dagen: mr. varney, take it away. stuart: thank you very much, indeed. heads up bitcoin people, your coins are crashing and all those block chain spin-offs, the same story, they are tumbling. good friday morning, everyone. last day of trading before christmas. it's all bad news from the bitcoin market. the price dropped by about a quarter overnight, you can call it a correction or pullback, i will call it a crash. the price is now in the 12,300-dollar range, right there on your screen. in half an hour, some of those companies that just changed their name to include the word block chain, they are coming way

down as well. look on your screen, there's the list. all of them big-time to the downside. no pullback seriously, though, for stocks flat to slightly lower at the opening bell. we don't know how the market is going to close. it is facing a three-day holiday weekend, but so far that has been no sell on the news of the tax cut deal. i'm going call this one a corporate bombshell, eric schmidt is out at google, this is the man who built the company at global phenomena, started google, gmail, google maps and android phones. google says it's time for the transition. there's speculation that personal relationships were part of this departure. there are a lot of surprises this morning and varney & company is about to begin. ♪

♪ [laughter] stuart: that was good producing. there's no place like home for the holidays. that's absolutely for sure. you saw them, there's the lawmakers, they are all coming down the steps. get out of dodge, they follow and get out of dodge, ran downstairs, heading home for the holidays, indeed. look at the white house, live look there. they are -- president trump expected to sign the bill this hour and then leave to mar-a-lago, we will show you live events from the white house. here is what the president tweeted earlier this morning, quote, our big and very popular tax cut bill has taken unexpected new source of love, that is big companies and corporations showering their workers with bonuses. this is a phenomenon nobody

thought of and now it's the rage, merry christmas, that's the present, good morning. now look at the market, we will be flat to slightly lower pretty much across the board today. no big move, certainly not at the opening bell. no idea how we close, we have to say that. nike, weaker sales in america, they are feeling the heat from a competitor, adidas and the stock is down 3%, it is a, of course, a dow stock. bitcoin, getting whacked and then some this morning, 12,400 a coin. what's going on with bitcoin? liz: regulators are stepping around the world. it's up 20 fold since january. it's worst week in since 2013. we have to watch envidia and intel as well. pivot to block chain technology

is happening, those stocks we are watching the action in there too. the bubble is popping now. remember, the fcc was warned after 1929, now warning about pump and dump. we warned three weeks ago about pump and dump schemes. it's clear that the regulators are sitting up around the world and pay notice. stuart: pay attention to long island ice tea, charles payne said all they did was change name to long island ice tea to block chain. >> here is the problem, exchange like the ice tea and other exchanges get listing fees when they get companies like that pouring in. gas stations in china years ago saying oil and gas drilling companies, or, you know, milk manufacturers saying they're nutrition company. you always have to watch that. ice tea, regulate.

ashley: do your homework. stuart: we will have more on bitcoin with patrick burn, he's launched a block-chain app, his stock traditional online retailer down big this morning because he is now a bitcoin company. more on that in a moment. tax reform, let's bring in congressman lee zeldon, republican from new york. sir, your high-income constituents are going to get very hard hit by this tax deal and i have to ask you a nasty question, could it cost you your seat? >> well, no, i mean, i worked hard on a whole lot of other issues and for voters who go to the polls next november of 2018, i'm really hoping that the economy continues to improve. people are voting based off of the economy, it's a personal decision that they'll be making next fall all around the country including here at home, so they want to have a job, they want to be making enough in order to

make ends meet, there's a lot that goes into that. as far as the direction of the economy, in many respects it really is going in the right direction. stuart: yes, sir. one thing that's enraging a lot of people is carried interest. hedge fund managers, private equity, they pay a much lower tax rate than people on high income who is are in other industries. that thing stays in there, carried interest stays, i think that's an outrage, why is it still in there? >> if you want to talk about leveling the playing field on the republican side of the aisle, there's a lot of support for leveling it down more than, you know, what you might see more so by the democrats of trying to level it up. we want -- i want tax relief, your looking at the personal income side, when you have the top tax rate go 39.6 to 37 it's

a good thing. as it relates to your first question, it's -- it's an improvement because the original house version was 39.6 to 37, actually helps a little bit with state and local tax deduction issue. on the carried interest deduction, there are strong arguments on both sides of this and i hear from colleagues who genuinely and deeply believe in their argument of whether or not this is a loophole that must be closed and be treated as ordinary income and other who is are talking about how these are long-term investments with risks and that -- i hear a lot of arguments on both sides. stuart: it's just not right, congressman. i think you'll agree. it just ain't right. multimillionaires paying 23.6%, the rest of us paying 37% it's just not right. i will give you the last word, sir, 20 seconds. >> yeah, if we want to level the

playing field, i would like to see more tax relief income level being brought down. stuart: yeah. >> rather than finding ways to increase and reasons to increase taxes. stuart: okay, see what you can do for us next year, please, congressman because we are enraged here. thank you very much, lee zeldin, frequent guest on the program. the democrats are repairing a year-long assault on the tax package. bernie sanders, his most recent tweet about it. don't -- doesn't it tell us a lot about republican priorities when the tax breaks for corporations are permanent while the tax breaks for working families expire at the end of eight years. harlan hill ready to get fired up. harlan: we were democrats and working on the bill. if democrats would have tackled interest. frankly the republican party is

a big party. reasonable tax cut to all americans, particularly the working class and the middle class in this country, we could have done something really great here but no bill is perfect. and i believe that this is a step in the right direction. i agree with congressman lee zeldin and there are deficiencies and there always will be and there are monsters in washington. stuart: big donations and they said us, leave us alone. keep us with 23%. i have to move on because the president was tweeting this morning. here is the quote from the presidential tweet, at some point after the good of the country, i predict we will start working with the democrats in a bipartisan fashion. infrastructure will be a perfect place to start. after having foolishly spending -- got it. your reaction to that. >> this is the test for democrats. are they more interested in

playing political games or interested in taking the stand for the working class an rebuilding infrastructure of the united states which is needed. i don't think they are going to come to the table for the president. i was over at trump tower yesterday and recorded a video and i said, this is -- this is the point for the democrats. infrastructure, infrastructure is something that we should both be able to come to the table on. stuart: if they say no to everything -- >> i don't know. stuart: do they win in 2018? >> well, history says that they should. doing tax cut with the republican majority, republican in the white house is the bear minimum. we need to do a lot more with that, where are we on obamacare, the wall. president trump is ready with the pen and has meetings with

legislative leaders on the hill to get things done but where is it? where is mitch mcconnell and paul ryan on this? they could tax tax reform. you're republicans, this is what you're supposed to do. stuart: i called for somebody to pound the table on the issue. relax, son. >> blood pressure. stuart: it'll be all right. see you later. president trump visiting warriors, awarded purple heart to soldier who was injured by explosion in afghanistan. vice president pence, he surprised our troops in afghanistan. he told them in kabul that the president is behind them until their work is done. dollar general, bucking the retail trend, this company is doing very well because, you know, it caters to rural america. doesn't have much competition from amazon either. the founding ceo of dollar general is going to join us. later this hour, a baby born from an embryo that was frozen

for 24 years, this is a true medical marvel. we cover all on varney & company especially this.

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stuart: i have a real special guest this morning as we focus in on retail. dollar general, okay, now they found success, positioned themselves as the go-to store for rural america. they bucked the downward trend for bricks and mortar, they are actually expanding, look who is here, carl turner, the founding ceo of dollar general and retired for 15 years and still shows up on time. >> yes, sir. [laughter] >> i'm delighted to be here. stuart: 15,000 stores, more than 15,000 stores. we have tax reform, very good for retailers, are you now planning, your company, are you planning to expand it even more in. >> that company has always been

an expanding company and i understand that they have more planned now and tax reform will certainly be available. stuart: okay, now, you've got no competition from amazon, not really. >> well, now there is always competition in the country. there are fewer customers there and you have to know your customer well and serve your customer well and dollar general 's role is being in stock on the consumable basics when you run out of toilet paper. stuart: yes, but your role is also to be where no other stores are so that they can go to your store and take over the town, that's what you do? >> well, we want to be where the customers are and if there are fewer stores there, that is good, but we want to serve the customers, in fact, that company at the end of the year will

serve 75% of the population of the continental united states with a store within 5 miles. stuart: when are you going to go overseas? >> oh, we have too much to do here. i think they do. i'm not speaking for them now. i'm a retired old farther. [laughter] stuart: you're retired. >> i'm sorry, that's not politically correct. please disavow everything i said. stuart: you were ceo for many, many years obviously. so you set out the store to go out there to rural america and appeal in a certain way, do you want to see any changes? not the right question to ask, if you could make any changes, what would they be? >> well, i don't think it would make any changes because they know how the run that company a lot better than we did, but the foundation was set. stuart: where is the headquarters for dollar general? >> in tennessee which is north of nashville. stuart: you retired in

tennessee, haven't you? >> yes. stuart: there's no estate tax or no income tax, am i right? >> that had something to do. i'm from kentucky but we understand taxes and -- [laughter] >> things like that. stuart: what do you do? are you a happy man retiring? i ask the question because i'm 69 and a half and i could retire, i don't know whether i'm going to or not but i could, what would i do with myself if i retired, what do you do with yourself for the last 15 years? >> i enjoy life and i continue to pursue my mission. stuart: which is? >> god, honoring, change and there are struggling people throughout who need the help of fbi lan -- dollar general is to serve people to give them a better life and to be there with them with what they need that they run out of and we will be in stock or they will be in stock

in the general store, when they run out of toilet paper, stuart. stuart: if i find a mission like that, maybe i too would retire, you're a great man and have done a fine job at the america. may i wish you a merry christmas? >> you may, id -- indeed. merry christmas. stuart: we are following that story very closely obviously. any minute now the president is going to sign the tax bill into law. history unfolding right here and you're watching it. this is varney & company. you have a front-row seat. ashley: yes, we do. is this a phone?

