item two, amazon may be thinking about a messaging app, may be coming up with competition for blue apron. blue apron in the doldrums, way down, below its ipo price. my time is up. neil cavuto, it is yours. neil: thank you, stuart, very, very much. we're following those developments. we're focusing on health care delay because john mccain recuperating at his home. making opponents make their case, torpedo this thing maybe for the umteenth time. amy, to you first, i just see trouble afloat here longer this is delayed. i don't think it helps, i think it hurts. what do you think? >> i definitely agree with that statement. senator heller is in a bit of a pickle, no matter which way he votes we come from a state that expanded medicaid.

we also come from a state where insurance companies pulled out of 14, to 17 counties. most of the people can't afford health insurance. they won't have any option at all in the next enrollment period. neil: i'm reminded what fred barnes had to say in today's "wall street journal." will be a special guest of mine on fox news later today. but he said republicans are not acting like team players. referring to senator paul, kevin, he owes boss senate bill because it leaves too much obamacare in place but the alternative to leave it all in place. what do you make of that? >> that is certainly true. a vote to not move forward is vote for obamacare. it is a vote for the status quo. we know where that is going. it will have to be ailed out one way or the other. it is in a death spiral. we all know what the democrats answer is to that. dump a ton of money. reform nothing.

kick the can down the road wait for it to fail at a later date. this is the time to act. they have gone on this for eight years. they have won 1000 legislative seats. they have all three branches of government. they need to act. there is no perfect bill. this is as good as it gets. neil: logic would dictate that, amy, but logic is not what with see from republicans. i'm waiting for those that want to come up with something better, but the argument they can come up with something perfect is is unrealistic whether on the left or right. surely whatever they come up with they can fine tune, address, change much of those who put forward obamacare have done so no fewer than a dozen times. >> obamacare is falling apart. we can see it happening before our very eyes. if you want to do political thing, watch it completely go to the downward spiral. if you want to do right thing for constituents with no

coverage or maybe little too choose from you need to move forward. anything can be better than obamacare at this point. that is, my family of six though, our premiums have gone up 300%. our deductibles gone up 500%. each person has to meet a 5000 deductible, for special co-pay doctor, my son sees heem toist and cardiologist, it went from $50 to $500, before any nris or prescriptions. neil: what kind of plan? >> prominence, it has been dropped from nevada. there are only four insurance companies that stick around. neil: kevin, also comes back to what will republicans be known for here. that they're known for not being able to stick together. they used to be well-known for sticking together. maybe that easy to do when you're the party in opposition because democrats are proving it is a lot easier to stick together and they have done that

but this could come back to boomerang on the party period, isn't it? >> absolutely. if they can't do this now, repeal and replace, which they campaigned on eight years now, what does the republican party fundamentally stand. this would be the biggest entitlement reform ever, $772 billion in medicaid. addressing a real problem in that medicaid, the people now on medicaid, 70 million people are not who the program was ever intended for. this would next that and better options an health care outcomes. that is what we stand for. i don't know what we bo back to the voters in 2018 and 2020 if we can't do this now. neil: amy, if you fail at this, not perfect to both of your points i don't know if you will get another shot at the apple here. >> yes, i would agree and it is going to be ashame. it will hurt the next election cycle and constituents.

it will be hurt the middle class who are stuck with this mandate. neil: thank you both for this. just trying to size up this. not trying to be cynical or jaded about it, seems fred barnes got it right again. my special guest at 4:00 p.m. eastern time on fox news, that republicans are not team players. he gets into this and how it will come back to hit them in theheinie. one of the parts that sticks in the craw particularly conservatives accept keeping two very prominent taxes in obamacare, the 3.8% surtax on investment income for richer folks and medicare tax that stays enact for richer folks. one interview with key republican players, what is in there now, doesn't mean it is in there always. listen closely. >> even if you left that in as potential pay-for on repeal and replacement. we have tax reform on back side of that.

we know lower taxes stimulate the economy, you would be open to that as far as getting to the tax thing. >> the devil is in the details. our official position is to repeal all the taxes. at same time i before i weigh in on anything i look at both the tradeoffs. neil: in other words you are telling those leery about that we'll address this with a tax reform measure, maybe move it then? >> absolutely. there is opportunity for us to gain momentum through passing of this health care legislation and then have a conversation and hopefully tax reform that includes dealing with those taxes that we have not dealt with in the health care bill. neil: all right. now you might have caught the gist of that from both key, largely conservative players here in the house and the senate. this tax cut would be included in the senate plan would not necessarily be permanent. i come to discover once taxes are in place very hard to remove.

nevertheless holding out dangling to the possibility that republicans might wince at that. calm down we can always remove this later in tax reform. what are the chances of that? tea party patriots jenny beth martin. what do you think? >> thanks for having me, neil. right now the american's people's faith in congress to keep its promises is really, really low. what we're seeing right now still from the senate, contrary hery to what you and previous guests were say, the bill before the senate still has not earned the support of tea party patriots. neil: it never will. you know what jenny beth, i don't want to be cynical or jaded. i'm not in bad monday mood. they're so far apart, looking for perfection, best they can do is a good bill, more market friendly and free market friendly alternative is out there. no one is crashing medicaid. no one is ripping it apart. i will still grows under the senate plan. still grows substantially, not

as much as under the president's affordable care act, president obama's. nevertheless i think they will screw it up. disavow me of that notion if i'm wrong? >> i think what we're seeing, i'm just going to tell you what our supporters are saying neil. that is what i do, reflect what the grassroots are saying around this country. they voted for repeal of obamacare. they're looking at the bill right now before the senate and still is not repealing obamacare. it is leaving in place some of the taxes. neil: they're right. they're right. they will never get to perfect, right. >> you're asking can we trust future tax reform and he repeal of the taxes later and what, our supporters are saying they haven't kept promises yet for repeal. we want to get this bill where we can support it. they can do that putting language in from the consumer freedom amendment and not twisting it the way it is twisted right now. neil: that is interesting, you're always a straight-shooter with me. i always appreciate that. your view it is worth the fight to make this right?

your view something isn't always better than nothing? the fred barnes approach to settle for this, move on, we can deal with taxes as some of those prior guests were saying later, you don't buy that? >> what i'm saying it is absolutely worth the fight to get it right right now. there are people athis country, not just elected officials promised to repeal it, people knocked on doors, pecked up phone, made phone calls, donated to candidates to get them majority in the house and senate. neil: i'm telling you they refuse, they are obstinate. i don't take anything away from being, whatever strong-willed you for our particular cause but they can not come to an agreement. like my sons. they would rather punish themselves for hours than come together on something here. that is reality. >> well, if they want to earn the respect of the people who put them in the majority, they're going to have to take what they're doing right now in the senate, just a little bit

further. they can do that by put, not neutering the language of the consumer freedom amendment. i think if they would make sure the way that amendment was presented last week is in there, the way it should be, that they probably could earn the support of tea party patriots activists around the country. and that would give us enough faith to trust that they will get tax reform closer to being correct as well. but they can't say that it is repeal when it is not repeal and it -- neil: it is better than what is out there, right? i'm with you, certainly it is not repeal. because it is not repeal because they couldn't have got a lot of democrat support, that is what democrats saying don't repeal it. it is too late for that. your view there is still a deal to be had, they could get this right, don't is? >> that is our, that is where we stand. and i am still optimistic they are going to do that. it took several iterations for

the house freedom caucus to support it and earn support of tea party patriots. i think we have little more to go in the senate. i understand it is not going to be perfect. it will not be what i want. i guarranty you it will not be what the vast majority of the tea party patriot supporters want either, but we wan to get it enough we can at least support it so we can move to the next thing. congress, failure is not an option. they have to do this. neil: you're speaking logic. you're speaking logic, jenny beth, as you always do i think failure very much will be an option. assume they can't come together on this, i'm more jaded than you are i think they ought to move on to the tax reform thing, time is a wasting what do you think? if they can't agree? >> they're going to agree on health care, they're going to a point where they can. they have. they have to keep that promise. neil: i have to eat right. i don't. i'm telling you. we'll see what happens. >> we'll see what happens.

