking about a lot of different denominations who have a lot of different interpretations about the bible. i'm an bible. you have a independent baptist and foot-washing baptists and southern baptists. charles: can they agree on the ten commandments and start from there? >> i think they can do that. that is a good starting point. charles: todd, i want to ask you about president trump. one of his big targets has been the media. at some point the fake news will be forced to discuss our great jobs numbers, strong economy, success with isis, border and much else. your reaction to this?

>> i thought it was absolutely hilarious that the folks over at cnn do not seem to understand that professional wrestling has a lot more in common with the fake news. so i suspect poor little jimmy acosta, sitting in white house briefing room that president trump might come out to put him in figure four leg lock. people are starting to see the mainstream media, what is going on here. they want to destroy this president. they will do everything humanly possible to make that happen. charles: isn't one of their problems though, whenever something happens on the left, with respect to violence or imagery of violence they're very slow, they grappleed and stayed up overnight and couldn't decide what to do with kathy griffin. >> that is true. the only people committing violence are leftists, left-wingers. another example, over the weekend, maureen dowd, lady columnist at "new york times," i

use that term loosely, called the president a pig, a pig. what kind of a person -- that is not lady like or jent -- gentlemanly like, i didn't see mainstream media calling out maureen dowd. he didn't go after her. the american people see double standard. sean spicer, flanked by hulk hogan and jerry the king lawler. brother. charles: you might see that, i would like to see the first thing you talked about. putting jim acosta in a full nelson. >> little jimmy. charles: little jimmy. >> good wrestling name. charles: it is really amazing though. i think they're defeating themselves. they make these things more than they are and they cry victim so much it has fallen on deaf ears. >> at same time, be honest, president needs to ease up on the tweets. come on. charles: it is double-edged sword.

it works a lot better for him. you have a new piece coming out? >> foxnews.com. check it out there. we weigh into the big controversy. charles: happy 4th of july. >> happy fourth. charles: now this. microsoft planning to lay off thousands of workers around the world. the stock is all-time high. what is going on? gerri: it has been on fire. this is something they do every year. last year 2850, 900 from the sales teams. this year could be another big layoff, could be thousands of people. we don't know the number. they want to put emphasis on cloud computing, cloud services from the sales team. they have new sales leadership. they want to put their mark. we are still waiting to hear how many people this would be. interestingly, they say that there is lots of redundancies in microsoft sales teams. a lot of overlap. this is area where we really see improvement in costs that could go to the bottom line. that could help the stock.

charles: right. of course focus these days on cloud. maybe a different skill set for many some of these salespeople selling hardware and stuff for so long. gerri, thanks a lot. up next, former arkansas governor weighs in on the backlash his daughter is receiving for standing by president trump. coming up next hour, banks passing haves tests with flying colors. did dodd-frank actually work? we'll ask rafferty capital markets dick bove after this. ♪

gerri: former reagan economist art laffer, the economy could be off to the moon under two conditions. roll tape. >> well the stock market is a clear indicator we've got a strong prospects for the economy. i mean i do think, charles, we need to get the corporate tax cut down to 15%, and i do believe we need to get health care basically changed totally because it is an enormous tax on the economy. but those two bills go through, repeal of obamacare, and the tax

cut, corporate tax cut, and this economy is off to the moon. it will be really fantastic. ♪

i have the jefferson nose right there on the front of my face. when i think about being related to thomas jefferson, it certainly makes me feel a sense of pride the tenacity of not only that he showed in his life but was given to me through the slaves that i'm birthed through as well. it makes me think that there's really no excuse for me in any area of my life to not be able to conquer anything. ♪ charles: look at this. you're looking new high for the day, folks.

[trumpets playing] all-time high. not just high for the day, all-time high. market is really rocking. that is on great manufacturing data. before the bell opened, i told you on friday we saw it out of chicago area manufacturing. it is nation hewide. the strongest numbers since august of 2014. and it looks phenomenal. new orders are up. production is up. employment is up. really rocking on all cylinders in this country. stock market is reflecting it. we want to keep it that way. meantime, look at this. i think if i keep talking we may end up at 22,000. then i have to sing. 10-year yield is moving higher, 2.34. when it plunged last week people were concerned and then it rebounded people were concerned. anything around 2.50, 2.60. you don't have to overthink this thing.

friday, we saw rigs down first time in a long time. oil is sort of helping here, you need the big oil components of the dow and other major indices to move higher as well. meantime volkswagen of america, their numbers are out for june. their sales are up 15% from june of last year. stock up 19 cents. new jersey governor chris christie, taking a little bit of heat. he got some heat yesterday but in the wrong place i guess, on a beach closed to everyone else, jerry? gerri: that's right. got to see the picture. charles: do i have to? gerri: governor chris christie, he has a t-shirt and has a bathing suit on. not like, not like a speedo, okay? he was out on the beach closed to rest of new jersey folks out there? why? because the state government can not get its act together when it comes to the budget. they had to close down state offices because they can't keep them open. now keep in mind here, chris christie is working with a democratic legislature.

