over the last three trading sessions the dow was up over 700 points. we're down a mere 125. hardly a selloff, right, liz? liz: i'm sanguine about it. buying the dip. stuart: sanguine, surprised you didn't get a buzzer for word like that. we're getting soft. stuart. take it, sir. neil: stuart, thank you. he could not make similar guaranties or promises in the united states senate. that is the bugaboo in this battle. you need nine democrat votes from there to make this a done deal. no indications it is at least there in the senate. the markets seem to be handicapping we will have bumps along the way. looking increasingly likely, at least a limited time the government lights would go out. the president indicating that, would not be good idea. >> so our tax cuts and our tax reform turned out to be far

greater than anybody ever anticipated and i'm sure the democrats would like to blunt that by shutting down government if the country shuts down, which could very well be, the budget should be handled a lot differently than it has been handled over the last long period of time, many years. but if for any reason it shuts down, the worst thing is what happens to our military. neil: now the president will be off to pennsylvania today to tout that tax reform, to tout what is happening to the markets, to tout all the promises of bonuses and jobs from the likes of apple and some others. fox business's hillary vaughn, with the latest on all of the above. hillary, what do you have? reporter: hey, neil. well apple says they are going to bring home a big chunk of that $252 billion they have sitting overseas and they say it is all because of president trump's tax law that let's them pay a one-time tax of $38 billion to bring it home.

making it one of the biggest payments of its kind to the u.s. government. >> we always felt very comfortable with paying a lot in taxes just not a huge, huge amount, and we like the repatriation agreement on the corporate tax side and we're going to bring the vast majority of it here. reporter: cook says apple plans to invest $350 billion in the u.s. over the next five years and bring 20,000 new jobs with it. they're also giving most of their employees from retail to upper management and additional $2500 in restricted stock. >> there are large parts of this as a result of the tax reform and there are large parts of this we would have done in any situation. so i have not spent a lot of time categorizing those two because to me this is about america. it is not about which bucket you

put things in. we want to help america and it feels great to do that today. reporter: a lot of the new jobs will staff a third brand new apple campus. they're keeping the location secret for now but say there will not be an amazon style hq auction process among the states. they have already narrowed the down the lists, two states out, california and texas where they already have campus, neil? neil: he seemed to go out of his way to say this is not because of donald trump. reporter: they are trying to distance themselves from that. you heard in the first sound bite, bringing home the cash in the first place was that response to the that part of repatriation of cash overseas in the tax laws. i think they are trying to say they would have made some investment regardless and that is some of the criticism here, how much of this was already going to happen but they are capitalizing on the good pr comes with announcement like

this. neil: absolutely, absolutely and don't, you know, begrudge who is ever bearing the gifts. thank you very much, hillary vaughn. the read on all this, we have deirdre bolton here and connell mcshane. russ, a tech analyst extraordinaire. russ, apple always had a lot of money. >> sure. neil: this is the catalyst to start sharing that dough. >> yes. neil: this is unheard of though? >> this is staggering amount, they got a lot of flak because they focused manufacturing from china to away from the u.s. they're bringing focus to the service not with manufacturing jobs, tech support, data manager jobs. they are more attuned to what the u.s. is capable of previous providing these days. neil: hard to relate where the money is going versus where it would have bonn if they had not

gotten the money. there were long-term plans russ validated with the expansion of this facility, what have you. would the numbers be as big without this 15.6 one-time tax to get the money home? >> i don't think there is any question that it wouldn't be as big. tim cook said as much. don't underestimate what hillary reported at the end of her report there is good corporate pr what they're doing here. keep that in mind. as big as apple is, other companies have a lot of money. microsoft $130 billion plus overseas. cisco at 70 billion. alphabet, $60 billion, the google parent. as those companies do whatever they are going to do, i imagine it will be a little bit of everything, they make headlines giving money back to the workers, add to the workforce an investing in people not just in shareholders. neil: that is crucial point. deirdre, you and i got into this, i think the unwritten, unheralded story in the tax cuts, they're okay on the

personal side. not great, but they're so over the top generous on the corporate side, it like a curse of riches for these guys. they don't know how to spend it. >> right. neil: they know how to reward the shareholders which is fine and their right but they have a lot left over to do this. >> to inone's point the last thing they want is bad pr i did back of envelope calculations but 10 major ones i can count that already gave out cash bonuses that equal 3 1/2 billion dollars. this is, walmart, i want to clarify is a big part of that because the company is so big but who cares. the average worker -- neil: $2500 thing is that stock they're getting? >> restricted stock. neil: okay. for everybody. >> the point is, investment in the long-terminate -- nature of their brand, the ducati park,