i'm going to be cautiously optimistic. neil: you always are. jenny beth, appreciate it. thank you very much. good seeing again. >> thank you, neil. neil: i will heart emails from you, nothing tells me on the past experience on part of republicans, they have a death wish. their death wish is to lose house, lose senate, at couple years at rate they're going lose presidency. don't blame all of this on donald trump because he at least and his staff have been very busy with the next battle. seeing past this battle on tax reform. they're making rapid progress on that. i'm talking signed, sealed, almost delivered on that. gaspo on the story you don't know. ♪

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switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. neil: all right. amid all this back and forth are we looking at a new russia-type watergate investigation here?

the messaging campaign is still pretty much what it was from the beginning from the white house, operation largely ignore. depends on what the president is tweeting. to blake burman with the very latest. reporter: hi, neil, on this day, on this week the white house is trying to direct the messaging made in america. that is the theme throughout the week. there will be similar themes two following weeks after that. the later today the president is set to take place with an event on the south lawn. there is massive display right now of made in america products. 49 out of 50 states represented and on wednesday he will issue a proclamation. most times they roll out the themed weeks, infrastructure week, workforce development week, to rattle off the top of their head, distractions pushed the white house off of that message. in fact on this day the president has sent out one tweet and it had nothing to do with made in america. here is what he tweeted out.

quote, most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one don, jr., attended in order to get info on an opponent. that's politics. speaking of 308 ticks, neil, white house and really republicans throughout the town, go through the order of health care first, tax reform second. chuck grassley on this day made a pretty interesting prediction speaking to stuart varney earlier today. take a listen to the senator. >> what most people really want is some form of tax cut? do you think we'll get that? >> absolutely before christmas. reporter: before christmas says grassley on tax reform. however, neil, the whole schedule is murky. it was murky before the news of john mccain. just a few weeks until the middle of august trying to get health care done. at that point, at some point it would be on to tax reform. the waters toe certainly murky as the white house and republicans are trying to figure

out a way forward on both of these items, neil. neil: blake, thank you very, very much. speaking of delay voting on the health care thing, originally indicated to be the case, john mccain will be out at least a week right now. his doctors don't want him to fly with removal of a tumor above his eye. it could keep him out of action at a lot of a week. that was telegraphed by most of the media, they thought he could come back in couple days he was smoking something. they didn't say that. it will be a week. what happens in that week is anyone's guess. more time as we point out outset of this show, those concerned about various parts of health care reform not to allow it to move much further along. to fox business network's charlie gasparino. other developments and team trump begins to move on past this i'm not being cynical here. they are looking at life after this. >> right. next week will be pumpkin spice latte week by the administration

just to change the subject. neil: they have a variety of other flavors. do they have much of that where you were, sun valley? >> sun valley -- neil: the latte thing. >> starbucks is there. it's great. i didn't order any of that. neil: did any moguls you bump into, you were having problems with security guards. >> two years ago. neil: everything hunky-dory? >> i saw the cope. he is new york city cop. i saw the dude. he waved back at me. neil: you sure he waved? take a good look at the finksers? >> he put the snakes around me. neil: you and your producer did great. >> brian did great. we for shadowed something going on. some moguls and people there were talking about how trump was holding fairly high-level meetings inside of the white house right before he went to france to try to move forward on tax cuts and change, essentially change the narrative

from russia, don, jr., all that stuff to domestic agenda that a lot of people, markets obviously like, business community likes. you see today that is what he is trying to do. he is trying to move forward with health care. mitch mcconnell is trying to wrangle those votes. inside of the white house there is still lots of talk about the big corporate tax cut. the number they're sticking with apparently is 15%. neil: really? >> that is what i understand. as of last week when we reported that, late last week, i rechecked on friday -- neil: orrin hatch was saying more like 20, 25. >> gary cohn is telling people and mnuchin, the treasury secretary, telling people i spoke with, they will start at 15. maybe that is a bargaining chip and moves up. neil: they're full throttle on this i guess feeling not full throttle, if senators work something out great, but we're not counting on it, that is my read. >> i think they're full throttle

particularly on corporate taxes. you have to get in the head of people like mnuchin and gary cohn. particularly cohn. cohn is a liberal but he is a business, how can i put it? he is a big business liberal. he is much more moderate. if you go down the line with people like that, because i covered these guys, harry fincke, democrat liberal who runs lack rock -- larry fink. blankfein, runs goldman sachs. they are in favor of corporate tax cut. neil: less so on personal rates. >> less so on personal rates because they believe -- neil: they think push the corporate rate down, get to personal rates later on. >> the first priority if you know cohn and mnuchin, now they work for the president, to get the corporate tax rate down -- neil: what do you think of what senator grassley was telling varney by christmas? that dead lien keeps getting

pushed back by the way. >> who knows. they have to do something with health care first, right? they can do full throttle on tax cuts but here -- neil: no possibility of dumping the health care thing because they can't agree and move on? >> that is not what mcconnell is saying. vote on it or not vote on it and move on. there are tax increases involved in health care. neil: right. >> if you see one thing that everybody kind of agrees with, get corporate tax rate down. if you're looking for like where people start to meander about deficits and stuff like that, a lot has to do with individual tax rates. neil: i'm saying if they're arguing and some in the senate are accepting quite happily keeping some of the taxes in place on the will to do guys like you -- >> right. neil: so i'm thinking then they will be pretty pragmatic comes to the tax cut portion of this and maybe not so generous and therefore pushing it back to the end of the year. i don't know. looks problematic. >> listen, it is not going well, we know that you could see or

else it would have been done by now. they haven't gotten health care passed. neil: i don't think either happens this year. >> you're probably right. i know they're trying. they see direct, everybody where they see unanimous agreement is on lowering the corporate tax rate. neil: right. >> it is so obvious. we pay a 35% corporate tax rate here in the u.s. our corporations. i know there is a lot of loopholes and deductions but effective rate is -- neil: if they don't get the health care thing done which opens way for a lot of other things it is tough to get to the next thing, right? >> i think it is tough to get individual things. listen our corporate tax rate is higher than anywhere in the world. neil: right. >> if there is one thing that says, screaming out for reform -- neil: logic dictates working on it. logic dictates coming up with a health care alternative because anything would be better in the republican minds than is what is out there. >> chuck schumer is running left where he used to be. if you talk to his big

contributors like gary cohn used to be and larry fink is, they would be pressuring him to cut the corporate tax rate. they're democrats. neil: they're in sync together on this. schumer has done remarkable job keeping 48 democrats -- >> they are the opposition party and they're united opposing donald trump. it is working so far. where they start to crack on some of these things, where even their donors are telling them -- neil: will the moguls worried none of this comes to pass? >> that is a good question. they are worried about dysfunction. they, you now ivanka, ivanka trump, the daughter and jared kushner. they're both advisors to the president. and listen, i think these guys were very nice to them. a lot of people at sun valley are media moguls, so they're left of center, right, but i think what they talk about is dysfunction. and it is under the rubric of

what's going on and, it is, you know, if you listen to them, the country is going in the wrong direction. neil: right. >> you know, i think if you cut taxes -- neil: barry diller wants him out of there. >> that is insane? he is out of his mind. neil: charlie gasparino, great job. >> thank you. neil: thank you, very much. meantime the president is still railing against fake news. sometimes he has a point because this other news about what he is doing, that gets no play, does it? again, charlie and i figure on this broadcast, there are a few 24 hour news stations, a few 24 hour business networks, we have time to get into everything good, bad, in between, time to cover pumpkin spice lattes. it is up to america what you want. we will give you what you need. more after this.t into a ♪ rates... maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates