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stuart: you know, at the top of the show i called this a corporate bombshell. eric schmidt, that gentleman stepping down from google. liz: billionaire worth 14 billion, stepping down as executive chairman. alphabet waited three days to announce that he was stepping down. so it raised, again, the open marriage he's had for five

years. he has a colorful complex wife with open marriage with other women. number of high-profile women as well. so it raises the issue of sexual harassment, anything there, absolutely not, this is all consensual. stuart: google has not made him available for interviews, it's statement. liz: he will do nonprofit charity work as his wife is. ashley: marginalized and since trump became president because he was close to obama administration, the clintons as well, helped with technical issues and ever since donald trump became president, they used to call him secretary of state to google eric schmidt. he's been pushed to the side. stuart: this man produced youtube, gmail. liz: connect sod many people. stuart: extraordinary,

extraordinary. one more finish you, ash, papa johns, the founder, he's stepping down, what's the background. ashley: yes, he made headlines, founded the company in 1984, a couple of months ago papa johns is the official pizza sponsor of the nfl and he complained about the nfl saying they've done a terrible job of not addressing the controversy of players kneeling during national anthem. the company got a lot of pushback on that. they got support from white supremacists which is not what they wanted, they issued an apology a couple of -- about a month later actually saying, look, we didn't mean to be divisive, we were just simply, you know, stating something we believe is the case but do not judge us by those comments. now there's been no official reason why but there's definitely the thought that, look, the stock has taken a beating, 86 bucks at the beginning of the year, all the way down, dropped 13% since controversy. liz: he's been in and out of the

company, let's be clear. he stepped down in 2005 and also criticized obamacare as well. stuart: have to go. dow will open pretty much flat after this. ♪

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stuart: we are about to start trading on the last trading day before christmas. yes, it is friday december the 22nd, we have about 5 seconds to go and we will be off and running. remember, please, a three-day weekend is coming. you want to hold stocks on three-day holiday weekend, we shall see. we are are down 17 points in the first few seconds. now we are down 6 points. i'm going to call this a flat to slightly lower open. no big deal either way. same story with the s&p 500, it too has opened flat, actually it's up .02%. i will call that flat. how about the nasdaq, what's with that? the technology sector down 7 points but that's just .10%. it's friday morning right before christmas, ashley webster, elizabeth mcdonald, scott shellady and jeff sica all with us this morning. jeff sica, on behalf of our viewers, they want to know, should we be buying this market

towards the end of the year, buying into it? you have cash and you want to make change in 401(k), buy now? >> i think for any viewers the few remaining out there that aren't participating in this rally, i would say it's too late. if you think that the tax cuts are not factor intoed this recent rally, you to realize you're being thruiciónal. the tax cuts have been anticipated since trump entered office and the market has been rallying on that. i say it's too late. you to wait for opportunity and a market driven by five stocks can't fully be trusted. stuart: he has a point, scott shellady. the dow is up 35% since election. what advice you may give to our viewers who have cash on the side and ready to go, buy or what? >> i think what jeff said is perfectly correct. to the average investor, look, we are here because of something, right, we are here because of the tax cuts, we are

not here because it's forward. you have to think what's going to make the market power higher going forward. i think that's better economic news if we have better gdp numbers and you have to wait for those things to take place and when they do, you to get them in, we are here because of an event and that's taxes, we need to wait and see if the next thing is going to driver and the higher it's going to be. liz: we were talking about the number of companies who are going to reinvest -- because of tax break, wal-mart, home depot, united technologies, coca-cola. stuart: hold on a second. yesterday we brought our viewers seven major corporations said you get bonuses and high wages, you have another four? liz: nine are saying positive things about tax cuts and at least four, wal-mart, home depot, united tech and coca-cola

say they will reinvest in their operations because of the tax cut, expansion and jobs. stuart: that's an interesting story bearing in mind that the democrats think it's a terrible thing. what are you saying, scott, come in, please? >> just common sense takes over once again, stuart, if you don't like the tax cut you're going to be getting because it's immoral, then pay what you paid last year, that's just fine. if your employer wants to give you more money because of the corporate tax rate cut, don't accept it. stuart: welcome back, scott. we just love that stuff. liz: any other names? stuart: what did we say? >> other names are in positive, caterpillar, dupont, ge. stuart: all investing from tax cuts. that's a good story too. number crunches of first data say the holiday shopping season is surging towards a very strong finish. i call that an economic

indicate, scott, am i right? >> the hardest thing to do in the country is turn around pessimism, right? we are so much more optimistic, there hasn't been a ton done except tax bill. all you have seen is optimism return. we are going to be going back into a gunfight. we don't have both of our hands tied behind our back, that's been the biggest change here, optimism in the country rather than economic indicators, we are going in the right direction. ashley: absolutely right, scott. look, the retail sales in november were much better than expected, thanksgiving and cybermonday was up 8% year over year and tomorrow we have super saturday, the beautiful saturday shopping day all day before christmas on monday, all of this put together is a much needed boost for retail. stuart: did you call it beautiful shopping -- ashley: like the president. beautiful thing. stuart: he's a hedge fund

manager kind of guy, he said the impact of tax cuts will be small costly and fleeting. >> we should invest in infrastructure and education. guess what the u.s. is trying to do that. stuart: yeah, go ahead. >> i respect ray, but the fact that this is a tax cut that is affecting 80% of the population, so although he wants to see this increase spending on infrastructure, i think he has to realize that when a tax cut positively benefits 80% of the people it's a good thing and he should celebrate it more than he is. stuart: my bone with ray dalio is the hedge fund guys keep a very low tax rate compared to other wealthy people who are way up there. liz: he's a patriotic billionaire. stuart: they bought themselves -- they bought this, they bought it. then we have bitcoin, oh,

slammed overnight actually. they are down to 11,000 bucks. liz: almost 50% drop in about a week. we are talking about regulators stepping in. there's price option swings we have seen. this is the fourth or fifth crash in four months. g20, france, saying you have to act and regulate bitcoin right now. problems in india, in south korea, problems with bitcoin trades, trading around the world, so it is dropping like a rock and it's very volatile and always has been. stuart: can you show me the companies which changed their names so they could include the word block chain in them and they took off yesterday and the day before, look at them now, all -- some of the -- long island ice tea, all they did, they changed the name to long block chain, up they go yesterday, down they come today. just destroys confidence. >> i said on your show if you're going to invest in bitcoin, only invest what you're prepared to

lose, but the reality of crypto currency is everyone here will have some form of crypto currency, i guaranty it, but you also have the regulators and you have a lot of crypto currencies coming online. i mean, every day i get a call from somebody who says they have a crypto currency, it's the next top crypto currency, bitcoin was just the sexy name. liz: envidia and intel under pressure. stuart: wait a second, scott wants to get in. >> look, guys, the government is going to weight in here and get involved. what a wonderful way to launder money. that's going to be the biggest problem. so they are going to have to get involved. i don't know how it's going to end. it's anonymous and you can launder money, we have a problem. stuart: news this morning that bitcoin is way down, block chain named companies way down and stocks very little change. 7 minutes into the dow.

>> just one thing, there's a lot of playerses that are playing volatility and aren't betting on crypto currencies rising but vetting on extreme volatility. the average everyday investor is in dangerous water here and has to be careful. big dogs playing the volatility. stuart: agreed on all accounts. next case. quick check of the other markets, how about gold, it's up 4 bucks today, 12.75 per ounce. boeing, reports that it's in takeover talk embrar. up a little bit more. solid numbers from nike but sales in north america fell short, the stock is down 4%, you know, they are also feeling heat from adidas. do you own nike?

>> no, i don't. they are relying heavily on china and vi to get their plan going or they are going to stay flat. stuart: we have home depot, continue to try to push online retail, they purchased the company store. it sells home furnishings online, scott shellady, is that a good strategy for home depot, join the amazons of this world? >> i think, it's good strategy to get involved with some of the things that would help their own products line, they redo the inside of the house, why not few nichings, i like the idea. amazon is number one, 95 billion in online sales, number 5 did 14 billion. we still have a mountain to climb. how does that sound? stuart: that's pretty good. apple being sued for slowing down older iphone models. ashley: two consumers in la,

possible class action lawsuit for breach of contract saying we never consented to allow appear toll slow down iphones, apple said rather than iphone 6 and 6s, older phones, rather than shutting down just like that because your battery has basically, you know, declined, we put in software that slowed it down but made the battery last longer. these people are saying, i never asked you to do that, of course, the conspiracy is that they did so you get fed up and spend a lot more money on a new phone. stuart: pay them off and give them discount coupon for next iphone. liz: they are looking for class action. >> apple if this doesn't show -- everybody considers apple and apple doesn't move. this news comes out, apple stays stable. this is a desperate company. if they have to slow down their old phones to new phones from a business standpoint makes sense but completely unethical.

liz: i don't think they are doing that. ashley: trying to preserve. >> i personally think they are. my phone takes me 45 minutes to send a text right now. they are really coming after me. [laughter] stuart: last word from scott shellady who is in chicago. >> a lot of folks that have older iphones and even knewer ones start to slow down during christmas time. i wonder why that's happening. [laughter] stuart: i'm not into conspiracy theories specially before christmas. merry christmas, everyone, thank you very much, indeed. 24,762. we've seen a historic rally since president trump was elected and now the tax cuts are passed, the market could repeat, could go higher.

bob dole, big-time investor coming up on the show, 11:00 o'clock eastern on this program today. we are still waiting from news from the white house on the signing, we will wait, you wait as the dow goes down 19 points. we will be back. ♪

i used to have more hair. i used to have more color.

and... i used to have cancer. i beat it. i did. not alone. i used to have no idea what the american cancer society did. research? yeah. but also free rides to chemo and free lodging near hospitals. i used to maybe give a little. then i got so much back. i used to have cancer. please give at cancer.org. stuart: all right, check that big board. not much movement on the friday before christmas. we are facing a three-day weekend and the market is dead flat, down 17 points. how about this one? facebook signed a deal with universal music group. nicole, come in please and tell me what this is all about. nicole: well, this is a key agreement for facebook and universal as well. first time that facebook has made a deal with a record label and now sometimes people post and takedown notification.

this is good for facebook because facebook can share content and more content to get out there and can have music wit. universal loves it because they have a new revenue source, so, for example, you're out with friends, stuart, maybe you do this, you are with friends and sing a a little something, you do it to music, maybe dog running on the beach to a great song, is that what you do with the music? now you can. stuart: i appreciate that little plug but no, i don't do any of that. i don't have any friends. nicole, thank you very much, indeed. that was good stuff. i'm very worried about our next guest. he's a wild and crazy guy, he's a real star, by the way, but he's sitting next to me and that gets me worried. he's patrick byrne. ceo of overstock.com. there he is laugh get away. [laughter] >> you're coming for blood. you're setting me up somehow. stuart: sure i am.

you've changed your company. it used to be online retail primarily but now you've got an app so that if you have the app and i've got this app, we can exchange bitcoins; is that right? >> that's correct, we just launched this down in barbados on wednesday. it's the world's first mobile money block chain mobile app. you can do banking but not tied to any bank account anywhere. stuart: okay. you retain complete secrecy, i take it. >> well, actually everything digital ultimately leaves fingerprints, the regulators can go in later if they need to but, yes, all the virtues of bitcoin. stuart: are you exchanging bitcoins, did you introduce own currency? >> in barbados, first country in the world you can get currency on the block chain. the digital -- digitized dollars are running on system.

another central bank has contacted us, we recently announced on wednesday and wants us to do the same thing. they no longer print money and put it on block chain and we move it around with phones and without needing bank account. saving money and moving money, you can get out of a free app, you download to phone. stuart: why did you go barbados to this or they have special rules that let you do this? >> two things, group of hackers down there who were working on the project two years ago i invested in. i decided to do a lot of the crypto stuff i'm doing outside the purview where goldman sachs and these people, in my view, guys like that, they own their own regulators and own their own congressmen, they will put a

stuff, i wanted to get a bunch of it outside of the united states. stuart: you wanted to be outside the loop which is not entirely legitimate loop. look on your screen, bitcoin -- 11,500. [laughter] stuart: it's down, i'm going to call that a crash and affected your stock, overstock.com, that stock is down because you are going into crypto currency apps. >> which is hilarious, we were holding a million dollars, we sold bitcoin sometime ago, month or two. stuart: did you make a profit? >> yeah, we made a lot of money. stuart: did you take dollars out? >> we took fiat dollars. stuart: did you take dollars out? >> real money. stuart: i introduced you to the young man behind the camera, he's a bitcoin guy, a couple of the other ones. what about the rest of our

viewers, would you really tell them to go out and buy bitcoin at this point? >> no, i don't make any recommendations on bitcoin. the main event of bitcoin is not bitcoin, it's block chain, the block chain, it's going the change the world. we just made -- we are doing a block chain capital market, we just made another announcement this morning, ten minutes ago, you may have missed. 24% of the clearing broker on wall street. so we are the ecosystem we have been building out here, the barbarians are not just out the gates but inside the gates, stuart. stuart: are you selling your retail business? >> well, we -- we have made it clear we have started the process. we have started the process as they say, yes, we do have big box retailers and stuff, we are in conversations, we are going to see. stuart: can i interrupt for a second? >> sure. your stock on the screen, $61 per share.

okay, you're down, i got it. if i buy your stock -- >> four times. stuart: if i buy your stock today am i buying into the app? >> you're getting a piece of that. our stock owns 1.8 million and i'm tired of competing with people that lose 300 million bucks a year and also has ten or 11 block chain investments. so why not -- [laughter] >> tired of competing with people that lose fortunes. when you buy our stock, you're getting both. ashley: very good. stuart: that's all important. shake that hand, young man. thank you, appreciate it. next case, a real medical marvel. a baby born from embryo that was frozen for 24 years. we've got that story for you, believe me.