so he has to take the budget they give them. we did not get the picture up. maybe -- charles: no, no. i live in jersey. anytime you talk about chris christie closing something down, it rubs people the wrong way, especially since is he was chilling out at the beach. gerri: right. charles: thanks a lot. meantime cnn calling out sarah huckabee sanders and response to president trump's tweet. the network said quote, it is a sad day when the president of the united states encourages violence against reporters. clearly sarah huckabee sanders lied when she said the president had never done some we will keep doing our jobs. he should start doing his. joining us now, former arkansas governor mike huckabee. governor, would you, a heck of a blow against your daughter. with would your response be to cnn about this? >> i thought it was amazing cnn is talking about truth and honesty. getting advice about truth from cnn is kind of like getting

recipes for the 4th of july from hannibal lecter, come on. they're the champions of fake news and fraudulent news. they're constantly reporting stuff turns out to be untrue, including jake tapper had to go back and admit the big thing he held up from, rather "the national enquirer" didn't exist t was totally fake. the attacks on my daughter point you out the hypocrisy here. what did they do? they attacked a woman, my daughter, for doing her job. now why did donald trump send the tweet out in the first place. because he was attacked by a woman, namely one of the hosts what i called bsnbc. who was calling him mentally deranged. calling him unfit for office. and her partner was saying that he was a shmuck, a goon, a thug. this is just, but, if there is any perspective in all of this, the reason i'm not all that upset about it, is because americans aren't stupid. they're just not. they're really smart enough to

see through this. the little video that trump sent out saw it as entertainment. they saw it as a tongue-in-cheek, sense of humor point of being funny. and you know, the people living in the bubble of the media, they don't get it and they never will, charles. they never will. charles: governor i saw somewhere in twitter, seemed like you would like to see president trump, not tweet less in general but focus more on all great things that are happening within his administration. did i have that right? >> yeah, i think that is probably true because he has so many things that he really can tout, everything from real successes in our foreign relations. he has amazing stock market numbers that are historic. we're seeing deregulation of businesses and growth of jobs. there are some things that he really ought to be trumpeting, and this takes the focus away from his successes. frankly he ought to leave the funny tweeting to guys like me for whom there is really no big governmental consequence.

i will be happy to take that role. maybe a little milder than some of his. charles: i think you took the role anyaway. i look forward to one of your quote, unquote, funny tweets, how you laugh at yourself. to your point, we had manufacturing data through the roof. market at another all-time high. i like you're taking the upper road, again, when your daughter, doing more of these press conferences. hopefully she can get around to that. she finds herself in the position having to defend herself. >> well, it's crazy to attack the spokesperson for the president. her job is to go defend the white house and president and i think she does it very well. the reason i'm not worried about her, she is one tough cookie. she can handle what they throw. every time she steps to the podium she does it with sense of confidence, not arrogance. she knows what she is doing. she is absolute pro. good for her. if they i they will rattle her

by doing this, they don't know her very well. watch for one thing, charles, if she says bless your heart, step back. charles: governor huckabee, thank you very, very much. dow all-time highs. economic data is phenomenal. "varney & company" will be right back.

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>> i'm glad that susan rice is going to be testifying. there is lots of issues. obviously she can talk about what they perceive as russian involvement in the 2016 election. she can also identify why the administration decided not to do anything. was it because they saw that there was no material impact on, on the election? she will also have to address the issue of unmasking. how often was she unmasking people? why were these individuals unmasked? who were they? was it for national security or was it for political reasons. hopefully the committee gets information beforehand that enables them to be prepared for this hearing, and it will be an interesting hearing, although it will be in secret. charles: that rub as a lot of people the wrong way. , if there are any revelations how will we know? what could be the next step?

could something ultimately happen that she appears before the american public? >> i doubt that you will see her testifying in public in front of the american people. i had wished when the intelligence committee said that she was going to come and testify, that they would have laid it out to her and said, number one, you're going to come. you can come voluntarily or we will subpoena you. there will be a public portion to this, and there will be a classified portion. obviously a lot of this information, especially what the russians did, i mean we still really don't have a good insight what the russians actually did other than hacked into the dnc and into john podesta's emails. other than that, what else did they do or what were they planning to do? i think a lot of that could be covered in public testimony and i think the american people would want to hear that.