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neil: president trump saying once again fake news is distorting democracy and media

not taking that well. "daily mail".com white house correspondent francesca chambers if the media is thin-skinned than the president they say is really thin-skinned. we go back and forth. i think the media is notoriously thin-skinned. i think the president is thin-skinned too. so the better part of valor is ignore the fact, let them be the little thin-skinned people they are. what do you think? >> i think the difficulty for journalists, neal, when the president attacks them they feel need to defend themselves. everyone talks about this president has historically low approval rating. we all know the media also has a very low approval rating. neil: right. >> i think journalists feel when he attacks their news organizations or attacks journalists broadly they have to fight back, of course we're not putting fraudulent reports out there. of course the people -- neil: here is the problem with that francesca. i think most journalists try not

to do it, but it becomes almost reflexive in their bias and advocacy. they hate the guy. maybe for a good reason. he rips them apart, says outlandish stuff about him. half the stuff is fake started with him, i red dill agree with that. he is feeding the beast and acting beasley in return, going after him, in a way normally wouldn't be the case unless he acted that way. >> very cyclical process. first he says something about journalists. journalists fire back at him. he hits journalists back on twitter. the thing i point out when the white house keep saying journalists in the media are not focused on donald trump's accomplishments, he is also the one who keeps tweeting things at me media. neil: fully agree. >> not talking about those things and focusing on made in america week what they're saying at white house. neil: i fully agree with that. all for him tweeting for example, but tweet on message, keep to the message.

made in america, very good message. stay with that. veering off going back into your son, i understand defending your son you're feeting more ammunition in there. having said it, do you think this will change? i don't know if it makes a difference or i have asked this of ari fleischer and others, changing briefings, is he ever going to improve his relations? i think they're really bad. i don't see them getting a whole lot better. what do you think? >> the president made it clear how he feels about the media, neil. he repeatedly said these things, calling them enemy of the american people. calling into question anonymous sources that reporters are using, even as the white house by the way continuously briefs on backgrounds with white house officials we're not allowed to say who they are in our own reporting. neil: fair enough, fair enough. >> we can't know who these u.s. officials are in some of the reports that these outlets are doing. right now, it seems like you said, that it is going to

continue on down this path. we have another off-camera briefing today with sean spicer it sounds like who we haven't seen at the podium in quite a while. we'll see if shows up or sarah huckabee sanders. neil: i always let people know on this show, president doesn't like to come on this show. goes back many months ago. that is absolutely fine. he is free not to come on, not like me, to feed the beast, personally invective with him, or nasty with him that wouldn't do anyone any good. i cover the good, the bad, in between, i think a lost journalists, we all have our pride, myself included you get so annoyed somebody comes up, you catch the president in something you disproportionately because you hate the guy? >> speaking for myself, neil. i try to focus on the facts here. neil: understood. >> what the white house is doing i think there is no doubt that there has become a relationship of animosity between the

white house and some news outlets that news outlets are hitting back at him. neil: but you're not vindictive, you know what i mean? you will report the bad just like you did here. you will report the good whenever something else is going on. i'm telling you it is human nature, believe me, sometimes justified human nature for people to go to the jugular when they feel they have been treated unfairly or harpooned on subject on this i'm saying you ought to be careful, right? >> i think again we're seeing that. we're seeing that on both sides. that is why the president is doing this. he thinks he being treated unfairly bit news outlets. he thinks it affects his approval rating that he has to hit back. i had white house advisors telling me, he is reacting what he is seeing, when he hits outlets and reporters because they said something about him he feels like he needs to defend himself on. neil: we're moments away from him tweeting on you. we'll see what that is all about. francesca chambers, thank you very much. >> thank you.

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call to save $500 off bath walls with your walk-in bath or visit kohlerwalkinbath.com for more info. ♪ neil: all right. six months in and "abc/washington post" poll showing president's approval rating not so hot 36% but there is a new "wall street journal/nbc" poll, shows 50% approval, focus on counties donald trump won last november. uva center for politics director larry sabato, what he makes of all of that. what do you think, larry? >> well, neil, combination of two things, obviously. russia gate and related controversies and scandals, that is one part of trump's problem. i think the larger part is actually the fact that he hasn't been able to get any of his top priorities through a republican congress. now you can argue about how much

of that is his fault and how much is the house's fault an how much is the senate's fault but to voters who don't follow all the ins and outs, they sim ily know nothing's been done. neil: you know, larry, a lot of people always say, depending what you read, you have a great sweeping view of history, you can help us, they live in the moment, worst any president ever done at this juncture presidency, in modern polling that's true, but other president es have had rough first half years. can we go through that? >> absolutely. go back to clinton. clinton had probably the next lowest to trump. he was in the low 50s or high 40s by the end of that first year, depending which poll you referred to. remember, that led to a disaster in 1994. he had a very tough, poor, first two years. so, you can bounce back from things like that. now unfortunately it frequently take as terrible disaster,

calamity, like the oklahoma city bombing in bill clinton's case, or for george bush. he was at 51. 9/11 pushed him up to 90% briefly. for quite some time in the 60s 70s. you know know he what happens tomorrow or next year. the president tweeted something that has been ridiculed, i will support him on this, i will shock you. he said close to 40 isn't bad at this particular juncture. well, given everything that's happened, that's true. and he actually was close to 40. why? you just said 36%. actually, if you went into the entrails of that poll he is at 39% among registered voters f they had narrowed it further, further to likely voters he would have been in the low 40s, very close where he was on election day. i don't know how much things have really changed since november 8th. people are really dug in.

neil: but they bounced around since he has become president on these levels. other presidents bounced around similar levels first few months in office. john kennedy came storming back from low levels. are there outside events that do it? you touched on events for bill clinton? or just the fact it could take something as surprising as a legislative victory, maybe on the health care front, maybe on the tax cutting front, maybe both? what would do it? >> yeah, well, i think human-powered events and, you know, god-caused event. "human events" would be getting a couple of big pieces of the legislative package passed. and that is still within the realm of possibility. they can do things at the last minute. the guy who always does it is mitch mcconnell. remember all the times that he engineered last-minute deals right before christmas? even right before congress -- it is possible. neil: you think he can do that?

>> well, if he can't do it on health care i'll tell you, if they can't get a major tax cut passed, tax cuts are the magic elixer of the republican party. they cure all ills, right? no matter what you have got. neil: they would have to depend to shelf the health care thing going know where past. that is the right thing to do? >> they have got to make, make clear what it is they can get passed and then do it. as i said, other thing could produce it is some disaster where trump serves as a unifier. he has got the potential to do that but he never exercised it, mainly because what you discuss early in the show. he constantly on the attack. he never lets anything go. as president you have to let things go. you don't respond to petty attacks. but he does. he responds to everyone. neil: so does everyone of my family. comes with the turf. professor, thank you, very, very much. >> thank you, neil. good to see you.