99% versus 1%. fat cats you got all the breaks and working people are still working and our wages are not going up. they will sidestep all of this pretty elegantly i might say. even for apple. $55 billion is what they're spending this year alone or investing and 9,000 u.s. suppliers or manufacturers will -- neil: that is a lot about it. by the way we're getting word there will be this vote on this continuing resolution. you hear the so-called cr at 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. the bottom line, the house isn't the issue. it might be among conservative members of the freedom caucus, but the real challenge is in the senate and the nine democrats who are no guaranties themselves. but that is another story. is it your sense with this, in technology land, apple leading the way, companies leading the way, this sun heralded? >> yeah. i mean apple obviously is the king of having astounding amounts of cash and could do

something this splashy but i think you will see all the companies start to realize, obviously amazon is a big story recently, amount of money trying to create a new campus as well, a lot of companies start to make the plays follow apple's suit, focusing again on the service jobs that the u.s. can provide rather than -- >> apple is taking a page from amazon, saying we're not going to make all you local communities embarass yourselves sending us 12-foot cac tie. there is nothing wrong with that. we will have a new campus. we won't say where. >> you have a little bit of history to go back on the tax holiday in '05 or end of '06, a lot was made that companies at time bought back their own stock. they were criticized for that. that is not all they did. i was looking at research on it. there was a pickup in merger and acquisition activity over that period of time. that is something analysts are talking about now.

that they have all the money and to your point, it is embarassment of riches, that we may see fairly significant pickup in m&a activity. neil: connell, pickup in m&a activity could be loss of jobs. >> also sometimes means lack of imagination. we don't know what else to do with the money. >> buy someone. neil: deirdre, gets back to the point i made. that is the curse of riches we are talking about. these tax cuts are so over the top -- >> can lead to sloppiness. neil: they don't know what to do with all this stuff. the surprising underside, which is upside to this, they're benefiting. not just workers but customers at utility plants are seeing 5% cuts in some of their utility bills. it is broad-based, i don't think we factored that in. >> to the extent all these companies will be giving or have given in numerous cases even $2000 that is big deal to worker especially anytime of the year. that is a positive in my view, that okay, it is actually

getting done. a few of airline companies actually excluded their executives which i think is correct. neil: is anyone excluded in the apple thing? >> director level, tim cook, director level and below my understanding. >> even retail employees are included in that. >> below director level employees. neil: at the stores? >> even in the stores. neil: they should get the money. still over the pr effect of the company, because apple taking it on the chin about the slow battery thing, what about all that? >> it is tricky, right? a lot of user base are left-leaning fighting to that against a certain extent. a lot of people want to see new jobs and good jobs coming to the u.s. 20,000 new jobs in the next five years is a big deal. neil: you know this group, politics notwithstanding, but i think it is fair to say as a group they're not trump fans. >> that's correct. neil: but they are fans of money.

>> talking about technology people or apple? neil: all of them? >> i would agree -- neil: that is fairly liberal-leaning group. >> yes i would say so. neil: how are they reconciling that with their personal -- >> when they care about money, oh this, apple device is $50 cheaper or more expensive. that is what they're caring b they're not necessarily -- neil: ceos in that industry -- >> that is going, you hit on what we'll be covering all year long, which will be the, first in the in the midterms and issue in 2020 as well, democrats try to make midterms and re-election of the president all about his personality. all about whether or not you hate this person enough to, even if you have benefited financially from his policies vote against him again. that is what the whole debate will be about. i have no idea how that will turn out. >> how will you feel come november? >> yeah. neil: impact you and in a consequential way you're feeling it, spending, acting, feeling