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stuart: i just love this story and kind of a christmas story too. a couple has a baby from a 24-year frozen embryo, frozen 24 years ago, they have the baby now. give me the science, how is this possible, doc? >> this is amazing.

since 1984 they have been using a technique called cryo reservation. they replace the water with antifreeze, then they keep it cold using liquid nitrogen and when they want to thaw it, stuart, 3 seconds, they thaw the whole thing in 3 seconds and they have found no genetic problems, rate of birth of about 4%, but it's just as good as using a fresh embryo, when they do in vitro fertilization. stuart: is that what we are talking about here? >> absolutely right. that is happening, women are waiting later and later before having children and sometimes maybe some tragedy strikes like you have to have chemotherapy,

say you have breast cancer or something like that, you might have an embryo hidden away that you can use later on. this is a great situation. stuart: wonderful story. >> the science is there now. it used to be something called slow freezing, they gradually brought embryo and now have the science down so they can do almost instantously. stuart: i wish we weren't out of time. yes, merry christmas to all. thank you, doctor. not everything in the tax bill is cool including carried interest, that's a loophole. i think it's a disgrace. you'll hear my take on that at the top of the hour. plus, espn jamil hill doubles down on calling the president a racist, her latest comments coming up for you.

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stuart: i support the tax deal that president trump is about a sign. i think it is good for america. good for the economy. we see exactly what is in it. not all good. one thing in particular i think is flat-out disgrace. carried interest, that is the special deal that lets hedge fund managers and big-time private equity guys pay a much lower tax rate than other top income earners. a hedge fund manager earns say a million dollars a year. that manager pay as tax rate of 23.8%. a corporate executive, or a sports star or just about anyone else who earns a million dollars a year pay as top rate of 37%. the tax deal was supposed to get rid of this carried interest. it didn't. it is still in. the hedge fund guys keep their special deal and they may have paid for it. fox business reports that private equity donated big money to politicians just in time for the special deal to be kept in.

that is politics at its worst. bear in mind that other top earners, especially those in new york, new jersey, and california are seeing their tax bills go way up. i repeat way up. i am inclined to use bill clinton's phrase, the rich should pay their fair share, that is definitely, definitely applies to hedge fund managers. it is extremely disappointing to see a republican party with a republican president allow the purchase of financial favors. that is not what we voted for. but unfortunately, that is what we've got. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: all right, latest reading on consumer sentiment. how do we all feel, ash? ashley: not as good as we hoped. we saw a 3% drop-off in

november. december, slightly below what we expected. people asked about their attitudes about future economic prospects. i don't know whether this was taken after we got the tax bill signed. all of these companies and all these people, employers, talking about you know, giving bonuses, reinvesting, having said all of that, retail sales, which is such a big part of this economy have been growing strong and continue to. stuart: there is more important number coming out about new home sales. liz: unexpectedly surging up 17 1/2% month to month, to 733,000. this is a highest level since before the last recession. it is highest in about 10 years time. we understand haven't seen the levels since 2007. month to month. stuart: you have declining consumer sentiment. ashley: a little. stuart: on good stuff but a huge rise in the number of new homes sales actually out there and sold. good stuff. no impact on the market. we were down 12 when we gave you

these numbers. now we're down 15. big check stocks, we like to check them, they dominated this market a long time, all of them on the downside today. all down, the bing techs, facebook, amazon, microsoft, alphabet and apple is ever so slightly higher. show me bitcoin, please. look at that now. $12,000 a coin. it is down $3600. liz: like a evil knievel motorcycle ride, up and down, up and down. whee. stuart: these are bitcoin related stocks. some changed their name to include the word blockchain in the name. they are way down this morning. ashley: ridiculous. stuart: let me get to the tax bill and carried interest loophole. it survives. i'm angry about it. so are a lot of people, actually. david williams, taxpayers protection alliance, president there of. i think this is outrageous.

i don't know what you think about this. why is it still in there? >> it is outrageous, stuart, because the president ran on trying to bring the tax code to be a fair and equitable thing, carried interest does not do that. so i share your outrage with that but i'm looking at bigger picture lear and what this tax bill really does for the economy. but what it does for the rest of the world, i want to talk about that for a second. we're reducing the corporate tax rate to 21%. you know what is happening? other countries are freaking out because they're going, wait a second, the u.s. is now competitive again, and i think this will spur a whole new tax revolution around the world. we'll see other countries react, hey, we're back in business. the u.s. is back in business. rest of the world knows it. stuart: i i want you to look wht nancy pelosi said about the tax bill, i'm quoting directly now, republicans have spent all of 2017 throwing gift-wrapped handouts to their donors and special interests. now they're doing everything they can to avoid actually addressing the needs of everyday

americans. #do your job. david, they are planning a year-long attack on the tax plan, using that as their strategy to win in 2018. do you think it's a good strategy? >> it is awful. the democrats are on the wrong side of history here. who will they attack, the middle class getting tax break, or going to attack the small businesses. there are 28 million small businesses in this country been begging for tax reform, begging for a lower rate, begging for lower regulations. they're getting that, so nancy pelosi and senator schumer going after small businesses? that is not a winning strategy in my eyes. stuart: originally democrats wanted the tax rate cuts to be permanent. but they found out that they only last for eight years. so now they are saying, middle-class americans face a tax increase under this proposal. the logic escapes me. your comment? >> if nancy pelosi is still in congress in eight years, will

she vote against extending these tax cuts? let's be serious here. no republican or democrat will vote against extending these tax cuts. great talking point for the democrats get in their delorian go to the future, eight years we'll have a huge tax increase. vote for it, nancy pelosi, see what happens. it is ludicrous. stuart: stay right there for me for a second. i have got tammy bruce with me now, fox news contributor. i want your reaction to democrats strategy, go all out, attack the tax cut deal for next year. >> they were against it like armageddon and stealing crutches from tiny time. those were lies. as i noted if this is armageddon last couple days, i want more armageddon. come on. they are hoping for ignorance of their people they talk to, the ignore rans of their own base.

american people will each see how this benefits them. this is on the republican end. to make sure they have a food communication framework. so that the american people know that full breath of what this is, also for the republicans, paul ryan has been saying we've got to go deal with the entitlement problem. oh, no, you don't. this is dynamic where the american people and democrats will use this saying, well now, that they have done this, now they're going to take money on this end, we need to have a clean shot next year for the american people, keeping more of their own money, not hearing about how the government wants to take it away, when there is fraud, waste and abuse to the tune of billions of dollars. then even the daca argument that the cbo says, well, if you give this a bit of amnesty to two million people, that will cost $26 billion over the next nine years. so this has got to be very clean and direct for the american people. none of these shenanigans. it will be a mistake for the democrats to argue about the tax

cuts but democrats make mistakes all the time. stuart: they don't see it that way. >> they make mistakes all the time. stuart: while you're here, got to ask you about andrew mccabe, fbi second-in-command kind of guy. >> yeah. stuart: he has been testifying behind closed doors but we hear subpoenas are going to hit him. >> yes. stuart: at that point, if they do, it goes public. it is not behind closed doors, we find out, don't we? >> this got larger. reports are that mr. mccabe's testimony behind closed doors contradicted other testimony that already occurred. this is why more subpoenas will come out, including apparently some reports are to someone who had been the general counsel at fbi, man named james baker, suddenly last 11 hours has been reassigned. stuart: yes? >> that is the report over the last 12 hours, they say this is normal process with the new director wray of just reassigning individuals but he had been of course the general counsel. he has been reassigned. we don't know exactly when that

occur or what his new role will be but that seems to be confirmed out of fbi. in addition to bruce ohr, the man who met with fusion gdp. these individuals had a lot of power but behind the scenes, if these are getting brought in, this is much broader to the democrats anticipated and we're getting closer to the truth what happened last year's election. you want collusion between the democrats, between the fbi and russia. stuart: that would be a blockbuster. ashley: irony. stuart: we'll cover that. we have a good year. we'll cover that one. >> important news. i will throw this one out to everyone here. let me give you the news. there is a petition to get matt damon out of his latest movie, the latest movie being, "ocean's 8". why? because of comments he made saying including this, there is a difference, you know, between patting someone on the butt or rape or child molestation. you know there is, because he

said it, he is out or may be out of a movie. that's ridiculous. >> dealing with public perception and public activism is one thing. i've been arguing from the start with this very important correction, if you will in business, when it comes to men like harvey weinstein who are very aggressive. reports hundreds of assaults issues, conflation of men who are jerks versus men who are predators. somehow it is the same thing. people make mistakes, say the wrong thing, make a gesture perceived incorrectly. i think as we all know, sexual assault and stories we have heard have been horrible. this is something we do have to deal with at the business level of things. but then, are we going to want it to be like witch-hunt? ashley: backlash to matt damon is disproportionate to what he said. i think that is to tammy's point. stuart: there is huge difference as he says, between patting

someone on the butt, don't do it, of course, child molestation and rape. but at moment the punishment for all is exactly the same, you yoe ostracized, lose your job, lose your talents. that is flat-out wrong. >> between something that is said versus physical contact. no woman wants to be physically handled in a context. and these are things that of course are dealt with at business level. we have to admit there are differences and we have to agree how we'll handle those things civilly and within the business framework. stuart: get this in, please. president trump just tweeting, tweet as lot, still does, he will be signing biggest ever tax cut and reform bill in 30 minutes. in the oval office. he will be signing a much-needed $4 billion missile defense bill as well. just tweeted about that. coming up espn anchor jemele hill, doubling down on let's say her contempt for president

trump. we have her latest comments calling him i think a white supremacist. that is the correct expression she used. mainstream media may have to admit the big tax bill is a win for mr. trump. we're on that one. yeah, you're watching the second hour of "varney & company." ♪

stuart: we're holding on to a small loss for the dow industrials. 23 points down at 24,759. as for the dow 30, i am afraid to say more than half of the 30 stocks in the dow are in the red. they are down. the price of gold not doing much again. we're at 1275 per ounce. now this. google's eric schmidt, bombshell here, the man is stepping down. tell me why. ashley: he joined google back in 2001.