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neil: you know, i always think amazon should be careful here because it is seemingly invading a lot of different companies' turf. blue apron latest one. the stock tumbling on a report that amazon is filing a meal kit. offering something blue apron does. any hint it goes into somebody else's business they all get blown out of there. if you want to get government regulators attention, that is the kind of stuff you do. major u.s. companies are boosting their 401(k) benefits. there is a lot of reasons for this but gerri willis has all the details. hey, gerri. >> that's right, neil. whoo who, more money from your company. the numbers are impressive. average company contribution to 401(k)s rose 4.7% in 2016 up from 3.9% in 2015. it was highest percentage and biggest year to year jump in a decade.

that data coming from fund giant vanguard group which runs 1900 work place retirement savings plans. the big question, why are employers doing this, right? after all the move away from defined benefit pension plans into 401(k)s in the first place was to save money. putting more money in 401(k)s is a move in the opposite direction. the answer though according to "the wall street journal" today, boosting retention of the best employees. that is one reason they're doing it. helping boomers who may not have saved enough for retirement to retire on time. employees who don't have adequate savings tend to stay in their jobs longer. they add to overall health costs. they're expensive, companies are trying to save money that way. even a small change though in contribution makes a big difference. according to vanguard a 25-year-old starts saving for retirement making $40,000 a year, contributing maximum matched by their employer would have 297,710 at age 65, if the

employer matches half of contributions at 3%. but that same employee would have $595,000, a little more at retirement were the employer to match at rate of 6%. look, bottom line americans have a long way to go when it comes to retirement savings. the average total employee and company contribution to work place savings plans among workers participating hasn't moved above 11% for a decade. retirement advisors generally suggest savings of 15% of income per year. neil? neil: gerri, thank you very, very much. gerri willis. earnings season kicking off. i want to get into that. i want to touch on the amazon thing quickly with gary kaltbaum and heather zumaraga. with sunamerica funds. getting into blue apron's turf and a lot of folks turf as its wont. won't constant movement into other fields draw the attention

of regulators, whether it is justified or not, and isn't that a potential shadow? i should disclose i am a amazon shareholder but what do you make of that. >> who isn't, right? neil: you're exactly right about that. >> well i would say it is already catching a lot of attention from regulators in general. technology he across the board, look at ai, artificial intelligence and displacing jobs. they're coming and taking over companies. it might be the death of the human workforce and the rise of the robots and the machines, right? i mean that is what we have to be careful. we want all of this technology to occur but we also need to make sure we don't put other businesses, you know, just put them aside, mom-and-pop stores and small business owners just can't make it. we don't want that to happen. neil: next thing they will go into television news. game over. gary, i was thinking about amazon, its stock performance, heather is right on the money

everyone has a stake in this it seems, but if not for amazon, apple, facebook a, a couple other players, if you didn't have those in your portfolio you are not doing nearly as well. i'm wondering if that is anxiety-producing moment for you? that it is so disproportionately weighed in these names? >> you would rather see it a lot more broad based but the market is in pretty good stead here. the s&p 500 just broke out which brings a lot of stocks with it. the russell 2000 is on the verge. that is a lot of stocks. it is more than just those name. when you see a big percentage, that is where you get worried and get little bubbles because everyone gets on to a one-sided trade. if anything does go wrong, everybody out the door. that is to watch in earnings season. if you get one companies missing estimates it could be bye-bye. neil: one thing that is not pai bye, is this notion that the

market can keep going forward, heather. riding wall of worry, we haven't had a correction in a decade, you know the drill, it is getting some people scared long in the tooth, how do you answer, particularly young investors i want in, what should i do? >> all about guidance, neil. 80% of companies, roughly 80% have beaten earnings. 80% have it higher in the future. that is what we look for. neil: in other words, not enough to beat the number out there but independent -- estimates out there that we'll go higher? >> especially this earnings season the bar is set so low. look at energy an consumer, if we're beating expectations more important to look at forward guidance than current expectations in the market. neil: gary, looking at all of that, what do you think? >> expectations are low for energy as well as big retail but expectations are very high for all the technology areas that have been so strong. >> you're right.

>> i'm looking at reactions. sometimes everything is all built in, because things are so great especially semiconductors whose earnings skyrocketed over the last year. if we get a down cycle, start to see guidance the wrong way, these things are up in the trees. again it is not the news. it is how things react to news. right now one of my golden rules take a step back. don't buy anything new, especially close to earnings. wait to see what the reaction is, and then take it from there. there will be a real interesting season because i think expectations are high on the best areas an when they're high, sometimes it is only one place to go. so far so good. the market acts fine. even though you had the june 9th top in beta. you bombed july 7th. turned up. you're acting better this year. neil: heather, we don't get a health care or tax deal this year, what next. >> all bets are off.

if we don't have forward guidance, if technology isn't meeting one of only high hurdles out there in earnings season right now, then we're looking for tax reform. you can't get that without health care. neil: guys, want to thank you both very, very much. that is not prevailing view we don't get either. remind you we don't get either. on that, guys i love, love, to be wrong. we shall see. we have a lot more out of health care back and forth. mitch mcconnell he is brilliant cobbling together votes. there is no one better in the senate. maybe unless you go back to everett dirksen, people like that able to cobble together in the house, later in the senate, legislation that was impossible to get. he did it. can itch? after this. -- mitch after this. copd makes it hard to breathe. so to breathe better,

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neil: all right. real quickly, we've got the dow up in record territory, advancing about 15 points here despite that because of john mccain and this clot right over his eye, he's expected to be okay, but he'll be out at least a week. the upshot on why this could be an issue for the markets is that it does delay any sort of health care vote. and time has not been the friend of those who try to cobble together legislation, because the longer they have to muse about it, the more problematic getting any yes vote at all or any consensus at all. adam shapiro on capitol hill with the latest on where this whole thing stands. >> reporter: well, the wheeling and dealing is underway. lisa murkowski, there are

provisions which would make funds available for funding premiums and subsidizing premiums in alaska, over a billion dollars. that's the kind of thing that might convince lisa murkowski who is one of those ten senators on the fence to maybe vote yes. you've got two saying no still, susan collins out of maine as well as mr. rand out of kentucky who's saying -- or, mr. paul out of kentucky who is saying absolutely not. but the question is can they get to the yes now that senator mccain is recovering from his surgery. here's what mark short from the white house said earlier today on "fox & friends." >> we need to hold together republicans who campaigned and promised since 2010 to repeal and replace obamacare, and we think we'll be able to do that. we know there's a couple in susan collins who, you know, she had voted against every repeal effort, so perhaps she's been more supportive of obamacare and not really interested in repeal. >> reporter: and the lobbying

effort is pretty intense. even president trump picked up the phone over the weekend. he was speaking with mike lee out of utah, you know, the senator is concerned that the ted cruz amendment, the freedom choice amendment won't be quite what senator cruz had envisioned when this bill is finally released and perhaps brought to the floor of the senate. so the president talking with mike lee to see if he can get him to be a yes vote. but then you've got people like dean heller or even jeff flake out of arizona. when you talk about jeff flake, there's a lot of pressure there, and we've seen prior to all of this there was a willingness not only by the administration to attack senator heller, but now there's talk that the administration might back opponents to jeff flake's re-election campaign in 2018 if he doesn't vote yes. so the pressure is being applied. neil? neil: all right, adam, thank you very much. senator rand paul already telling me he's still a no, no matter what, on health care measure. and maybe this is where the president's coming from, anything is better than the law we have, and something is better