charles: well, happy fourth of july, i'm charles payne in for stuart. starting with your money, shortened holiday trading, but wall street looking fantastic. we're going to close in two hours, but we hit an all-time high, and the market keeps moving higher and higher on great economic data. so no stopping these markets right now. to politics, congress on recess for the july 4th holiday, but health care still in focus. the latest, well, talk possibly dividing the bill, one to repeal obamacare and another to replace it. and the big question on everyone's mind, will congress work through the august recess to finally get this thing done? we're all over it. and illinois entering its third year without a budget. it's gotten so bad that republicans in that state have actually voted for a tax increase to cover the shortfall x they're not alone. eight other states failing to get a budget deal passed. and this could be good news for travelers, the government scaling back parts of ban for laptops on international flights. a lot of news for you, hour

three of "varney & company" starts right now. ♪ ♪ america, america, may god -- charles: what a beautiful, beautiful song, and what a beautiful day. not just outside. by the way, representative gohmert started to cry a moment ago. did i hear you sniffle a bit there, sir? [laughter] first, let's show the folks their money because this is a record-breaking session. that's right. the day before we celebrate the birth of america, we're celebrating making your portfolio great again. all-time high, looking fantastic. on pace now for its 40th record close since election day. let's take a look at oil prices. oil, unsung hero in the rally, coming back haas week.

continues to rally, i'm telling you, $50 is your sweet spot. you want it to get there. and now to the nasdaq, tech stocks still consolidating gains. nasdaq is up 13% for the year, it's fine to get some of this money in other sectors of the market, including the s&p up almost 14 points to the. and then there's tesla. elon musk announcing in a series of tweets that the model 3 production will given this pretty. also take a look at the ten-year yield. i think the sweet spot is around $2.60. the u.s. economy in good shape. now back to politics, the senate missing yet another deadline for health care reform on friday, and now some are suggesting why don't we split the plan into two separate bills. to one of my favorites, republican louie gohmert from texas.

when president trump tweeted about this last friday, it had to make you feel pretty good. >> oh, i loved it. when he said if we can't get it done, let's separate them. i think it would be fantastic. because most of us just ran on repeal. we want free market solutions because we know that will return actual doctor/patient relationship, it'll return control over prices if we also do what the house finally did. i wasn't sure we were going to get a vote, but that is end the exemption that health insurance companies have had from the antitrust laws. they're allowed to monopolize, charles, and that means they can go in and say you either do our deal, or we put you out of network. they can drive out the small companies, the emerging companies. and so if we allow to buy across state lines and don't end the exemption instead of having one monopoly in 30 states, we'll have one monopoly in all the states. charles: right. >> so that's a big deal.

and you know what? when we finally brought it to the floor, it got over 400 votes. charles: really? >> yes. charles: well, the senate version, though, is an amazing -- to me -- amazing wet kiss to the health insurance companies. >> aren't they sucking up to them? oh, my word. charles: it blows me away. you could argue lower premiums, but out of pocket costs are going to be the same, and you have the health insurance companies still calling the shots. >> yeah. and that's not what needs to happen. you know, the democrats were sucking up to the health insurance companies, believe it or not, and that's why they endorsed this, the obamacare. but we need to just say we don't care a what you think, big pharma, we don't care what you think. we're going to do what's best for the american people, and let's get it back in their hands. but all of this talk about cbo, i agree with art laffer. you know, we've just got to forget the cbo score because, you know, when your margin of

error is plus or minus 200-400%, you've got no business scoring anything. [laughter] that's where they were on obamacare. >> you made it clear you liked separating out repeal and replace. the democrats are going to have a field day with -- >> they are, no, you're right. >> -- these republicans, they're taking away your medicare, all your health care. what do you think of ben sasse' man to kind of force repeal and replace, but then to make sure that the second part of it gets done? >> no, i'm fine with that, yeah. because we do -- there's a bunch of reform that needs to be done, and that's why i think obama and the democrats were able to get anything passed even though most of america didn't want obamacare. they wanted something done. but not this, not driving their premiums up, you know, so many of them double and triple where they were years ago. charles: well, there is something we know americans increasingly agree upon, in fact, there was a gallup poll

out last week, 61% of americans want a middle class tax cut. >> yes. charles: your party has the support on this. can they deliver it? this is, to me, low hanging fruit. >> you're exactly right, charles. it should be low hanging fruit, i mean, for heaven sake. but i think i'm afraid has stalled our leadership, they're scared to death of a terrible cbo score that would say, oh, republicans are adding to the deaf it. again, laffer's right. just forget cbo -- charles: so what happens? >> i can't remember, phil graham or whoever, they said the trouble with cbo, if you ask them how much money we would bring in with a 200% income tax, they would dutifully say you're going to bring in twice as much as what everybody -- charles: why did republicans lose faith in supply-side capitalism? >> that's a good question. the answer is we get too caught up in the weeds. charles: right. >> oh, but what about the byrd rule, what about this, what about that?

and that's where we have got to have some courage and just say, no, we're going to do what's right for america -- charles: and do what you promised america. >> and if we do it quickly, then people will have a year to see, wait a minute, it's not all the doom and gloom the democrats and cbo said. and when you finally get rid of cbo and start having competition in scoring bills. charles: congressman, you are with us for the hour -- >> shouldn't have said that, people will tune out. [laughter] charles: want to take a quick look at rates here. ten-year, dick bove joins us now. are you concerned, dick, with the sharp increase in yields in the last week or so?t's going to reduce the value of those securities which makes it more difficult for the banks to make money.