there were just a couple hundred employees there. now look at it today, it is dominant. he is stepping down. no reason given. he is being pushed away from the cameras and reporters. no one is saying much about it although it's a significant move. there has been reports, "times," elsewhere, about his personal relationships. he is married but often showed up to company events with girlfriends. we believe it was an open marriage. these were relationships with women who did not work at google. they were outside. that was the life he chose to lead. stuart: terribly sorry, i'm inclined to say so what? liz: not really our business, is it? stuart: not really our business. i don't know whether any of his girlfriends were google employees. ashley: outside of the office. liz: consensual. stuart: i don't like his politics. ashley: he was a big hillary clinton supporter. stuart: but the man is brilliant. this is the man who introduced us to google map, gmail, youtube and android phones. if he is out because of personal

relationships that is crazy. liz: connected the world. stuart: espn's jemele hill blasting president trump, saying this. all right, roll tape. >> i firedded off tweets that i probably shouldn't have. i just said, you know, what i thought to be, i thought everybody knew. i thought, you know, i was saying water was wet. ashley: what? stuart: i'm sorry. we got the wrong sound bite. i did not hear what she said. my apologies, lawrence jones, sitting there. you were expected to hear that. tell me producer, what did she say? did she call the president a white supremacist. is that what she said? i didn't hear it early clearly. i thought everybody knew he was a white supremacist. what is going on here, lawrence jones? seems most plaque athletes i see on television think our president is a white supremacist. what is going on? >> that is became the case once

donald trump changed his political ideology, but these same people called him white supremacist and same people attending his parties, wanting donations from him, many photos and entertainment when he was a democrat. so i would encourage these people to be honest and intellectually honest and say what is really is. he is a republican. this is the same strategy that they use on republicans all the time. this is the same party that, same movement you have a journalist from the "huffpo" criticizing for tim scott being in a photo with the president and he was a token and he wrote the bill and got a lot of stuff for black folks. this is nothing new. i would encourage them to focus on the results of this president, whether you like him or not, you can't deny what he has done for black families, black unemployment is down. black foals on food stamps are down. black businesses are soaring.

those are results. that is is stuff will actually impact the black community. stuart: okay, now, let me talk to you about papa john's ceo john schnatter. he is stepping aside. stepping down. not too long ago the man publicly criticized the nfl over the anthem protests. what's your reaction to this man now stepping down? >> first of all, brother, papa john's is my favorite pizza. i probably individual once a week. so i feel sad a fellow texan is having to step down for his company but this is what's happening in, you know in this industry right now. if you speak publicly on something, these people will shame you and make you leave your own company. i quite frankly believe that he should have a spine and not leave his company but i understand he has a duty to his shareholders, and he doesn't want to destroy his business but i contend if he was to stand up, at that there would be a lot of

freedom people, liberty-minded people that would stand by him in his business. stuart: yeah. i think you're right. stand up, say what you think and stand by what you think. be honest and let the public decide. i think you're dead right there. >> that's it. that's it. stuart: lawrence, merry christmas, young man. can i do that? >> i appreciate it, brother. stuart: come to new york city. see you soon. here is the president's tweet, came out just a few moments ago. will be signing the biggest ever tax cut and reform bill in 30 minutes in the oval office. we'll be signing much-needed 4 billion-dollar missile defense bill. of course we're going to cover it and we'll be back with that. ♪ see that's funny, i thought you traded options.

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stuart: bitcoin related stocks, really getting slammed this morning. look at them tumble. 12, 18, six, 11, 9% down. bitcoin itself way down this morning. it hit $11,000 per bitcoin earlier. now it has bounced, if you want to call it that to 13,000. still down 2500 bucks on the day. that is volatility. crunch time, last-minute shoppers, yes it is. jeff flock is with us. jeff, where are you, and what are you seeing? tell me. reporter: this would be the famed woodfield mall in schomburg, illinois, just outside of chicago. i give you a special treat. there is santa claus. that is the real santa claus down there. well at least it looks like the real santa claus. i checked it out, the beard is actually real. there you go. last-minute shopping, it is big. i know you think that the retail

is dead, perhaps, but 63% of people say, survey says, have not finished their shopping yet. 12% tell national retail federation will do it today. another 16% on super saturday, tomorrow. you have the two days, off days, saturday, sunday, run-up to christmas. people will apparently take advantage of that not a lot of people are done. i will say, you always say, online is killing retail, bricks and mortar, 51% of people surveyed, the majority say they are going to shop online, even at the last minute, because they think they can get it delivered. by the way number on super saturday tomorrow, shopping online, here at the malls, 126 million people. i think it will be a happy christmas. stuart: been remarkable year, jeff. that is a fact. you've done remarkably well yourself. i got to just digress for a second, flock. i remember you during the hurricanes. reporter: yes.

stuart: you sir were brilliant, flat-out brilliant. merry christmas. reporter: thank thank you for pg my family on your show, entire family. next year, we'll put the ex-wifes on. it will be tremendous television. stuart: we want your mom back. that is what we really want. reporter: she wants you back too, no one else. stuart: that's great. see you later. any moment now, the president will be signing the tax bill into law. we'll take to you the white house in just a moment. ♪ [lance] monica, it is absolute chaos out here! gale force winds, accumulations up to 8 inches... ...don't know if you can hear me, but [monica] what's he doing? [lance] can we get a shot of this cold front, right here.

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stuart: you know, we've been on, market has been open for an hour. it has been like this the whole hour, a very small loss, holding

with that small loss, down 13 points as we are. right now we have got the dow at 24,767. we always like to quote the big-name technology stocks because i keep saying it, that is where the money has been going and gains in these stocks have really propelled the overall market. i think i remember hearing somewhere that these five stocks account for half of all the markets gains over the past year. this market has gone straight up over the

stuart: you could tell you're not quite sure exactly what we're going to get ten minutes from now. i canç tell. i can tell.

reporter: what we are told, end up happening often end up being two very different things. stuart: you learned a lot in the past. blake burman. everybody. he will stay there, report to us later. staying on the tax deal. is it possible that the win, and i think it is president trump win, could actually turn the media coverage of the president a little more positive, just a little at least? do you think that could happen? nix johnson, axios editor-in-chief. he is very important guy these days, running a very important company. nick, welcome to the program. good to see you. >> thank you. stuart: i'm calling it a trump win. do you think the intensely-hostile media will turn around, start looking favorably on our president? >> i think it is important to look at this less through media criticism and more as policy accomplishment. there is no doubting tax bill, largest in 30 years, joe biden would paraphrase a big deal. with united government, both houses of congress, have the

president. everyone in town waiting for them to have the big signature accomplishment, particularly after failure repealing the affordable care act. so there is no doubt the president is ending the year on high note. i wrote about it in axios earlier this week. look at the rest of the things they accomplished with gorsuch, remaking federal courts. more federal justices appointed in aç year for 30 years. fighting islamic state. finally the presidents get too much credit for economic success and too much blame for economic failure but as the president tells us unemployment is low and market is booming. stuart: i'm not including axios, in this, establishment media has pure contempt on our president. that borders on hatred. that is very strong word to use. where am i going wrong with this? >> if you look at the president, he has some contempt for a lot of media organizations.

regularly attacking organizations calling them fake news and singling out reporters and media organizations failures and piles of garbage. there is problems on both sides. at axios we try not to talk about that kind of noise. what is actually happening. we tell readers, don't look at the president says, look what he does. on policyside, he is ending the year on high note. stuart: do you think the establishment media going through in 2008, do you think they are little less hostile to the president, yes or no? >> let's see how the policy fights shape up next year. stuart: i'll tell you flat-out, nick? >> yeah. stuart: i just don't see it. i do not see this contempt going away on the part of the establishment media.?h@&c @&c% they're venomous towards this guy. >> i think also, people like a winner. so if the president and republicans in congress can get more policy wins and maybe work with democrats as the president has said on infrastructure, you

could see the tone of the coverage change a little bit. stuart: want to get back to the tax bill here. i want to talk to you about carried interest. >> yes. stuart: you know what carried interest is. >> i do. stuart: it is that extremely low tax rate granted to hedge fund managers and not granted to other high income earners. how the devil did that stay in this tax deal? i think it is outrageous. >> the president would agree with you. the president's top economic advisor gary cohn would agree with you. we had him at an axios event last week. we asked him that question. how could you not get that out there. he said there was too much support for defending it in congress, both on republicans and democrats. president united against that and couldn't get the changed. stuart: thanks for being on the shown, nick. congratulations on axios. fine publication. >> appreciate it. stuart: come in former white house economic policy advisor jeff, same question to

you. i'm frankly outraged that this carried interest stays in and hedge fund managers get this preferential treatment. how did this happen? >> stuart, i obviously wasn't involved in the negotiations. stuart: sure. >> but fromç what i understand the white house pushed on it. others in congress pushed back a different way. that is where it landed. i would note that there are some tax policy arguments on both sides of this. as you pointed out over time, compensation, no matter how it's paid to any individual should be taxed at same rate. on other hand there is long-standing partnership law allows characterization of different type of income to be granted to different folks in the partnership. so that applies in this, in this field as well. stuart: you know, it's made a lot of people very angry, especially, new york, new jersey, california, illinois, connecticut, et cetera, et cetera. high income earners in those high-taxed states are getting hit but the hedge fund guys get

away with this ridiculous 23% rate. you're looking at a lot of very angry people here. put that one side for a second. i want you to address the democrats. they're going on full year attack over this tax policy, tax reform. that's their strategy to win in 2018. do you think it's a good strategy. >> the carried interest piece they will harp on that and there will be a place where the discussion will go about extending that carry period or with it. that will be something that will be on the table but as a general matter, going into next year, i think what we'll see, proof will really be in the pudding. we'll see what happens with people's wages. we'll see what happens with economic growth. democrats will continue to push, say that this tax bill really doesn't have any benefits for the middle class, for ordinary working americans. but as people begin to see their

withholding change, begin to see companies increasing bonus?s, increasing investment, then we'll see which way that plays out. stuart: got it. jeff, thank you very much for joining us sir, good stuff. appreciate night thanks, stuart. stuart: we're waiting for president trump. momentarily will be in the oval office, probably is in there now but he is going to sign the tax deal. we understand cameras have been allowed in. at least one pool camera as it's called. we should be getting video of him signing. when we get it you'll see it. we'll be back. ♪

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both sides. stuart: it is just not right, congressman. i think you will agree, it just ain't right. multimillionaires paying 23.6%. the rest of us paying 37% is just not right. to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. fidelity. open an account today. ♪

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weak sales in north america, and intense competition from adidas. the stock is down. next case, the democrats have launched aç year-long figt against the tax plan. house minority leader nancy pelosi tweeting, quote, republicans have spent all 2017 throwing gift-wrapped packages to their donors and special interests. now they do everything they can to avoid everyday -- needs of everyday americans. #do your job. you like this. you think this makes trump sisters look good right? >> she is right. exactly what the gop has been doing, working on their special interest group, the american people. this is something that the candidate trump had promised to do. he wanted to come here and drain the swamp and start to put things right. this is just the beginning.

year one, stuart, we have the stock market surging, 401(k)s are going up, wages are going up. bonuses going to people who haven't had bonuses in years. so absolutely, nancy pelosi is right. i hope they continue this narrative because the special interests for president trump is the american people. stuart: but i suspect not so much the policies that they intensely dislike. it is the person. they don't like the way our president comes across. i will give you an example. we have espn's jemele hill. she says she won't take bacalling the president a white supremacist. this is, iç think, fairly typil going after the person, the man, the behavior, the style of the man as opposed to policy. what say you? >> this is right. this is emotional opposition. it is unfortunate someone like jemele hill, who works for a company that is consistently losing viewership, laying off

people this year alone, including talent, continues to insult the viewers of that network. this defeats the narrative, if she were to take it back, mitigate, she would become attacked by her own group. this narrative can't continue. they continue to push desanitation of the man instead of policy. this will work against them. the american people are tired of this. they have been doing for two years now. the president has accomplishments on the books like no other people in history in the first year. even people in his own party said he couldn't get it done, he didn't understand, he is accomplished one of the biggest pieces of legislation that will help the american people in such a long time. the narrative will fall flat on its face. stuart: you're right. i think there are a lot of successes to point to here from the economy to the border, there is a long list of successes here. do you think though, that the media, will be a little less contemptuous, a little less hostile to the president, bearing in mind those successes? personally i don't think they will ever change.

what do you say? >> i don't think so either but is going to beç more and more difficult to try to convince the american people that donald trump doesn't like them. more difficult to think that policies will hurt them. people wake up in february with more money in their paychecks. doing their tax as lot easier, getting back a lot more. we'll be wondering why they're even still around. stuart: i got you. katrina, thanks for joining us. always a pleasure. >> great to be here. merry christmas. stuart: merry christmas indeed. on the left side of the screen the white house of course, that is where president trump is in the oval office. he is signing the tax deal. this is historic moment because this is a huge tax deal, and he has pushed hard for it for a year. he's got it. he is going to sign it. again i think it is historic. we do have one camera in there, shooting what is called pool video. the president may or may not, i don't think he can resist saying

something quite frankly. ashley: he should say something, don't you think? stuart: i think so. liz: as democrats planning a year-long assault, a blitz against this tax cut plan. they can't take credit so the only path is to attack. hyperbole seems to be ratcheting up as you see quarterly growth 3% plus. mitch mcconnell is worried according to reports they may lose one chamber in the midterms. stuart: that is what heç is worried about? we'll see. we'll be back in a moment and hope to show you the signing itself. ♪ i just finished months of chemo. but i don't want to talk about months. i want to talk about years. treatments have gotten better, so... i'm hoping for good years ahead. that's thanks to research funded by the american cancer society. the same folks giving me free rides to treatments, insurance advice,and a place to stay during chemo.