than nothing, and it leads the way to tax reform. so get out of the way, rand paul, come along. [laughter] >> in, i think we haven't gotten to -- no, i think we haven't gotten to the solution yet. the reason i'm against the current bill is i think it's obamacare-lite. i think it doesn't fix the fundamental flaw that obamacare -- neil: all right. so he's a no, susan collins in maine is a no, it would take herculean shifts to get either of them to change. so they're already at the maximum two. you can't afford to lose any more with, of course, the vice president playing a tiebreaker role if it just stays as it is. let's go to great america co-chair, former clinton campaign strategic communications director, adrian elrod. let's get a sense where you think this is going. the more time we have to digest this, the more both sides are going to start picking it apart,

and the more likely the no votes will build. what do you think? >> i think that's probably true. but at the end of the day, you know, mitch mcconnell has a job to do, and this is part of the process. i mean, the one thing i think that rand paul said very well is if we can't get consensus of a good conservative alternative to obamacare, we all can agree on, at least on the republican side and i probably think on the democratic side, is we can agree that we need to repeal obamacare and it's a failing effort. it's a failing government program that overtook one-sixth of our economy. so i think that we need to go back on offense and ask some of these senators that are in some of these swing states in 2018 do you really want to, you know, chance your re-election on, you know, maintaining obamacare and the status quo? right now we're on defense. i think we need to go on offense. i think the president has led on this effort. i think he has now helped push it through to to get to the senate, and the senate needs to act. but what we do want is we want a serious conservative alternative to this obamacare failure. neil: adrienne, i'm sure you

might slightly disagree with the view that it's a total disaster and all that. [laughter] having said that, do you think now since republicans technically with this measure have not really repealed obamacare, in fact, they've kept a couple of key taxes in place, they've secured medicaid funding, actually, much more generous than the house version, that there might be room for democratic help on a measure here? >> look, i think that's really coming down to the only option that mitch mcconnell has here s to the come to the table, work with chuck schumer, work with democrats and actually try to fix obamacare as opposed to trying to repeal it. i mean, the votes are not going to be there for -- no democrat is going to come forward -- neil: well, they're not repealing it. i see no step -- they might, and i understand what everything is saying, i don't see any effort to repeal. do you think since they're keeping so much of it in place, it's just a slightly less omnibus program, that there is room to work with democrats? >> i think there's room to work with democrats, but not with the bill in its current form.

and the reason why republicans, of course, are having such a hard time is because they've got a very moderate faction of the party and also a very conservative faction of the party. i think this entire process needs to be scrapped, i think the resistance is working. people are hearing from their constituents who want to see obamacare fixed. and, by the way, so do a lot of democrats. we're willing to work with republicans on that. but we do not want to see the bill that the senate is putting forward in its current form. neil: eric, is there a point at which you say no mas? in other words, republicans are far more unified on some of the tax cuts -- not all of them, by the way -- than on this? you shelf this, fight it another day? logic would prevail, you would think, given the majorities you would cobble together something, but that's not happened. if it's not looking likely, move on to those tax cuts with which you find much broader agreement? >> that's right. i mean, if the president wanted to be politically expedient, he could have just let obamacare fail.

99 counties inside of iowa aren't even going to be covered. adrienne said earlier, oh, okay, the democrats don't want to see this bill -- i haven't seen any alternative solutions from democrats. they have been the resistant party. i think, once again, go to offense. talk a little bit about 2018. if the democrats want to run again on -- neil: no, no, i'm asking you if republicans can't get their act together on this, the numbers are so close, you're quite right. just give up, move on to the tax cut? >> yeah. i think it's part of a reform agenda. i don't maintain that the president ran on only repeal and replace. go on to immigration reform, building a wall, go to tax policy and tax reform, get to the agenda he ran on, and republicans have to follow that. neil: adrienne, your thoughts. >> it is amazing to me that republicans literally ran on repealing obamacare for the last eight years. they knew that they were going to have conservatives and moderates who were not going to be able to come to agreement on certain parts of the plan to

move forward on this, and they still can't get anything done. they've got full control of the house, the senate and the white house. the fact that they have literally been running on this, they have people who voted for them because they promised this, i mean, it's amazing to me that they cannot get this done. neil: all right. we'll see what happens. guys, eric and aide rep, thank you both very much. >> thank you. neil: senator grassley says he still expects tax cuts, to congressman scott taylor on that. if one were to read that it's very difficult for your colleagues in the senate to cobble together something, i could miss something and mitch mcconnell's a brilliant tactician and legislator, so maybe he will get an alliance going and get this done. but is there a point at which you say, all right, this is not working out? we have a better chance of getting tax cuts going and leaving the legislative year with a w? what do you think? >> well, neil, always great to be with you, of course. i'm an optimist by nature, i

think they ultimately will get something passed in the senate. now, we have to respect their process. as you know, we've already done so in the house. but i think they have to. i think they have to get something done. i think that they will. i think once he gets close, they'll put it on the floor and put it up for a vote and let republicans be held accountable either way, whether they want to or not. we'll see what they do. but i think we have to do it before we start tax reform, period. neil: really? you think there's no way to go forward without going with this in one way -- >> i don't think, i don't think you're going to get a robust -- let's say you don't move forward with health care reform, you're not going to get a row -- robust tax reform either. it's imperative that we do. as you know well, americans are paying more tax than they have in the history of this nation, and a lot of that is due to the aca. we have to move that forward. i'm not of the mindset that we just give up. now, obviously, you know my previous background, we never quit. i don't think we give up on that. i think that would be harmful

for us as a party moving forward. we have made a lot of promises to move forward, and i think we need to get it done, get it out there and then work on tax reform. neil: parking lot of this measure that the senate is considering includes keeping two very big taxes in; that is, the 3.8% surtax on investment income for the rich and the medicare tax. again, for the rich. are you okay with that? it would be, as many of your colleagues have been saying, better than nothing, that something is better than nothing, to the fred barnes article today that no matter what you say about it, it is a better alternative than what's out there? >> well, let me preface this by saying i'm a fiscal conservative. obviously, i don't want to pay more taxes than are necessary for folks, anyone out there. i think it's important that we get thissen done. i'm not sure exactly how it's going to come out of the senate and then, of course, negotiate with the house and get to the president's desk -- neil: congressman, i apologize, but could you live with that then as a means to the an end?

i think that's what mark meadows was saying of the house freedom caucus, look, if this paves the way the tax cuts, so be it? >> that would not be my preference. but as you said, we have $900 billion worth of tax reform in health care alone, so that's what -- if we end up with that to get it done and get tax reform for the american people, we'll see when that comes across the senate desk and over to us. neil: are you troubled, you know, by republicans being in this kind of trouble, that they cannot get this done? they've had seven-plus years -- not you. you're new to the gang, and you were serving your country very bravely beforehand, but that it's so difficult, that it's almost as the if they can't handle power? >> well, no one said it was going to be easy, neil. neil: no, they didn't. >> i think that, you know, listen, you've had obamacare for eight years now. so it is pervasive throughout the system. there are some good things that have come out of it, but it's fundamentally flawed. the legislative process is not a quick one.

there are diverging interests, of course, with some states that expanded medicaid, some states that did not, like my own this virginia. you have diverging interests that you have to find that sweet spot to be able to get it passed. but i think we can do that, i think that is our obligation to govern and to lead, and we should do that. neil: all right. congressman, thank you again. good seeing you. >> thank you, neil. appreciate you. neil: the dow in record territory again, amazon, of course, sprinting ahead here, indicating it might want into another company's business, blue apron's business. anytime that happens, when it was going after the whole foods thing and, of course, every other retailer was getting hit hard, now going into blue apron and packaged meals, all of that sort of stuff. that stock getting hit hard. if they go into the tv news business, game over. i am so out of here. we'll have more after this.