charles: well, in the meantime, the banks just had that so-called stress test. i always think it's a joke, to be quite frank with you. i don't think they know how to gauge human behavior when catastrophe is happening. that said, they passed with flying colors. they were able to return over $100 billion to shareholders. so does this now prove a point, hey, maybe these stress tests work and they're necessary? >> well, i mean, i think i agree with you, i think the stress test can't show what people are really going to do when a real recession develops, so i don't think they're very accurate at all. also i don't agree with the fact that the government tells the banks how much dividends a bank can pay its stockholder ors. i think that's -- stockholders. this' the essence of socialism. but i think, you know, basically when we get through all that, the banks are in a very healthy condition. they've got -- if you go back over the past 30 years, they've got more equity as a percentage of assets, more liquidity, their

loan to deposit ratio is one of lowest that we've seen going back 40 or 50 years. so the banks are in very healthy condition. charles: well, they are in healthy condition, and now wall street is taking notice. we saw this rotation start about ten days ago, and even today banks are looking pretty good. the goldman sachss of the world while tech names are starting to suffer a little bit. do you think at this point bank stocks might be a better investment than tech stocks? >> well, i can't answer the question because i don't know anything about tech stocks. but i i do think that when you take a look at bank stocks right now, you know, you're dealing with all of these issues on health caring and taxes and other stuff. as far as the trump administration be is concerned in banking, everything they want they're getting. they're making a massive change in the structure of the banking sector which is what they promised they would do. and i think it's going to be incredibly effective. i mean, you've got a banker who's going to be running the occ. you've got the guy who wrote the financial choice act who's going

to be running fdic. you've got a guy who was investing in financial companies who's going to be the fed governor in charge of bank supervision, and you're changing the focus of where the regulation comes from from the fed up to the fsoc which is run by the treasury secretary. so, you know, whatever may be happening in other areas concerning trump's initiatives, he is winning everything in banking. charles: all right. and bank stocks are starting to reflect that. dick bove, thank you very much. really appreciate it. >> thank you. charles: well, it might be getting lost in a fog of controversy, but president trump and the republicans making some big strides last week in fixing our broken immigration system. and, you know, we're not ignoring this one. and check this out, a new supersonic jet concept, this one being developed by lockheed martin and nasa. not only is it super fast, it's also super quiet. remember those old booms back in the day? not with this one, coming up. ♪ ♪

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charles: well, president trump making progress on illegal immigration. the house just passing kate's law and stripping sanctuary cities of federal funding. but our next guest says there's still a lot of work to be done. texas attorney general ken paxton joins us now. ken, thanks for joining us. congratulations, texas always at the forefront of these things, particularly your office. what do you need to see happen next? >> well, by the way, happy fourth, and we need to see the senate pass the very same law. obviously, this is a long time coming, and i think it'll have a dramatic impact on crime and impact on our citizens. and, look, this is all about

safety. charles: it's all about safety, and yet all the experts are saying that this is dead on arrival in the senate. you've got a lot of democrats who voted against it and, of course, one republican. where's the disconnect this? why -- i don't understand why anyone would vote against it. maybe you understand that and it could help us form an opinion on whether or not it gets through the senate. >> so i've wondered that question. i'd love to ask anybody why would you want to protect illegal criminals versus the citizens of our own country? the answer to that question i've never gotten from anybody to opposed to this. they typically will change the narrative to something unrelated and refuse to answer that question. but i would love to hear that answer from one democrat or one person opposed to this law. charles: well, we do have one of your texas buddies in studio. he's not on the senate side, but maybe representative gohmert could help us out here. [laughter] >> well, they're afraid that they may offend one of the

largest voting blocs, of course, illegal aliens i'm talking about, and that's said sarcastically. i know liberals don't get sarcasm. but ken's exactly right. it doesn't make sense not to be a nation where the rule of law means something. and especially, and what i loved, i don't know if ken was aware this was in the bill, but it even allows people to sue the entity that was a sanctuary city that allowed this to happen in the first place. and, boy, that puts a real dichotomy out there for plaintiffs' lawyers. charles: right. >> you know, they're the biggest donors to democrats, and yet they could end up becoming extremely wealthy. can you imagine, i'm sure you saw kate steinly's family's lawsuit was thrown out under this new federal law if we can get the senate to vote for it, they stay in court and they go against san francisco. and i don't care how hard-hearted you are, when you hear that father say the last words his precious, beautiful

daughter said was help me, daddy, you're going to want to make san francisco pay for what they did. charles: absolutely. and speaking of which, ken, can you give us an update how your situation's going, the lawsuit with your new law? >> so when we passed this, obviously, we passed the sanctuary city will, the governor -- bill, the governor signed it into law, we immediately filed our own lawsuit suspecting cities would file a lawsuit against us. we've already been in court. they're asking for an injunction. but we're confident in the end we'll prevail, because this exact haw or very close to this law was are reviewed -- can already reviewed by the supreme court. we're confident we're going to be successful on this bill. >> when you talk about these national laws though, ken -- jerry will his here -- you know, the cities who are so pro this kind of sanctuary protection, they say they're just going to protest it. they're not going to go along with the federal government. aren't we headed for just a big fight on the ground with this? >> yeah, you're right.