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stuart: start with bitcoin. did it take a tumble overnight, down about 20, 25%. at one point this morning it dropped to $11,000 a coin. bounced back a little.ç at $13,000 now. spillover effect here. those companies which adopted the blockchain in their name, for example, long island iced tea, second on the list there, that became long blockchain. straight up yesterday. straight down today. that is called volatility. bat to bitcoin itself. we hear hear there is regulation going on?

liz: france is trying to regulate crip cocurrencies. pump and dump scams, watch out for that. south korea stepping up. also denmark. also central bankers, wait a second, we'll take a harder look at this. stuart: ashe, there is dispute between bitcoin and bitcash. ashley: bitcoin cash lost half of its value in last 24 hours. problem, developers of this technology can't agree which will be the dominant one, bitcoin or bitcoin cash. one of the cofounders of bitcoin quit. cashed in. made billions. he said about it coin is useless. you have to go into bitcoin cash. the emil, the technology officer hired at beginning by bitcoin. that uncertainty which one is the better one is adding to the sell-and-a-half. stuart: call it a crash. ashley: yeah. stuart: that is a seriousç cra. ashley: a little bit.

stuart: update on big story we brought you yesterday. that is major corporations saying they will invest in their workers, hire more people and invest in america because the tax deal have four more major companies joining that today. walmart, home depot, united technologies, coca-cola. all of them saying yes, we will reinvest our winnings from tax cuts into the united states. what else we got on that liz? liz: we also have other, total of nine companies, very positive about u.s. tax cuts, caterpillar, weighing in. chevron, a whole basket of them, cisco, dow, dupont, ge. walmart, this goes beyond what we've been talking about those seven companies that reacted pretty fast saying bonuses, raising the minimum wage, reinvesting, now we have more companies coming out saying positive things about tax cuts. stuart: you can search all over the place in the media to find it. ashley: you won't find it. stuart: i think it is very important. they're calling it a pr stunt. they want to get on the

president's god side. they were going to expand any way. they use this as excuse to get on president's good side. liz: that was at msnbc. nbc, people saying things like that. the dow, dupont, said it will attract increased investment in the u.s.ç that is direct quote. stuart: case closed. that is exactly what you need to know and designed to do. liz: yep. stuart: i want to talk about the tax cut deal. the president is goings to sign it, signing it now, actually there will be a pool camera and tape come out. whether the president makes remarks we don't know. ashley: you know will say something. stuart: camera pointed at president, his name is donald trump. i think he says something. ashley: signing this historic piece of legislation. he will say something. stuart: i wonder. does the media turn around,

become positive about our president? ashley: no. they hate him. stuart: that's true. liz: "politico" put out a story of high-level meetings about concerns for midterm, midterm election, they could lose one of the chambers. now you see 10 months they have got to prove, 10 months to prove that the tax cuts will work. we had the elections in virginia, alabama, new jersey, went democrats way. the democrats are full-on taking this is the only path, attack the tax cuts. they haven't done anything else. they didn't vote for it. ashley: very risky strategy, as we've seen from the companies, lizzie, they're making their plans,ç pr stunt or not, they'e doing it, really blow up in their face, if all of sudden this country is humming on all engines. stuart: i love to see it. we'll be back in a second. promise.

..ç

stuart: well, it is official. the president did indeed just sign the tax bill. moments from now we're going to see this in action.

i'm going to call it a big win for the president. elsewhere, you know, it's well documented the democrats and the media are flat out contemptuous of president trump. they won't respect or report his successes. so we will. a year ago did you expect to see the economy grow at a better than 3% rate? a 17-year lower for unemployment and rising wages? probably not. the media, led by professor paul krugman of the new york times, were expecting gloom and doom. i'd say the economy's rebound is a solid trumpç success. so too is the trump stock market rally, and it is the trump rally. no matter how far the left goes to downplay it, up by a third or in a year, we haven't seen that in decades. and don't be fooled by that old canard, it's all going to the rich. the markets' gains go directly to tens of millions and indirectly to hundreds of millions of americans.

isis -- [laughter] they ruled the roost a year ago, and they had their caliphate. now they don't. trump changed the rules of engagement more our armed forces. what a change, what a success. border crossings down by two-thirds. flow had never been staunched before. and obamacare's individual mandate, success, it's gone. no more fines for not having the coverage the government demands you pay for for which you don't want. and now the biggest success of all, tax cuts. like the deal or not, the president did get it done. that's not a bad list of successes for his first year. this president has accomplished a lot. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ç stuart: well, the president is about to leave the white house. he's on his way or he's going to be on his way shortly to

mar-a-lago in florida. he signed the tax bill. he's expected to make some remarks, and when he does, we will have the tape, and you will see what he said and how he signed the tax bill. [laughter] historic moment. stay right here, please. now to the markets, check that big board and the dow 30. we are down 29 points. it's been in this way all morning. about two-thirds of the dow 30 are down, one-third up. the market, the dow standing at 24,754. moments ago i just said, look, i think the tax plan is a big win for the president in what was a pretty good year for him, his first year. question: will a bigger market rally follow in 2018? be who better to ask than bob doll, nuvine asset management chief strategist. okay, bob, what do you see for 208 in the stock market? >> i think we'll have another good year in the stock market, stuart. we've got a lot of things going

for us; a decent economy for all the reasons you just mentioned, low inflation and interest rates, corporate america is general right and will generate -- generating and will generate more good earnings. now,ç i'm not promising the kid of gain we had in '17. a lot of the good news came in '17. hopefully, we didn't borrow much from what would have happened in '18. i think it also won't be as smooth a ride. 2017 will go in the history books, barring a disaster in the last month of the year, as the only year ever when the stock market went up every month. i don't think that'll happen again in '18. a good year but not a perfect year. stuart: you and i have been in this business for decades. have you ever seen anything like this before? because i haven't. >> no, i can't remember anything like it. obviously, the late '90s run that went on for a number of years was pretty impressive, if i can remember back that far at my advanced age, stuart, but this is pretty unique.

stuart: yes, it is. look, bob, i've got to ask you about carried interest. i call that a loophole that allows hedge fund managers to pay a lot lower tax rate than other people who earn high incomes. how on earth did this thing stay in the tax deal? >> that's a great question. i suspect there were some heavy lobbying by some supporters or and contributors. i agree with the tenor of your question. the president promised this would be gone. and, look, i understand both sides of theç argument if this were a debate, i could give both sides of the argument. but by and large, this was the time to deal with it and put everybody sort of on the same wave length. selfishly, i do a lot of the same things that hedge fund managers do, have a hedge fund, but i pay a different tax rate than they do. we all ought to be on the same page, in my view. stuart: i think this s.a.l.t. thing, i think that may have a slightly negative impact on the economy.

because both you and i, bob, we both know plenty of people who earn high incomes that live in new jersey or new york or california. they face a tax increase. more money will be taken off them in the final analysis. i don't think that does much for growth in the economy. >> yes, i agree that that is one of the -- look, we have a good tax bill. let's not get away from it, particularly for corporations. individuals, some good, some not sod goo. you're on to one of the not so good. will get through, but i agree with the tenor of your question, it would have been more growth had those tax increases for those people had not happened. stuart: would you touch bitcoin with a 10-foot pole? [laughter] >> no, stuart. but at half the current rate, i would have said the sameç thin. look, this thing is a moonshot. look, there's some good fundamentals i don't pulley understand, but there's also -- fully understand, but there's also a lot of speculation. i've talked to too many people

who say i own bitcoin because it's going up. that's the ultimate in a momentum play. and the other side of that is never much fun. stuart: well said, bob. thanks very much for being with us. happy holidays to you. hope you come back soon. >> you too. stuart: thank you. now, back to what i said at the top of the hour. i think it's been a successful year for our president in his first year in office. jason chaffetz, former utah congressman and now fox news contributor, is with us now. do you think that the tide of negativity against the president may actually turn just a little in the new year because of the successes he's had? >> no, stuart, come on -- [laughter] you've been around politics long enough. look, the bar which usually gauges politicians is did they exceed expectations. everybody was predicting in the so-called mainstream media that president trump was going to be a failure. but from neil neil gorsuch to tx bill that did pass, the

president's had a host of successes. a lot of them never made it into the media. the reduction in the regular that la story, in the -- regulatory, in theç regulations has had a major impact in the economy, on the enthusiasm of small business owners. it didn't get much attention. but if you actually own one of those small businesses, it really was a compelling issue for you in 2017. stuart: it's not so much the president's policies that people don't like, it's his personality, it's his persona, the way he comes across, the language he uses, sometimes the insults that he lays out there. i think that's at the heart of the problem with the media, with democrats and with a lot of voters. it's him. it's his personage. do you think we'll ever get used to him? >> i think america has warmed up to it. look, they ultimately want results. i think they've become numb to it when the democrats -- even before president trump was sworn in -- were yelling and screams about impeachment and we ought

to -- you know, at some point everything the president does isn't wrong. and i think particularly the tax fight, when you have nancy pelosi saying it's armageddon, when you have chuck schumer saying, you know, the world's going to fall apart, i mean, really you're telling people that you're going to allow them to keep more money in their pockets, and the democrats are arguing that taxes should go up? i don't know how they translate that that to a victory inç 201, i really don't. stuart: it's going to be a really interesting 2018, and that's a fact, jason chaffetz. merry christmas to you, sir, and we'll see you in the new year. >> thank you, thank you. stuart: we've got a big hour coming up. the tax bill signed, and the head of the national association of home builders is onboard with it. he wasn't onboard with it the last time he appeared on the program. what turned him around? we will ask him, of course. i say the next fight for tax cuts will happen in the states, the blue states. new jersey is one of them. and the democrat leader of that state senate will be joining us.