♪ ♪ neil: president trump continuing to defend his son, but will democrats keep pushing until they get something here? i guess that depends if there's something there. to "the wall street journal" editorial features editor, james toronto. where is all of this going? the president, of course, still defends his son, that is his wont, obviously. but does it escalate? a lot of people already over the weekend were talking about, hey,

could this fester into a summer, half-summer now of watergate type hearings? what do you see? >> it could, but so far we've had about two people saying this is the thing that's going to sink donald trump, and none of it ever does. a friend of mine asked me when comey testified, she texted me and said what do you think will be the effect of the comey testimony? like everything else, it will change no minds. i think most people, their minds are made up about this, and it doesn't make that much difference. neil: and it's interesting too, james, to your point that even with the revelations of, you know, donald trump jr. and this meeting with these russian operatives, whatever you want to call them, it didn't really change the tone and tenor of even the investigation. now, it could, i'm not minimizing it. but it hasn't of yet. i mean, there is still the same slug to get through health care, to eventually get to tax cuts, to the president's poll numbers are roughly the same as they have been, bumping along the same 37-40% throughout his first six months.

what do you make of that? >> well, the thing that strikes me about this donald trump jr. story is that it just seems incredibly amateurish, right? this is the state of russian spycraft? they send a lawyer who doesn't speak any english and a music promoter or a british publicist, i guess, sets up a meeting with donald trump jr.? it just seems -- and then she has no information to give him to. but it just seems completely amateurish on both sides. now, one thing we hear is that that a political professional would have known better than to have taken a meeting like this, which is probably true. you know, it's not big news that the trump campaign was not a terribly professional operation. and yet they won. they beat the most qualified person ever to seek office in the history of the universe. neil: do you think anything there, and you talked there were other operatives there including a former spy who is not a current spy, but that any of

this is going to be a problem for the administration going forward in that it's going to put its credibility on the line? you said you had no such meetings, now it turns out not only did you have at least a big one, but that you organized it, donald trump jr. and again, to your point, maybe not the smartest thing to do, but is there anything there that hints or people you talked to of something that could escalate, that if we didn't get word on this meeting, what else don't we know? who else was involved this things we don't know? could the dad have known, even though he's a floor above when this meeting was going on? you know where i'm going with this, could there be something else here we're missing? >> well, you're asking me a completely speculative question. neil: absolutely. >> i have no idea. i do think what we're seeing is, you know, more is being made of this than, certainly, the known facts merit. the reason for that, you go back to what i was saying about political professionals. they're experiencing extreme cognitive dissonance because

you're not supposed to lose to a campaign like this. part of the reason for all this russia talk is the political professionals don't want to admit that there's something wrong with the way they've been doing business for decades, that it no longer works. and so they come up with an explanation involving some sort of communist plot. neil: interesting. the only thing that would, obviously, sink this for the trump white house is right outward collusion with the russians. but even then i've talked to lawyers who are saying that alone wouldn't do it. so i don't know what the legal boundaries are -- >> well, it's not, it's ultimately not a legal question. impeachment is a political process. neil: absolutely. >> and probably trump is not going to be impeached unless either there is, there's so much evidence that the public is overwhelmingly in favor of turning him out of office or perhaps if the democrats take the house in 2018 -- neil: that'll do it. that'll do it. >> well, yeah, except you need a two-thirds vote in the senate to convict -- neil: but the process would start that way.

if it were to start at all. i agree with that. it would take that to do it, right? >> yeah. it would take either something real that is politically untenable for the white house or a democratic victory in congress. but again, a democratic victory in congress, you know, the republicans took congress when bill clinton was president, they did manage to impeach him because they had a report from an independent prosecutor, an office that no longer exists, and he was acquitted in the senate on pretty much a party line vote. i suspect that would be the result, again, unless there is something real that makes it politically unsustainable for the white house. neil: so far not seeing that, but we'll see. james, thank you very much. >> thanks. neil: former white house press secretary ari fleischer says the white house is right to scale back on these on-camera briefings. but for how long? next.

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neil: all right, connecticut democratic congressman jim hunt is pushing a new bill that would require at least two on-camera white house briefings per week. former bush press secretary ari fleischer has been calling for fewer such meetings thinking they bring out the showmen in all the television journalists who read a prompter for a movement. [laughter] he's so right about that. prompter, move up. ari fleischer with us right now. [laughter] good to see you. >> great to be here, neil. of. neil: if they were to do that now, i think everyone would be apoplectic and say, bad timing, you're ostracizing and ignoring and rolling over the press. what do you think? >> well, they're always apoplectic, and that's part of the problem. both sides of the podium are so angry with each other.

my point here, and i've given a lot of thought to this, we need to step back and cool things down. neil: and mike mccrery and i advocates it before president trump went in. >> now they have to do it in the middle of the game, so to speak, but it's the right thing to do -- neil: why? >> because it's too red hot, and it's not a good way for the press to get their news. it's a tv show, it's a clash, it's a fight -- neil: what would your idea be? >> so mike and i have proposed that you allow the cameras in the room, but no one can use live coverage of the briefing, not audio or video, until it's over. and, therefore, you take the immediate, breaking news out of it, and it's a more thoughtful policy briefing the way it used to be. neil: but would it be different for a big development? the you were there during 9/11. that supersedes -- >> you have the right as a white house to say on a major news day that we're going to go live. but for the normal function of government, that briefing should

be a much more boring, sedate affair. it's become pumped-up because both sides have an interest, especially the press, in pumping it up. there's a corollary, neil. the briefings should be embargoed, but all cable stations should stop with the breaking news, urgent alert. everything is breaking now. it's too amped up. and washington, the country would benefit if washington -- neil: ralph, can you alert that he said to cool it? [laughter] i don't know if that's possible. all right, ari, someone could look at this and hear this and say, well, this is a former republican press secretary worried that the media's going too far on donald trump. >> no, first of all are, it's mike and me, and we did it before president trump went in. we said this during the transition. i've long advocated this, actually, and so has mike. so the whole point here is are we well served with the briefing. if i'm a reporter, do i benefit from live coverage of the briefing? i argue, you don't. most print reporters are against it -- neil: well, they're not mic'd up. >> that's right.