row but because of it? >> i was reading around. one town in texas went 95% for president trump. they had some quotes, i think he is buffoon for one, but his policies have helped my community and my family the most. neil: absolutely. >> that is exactly the kind of comment that we're talking about. neil: ultimately comes back to how people feel for the bottom line. >> what is in your pocket? do you care about your job? neil: united at core. >> not red or blue. green dollars. neil: we're getting indications of maybe a vote in the house to approve a temporary measure to keep the government going for another four weeks or so fourth time they have done it since october. these guys sometimes lecture us on money. i don't think so. ♪ when it comes to medicare,

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as he tweeted out the following quote, we need the wall for safety and security of our country. we need the wall to stop massive inflow of drugs from mexico, rated number one most dangerous country in the will. if there is no wall there is no deal. john kelly in his interview last night with bret baier, the president's views on the issue evolved since the campaign trail. listen here. >> he has evolved the which he looked at things. campaign to governing are two different things. this president is very, very flexible in terms of what is in the realm of the possible. reporter: i'm told the president was none too pleased when he heard comments from the chief of staff. the president tried to clarify some of it earlier this morning again in a tweet, saying, quote, the wall is the wall. it has never changed or evolved from the first day i conceived of it. that is where things stand on daca, which is an issue that it looks like now will be hashed

out separately from this spending bill that needs to be agreed upon before tomorrow night. there is a vote in the house, neil that is expected to take place later this evening. here is what i was just told. from a senior white house official. the white house at this point, they feel things are moving in a more positive direction in the house from where things had stood. they think eventually the house freedom caucus will come on board. in the senate they see even bigger issue where there are different direction. lindsey graham, mike rounds will vote no if it gets to the senate. white house believes that is the position from graham and round. furthermore, neil, this senior white house official, what are the odds you put a shutdown at, i was told one in two. 50% increasing as they hit

friday. neil: blake, that is not good. thank you my friend blake burman at the white house. last time we had a shutdown, temporary one, almost two weeks, back in 2013 it was over the affordable care act. republicans buckled but it was nasty. gerri willis what you have to keep in mind if indeed the government does shut down. >> neil, you got that right, it was nasty. this time around what to expect, most federal agencies close and hundreds of thousands of government workers are furloughed. essential people stay on the job, people working in national security and law enforcement. active duty military personnel would continue working military paychecks would stop. that is bad news, though you understand they get paid every two weeks and are not due another paycheck until february 1st. the most important thing, social security benefits continue to be paid. it is mandatory. there is no stopping social security. so if you're worried out there, maybe sure you understand you're not at risk.

some lawmakers may close offices. others might stay open. their workers typically don't have to be furloughed. if you're planning to apply for a passport do it now. state department passport services are partly funded by fees. they are not completely dependent on congress getting its act together but a delay passports. travel will continue. transportation safety administration remains on the job. non-essential workers could be furloughed so there could be slowdowns like that is new. national parks will remain open. president is considering a plan to keep the parks open without rangers on hand. neil you can still go to the smokeky mountains national park to have a great time. neil: that is one thing to look at here. thank you very, very much, gerri willis. congressman andy biggs joins from us the beautiful state of arizona. a crucial member of house

freedom caucus. >> good to be here, neil. neil: we don't know where the details would be and even house plan cobbled together now for a vote tonight but where are you inclined? >> i'm not real excited with it. i'm kind of leaning no right now, we continue to put the military in suspense and jeopardy. we need to fund them for the balance of the year. we need to not blow off the spending caps on domestics, because we're going to end up with another trillion dollar deficit for this year this is ridiculous. we're setting ourself up for a fifth cr within a 12-month period because we have to come back in february to do it again. i'm not sure what will change in the next month, when nothing changed all along. we need to be responsible. senate needs to vote on budget we sent them 100 days ago. neil: barring that, are you worried that your party gets the blame? >> i have no doubt that the democrats are going to blame us and, and i'm not even going to