question for him, will you, sir, consider raising taxes on millionaires? will you do that? next, andrew mccabe testifies before senate and house panels this week behind closed doors. his testimony will now lead to subpoenas. florida's attorney general, pam bondi, next on that. yeah, you're watching the third hour of "varney & company." we're only just getting started. ♪ ♪

stuart: now, the signing of the tax deal which the president has just done, yes, he has signed it, that was not accompanied by any kind of rally on wall street. in fact, we stayed where we were. that would be a -38 points. here it is. roll it. [inaudible conversations]

>> good morning. good morning, everybody. thank you very much for being here and merry christmas, happy new year. have a great holidays. we are going to sign some very important things today. one is a continuing resolution that, very importantly, gives us the right, and we are orderingç $4 billion worth of missile defense equipment and missiles themselves. very important. top of the line. best in the world. we make the best military product in the world. nobody is even close. so we're ordering $4 billion worth of missile defense, and that will be done by signing

right here and also by notifying the speaker of the house and president of the senate designating the missile defense as emergency defense fund. so it's $4 billion for that and $700 million for various other military forms of equipment, and i'm very honored to be doing that. our military's been doing a fantastic job in so many ways with isis. everything they're touching lately has been working out, so we're signing that. [background sounds] >> this is the letter to mitch mcconnell, and separately to paul ryan, authorizing that having to do with missile defense.ç

okay? [background sounds] >> very important. so that's being done today, and that's going to be sent out. and then when i watch the news, as you know, we had the largest tax cuts in our history just approved, and i was going to wait for a formal signing sometime in early january, but then i watched the news this morning, and they were all saying will he keep his promise, will he sign it by christmas. you all were. but will he sign it by christmas. and i called downstairs, i said, get it ready. we have to sign it now. we were going to wait until january 7th or 8th and to a big formal ceremony. but every one of the networks

was saying will he keep his promise, will he sign it before christmas, and so i immediately called, i said, let's get it ready. as you know, $3.2 trillion in tax cuts for american families including the doubling of the standard deduction and the doubling of the child tax credit. the typical family ofç four earning $75,000 will see an income tax cut of more than $2,000. many much higher than that, slashing their tax bill in half. they're going to start to see that because we're signing today, they're going to start to see that in february. the numbers will speak. one of the big things that happened, you have some great companies. i want to thank at&t who actually was the first out of the box and boeing and sinclair and wells fargo and comcast -- even though they own nbc which is not so nice to the presidency or the president -- but comcast

also, they all have made tremendous contributions to their employees and tremendous contributions to spending money in this country because of the tax bill. and they all said, and it's because of the tax bill, so they're making tremendous investments. that means jobs. it means a lot of things, and we're very happy. so that's at&t, boeing, sinclair, wells fargo, comcast and many other companies. in fact, just this morning i see three more companies came on. a friend of mine, bob graft, called me last night -- bob kraft, he owns the newç england patriots, but he's in the paper business too. he said based on this tax bill, he just wanted to let me know that he's going to buy a big plant in the great state of north carolina, and he's going to build a tremendous paper mill there or paper products plant. and i've had many calls such as that where people that are entrepreneurs, people in

business, they're going out and they're going to buy, frankly, factories that are closed, abandoned, and now they're not going to be abandoned any longer. this is having an even bigger impact faster than i thought. the corporate tax rate, as you know, will be lowered from 35 to 21%. that means that more products will be made in the usa. a lot of things are going to be happening in the usa. we're going to bring back our companies. they've already started coming back. i think they had confidence in me, they figured we were going to get this done. they have already started. something very important to me, the family farmers and small business owners who lost their business because of the estate tax, most of them won't have any estate tax to pay. it will be a great thing for their families. you can leave your farm to your family, you can leave your business, your small business to your family. not even so small, because the numbers are pretty big here.ç so they'll be exempt from having to pay estate tax, which'll be

tremendous. they'll keep their farms and businesses in the family. businesses will be able to deduct 100% of the cost of their capital investments in the year the investment is made. that's called expensing. and to do one-year expensing, i think, is going to be one of the biggest things in the bill, frankly. i think people are going to go out and absolutely go wild over expensing. bob kraft mentioned that last night in his telephone call. the fact that they can expense, do one-year expensing is a fantastic asset. historic small business tax cuts and pass-throughs now are made really, really good for the business owner. they're hiring people. i see it on television. i'm reading about it all over where people are hiring a lot of people right now to go to work. the small business tax cut and the pass-throughs are now really incentivizing people. we're going to bring back probably $4 trillion from overseas.

nobodyknows the exact number, it could be $5 trillion. it's a tremendous amount of money that was caught overseas in the bureaucracy plus the tax laws didn't allow it to be reasonably brought back into our country. so weç think at least $4 trillin is going to be brought back. and if you look at that, it's going to be brought back right under the code. this is something that republicans wanted for years and democrats wanted for years, and yet it never got done. who would object to trillions of dollars being brought back into our country? nobody. but it never got done. now it's being done. and the bottom line is this is the biggest tax cuts and reform in the history of our country. this is bigger than actually president reagan's many years ago. i'm very honored by it. in addition, we have anwar, we're opening up for drilling. they've tried to get that for 40 years. they've tried to get that even during the reagan administration, they could never get it.

that alone would be a big bill, if that ever happened, but that's even part of this. and we have, of course, the individual mandate which is a very unfair and very up popular provision -- unpopular provision, as you know, in obamacare. essentially, i think it ultimately leads to the end of obamacare. it's essentially -- i think obamacare is over because of that. and we're going the come up with something that's really going to be very good. but the individual mandate was very unfair or because you're basically saying pay for something in orderç not to have to get health care. so you're paying, you're paying not to have to have health care. it was very unfair. many people thought it should have been overturned in the supreme court. didn't quite make it. almost but didn't quite make it, but now we're overturning the individual mandate. most unpopular thing in obamacare. very, very unfair. so this is the bill right here, and we're very proud of it. it's a, it's going to be a

tremendous thing for the american peopling. it's going to be fantastic for the economy. it's going to keep companies from leaving our shores and opening up in other countries. they are very disincentivized to do that. they are -- there's not a lot of sense to do that. you do that and i don't think you're going to be running your company very well. so what's happening is we're going to sign this. this is a little picture of it. it fits nicely in the box. i said take it out of the box because people have to see. and all of this, everything in here, is really tremendous things for businesses, for people, for the middle class, for workers. and i consider this very much a bill for the middle class and a bill for jobs. and jobs are produced through companies and corporations. corporations are literally going wild over this. i think even beyond my

expectations, so far beyond my expectations. so i'll sign this today rather than having a very big, formal ceremony in two weeks when we were going to do it because i didn't want you folks to say that i wasn't end keeping my promise. i am keeping my promise. i am signing it before christmas. i said that the bill would be on my desk before christmas, and you are holding me literally to that, so we did a rush job today. it's not fancy, but it's the oval office. it's the great oval office. and just to conclude, our country's doing very well. we've tremendously cut regulations. legislative approvals, for which i'm given no credit in the mainstream media, we have i believe it's 88 which is number one in the history of our country, second now is to harry truman. harry truman had more legislative approvals than any other president, and -- a record long held. and we beat him on legislative

approvals for which i get no credit. a lot of people say he needed this because he has had no legislative approvals. well, if you look at v.a. accountability act and so many other bills having to do with the military, having to do with many things, we have more legislative victories than any other president not including this, but this is the capper because this is, again, the biggest tax cut, biggest reform of all time. with us, and we will sign this right now. this is something i'm very proud of. great for our country. great for the american people. thank you all. [background sounds] so we won't do the whole thing, but this is basically what it is. that's your bill.

and i want to thank some people in particular that aren't here because, again, we expected a formal ceremony in two weeks. but mitch mcconnell has been fantastic, worked so hard. we would speak at three in the morning and two in the morning, and we would speak whenever we had to speak. but he worked so hard. and the exact same thing can be said for paul ryan. uxey are very proud of this, and we're already seeing the results. and as i said, long before -- long ahead of schedule. paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, thank you very much. orrin hatch, the chairman, made a beautiful speech the other day in front of the white house, an absolutely brilliant, beautiful speech, and we appreciated it, and i appreciated it. hard working. kevin brady, i don't think he slept for months. it's almost like that's all he

did was this. mike enzi, senator enzi. diane black, rob portman. the group of rob portman, rob worked so hard. so knowledgeable on the subject. pat toomey, likewise. tim scott, john thune, likewise. these people worked so hard. i don't know if they're given the proper credit. and the whole senate, when i say "the senate," unfortunately, the republicans in the senate. democrats don't like tax cuts. they want to raise your taxes. they don't want to lower your taxes. they want to raise your taxes, and they want to spend money foolishly on things that we don't need in many cases. so we're cutting taxes, we're taking care of our military, and we're taking care of people. and we're really doing a job on jobs. so theseç folks have been so fantastic that i had to call them out. and plenty of others, believe me. republicans in the house and republicans in the senate have

been incredible. so this is what we got. we had it, it was all set to go as soon as i got back from christmas where we'll be working in florida, i'll be working very hard during christmas because we have many things we're talking about including north korea, including a lot of things happening in the middle east, as you know. we've made tremendous strides, obviously, in syria with isis. we've taken back virtually all of the caliphate, all of the land. same thing in iraq. and we're making tremendous strides. it's sort of the unwritten story right now. but since my speech on afghanistan, we're making tremendous progress, tremendous strides. we've opened it up, and it's a whole different world in afghanistan, i can tell you that. so i'll be working very hard over the holidays. again, i want to wish you a very merry christmas. i have some beautiful pens over here, and because all of these folks are either continuing to

work down the road or getting ready to leave and i'm sure they'll be working very hard also, i think i'm probably going to hand some of them to the press. the media, would any of the media like -- oh,ç look at thee camera guys. [laughter] i think we'll to that. so we have them. many of you have worked very hard. many of you have worked very, very fairly, and we really appreciate that. so here you go, folks. you want the box with it or not, huh? >> mr. president, could you talk a little bit about how much you'll travel to sell this tax -- >> i don't think i'm going to have to travel too much to sell it. i think it's selling itself. it's becoming very popular. but i think it'll really, you'll see something on february 1st when they open up the paycheck. that's when you're going to start to see it. because by signing it now, it kicks in for this year. remember, if we didn't make a certain date, it wouldn't kick in until next year, meaning the following year with, '19. and i wasn't happy with that. so we worked very, very hard to

make sure it was this year. even language originally said the corporate would kick in in '19, but we didn't do that. we had to sign. so i don't think we're going to have to do much selling. i think the corporations that are giving billions and billions of dollars away to their workers and many more are coming, i think that's really what's selling this maybe better than anybody could, including myself. but i think come february when they open their checks and they see, wow, what happened? i have a lot more money in here. i think that's really going to be something very special. so have a greatç holiday, folk. some of you folks take -- in particular i like the boom holders, they were so nice to me the other day, right? [laughter] and the cameramen -- >> mr. president -- >> and the cameramen. [inaudible conversations] >> thanks, everyone. >> thanks, guys. >> thank you, everyone. >> i think the democrats will really regret -- the democrats already regret it. you know, they have their typical thing, it's for the rich. they know that's not true, and they've been called out on it by

the media, actually. but the democrats very much regret it. they wanted to be a part of it, just doesn't or work out. but i really do believe, and i said on social media today, i really do believe we're going to have a lot of bipartisan work done, and maybe we start with infrastructure. because i really believe infrastructure can be bipartisan. we've spent $7 trillion in the middle east not to mention all of lives and all of heart ache, and it's so sad. $7 trillion. it's time for us to rebuild our country. thank you very much, everybody. >> thanks, everyone. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you very much, everybody. thank you. [inaudible conversations] >> do you wish you would have started with infrastructure at the beginning of thia year? is. >> yeah. well, we're going to get infrastructure. infrastructure is the easiest of all. we're very well on our way.