they don't wear makeup -- neil: is my makeup running? [laughter] >> it's a different entity who's in the room. most print guys would be fine with this. neil: see, i think both sides are very thin-skinned -- >> correct. neil: and i can say this, because i can be that way too. but i think when the president gets upset, and we call him thin-skinned, and then our behavior is even more thin-skinned, then we look like hypocrites. now, i also will stress, as i said with barack obama, i expect news organizations -- fox included -- to get, you know, all persnickety and nasty, but i hold my president, democrat or republican, to a higher standard. >> well, you should get persnickety and nasty when events call for it, not because you're on live tv. and that's the problem. in the briefing room, people posture -- neil: absolutely. we can agree or disagree whether live or taped is better, but do you think that this relationship canwork, that -- i think the president strongly dislikes the

press. that's an understatement. and i think the press strongly dislikes him. no one likes to be called fake news. so they come back at him and almost take an advocacy position to tear him apart. >> i think it can work and, of course, it works with adversarial relationships -- neil: but is this too far gone? the definition of work in my book is that the the first amendment is intact and reporters have the right to do as they see fit and cover the government in an unvarnished manner -- neil: well, they don't. >> they cover it in a biased manner, i will give you that, absolutely -- neil: the president will say they get a worse deal, do you buy that? >> absolutely. neil: for this president it's germane because he really believes that. >> he's right. there's no question, neil, it's so much easier to be a democrat dealing with the media than a republican on a host of issues. i've seen it all my career. neil: i bet. >> the press has points of view that much more closely align with democrats. neil: i think a lot of it is the manner in which you handle it.

you, tony snow, pierre salinger was very good with a dry sense of humor, dealing with it. ziegler with nixon, less so. so i think that -- you're the expert here, but as you know, i read a prompter, so i count. i think it's incumbent upon the press secretary to exhibit the same sort of ease that we, that wouldn't invite the wrath of the media. >> yeah, and that's hard to do in the trump white house, it seems. neil: right. >> because i agree with you, neil. part of the success of surviving a briefing is a little humor, to be able to joke around with reporters, to make a tough moment a lighter moment at the occasional right time. but i think in the trump white house what the president cherishes is did you smack with them, did you fight with them. not every minute of every day, and that's another reason to to take it off of live tv. the whole thing is too amped-up. washington is too amped-up. and i can tell you, neil, you know this too. when you get outside of washington, people don't pay attention to everyday fights.

they say wake me up when you're done fighting and tell me if you did anything for the country. neil: they do, we get into it a lot. when you hear the back and forth, and you said a lot of this russian stuff isn't connecting with people who think there's no there there, then i was talking to a historian a couple of weeks ago, and he said, you know, that's what they were saying early on about watergate until revelations -- i'm not comparing it to, by the way, neither was he, but the point being that people get involved when they see that suddenly there was more involved. >> clearly, it has to be looked into. i've been critical. i think an attack on one party is an attack on all political parties -- neil: do you think the fact when you get to a credibility issue, when the son in this case -- and he's a novice at this, i understand that, but if he says he didn't have a meeting and it turns out he did, and there was lots going on, i understand, but it's going to to feed the beast. >> sure. neil: what else didn't you tell me? >> sure, of course it'll feed the beast. but these comparisons to

watergate drive me crazy, because nobody should say that. we don't know that a. neil: what would you tell the trump white house? you had president bush's ear. he respected your opinion. i mean, is there any time when you would go to him and say, mr. president, they're going to be like stink on -- >> yes! neil: what should i say? i always think with president trump, get it all out there, anything and everything. even the most obscure little detail, get it all out there -- >> we went through this when enron collapsed. reporters thought bush knew and did nothing about it -- neil: and that he and lei were buddies. >> i was under siege. any phone calls that anybody in the white house ever made with anybody aten enron about anything. i said to reporters, if you've got something, i'll check into it. but i am not going to answer the question whether an entire building ever talked to enron about anything. i cannot answer that question. it doesn't mean anything was wrong. my point here is the watergate

comparison, the enron comparison, that everything is a scandal comparison, one of the reasons the press has lost credibility with the american people is because everything is a scandal. neil: well, they're brought up on that, and it was dismissed by an administration -- and you're right, there's no comparison yet -- is dismissed by an administration and later on to come to find there was more there there. >> well, we've also found the press has overreacted, and there was less there there. bob mueller's the right person to investigate this. the press will hyperventilate at every development, sometimes accurately, sometimes woefully inaccurately as we saw with their coverage of comey's firing when they said it was because he asked for more money, the deputy attorney general threatened to design. those turned out bogus. i just sit back, watch, wait, 48, 72 hours later e. stop hyperventilating, stop concluding something is terrible, let it play out. neil: do you think the president had not done the fake news media, and particularly going

after cn, in the way that he did, that this would be falling out as badly as it is? >> the press was always offended by donald trump -- neil: that's what i'm thinking, but that's not right. that's where the advocacy comes in. >> here's the problem, neil -- neil: i'll give you an example. the president is not a fan of coming on this show. i think he got mad when we had mitt romney on one time criticizing him. and that's fine. but you -- tempting though it might be when you get slighted like that, there's still a lot of good that he does, we report the good, but i think it's very hard for a lot of people -- myself included -- to try to move on. and i think for the president to try to move on. because, you know, john kennedy famously didn't like the, you know, certain stories he saw and canceled a couple of subscriptions to papers as a result. but is that a wise approach, to be that sensitive about it? >> no, it's not a wise -- i think he can push back too hard, too far. but i'm glad he's pushing back because of the bias. i just wish he would do it

smarter sometimes. sometimes he hits too hard. but the press is at fault too. neil: yeah. >> if the press' point is because he's so bad to us we'll be extra tough on him, does that mean if there's a guy like obama they're going to be extra easy on him? neil: i definitely think so. >> exactly right. neil: but you did answer my question before, because you said nasty things, very childish, stupid things, i think, and they're going to respond just as childish and stupid and go for the jugular. >> the press' job is to be professional and neutral -- neil: i know that. but they're human beings. >> they're not doing that. neil: right. so they've got to be nice to each other. or nicer. >> nicer, not nice. neil: all right. we'll have a fox news alert on that later on. [laughter] in the meantime, you've heard ari fleischer just trash everybody there. we'll have a lot more after this. [laughter]

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neil: you know, tesla's ceo elon musk besides warning about his stock might be priced too

high -- you don't hear that every day -- he's also talked about risk of artificial intelligence, that we keep pushing this, they're all going to to take us down. he's worried about it, which is odd considering he has all these pushes into rockets and self-driving cars. hillary vaughn with the details an all of the above. hey, hillary. >> reporter: it is interesting, the technology pioneer himself, elon musk, is afraid of artificial intelligence, and he says that we should be too. so he wants the government to intervene and pump the brakes on a.i. development until we know it's safe. in an interview with the national governors' association's summer meeting, he told north dakota's governor, brian -- nevada's governor, brian sandoval, that companies are pushing technology in order to stay ahead of their competitors, and he says that needs to stop. >> a.i.'s a case where i think we need to be proactive in regulation instead of reactive. because i think by the time we are reactive in a.i. regulation,

it's too late. a.i. is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization. >> reporter: musk admits that it's not fun being regulated as a business, he even calls it annoying. but he says he thinks even the most free market and libertarian minds would agree a.i. needs more government oversight. he predicts one day robots will be able to do every job better than humans, calling it the scariest problem that he knows of, but he doesn't know how to solve it. he thinks the best solution is for the government to force companies to prove the technology is safe before they develop it. >> if your competitor is racing forward with a.i. and you don't, they will crush you. so then you're like, ah, we don't want to be crushed. regulators are convinced that it's safe to proceed, then you can go. otherwise, slow down. and you kind of need the regulators to do that for all the teams in the game. >> reporter: musk says he

keeps warning people, but he says until robots, quote, actually start going on the street and killing people, he doesn't think that anyone will actually comprehend or take this threat seriously. neil? neil: whoa. interesting. hillary vaughn, thank you very, very much. by the way, that was the same argument used for "planet of the apes." everyone said it's not as if he's going to go to war against us. just saying. all right. in the meantime, apple is getting ready right now for its seventh straight gain, just hitting one record after another. this for high expectations for its new iphone 8 which we're told could easily top $1,000. and just sort of a commonly-configured one, more like $1400. this is for a end phone. isn't that what, like, laptops cost? and pricey ones at that? to tech analyst eric shipper. that's amazing, and yet the demand, i bet you, will be there. what do you think of that? >> i think the command will be

there -- demand will be there, neil. in fact, i think you could see it go to $1200, maybe $1400 when you consider the storage and everything. part of this is marketing strategy because they're probably not going to be able to deliver everything that they want by december, so this will be the early adopters. but when you think back even with the iphone 7, you can get lesser, more robust phones. they may not have the same storage, so that will be available as well. neil: you know, obviously, people will pay that, these prices have gotten higher and higher with each incarnation, samsung, some of the others as well. is it just that people just expect to pay with every generation of a new smartphone, apple's included, more? and they build that into it? >> i think that's part of it. i think, obviously, they want to be perceived as best, and price sets that tone.