say we are absolved from blame but i would tell you right now, my opinion the senate could have fixed this by taking up bills we sent them on the budget. we're going to get the blame but i don't know that we'll feel it at the ballot box next time because by the time we put this back together, the economy will be rolling. it will be, you know, that tax reform package is great. i think we'll get more regulatory reform out of it. that will also cement the economy. i do believe that bill clinton had one thing right, when he said it is the economy stupid. the people need to know the economy is well. that is when they feel secure. i don't think they will feel too upset if we shut down for a day or two. i hope we don't but, we need to get this right. neil: arizona congressman, what did you think of your senate colleague jeff flake's remarks about the president? >> well, arizona is a trump state. i mean let's be honest about it. so senator flake has not gotten

along with the president for some time. so i don't they that i was surprised by it. my district is trump country and whole state is pretty much trump country. so, i think some aspects that senator flake is kind of expressing his dismay and he is entitled to do it but i'm not sure it is productive. neil: some read into it he is running for president. what do you think of that? >> well, you know everybody can run. i know other people already told me they are going to run. but i just don't, i don't think it is viable necessarily. neil: real quickly on odds of government shutdown, what do you think? >> i think from the house side it is remote. i think that a bill will come out from the house. on senate said anything's game. i with say there is one in three, one in four shot of a shutdown over there caused by the senate. neil: thank you very, very much. one in three, one in four, versus one in two you got on read from blake burman at the

white house. thank you very much. no matter how you slice it. this is no done deal. no sure deal. for the fourth time they're looking to cobble together a means by which they keep the government going even just for another few weeks. this is ridiculous, folks. this is the kind of stuff that third world countries do. so it is not a pox on one party or the other. it is a pox on all of them. this is nonsense, makes italy, my italy, look financially stable. that is not good. ♪ ♪ i can do more to lower my a1c. because my body can still make its own insulin. and i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like it's supposed to. trulicity is not insulin. it comes in a once-weekly, truly easy-to-use pen.

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>> welcome back to "cavuto: coast to coast." i'm nicole petallides live on floor of new york stock exchange. the dow is down 95 points after setting a record. look at names related to housing. we got in the monthly housing starts. in fact medical more than expected t was the biggest drop in over a year. that drop was the largest since november of 2016. housing starts decreased by 8.2% toll brothers after hitting a high is down. lennar and is up. it was a great year, home building increases 2.4%, as the labor market has been more robust. we got in the weekly jobless claims again, this week looking good. the claims hit a 45-year low. in addition to seeing a great 2017 for building, we saw building permits, that gives a look at the future, building

permits for '77 increased 4.7%. -- 2017. neil? neil: nicole, thank you very much. we're on the brink of government potentially shutting down, first time in five years. president is meeting with military leaders at the pentagon to express those concerns. chuck nash serve this country honorably, retired navy captain, good guy all around. chuck, are you worried about this. >> i am concerned, but wouldn't use the term worried, neil. we've been going through this year after year after year. for better part of a decade or more we haven't had a appropriation and authorization bill come out turn into a budget anywhere near on time. it has been continuing resolution after continuing resolution. it is very difficult to plan. you can't do new starts, i.e., new programs under a cr. you have to have a budget approved and signed by the

president. neil: does that include payment for soldiers, our military men and women? >> no. neil: they were paid on the 1st. they are due again or were paid on the 15th, due to be paid again on february 1st. is it your sense that would be in peril? >> not at all. neil: okay. >> what happens under continuing resolution is all government agencies are allowed to spend up to 80% of the last year's budget. so, it is an 8% thing. the last 20% kicks in by end of the year. hopefully they have things resolved well before that. >> that is assuming you get a continuing resolution, right? >> yes. neil: that is a leap right now. >> well you know, it is going to be, it is going to be a guts ball thing, a lot of gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair because i think in the end they will do it because nobody really wants to have that one stuck on the end of their finger. neil: it would seem that would be obvious but you never know. i did want to pick your brain a