i mean, just a lot of our major cities have sued us. again, it's something -- i live in travis county a good part of the time,s which is austin. we have a sheriff there that is not participating or helping the federal government. but i, again, have never heard a good rationale for why other than changing the topic to something that really doesn't relate to the bill. but why would the sheriff of the county that i live in not want to protect her citizens from criminals? it literally is mind-boggling and hard to understand. charles: attorney general ken paxton, thanks for showing up this pre-july 4th holiday. and i thank you again for all the work that you're doing. >> have a great day, happy fourth. >> he's doing a great job. charles: yeah, absolutely. let's check the big board, we're at an all-time high for the session, your portfolio's hooking great again. oil -- looking great again. oil a big reason why. it's made a huge comeback. a week and a half ago people were thinking it was going to have a so-called three handle. now look at amazon, they're

hiring more than 200 seasonal consumer service associates. they're going to work from their home, their pay is $10 an hour. it's a good way to get people back into the job market. also check this out, lockheed martin working with nasa saw to produce a supersonic planing that's also super quiet. it reduces the strength of those sonic booms, that loud noise you hear when the plane moves faster than the speed of sound. and a victory for the second amendment, four states passing new laws that give gun owners new rights to carry their weapons. we're all over that. also good news for travelers. if you're flying internationally, you might just be able to pack your laptop after all in your carry-on. we're going to have all the details for you right after the break. ♪ ♪ i noticed it as soon as we moved into the new house.

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charles: well, new gun laws now taking effect in several states, and tennessee concealed guns can be carried in more public buildings. in iowa, permit holders can carry guns in the capitol, and

in georgia, concealed guns are allowed on campus. seems like a smart way to make america safer. >> it is a way to make america safer. and as you were talking about earlier on the show before i came on, there's -- the data is very, very clear that if you allow more free adopt in carrying weapons -- freedom in carrying weapons by law-abiding people, the crime rates go down. and as was pointed out, gunmen look for areas that are gun-free zones x there was a "wall street journal" article some years back about the psychological nature of those who do these shootings. they don't want to go where they can be challenged. charles: right. >> so you allow more carry, then you're going to have less crazed gunmen, because they're going to get shot early on -- charles: let's face it, at their core they're cowards anyway. >> that's right. and the same with the shooter at the baseball park. charles: thank you very much. now to this, the government

scaling back parts of its laptop ban. gerri, you've got those details. >> that's right. they're opening it this much. abu dhabi, their airway was cleared sunday. airways, airlines, the industry pushing back against this. they tried to do it in europe, europe's airlines said, no way, we are not doing this no how. so this is a little retrenchment on the part of homeland security. abu dhabi airport is one of ten in the middle east and north africa that faces sanction. a lot of people pushing back, they don't want to see this happen. charles: that's your big income stream, businessmen, businesswomen carrying their laptops and playing solitary. they need 'em. [laughter] >> because they're working so hard. charles: the dow up 188, 89 points, we're near the high of the day, but also an all-time high. you are making a hot of money the day before we observe the july 4th holiday.

president trump making a surprise phone call to japan's prime minister last night, speaking to more world leaders today. looks like he may be circling the wagons against north korea. we have of the latest right after this. ♪ ♪

charles: well, july 1st marks the beginning of the new budget year, but these nine states still can't agree on a spending plan, and in illinois things have gotten so bad that republicans voted for a tax into cover the shortfall. economics professor peter morici joins us now. you've been telling us about this kind of stuff, but we're getting to that point that what happens? you know, we've heard about it, we've been warned about it, but now whatsome. >> well, not much really happens. the courts have decided that so many services have to stay open when governments shut down, it's really not a government shutdown. do you remember the last one we had here? mr. obama had to go around closing scenic overlooks on the parkways, you know, to see the river. so there would be some sort of, you know, inconvenience. i mean, the social security checks went out and so forth. we really don't have government shutdowns. the courts have basically eradicated them. charles: but, okay, on the federal side i understand, but what about these states?

what happens there? because illinois seems like they're at the point of no return. if they're talking about raising taxes to solve a problem that was created by high taxes in the first place. >> well, that's a different issue. i mean, illinois has decided they want to depopulate chicago. their trains are too crowded, and the way to do that is to make the state so inhospitable that no businesses will stay there. they're talking about raising the corporate tax by a great deal, they're talking about raising the personal income tax and so forth when already or people are leaving. now, they do have a budget problem. i mean, they're underfunding universities and other state services because they have such a mammoth pension burden. and what they really need to do is to amend their constitution so the courts won't get in the way of renegotiating those pensions. >> peter, let's face it, the problem is debt, debt, debt. and one of the dirty little secrets that nobody wants to talk about right now, interest rates are going to go up someday, and it's going to make all of that debt so much more expensive. what can we do about that? >> well, there's really not much