when you have samsunging that's in the mid 800s, so i think that is certainly a piece of the equation. and, frankly, people are also counting, i think in part, that they're going to get rebates. so you see the big carriers. they give rewaits in part -- rebates in part, it could be 2, $300. a three-year program could be maybe $30 a month when you consider the rebates. neil: you know, eric, i know a lot of people who are getting rid of their laptops or more conventional devices and doing everything on these gadgets. i don't know if i'd make that leap just yet myself, but a lot of people are. what do you make of that? >> yeah. this is a more common thing. it's especially common with millennials where the phone is an extension of their reality. and apple is counting on this. apple has studented one of the biggest -- instituted one of the biggest, i think, innovations so far in their phone which will be

an augmented reality camera, to the allow someone to be able to look through the camera, see their screen but then see other things out in reality. they could be watching fox news and literally have you next to them talking to them as they're watching. so these are the kinds of things that apple is counting on. and, certainly, no question the phone is an extension of someone. people are getting rid of these systems that they had in the past. neil: yeah. especially kids. i mean, for them it's ubiquitous. >> yeah. neil: they don't need anything else. eric, thank you very, very much. good seeing you. >> good to see you, neil. neil: we have a new number one movie in the nation, the latest "planet of the apes," the last one, we are told. as soon as i have see the last one and having seen this, it is not the last one. just saying. >> all of human history has led to this moment.

we always were told we were german. we were in a german dance group. i wore lederhosen. so i just started poking around on ancestry. then, i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. it turns out i'm scottish. so, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt.

♪ ♪ >> and if we lose, it will be a planet of apes. neil: that's what happens when you don't get health care and tax cuts through. just warning you.

[laughter] i saw this movie over the weekend. very, very good movie. a little dark. it's all about apes. but i'm telling you, it was, it was really very effective. very, very effective. and another big office weekend with planet of the apes, the number one movie. our entertainment journalisten on a lot of the movies this year, year over year -- of course, i liked all of the series from way back to charlton heston in the 1968 original "planet of the apes." but enough about me. back to my take on what's been, apparently, a disappointing summer for the box office. what's going on? >> reporter: yeah, it really has been. i mean, we talk about this, we've talked about this before, other summers, this franchise fatigue because you're seeing so many reboots that people just don't want to see anything. some of them do well, spider-man last weekend did very well, and that was over the sixth spider-man film in 15 years, so we've seen a lot of them.

but it kind of had a different take on it. it skewed a little bit younger, kind of played back a high school movie, so that did well. obviously, wonder woman has done really well. it's phenomenal. looks like it will be the top earner of the summer, passing guardians of the galaxy for so many different reasons. just wonder woman just had kind of a fresh take on this superhero movie, a female superhero -- neil: critically, well reviewed. and that makes a difference, right? getting good reviews help in the past with these kind of blockbuster movies it's as if they didn't care, because they a made so much money. but it did make the difference for a couple of them, didn't it? >> reporter: yeah. you know, there's kind of this formula. you can say, oh, here's a franchise, here's a tent pole movie, we'll butt -- we'll put it out because it'll make money overseas. it may not here domestically, but you know tom cruise in the mummy is going to make money overseas. pirates of the caribbean.

it has become a formula. but already some bright lights. wonder woman, guardians of the galaxy, that's right now the number one movie of the summer, but wonder woman will pass it. neil: so i'm always wonder, if you're going to create more of these movies and despite the success of the planet of the apes movie or the latest spider-man -- by the way, they keep making younger and younger spider-mans. i guess the next one's going to be an infant. [laughter] but leafing that aside -- leaving that aside, does it really matter? are they going to care, because it makes so much money abroad that the temptation will be just turn out another one? >> reporter: yeah. i mean, you're right. and reviews definitely matter a lot more. i think people pay attention to what rotten tomatoes is saying. people look at social media. that is having a huge effect. no, you're not going to see the big blockbusters stop because they will keep making money overseas, transformers another one people didn't want to see another -- neil: because it's so stupid, that's why. it was beyond stupid.

[laughter] >> reporter: or even the alien reboot. but we do have a couple of great movies coming up and big blockbuster movies, obviously, coming into later in the year we'll have another "star wars" movie, so i think people are -- neil: how do you think dunkirk's going to go? >> yep, next weekend. and that's a movie for older audiences, too, adult audiences. a world war ii history movie getting oscar buzz right now. usually oscar movies don't open over summer, they usually wait until later in the year, but this looks to be a really big movie. neil: you know, another crackpot theory that i had, and you're the expert, but as you know, i play one on tv. i think movies that can laugh and kid at themselves like the guardians movies or spider-man, and even to a lesser extent but not entirely immune, this planet of the apes movie. there's some humorous moments where it makes fun of itself. and i think that can be very helpful. what do you think? >> reporter: definitely. guardians of the galaxy, that's

a perfect example. in a way, it's a spoof of a superhero movie. it spoofs it in a lot of ways. wonder woman, sitting in that theater, that movie made me cry, laugh, clap, people in the audience were standing up and cheering and clapping, so you have to have a little humor. i think a lot of the criticism for batman, for superman, for example, was that it was way too dark. people want a little levity -- neil: absolutely. >> reporter: and i think you're seeing that in some of these movies. neil: by the way, if you're a superhero, lighten up. you have very little to be morose and depressed about. >> reporter: yeah. what is there to be upset about? neil: well, thank you. kim, seriously, great job. we'll see if they can maybe turn this season around with some big blockbusters, but that dunkirk one, man, that has me excited. >> reporter: not a lot of humor in that, don't expect humor -- neil: a remarkable story. i don't want to give it away, but a lot of people my age are

familiar with it, young people -- >> reporter: and harry stiles is in -- harry styles is in it. neil: in the meantime, netflix up 30% plus year to date what's going on? after this. ♪

. .

♪ neil: all right. small as it is, it does count for a record here. so we're keeping an eye on these markets very closely.

by the way looking 4:00 p.m. eastern time latest on future of health care on "your world." john thune trying to get something done. democratic senator joe manchin wants to work with these guys if they will let him. the trish? trish: thanks, neil. health care is front and center on everyone's agenda. looks like it is hanging on a by a mere thread. the vote to replace and repeal obamacare is waiting on senator john mccain as surgery. the fate of the bill is looking rather grim at this hour as republican senators rand paul and susan collins say they're voting no. is health care reform a lost cause? by the way, what does this tell us about tax reform or anything else that the president is trying to get done. we're asking texas congressman brian babin. white house press secretary sean spicer will hold an off-camara