little bit north and south korea offing their athletes under one banner, one flag, marching together into that stadium. it has made our position to get tough on the north korean regime, well a lot tougher, hasn't it? >> well, you know some people are saying this could be the like the 1938 munich games where hitler showcased, made a big propaganda thing out of it. on the other side of things it, for kim to say, okay, fine, let's team up, i could go either way on this one quite frankly, i really coast, really? that is kind of pragmatic guy. are you worry that the north koreans are playing us like a fiddle? >> i think they're trying to which is why it is very interesting, neil, i'm glad you brought this up because president trump is on record recently within the last 24

hours say i don't know if it would do any good to sit down with kim. in other words as kim reaches out we'll do this thing together in olympic brotherhood and everything any other administration would go, oh, wow, this is break through and start softening his position. not this guy. he has his secretary of state say, no, we're holding firm, and secretary of defense. so he is not going to give in to the first potential sign of easing. he is not going to do it. neil: we'll watch it very, very closely. good seeing you. be well. >> pleasure. happy new year to you. neil: to you as well. dow down about 95 points. we pared some he have the earlier losses. we had enormous run-up, all major market averages up four to 5% on this young year. a little bit of giveback is in order. a lot are blaming prospects of the government shutdown. that is the latest excuse de jure. you know what we'll take a

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neil: yet another reason for folks to be worried about oil prices continuing to run up. production, at least in venezuela has all but stopped, actually alarming rate. tracee carrasco with more. reporter: neil, venezuela's oil put collapsing at record speed, in 2017 oil production fell 216,000 barrels a day to 1.6 million in december, compared to november. that marks the 15th consecutive monthsly decline according to new data from opec. during 2017 as a whole, production fell 649,000 barrels a day. that is decline of 29%, ranking this among the deepest declines in the industry's recent history. venezuela state-led economy

relies on oil exports for 95% of its hard currency. this output decline means venezuela is only major oil producer not to benefit from rising crude oil prices which continue to whoever around three-year highs amid falling supplies. the collapsing oil industry is it further deepening the economic and humanitarian crisis there. also increasing the chances venezuela will default on its debts. neil, the bottom line here, socialism is not working. neil: all that money they're sitting on with all that oil. trace see, thank you very much. neil: president said sign me up, i'm willing to help out any way i can to make sure we control both bodies of congress, the house and the senate but right now the wind are not blowing republican's way, particularly special election this wisconsin which typically gone republican since scott walker referred to

defeat in special district race in district 10, won by democrat as governor said to be weak upcall for republicans in wisconsin. here is the worry. that a lot of big-name republicans are not only leaving key bodies, including the house and the senate, but trying to draft big names that has proven very, very difficult. we saw that particular i in minnesota with tim pawlenty nixed the idea of running for senate. take a look. >> well a lot of people are looking what is going on now, governor, and saying you know you should run for the senate. a lot of big names are passing up such an opportunity but in your state they could use you. what do you say? >> well, neil, i am very interested in public service and service for the common good. there are a lot of different ways to do that but i will tell you today running for the united states in 2018 will not be a part of those plans.

neil: all right, so that is a no. federalist bree payton. kat, is this worry for republicans one thing when they retire and leave, one thing trying to corral big names for those spots opt not to? >> absolutely. some people have been explicit about the fact they don't want to work with donald trump. that is something that i can understand because he seems to see the executive branch as somehow being the legislative branch. fall in line with him but he is always changing and that is difficult. when it comes to things likes spending and civil liberties, people who are voting for gop candidates might not really know what they're voting for. neil: i'm wondering looking at this, brie, if they're scared? if this could be a watershed

election year, often proved wrong, they will not chance it? >> i think the republican party is deeply, deeply broken. why some prominent republicans are jumping ship because they're acting like rats when the titanic was sinking. they're deciding to jump off a sinking ship. this is party where the leadership is in complete crisis. no one is in charge. they're not able to fulfill basic promises they promise every single constituently running for eight years. they even shut down the government couple years ago over obamacare. when they get the chance to be able to repeal it, they get cold feet and act like chickens. there are two things going on here. crisis of limb and republican party is dying a very slow and painful death we all saw coming with donald trump's rise in 2016 and you know donald trump broke the party and now we're just seeing the slow, painful death of it. neil: i think you're being a little jaded. he also orchestrated the tax