we can do, and i don't know that we ought to hold back on raising interest rates. but puerto rico is the first domino. illinois could well be next. and the courts, bondholders beware. what we learned in detroit and with the chrysler bailout with mr. obama leaning on the courts is that bondholders don't have the legal standing in the pecking order that they thought they once had. i mean, the fact is the courts in liberal places like chicago will put the opinionses in front of the bond -- the pensions in front of the bondholders. it is very foolish if your financial planner tells you to buy any kind of long-term municipals in a place like illinois, fire the financial planner and certainly don't why the bonds. -- don't buy the bonds. charles: peter, thank you so much for your expertise. >> take care. charles: congressman, what do you make of it? there are a lot of states that are on the cusp -- >> big trouble. charles: -- and it feels like they've crossed the rubicon with respect to being able to go about in the wrong way. they do the wrong thing and buy

time, but they make the situation worse. >> well, like puerto rico was mentioned. about a third of the people work for the government. they pay no federal income tax because they don't have a full voting member of congress, and yet they ought to be the hong kong of america, you know? with no federal income tax? people ought to be rushing there. no federal corporate tax except their local tax is higher than the federal tax because they've got so many people working for the government. a good friend got elected governor -- charles: yeah. >> he said we've got to reform this. and what'd they do? it was a close election, but they didn't reelect him after he started letting -- charles: but more recently, there was a vote and, like, 97%, 95% now want statehood. they want to be saved. but they did enter into a faustian deal. they had u.s. citizenship, they didn't have to pay taxes, but they had access to all these payments, so the welfare, the housing. all of this stuff took away the internal -- to me.

you go back to the 1950s, pert' eau's economy was -- puerto rico's economy was growing like crazy. it's completely gone. >> destroyed them because its has become such a welfare state, literally. so we need to make the message clear, states, you want your own laws and you should have them, so don't come looking to us -- [audio difficulty] charles: wonder how it's going to look when illinois finally goes bankrupt, because it cannot be a pretty picture. >> it won't be pretty, but, you know, being parent is not a pretty picture. as james dobson said, you show me a parent that has never said no, i'll show you a really messed-up kid. >> we know it's going to be a bailout -- charles: i can't see the trump administration -- >> somebody's got to bite the bullet and teach lesson. charles: well, they voted against term limits. maybe they won't have a choice. [laughter] in the meantime, president trump is still under fire by the mainstream media for doctoring this video. this shows him wrestling cnn to

the ground, but president taking a more serious tone this morning, for sure, tweeting among other things, quote: at some point the fake news will be forced to discuss our great jobs numbers, strong economy, success with isis, the border and so much else. we're joined now by david hoppy, ryan's former chief of staff. do you like the tweets you're seeing coming out of the president this morning? >> well, more than this morning, it's looking overall. the president has a very, very powerful ability to use his social media. but unfortunately, it's too on and off. there's no discipline, there's no consistent i. if he would use it consistently for things like getting health care reform, repeal and reform done, it would be a great, great a addition to the effort. but when he goes one way and then the other and does some of the personal things that he does, i don't think it's helped. because the consistency is the key here. charles: is that something, though, is that something of an

establishment copout that the president should get health care through in 140 characters or less when this is actually paul ryan's, you know, he gave paul ryan the baton, run with it and he barely got it over the finish line? >> what you need to do is work all together. let's look at the reagan administration. ronald reagan was the leader. the president always has the largest megaphone. nobody else can match it. that is the situation. ronald reagan worked very carefully, in a very disciplined manner to help get, first of all, budget reforms and budget changes and then tax changes. and he got all those done by august of his first year because he was working hand in glove and was very disciplined and consistent. this isn't trying to shift became in any way, it's simply saying the president has a power that ronald reagan never had with his social media, and he could use it very consistently and effectively, i think. but you can't be hither and yon, back and forth, in and out with different things. consistency means repetition. and i know that's sometimes boring, but it really can be

effective. and i think that's something that president trump can do very well. thus far the inconsistency has hurt. charles: although again, his core voting base seems to love it. they think it's absolutely right. they think he's been under fire from day one by the mainstream media. and it's been effective for him. and then i think the other part of this, of course, is as we talk congress is on recess. there's a move maybe to get them to not take the august recess. you compare this to ronald reagan who had no -- less obstructionism, he got along with tip o'neill and hay made things -- they made things happen. maybe those days are gone. >> well, i understand the core group of trump voters who say they like it that he's fighting back, and i understand that, and that can be, that can be a big help. but once again the best revenge is to get things done policy wise, to make those changes in policy that will make the country stronger, better,

provide more jobs, more growth, more opportunity. that's the best revenge, if you will, against the press who is obviously some of them are very one-sided against president trump. and i can understand the frustration that core trump people have with that. but one of the other things we need to do is start walking through here. if congress needs to stay in longer in august to do this, i think that's fine. charles: right. >> they can make that choice and that decision. i would tell you that you get about six, beyond six weeks in a row with congress not having some time back with their constituents, and it's counterproductive. diminishing returns, as the economists would say. charles: david, thank you very much. really appreciate that. now this: president trump talking to japan's prime minister abe about the growing threat from north korea. now, prime minister abe has agreed to put more pressure on the regime. congressman gohmert's with us. what can we expect? north korea's obviously going to be a big deal when the g20 gets together later on this week. >> well, it is going to be a problem.