we've essentially repealed obamacare, you know, the spring mandate is a very big factor in this bill, frankly. a lot of people don't talk about it because the tax cut is so important. but infrastructure is by far the easiest. people want it, republicans and democrats. we're going to have tremendous democrat support on infrastructure, as you know. i could have started with infrastructure. i actually wanted to save the easy one for the one down the road. so we'll be having that done pretty quickly. thank you all very much, i appreciate it. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you very much. >> thanks, guys. [inaudible conversations] >> [inaudible] >> yeah, i think i have. one thing i really learned is i learned and got to know and became very friendly with the people in the house, the people in the senate, both republicans and democrats. when i came, you know, i didn't know too many. i was very politically active, but i didn't know too many. the i think the fact that i've become friends with so many of the names that i just read off and so many of the senators, so

many of the congressmen and women, i think that's a huge factor. i can call anybody, i know every one of them very well. is and i understand the legislation egg. you know, it's been a process, a great process. but i do believe, i do believe to know so many of these people -- and many of these people, i have to say, not saying all, but i'm saying many of these people are great people that truly love this country. so i think that helps. and i think you'll see that in this legislation. >> thanks, guys. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you all. stuart: he -- now, that's the president landing, that's marine one, of course, landing at andrews. he will step out of the chopper and goes on his way to

mar-a-lago. what you were just watching from the oval office was really fascinating. that was 22 or 23 minutes of the president totally ad libbing. no script whatsoever. a question for you, everyone, have you ever seen any president of the united states of america sit in the oval office and ad lib for 22 minutes, no script -- >> never. absolutely not. stuart: and he loved answering the questions. >> but it's fascinating too. stuart: it is. four times the man said thank you, good-bye, thank you very much, indeed, and he came back to answer -- >> and he signed it today because the media was questioning whether he was going t going to happen. he said, you know what? i saw the media reporting that, and i said get it ready, i'm signing it today. >> will he keep his promise on the morning news, i called down stairs, said get it ready. [laughter] stuart: a lot of people don't like the style of our president. >> of course. stuart: i find the man entertaining -- >> i find it refreshing. institute stuart -- and i support the policies. he's not going to be travel

aring too much to sell the tax deal, which he just signed. he says the corporations are selling it for him. >> and he's right because actions speak louder than words. when they start talking about, you know, expanding and giving bonuses and what have you, that says it all. stuart: yeah. and he was asked what's the first thing you're going to do in the new year, and he immediately responded infrastructure. >> that's right. stuart: he says that's the easiest thing to do. he expects, quote, tremendous democrat support. but then with this president, everything is tremendous. >> it's beautiful. stuart: it is. by the way, the dow was down 35, 36 when he started the signing ceremony, now we're down 55 as he's in marine one heading towards mar-a-lago in florida. pam bondi is with us now, the attorney general of the great state of florida. pam, we're going to watch the president descend the steps momentarily, but i've got to ask you -- you're off camera at the moment -- what do you think of the president's first year in office? is it as successful as he says it is this. >> even more so.

and look what he just did. i mean, tax reform is one of his main priorities, and so many americans are -- it's going the help so many americans. not only that, he rolled back the mandate on obamacare, and i was the lead state -- i sat in front of the supreme court for three days fighting this. and to get rid of obamacare is so incredible, what he just did by signing that. defense spending has been incredible too. $4 billion to protect our military, to empower our military commanders to give them everything they need. unemployment, the lowest -- well, 4.1, the lowest this 17 years -- in 17 years. rolling back all these regulations. i could talk all day about this. [laughter] the eps, everything as a state a.g. that i've been fighting for the president's doing, and he's helping americans. stuart: you know, one thing that did not receive much publicity was ending the individual mandate under obamacare.

>> yes. stuart: and that, you're right, i think that's extremely important. can we now conclude that once you've gotten rid of that mandate -- in other words, you're not going to pay a fine if you don't buy the insurance that the government insists you buy -- is that the first total unraveling ofç obamacare? >> absolutely, absolutely. we are not forced to buy that simply by being alive. and that was really unreal, that americans were forced to do that. that's a huge victory today. of course, tax reform is, but doing away with obamacare is huge, and it's going to help so many americans. you know, something else that i was there with the president, the opioid legislation. everything he's done to help the war on drugs in this country has been incredible that he's doing as well as what i mentioned with defense spending. this president has done more in the last year than we've seen, and, you know, the stock market has reflected that as well. what, over 60 times he's had a record high since he's been president in the stock market?

it's really -- created 1.7 million jobs. stuart: so why is his popularity under a great deal of pressure, his approval rating is below 40%? and voters in generic polls prefer democrats over republicans by a double-digit margin? and the media continues to hound him and, frankly, show contempt for him? so you've got this -- the way he's perceived and they react to him publicly, it's very different from the successes which you've just outlined. do you think that's going to change? >> well, look, thdi said that last time, and he won. donald trump is president of the united states. they said the generic polls had him lose aring, but you know what? he's a real man, just what you saw in that press conference, and that's what t american people love about him. and now we're going to have three more years to show the american people the great things that he's going to continue to do to help the people of this country.

he's a real person, he's not scared to take on the tough questions, nor the tough issues like making jerusalem the proper capital of israel. he's not scared. he's doing everything he said he would do and more. and, frankly, that's why the polls are wrong, because a lot of democrats are supporting the president, and a lot of them voted for him and will continue to vote and support him, especially when they look at their tax returns next year. stuart: pam bondi, the attorney general of florida, we thank you very much for joining us on what really is an historicking day. thank you, pam. >> great day. stuart: thank you, indeed. stephen sweeney is the new jersey senate president, and he is with us now. and the great state of new jersey is very much in the news at this particular time, especially after the signing of the tax deal. because high income people in new jersey are going to take it on chin. i think i'm accurate in saying that, stephen. am i? >>ç yeah. we're -- it's not just high

income people, it's middle class people too. 53% of the middle class are going to see their taxes go up under this bill. stuart: not immediately, surely. not immediately. >> not immediately, but they're going up, and people are going to lose -- stuart: even stephen, i'm sorryt they're going down. middle class people will be paying less for the next eight years. it only goes back up again in eight years. >> no, stuart, i've looked at a lot of reports on this, and, you know, i'm convening a bunch of economists and tax experts to really study this because it really is an attack on states like new jersey and new york and connecticut and massachusetts, and i just read an article where the governor of tennessee said this will be great for us because people will move to our state from new york and new jersey. it's, you know, our state gives the federal government more than it gets back in a big way. for every dollar, we get 70 cents back. these other states get more than they give. so this is a redistribution of wealth, stuart, that it's an

attack on states that actually really have a large impact. the gdp of california, new jersey and new york's 40% of the states -- i mean, the national gdp. stuart: well, i guess you cannot now raise taxes on millionaires, can yousome. yousome -- can you? >> well, we,ç i told you befor, i put a pause on this right now because we really have to look at, and i'm putting a panel together, a bipartisan panel. i have two, a democrat, republican senator that's going to chair a committee for me with economists and tax experts to really look at new jersey as a whole now, stuart. because, look, you know, they're saying property values are going to drop, that's going to have an impact on tax collection and how to we move forward all the way around. stuart: well, sure. >> how do we go forward? stuart: forgive me, i'll tell you how to go forward, you cut taxes in your state. >> stuart -- stuart: you have to. a lot of the taxes in new jersey are paid by the 1%, paid by very

wealthy people. high million earners. they pay most of the tax. a lot of them are going to leave because they can't get a deduction for the taxes they pay to to you. you really have to lower taxes. that is the answer, surely. >> stuart, listen, january 1st new jersey completely eliminates the estate tax. completely. we've raised the retirement income tax thresholds to help retirees. we are cutting taxes, and we're trying to be strategic where we do it so we can get the bigger bang for the buck. but at the end of the day, we really have to look at the entire state of new jersey now. you know, we can't look at it in silos, stuart. we have to look at everything before we do any tax increase. any talk ofç tax increases reay needs to be put on hold until we know how we're doing. stuart: it does. it has to be. look, i'm -- stephen, you've been a good man to appear on our show so consistently, and i know you're in a difficult spot. so am i. i live in new jersey. and i hope you'll come back and see us real soon, sir. [laughter]

keep smiling. >> love seeing you, love talking to you. stuart thank you, sir. we appreciate it. good stuff, thanks. >> thank you. stuart: come on in, jerry howard, national association of home builders' ceo. you were on this show a couple of months ago, and you did not like this tax bill because you said it would pressure the value of home prices, especially in high-tax states. now i understand you like the tax deal. what changed? >> well, we, we have to hook at the thing holistically, stuart, as i said the last time i was on. we analyzed it for what it does for the american people, putting money in their pocketbooks. we love the way it taxes small businesses more competitively with the, their big business competitors. and we also watched carefully how the house and the senate reconciled their views on housing. and quite frankly, we think that the final package is much better than the original house bill which we opposed. so we came over, we're there.

we're concerned, i have to tell you, this is the first time in theç our history that there's e not a middle class home ownership incentive. we're going to watch it carefully. but for now, we're all in, and we're looking forward to the president, the speaker and chairman brady said a jump in our economy which'll be good for housing. stuart: talk to me about the value and the price of luxury homes in new york, new jersey and california. i'm asking about those three states in particular because upper income earners in those three states will maybe move, and certainly they'll be ending up paying a lot more in tax. if they move, what kind of price are they going to get on their luxury homes, and who's going to buy a luxury home in a state which heavily taxes upper income earners? you've still got the same problem, haven't you? >> well, you do have the problem in those states, yes. here's the bottom line though, you're talking about basically only 1.25% of all mortgages in

the whole country are above the $750,000 limit. so it's a very small number. are they concentrated in those states? quite possibly. but you know what, stuart? a lot of people are saying there's going to be about a 10- 12% drop in nose prices. -- in those prices. our economists say it'll probably be about a 6-7% drop, and that will onlyç be short term, that prices will come back. the other point is people many that million bracket don't buy with housing based on the tax policies, they buy houses based on what they want toly in. stuart: okay, fair point. how about upper income people and valuable homes in places like texas, florida, nevada? because i think they are going to get an insnuck of upper income -- influx of upper income people from california, new jersey and new york. i would have thought that will be very good for luxury homes in those low-tax states. what are your economists saying about that? >> almost exactly that.

anytime you see an increase in demand, you'll see prices increase. so in the end, it'll all balance out. stuart: okay. so you are now saying, okay, we've got reservations about this tax deal, but basically we're for it. you're the national association of home builders, you're for it. >> yes, sir, we are. stuart: okay. sir, thanks for joining us. very instructive, because, you know, the value of homes and what happens with upper income people in these high tax states, that's very much in the news at the moment, and we're very appreciative of you addressing it for us, sir. thank you very much. >> it's my pleasure. stuart: and to you to, sir. larry elder, come on in. it's a parade of stars. there he goes, he's a happy guy. salem radio talk show host. all right, larry, what do you make of the tax deal? because it's going to hurt like it? [laughter] >> it will. i was fascinated by your conversation about upper-end people. in california, this is a state of 30 million people, stuart.