cut. you might not personally like him but they have a couple of things going their way but having said that i do want to bring your attention to rand paw, now the latest to say he can't vote for a continuing resolution, i guess they will take up in the house. if you add the fact that john mccain won't be there because he is still battling this brain tumor and all the treatment he need for that you're getting uphill battle getting this even remotely close to approval in the senate. what i'm curious, kat is, who will take the heat for that if that happens? >> congress will take heat for it. republicans will take the heat for it. i don't think president trump will take heat for it. he will not take responsibility for it. this comes back to the identity crisis in the gop. we saw this already happen with the attempt to repeal and replace obamacare. that was complete disaster because there is people in the party who want one thing, people who want another thing. it is not unified party. if it is not unified, how will they be unified to pass anything? neil: a lot of them seem to

be -- this might be something, it could happen, that because the tax cut was immediate, all features of it are kick in at once, some of these provisions for companies were so incredibly generous, and such a curse of riches to companies that, they're doing lots of things beyond just helping shareholders that will have impact just in time to save republican's bacon in november. what do you think? >> yeah i think that republicans in congress need to stop obstructing winning. they barely got this tax overhaul done. they barely got it done. they were not able to get a lot of other things done throughout this entire time when they had both the house and the senate and republican sitting in office, in the white house. so you know, i think they need to get it together. kat is totally right there is lot of competing interests in the party. therethere will be always compeg interests in the party. leadership is completely unable to wield carrots and sticks in

this situation. it's a leadership crisis is problem we've been seeing. there is a rock in the republican party and it didn't start with donald trump. this is long time coming. it started with boehner and republicans happy to appease their donors over their constituents. they have been sitting there if washington for decade now and are unable and unwilling to fulfill their promises and get things done. neil: i will put you both down as maybe on republican leadership. guys, thank you both, very, very much. we mentioned the president a little while ago. he will leave for pennsylvania soon. he will talk up tax reform and what all these companies have done as a result. that is the trumpet he is blowing to make sure republicans keep controlling. will it work? ces? well, with your finances that is. we had nothing to do with that tie. voya. helping you to and through retirement.

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neil: all right. the president will be leaving shortly for pennsylvania. he is going to be talking up tax reform and gifts that it keeps bearing including this latest from apple indicating that it is going to pay $35 billion in taxes, invest tens of billions over the next decade, hiring 20,000 folks. just icing on the economic improvement and market improvement cake. now there could be a disruption

to that today with talk increasingly of a government shutdown. even if the house were to cobble together a measure it approves presumably later tonight, they're putting it to a vote tonight, growing indications that the senate will not be so easy. not only is john mccain away dealing with brain tumor and medical care he desperately need, rand paul says as things stand now he can't vote for it. taking that along with the nine democrats they are going to need to get a yea out of that, now they will need more than that, that could be a struggle. charlie gasparino, what do you think? >> okay look at it like a economic standpoint, if it is prolonged three-months shut down, that could have impact on the economy. government is huge part of economy. there are workers there. they spend money, if they can't get checks. parks are closed, you name it that could have economic impact fit is long term. i really believe it is a short

term thing, a month, not that biggs after deal and here's the reason why. remember when obama and republicans were flirting flirta shutdown. neil: 2013. >> yeah they did. neil: only couple weeks. >> only couple weeks. obama was, tim geithner, they were really threatening to say we'll not prioritize anything. we at the time but that is what they were doing. i really believe that this, this government, steve mnuchin an president trump and gary cohn, the economic sort of, you know, people here will pay the debt first. so if you take the debt, not defaulting off the table, even if they defaulted for a week or couple payments that could cause a massive disruption to the economy and to the global

markets, raising interest rates, you know precipitously, if you take that off the table, this ain't that big of a deal for the economy and markets. markets can go up through this thing. markets hate uncertainty and trade off -- neil: they're getting so used to it. it was a big deal when it happened with gingrich and clinton. you could argue after the fact we got well tear to work and things that changed government's role, so in the moment it is boiling water but -- >> it is not an existential threat to the economy unless you default on your debt. you can screw everybody else, you can like not pay social security payments, that would be a problem. people would go nuts or you could, you can close down he have government office but if you still paid your interest on the debt, it will be okay, interest rates -- neil: you don't want to default. there is a big difference between shutdown and default and we avoided that but irony was,