but i think that's where pelosi and schumer don't understand when they call trump crazy is and say he has -- that is an immense help for anybody negotiating in a foreign atmosphere. it helped reagan to be portrayed as crazy. our smartest president supposedly had the most trouble getting deals done whereas i think trump is going to be able to get a lot more done because they think this guy's crazy, he may actually launch -- charles: someone like japan, should we say let's go ahead and move away from that pacifist constitution that was foisted upon you when you lost world war ii -- >> trump knows how to use those things. you're exactly right. charles: maybe these countries should be able to defend themselves. >> exactly. and, of course, trump knows that the big fear was japan might rearm themselves and get nuclear weapons, and everybody in the region including china and north

korea's scared of that. so let that be the offer. okay, you either straighten up, or japan's getting them. i think we see a changed attitude altogether. and this thing i love about trump too is he doesn't bluff. he's going to let us go the other direction, and they know that. and i think it'll wake them up in north korea and china. oh, my gosh, we better straighten north korea up, or japan is going to be our worst nightmare. charles: let's hope so, because north korea -- that is a crazy dude. and we're not completely sure how to deal with him, but we have to. big rallies, by the way, in california over the weekend. protesters want the state to expand its health care coverage. in fact, what they want is a single-payer system. free health care for all, come to california! come back, everyone that left. and by the way, the state's raising its gas tax again. it's already one of the most expensive states to gas up. now drivers are going to pay even more at the pump. more "varney" after this. ♪

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♪ >> i'm nicole petallides with your fox business brief on a record-setting day on wall street. the dow can, all-time high. the transports, all-time high. taking a look at microsoft, a down arrow, down about a half of 1%. likely that the company will be announcing some job cuts

according to tech crunch that the firm will be now announcing thousands of staff cuts. sooner than later. take a look at some of the prior years. 2014 when they had the acquisition of nokia, 18,000 layoffs. 2015, nearly 8,000. and 2016, about 5,000. some of those came on the heels of the nokia acquisition, and you can also see those here. by the way, we're looking at a one-year chart also of microsoft, and don't forget they had that big acquisition of linkedin, $26 billion. the total employees, over 121,000. and we'll see if they do their layoffs by the end of the week. ♪ ♪

charles: protests erupting as california drops its universe health insurance plan. the proposal would have cost taxpayers -- 400 billion -- $400 billion. larry elder joins us now. larry, it's pretty clear that even californians didn't want this, and still the so-called leaders in the state rallying up the troops, and they've got these massive protests going on. >> well, welcome to california. [laughter] you have the left-wing part of the democratic party following with the left, left-wing part of the democratic party, and the sensible guy in the room is the governor of california, a heft-wing democrat, who once said fairly recently minimum wage hikes don't make much sense, but they make great moral sense. so he signed the bill even

though he admitted it did not make much economic sense. that's what's going on here in this state. a trillion dollars unfunded pension liability, and they want a $400 billion single-payer bill with no funding mechanism. so even the person who introduced the bill has pulled it. not that they oppose single payer, but they recognize there's no revenue stream for it, at least not yet. charles: to your point, that has not always stopped them in the past. maybe we found a magic number that brings some sanity to the state, because the moon beam is leading that charge. you know something's wrong. i want to ask you about this, larry, californians just raised their gas tax another 1.9 cents per gallon. it's already the most expensive state, one of the most expensive states to live in when you count everything. what's the thinking there? >> well, the thinking is that if we raise taxes even more, maybe some day the roads will be paved and we'll be work. we've got some of the worst roads in the state because the money is not being used for the roads. so the idea, of course, is to

throw more money at the problem. sooner or later, say these left-wing democrats, the problem will go away. this is a one-party state. the democrats have a supermajority in the senate, they've got a supermajority in the assembly, they don't need republicans at all, so there's nobody at all to restrain them, and they are spending and spending and spending and driving job creators away from the state. charles: their economic policies in california drive everyone mad outside of that state. but the sanctuary cities stuff is even worse, larry. san francisco taxpayers are now set to have to pay an illegal immigrant $190,000 in a lawsuit settlement. apparently, he was arrested by i.c.e. agents after going to a police station to retrieve his stolen car, and now he claims san francisco violated his sanctuary city -- let's call 'em rights for lack of a better word? [laughter] >> right. charles charles what's your take on that? >> i think he even used the word right. he said he was being treated unfairly. he comes to the country illegally. apparently, somebody stole his car. he went to report it, the police