166,000 households out of 30 million people account for 50% of the state income tax. >> this is a state heavily dependent upon a tiny amount of very wealthy people. you know the book by ayn rand, atlas thugged? one of these days -- atlas shrugged? this is only going to exacerbate that trend. government is spending way too much money. at the federal level and at the state level. and the more efficient the government, the more they're going to attract people who are very prosperous and who bring their money and their jobs with them. that's my prediction. stuart: and there's something else germane to california that's going on right now. fox news is reporting that there is an organized boycott of contractors who have anything to do with the border wall. and those contractors, they can't do business in berkeley, for example. they can't do business in some of cities which are run by democrats around the country.

>> right. stuart: that's a big deal, especially in california, larry. >> it is a big deal. maybe we ought to erect a wall around san francisco. [laughter] look, this cuts both ways.o@ &c% tourists can also be very upset about things california's doing, the fact that california's a sanctuary state and punishing bidders. you don't even have to bid a contract, just bid and the city and california might not do business with you just because you bid on a contract to the build this dastardly wall, this their view. i do not understand why politicians on the left and on the right don't get the death of kate steinle, don't get the death of jamiel shaw -- stuart: i'll tell you, it's the hispanic vote. i'm sorry, but it is. that's my opinion. >> hispanics don't like being killed by illegal aliens either, and criminals often prey on hispanics living right in here. crime hurts everybody. and why it is that politicians can't make the argument that the

border wall is about security, making sure that we know who the people are in this country and they're here for decent and good purposes. that's all. cesar chavez as i mentioned to you, i think, before -- the founder of the united farm worker -- was not a civil rights leader, he was a union leader, and he hated illegal immigration and worked with the ins to stop it. stuart: okay. what's california going to do? you've got a fiscal crisis because at least $170 billion of unfunded government worker pension liability. you've o] an exodus of wealthy people. and you rely on wealthy people to pay most of the tax. and you've got an immigration problem and a wall problem and a sanctuary state, a sanctuary city problem. looks to me like a mess. >> and we have not a single elected republican official statewide. do you think maybe, just maybe there might be a connection? [laughter] look, atlas is going to shrug, and checks are going to have to

bounce. soon sooner or later these pension theirs will not be getting it, and then and maybe then we might consider something as dramatic as perhaps putting state in bankruptcy and starting all over again. stuart: i don't think in my lifetime -- and i'm 69 years of age -- i don't think you will ever, in my lifetime, you won't see a republican elected statewide in the golden state. to you agree? >> no, i don't. the same thing was said before arnold schwarzenegger got elected, and i know that was fluky, but sooner or later even people on the left and some centrists, certainly, are going to realize you can't tax and spend your way to prosperity. and that is what we're doing in california, and we're chasing out productive people, and we've got to stop it. stuart: have you considered ever, at all, moving? is. [laughter] >> i most certainly have. i've done the math. and in my life, you know, i'm in and i -- anywhere i want to live, and i have considered moving elsewhere. i love the state.

it's a beautiful state. mig you want to do, it's exciting, interesting people, it's important. and so for -- and i was born and raised here. so for all those reasons, i would rather change the state i'm trying to do. stuart: is there one thing that it would take to get you to move? >> probably another, ratcheting up taxes even higher. 13.3%, maybe going even a little bit higher might do it. i'm pretty close to leaving, i'm not kidding. my parents are no longer with me, my younger brother died, i've got an older brother, but we don't see each other all that often. there's no nothing keeping me here. i know a lot of well hawaii people who are friends of mine who have made the calculation and done just that. i have a mend from bearly hill -- beverly hills, he did the math, and he said i'm out of here. he moved to florida. he's very happy. stuart: at one point i offered you a room in my house. i'm sorry, i've canceled that on

the grounds you don't want to move to new jersey, larry -- >> out of the fire. [laughter] >> i used to have a girlfriend from east orange, new jersey. i like the state, but it is very high-tax too. [laughter] stuart: i'm going toç wish youa merry christmas and leave it at that. >> and you too. happy new year. stuart: thanks very much, indeed. just walked into the studio, sat down, put the mic on, with me, charles payne. what are you doing here? [laughter] >> bitcoin is imploding, get down there right now. [laughter] stuart: well, look, you're the guy who yesterday brought us the story of the long island iced tea company -- >> yeah. block chain. >> and it's now plummeting. >> right. >> all of them yesterday. yesterday was this tale. you know, a lot of people try to trace the implosion of the dot.com era. i placed it on an ipo out of the netherlands. it was the biggest ipo probably ever, certainly mr. the netherlands -- from the netherlands, but it was huge.

it was like they were going to conquer europe. they had this big party, and someone went to the ceo and said what are you going to do with all of your money, you know what she told them? she'd already sold all of her stock in a private transaction before the ipo, and shortly thereafter the dot.com bubble imploded. i think it was an epiphany. i believe there's room for cryptocurrency, i think it'll exist, but there was no infrastructure. and when companies start changing their name to block chain and the stock goes up 400% or a cigar company one day trading at a penny and a block chain company the next today trading at a dollar, there's something wrong. stuart: i think there should be a distinction made green pit coyne -- between bitcoin itself, there's a difference between that and block chain which is the technology. which i do believe -- >> up to 1,000. stuart: yeah, 13,000 now. that's a bounce. but the block chain technology,

that does have -- >> it has an amazing future. that's why they changed their name to long block chain instead of long bitcoin. i'm not here to diss bitcoin in and of itself, i do believe there's an amazing opportunity if it lives up to the hype. you know, there's a lot of ifs involved. plus, let's face it, the infrastructure's not prepared to hold this. this is a global phenomena. her not physically able to handle all of this, and now they're not able to -- they can't handle the buying, let alone the selling. stuart: on the floor of the new york stock exchange, what do you have for me, nicole? >> reporter: we're talking about why market is down, but you have to take it in stride. down about 40 points. tech, health care, those are to the downside. the traders, obviously, going into a holiday weekend. it's really not a day you want to take these long divisions, on the contrary, you see people taking profits. r&c @&c% of. stuart: and we're down 37

points. >> reporter: yeah, come on, right? stuart: you're facing a three-day holiday weekend, and we've already are run up, what, 35% on dow since the election. i would have thought some people would take money off the table and play it cautious ahead of christmas. >> reporter: well, i i think they've been doing that, but this market just keeps breaking out to new highs. you are, you know, people in technology were taking a little bit off the table recently. right now the dow losers, nike, united health, intell. nike down 3%, so that'll weigh on the dow because of quarterly numbers. stuart: yes. about a third of the dow's loss, 10, 12 points, is nike. >> yeah. stuart: great report, nicole. thank you very much, indeed. what have you got, ash? >> well, on a day like today this downward momentum can pick up in the amp as we head towards the closing bell, but this has been a remarkable market. maybe not. we now know it's officially been signed, excuse me, the tax bill.

so that's in there. so, you know, we could have some profit taking this afternoon. it may move a little lower, but nothing dramatic, i don't think -- stuart: i think charles is sticking with us. your idea that next year we get another willing up, right. >> >> absolutely. what i think was remarkable in the last two weeks was the reaction in base metals, the physical building blocks of an economy thatç also has a globa, you know, copper, for instance, up huge. crude oil up huge. by the way, i've been imploring everyone have exposure to the crude oil market next year particularly companies with exposure to the permian basin. their cost for extracting oil is the cheapest in the whole country. they could handle even a slight pullback in the price of oil. the underpinnings -- by the way, this morning, personal income and spending, spending came in significantly higher than expected. it may be a yellow flag that savings went to 2.9%. i think it's a sign of confidence that people are are now willing to go out and spend money because they're confident that they won't lose their job and, in fact, will probably get

a raise soon. stuart: the permian basin trust. about 30 years ago, i bought into that. did okay with it. i don't know what happened to it. it's not around anymore, is it? >> you know what? i would tell you to investigate it, but you might find out you left millions on the table. [laughter] i hate to say it. let me just find out what happened. >> maybe not. >> it became this, it became that, and you broke out the calculator and say, oh, man. stuart we should tell our viewers that the permian basin is a gigantic lake of oil underneath the great state of texas. >> it is. stuart: and as you said, it's the cheapest oil to go get in our country. >> it is the cheapest. as a matter of fact, when we started putting those oil wells back on, a third of them were down there, you know? that's where it is. of it's cheap,ç it's inexpensive -- >> there's no fracking needed? >> well, it's just not as deep or as tough, as difficult to get to. stuart: but the other side of fracking is you go down with the pipe, and then you can go horizontal. >> correct. stuart: that opens up lots of

other reserves which previously would require an extra special well. and the permian basin, i keep going back to it. [laughter] why did i ever leave it? i don't know. it used to pay a wonderful dividend. >> it's absolutely amazing. the underpinnings between consumer confidence and commodities, the action in commodities, i think bode very well for next year. and i always try to forward myself and not be too excited, but i'm really, really very excited right now. it's hard to contain it. stuart: what's the name of that show, "curb your enthusiasm." [laughter] >> i feel like larry david. stuart: that show's funny. i don't want to digress too far. >> yeah, yeah. stuart: it's original, very, very funny. let's get back to money. the big five tech stocks, i don't think i've ever asked you about this before. do you think they've had their run? it's over? >> i think there's a pause. we've all seen in the last month periods of rotation. first it went to banks, that wasn't working. then more recently we've seen it go to other things.

but i'm in apple. i'm not going to go anywhere. yesterday morgan stanley made it its top pick. i don't mind if they go sideways for a while.ç >> don't you think every company in america is a tech company because they need these tech long call advances to move their -- technological advances to move their business forward? >> right. stuart: i've got breaking news here. former white house strategist steve bannon and campaign chief corey lewandowski have been asked to testify before the house intelligence committee in early january. i to not know the significance of that, but they're two leading characters within the trump campaign before the election -- >> in the early days. stuart: they will be testifying -- it was the house or senate intelligence committee in the very early part of next year. the house intelligence committee early next year. i'm not reading anything into this and, quite frankly, the russia, russia, russia thing is something we have not been

paying close attention to -- >> we paid close anticipation for a year. we're getting a little tired. after a while, you get fatigued. especially when they start grasping for straw ises. we'd like to see some sort of something. give us a hint it's justified and it's not tainted at this point. >> and the russia, russia, russia goes all the way pack to uranium one, right? stuart: it does now. >> the irony. >> full circle. stuart: we have signed the tax deal. the president signed it this morning. he then indulged in a 22-minute just off the cuff riff sitting in the oval office. i don't know about you, charles -- [laughter] fnur times he said, that's it, good-bye, thanks very much, indeed. >> i think president trump is feeling amazing right now, and he should. right? it was a tough year for him. he's faced insurmountable obstacles. you know, some he created himself. but for the most part, we were reminded that the media's been overeager to bury him, and he's overcome a lot of obstacles.

to his point, he doesn't get a lot of credit, and there are accomplishments that he made that the average american will never know about. stuart: and look at that, the dow is up 35% since the election of donald j. trump, november 8, 2016. neil, it's yours. mao neil all right, thank you very much, stuart. we're following up on that and the president signing those tax cuts into law. that means they can pop up sooner rather than later. the irs will be busy trying to make sure that is a february development. how that will impact you and how quickly you will see it. there are arguments to this as to whether your boss has to reissue w4 forms, a little bit of a split verdict on that. if you like the exemptions you have now, you can keep them and go with the record you already have the with federal government, but a lot of bosses will remind employees what they can and should do. all of that is detailed grunt work for now. for now, the big tax cuts are done, and it's j