when s&p down graded our aaa credit rating that was occurring when there was a threat of a shutdown. >> right. you remember what happened? neil: so the whole kabuki theater what prompted the downgrade. not the shutdown. >> you know what happened next? treasury yields went down because we are the tallest minute get in the room. as bad as we are, as dysfunctional this country is in a lot of respects, the economic foundation of this country is so much better than any place else, that people still bought our bonds. the chinese still bought our bonds as a safe haven okay? so remember this is still -- listen, you know what you got here. i don't care what they say about president trump's mental capacity, i think it is insane how they're making him sound insane, you may not like him but he is not insane, this place the foundations are so good compared to every place else in the world people still buy our debt. even as we lost the aaa rating,

interest rates went down, bond prices went up. we were covering it. neil: absolutely. let me ask you a little bit who gets the credit over this. there is ap story out, the headline alone jarred me, it is essentially the obama recovery, obama markets. i know the bull market started in march 2009. so barack obama had been president a couple months, no credit, no credit to this -- >> these are written by people who don't understand basic economics. let's be real clear here, the obama recovery such as it was, bull market was predicated on fed, not on fiscal policy, because his fiscal policy was a mess, all over the place, stimulus doesn't work, raising taxes, that is destimulative, health care reform was insane, because it basically hurt the economy -- neil: racing taxes came much later. >> he was threatening it and when you threaten it -- neil: federal reserve kept rates at zero. >> that propped up the stock

market. didn't do a lot for the economy. be real clear here, economic cycles usually last seven years. that seven years was up when president trump took over. there is no doubt that the market should have went down when he took over, just on cycle basis and economy should have stalled, that didn't happen. what we had is a pretty interesting run-up in stocks and economy. the economy is performing at -- neil: what do you think markets would be doing if hillary clinton was elected? >> they would not be performing at 3%. neil: she had a tough time getting antibusiness legislation through. >> if republicans controlled congress that would be stasis. remember what happened, you're basically taking corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 which is causing apple and all the companies to do all the stuff they're doing. neil: all the money from abroad. both can take credit, right. >> no. neil: happens under the president's watch good or bad, we will blame him if it is bad but propensity in the media that

trump has nothing to do, they hate him so much they block that. >> but economic absurdity. you just know, economics, you know that the growth is up for a reason the corporations are doing sufficient for a reason. neil: regulation. >> regulations. one thing i would say about trump is this, he did not develop these ideas. i know trump fans this, is donald trump, no. this was, this is essentially every republican would have done this, we would have had this result. neil: well you're going to be hearing from the never-trumpers. >> that's right. neil: charlie, for a while i look sympathetic gasparino. the president is enroute to pennsylvania to make that pitch that charlie said any republican would have done. who knows. fidelity, where smarter investors will always be.

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>> we are down about 100 points but of course we've had an enormous run-up. this year has eclipsed all expectations. a bit of a selloff is probably in order. the latest catalyst for some of this concern are drifting back has to do with a short-term fix to get us out of this fix were in regarding the government and whether we'll have enough money to keep going there is a plan on the table to keep it going for another four weeks, a continuum resolution. the president is flying out to pennsylvania to talk about how important it is to keep the lights on.

he will be there, his pitch is going to be that trend is our friend. these tax cuts are working, the soft buybacks are working, companies are hiring lots of people, apple is proof it's working, is it working? >> this is the perfect place to make that point. this is a place called h and k equipment. they sell and service heavy equipment, front-end loaders, forklifts and all the restaurant maybe you can see by me, they had their best year ever last year, they can have another great year this year the guy who runs it says and it's all because of the president's agenda. i don't think anyone can dispute the president impact on the economy. here is the issue. he's also got a campaign with a guy named rick's account. he's campaigning for congressional seat in pennsylvania and the president one pennsylvania but only by a narrow margin. the question is, these

elections recently have not gone well for republicans but most recently in wisconsin last week a longtime republican legislative district went for a democrat by ten points. western is, it's usually about the economy but is perhaps voters personal dislike for the president blocking whatever positive feelings they have about the economy. i think that's a valid question to be asked out here. and sylvania, very close state, he lost allegheny county, the only real significant county boston pennsylvania. no question on the economy, the popularity of the president maybe a little bit of a question and i suspect he will get a warm reception. >> thank you very much. the president will be speaking later today. let's go to jared, vp on these markets. we begin with you.