turned him over to i.c.e. and because he was detained for two months, he's suing san francisco claiming that they violated their sanctuary city laws and, therefore, owe him money. and believe it or not, they are entering into a settlement of $190,000. it's got to be approved. but knowing this state, it will likely be approved x. the guy still hasn't been deported. charles: oh, my god. larry, i tell you, we thank you for staying there and fighting the good fight and reporting it out to us. if you ever need us to come get you, send out an sos. >> i'm just doing the job that an illegal alien won't do, charles. [laughter] charles: have a great fourth of july, larry. >> you got it. charles: congressman gohmert, you hear, golly, it's -- imagine that? you come into the country illegally, and then you get to sue because you were turned over for violating the federal law that prohibits people from coming into the country illegally. and you get $190 grand. >> well, and not only that, by the last eight years not even enforcing our laws the way they

were written the border control told me in the middle of the night, the drug cartels control every inch from the mexico side of our border. you can't cross without making some arrangement with them. i've been there when border patrolmen, it's not on their list of questions, say how much do you have to pay to the gangs, the drug cartel -- 5, 7, $8,000. where'd you get that kind of money? well, a thousand here, 1500 there, you know? they say, well, what about the rest? over and over i've heard them say, well, they're going to let me work it off when i get to the city where i'm going. charles: right. >> and what city is that? it's the one the drug cartel gives them and says show them this address, they'll send you. and this one said they call us, they're logistics. they get them across the border illegally, they pay the drug cartels to get them in, and then dhs gets them to cities where

not only are they violating the immigration laws, there's some of them that become the drug salesmen, getting this poison into our america. charles: it's aa amazing. >> it is a bad deal all around, and the best thing we can do for mexico, build a wall and stop the illegal -- charles: another great case for the wall, guys. >> yes, sir. charles: let's check the big board on this holiday-shortened -- up 200 points. that's a record high for your money. all-time record. the market closes at 1:00. at this pace maybe i'll have to start getting the vocal cords ready. [laughter] and next, do you want to do something to help our troops this independence day? well, there's an app for that. i cannot wait to show you this right after the break. ♪ ♪ ♪

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endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. plus, nine out of ten plan members surveyed say they would recommend their plan to a friend. remember, medicare doesn't cover everything. the rest is up to you. call now, request your free decision guide and start gathering the information you need to help you keep rolling with confidence. go long™. ♪ charles: well, as we celebrate our freedom this july 4th, our next guest is helping the men and women that fight for our freedom with an app. want to welcome in the founder and president of troops need you. eric, tell us about your organization. >> sure. hi, charles. thanks for having me on. sure. so this is a great way for

everyday americans to help troops who are in combat, special operations all over the world and get them the equipment that they need for their mission. a lot of people assume that troops have everything they need for their mission, and that's true when it comes to guns and tankings. but we're asking them to do things that are unconventional, and a lot of times they need things that are out of the ordinary or need new versions of old supplies that don't, you know, that don't work as well as new ones. so that's where we come in. i came up with the idea, yeah, i used to be a counterterrorism operative and a career intelligence guy, so served all over the world and was helping troops, combat, special forces, understand how to target terrorist networks in iraq -- charles: eric, but let me -- give us an example. we're showing a helmet on the screen. we're talking about things that do their jobs like equipment like that? >> yeah. so they have helmets, but they're issued the kind of world war ii-style, you know, ones that would make gome are --

gomer pyle proud. and there's always gaps in combat. so this is an example. we have 41 requests all over the world really from iraq, afghanistan into africa where units have been given these old style helmets, and they don't integrate with their communication, their headsets and some of the things they need to communicate well. most units are getting issued these new helmets. these units have just kind of fallen into the gap. so let's have everyday americans donate through the app or the web site at troops need you.org, and then that money goes to buy that equipment and send that to the troops who have requested them, who need them. charles: can you specify a particular soldier or unit, or do you guys determine who receives it? >> well, we only ask for -- i mean, we only post these things based on specific unit requests -- charles: okay. >> so we get requests, and then we have a process for validating and vetting those. and then we, once we post them and we raise the funds for them,

then we buy it and ship it to those specific units that request them, to the specific individual troops who are currently deployed. charles: right. >> who have asked for those -- charles: troops need you. eric, it's a wonderful, wonderful thing you've developed here. thank you very much. more "varney" after this. >> great, thank you. ♪

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charles: want to give a special thanks to gerri willis and congressman gohmert spending last hour with us. gerri all morning long.

the markets, guys, looking at all-time high. manufacturing data coming across the country extraordinarily strong. new orders up, production is up. exports is up. everything is up. handing a world record to neil cavuto. neil: if it doesn't stay, it is on me, way to go, charles, thanks. charles, never thank your before thes coming on staying a long time. you should say it is your honor. that doesn't work? >> still learning. neil: there you go, buddy. keeping close eye what is happening on corner of wall and broad. volume fraction what it would be, day before major holiday markets close in another hour or so. sometimes in these types of environments markets do the darnedest things. like racing to records, fairly broad based performances going on here. nicole petallides, too pick it all apart at the new york stock exchange. hey, nicole.