were down about a hundred points. what would the markets do if there is an extended shutdown. not just one that lasts a few days, but longer. >> the markets hate uncertainty more than anything else but i think, given where we've come in the market and with traders looking for any excuse to take profits, i think this is what you saw two days ago and i think this is what you're seeing today. it would be an issue for the market. we get through that issue, we've had them before, we always get through them, i don't think investors should try to trade in-and-out of the spread the market looks healthy and the economy is doing well. the news we've seen from apple is consistent. corporate earnings that's do well. the market will be fun. to answer your question, in the very short run it will be an issue for the markets if this extends, and we hate uncertainty, but again this has happened before.

>> it has happened before. i'm wondering what you tell your clients and investors who see these enormous run-up's and maybe they use this as an excuse to take some profits or maybe not to get in at all. what do you think? >> first well, you've got to remember the emotions play a very large part, larger than most of us understand in the way that wall street works. behind all this big bad wall street is a bunch of sensitive, cautious and reactionary human beings. i think the reality is we become a little desensitized and news. look at some of the things trump says. if you were to say those things at an obama administration or a bush administration, markets reaction would've been a lot more volatile. i do think the government full on shutdown with deadly drawdown the market but i don't think that will happen. i think we continue to move higher. again, the emotions are running high and everybody wants to be a bowl. >> the one thing i will say

about this, it doesn't matter whether you like, trump or hate donald trump, whether you're a fan of the tax cuts, i think what's been underreported and underappreciated is just how over-the-top egg and generous these tax were two companies. so big, so generous that whether it's the lower rate of 21% or the tax forgiveness rate, there are trillions in the money and they're sharing the loot with more than their shareholders. my point is, i don't think this was factored in to economic considerations or even markets considerations. for average folks, this could be a lot more dollars than what was originally anticipated. >> you are absolutely right. this is not been factored in. it's not been factored in enough on corporate earnings, you are seeing corporate earnings are ready responding. you left out a big part of the

puzzle and that is the regulations. the regulatory environment has been rolled back. you look at business confidence now and that's a real harbor for jobs. it's been running high since the election. businesses are doing well. they're very excited about the tax law changes. we've seen scores of companies , apple to walmart that have given bonuses, given raises, brought money back from overseas which was what we were clamoring for in the first place. we think it's underrepresented in the market and it's why the markets been making a big move in the market can go substantially higher because earnings which is really one of the main drivers of stocks, earnings are going to be better than people think because of the tax law changes and the improved regulatory environment. let's not forget we may have the first 3% gdp growth year in 11 years. the economy is doing very well.

>> i'm going to give you the concern arguments and that is that we have prices on the market of 27 2 - one. we have guys like yourself and maybe 67% and the highest since 1987, we know what happened that year, and we got this, some call it a melt up atmosphere. you can never catch this thing exactly right, but to those fears, what do you say? >> i think there needs to be a balance. i think you need to be really careful in giving blanket statements like saying all stocks are overvalued or undervalued. apple is a good example. apple server input 1 billion into the u.s. economy over five years. just yesterday they said that number is now $350 billion. were not talking. [inaudible] >> was at over ten years? but still, it's a large jump. >> that i have to deliver the goods. >> they don't, but that's a

lot for pr. tim cook is not one to overstate things but here's the bottom line. a company like apple sets the bar for a lot of smaller companies but i think investors say if apple is going to contribute 350 billion more than what was going to contribute before that will trickle everywhere. that's not true because tech is unique and each sector is unique and you had to be careful about buying stock that's out there, one that looks cheap is probably cheap for a reason and probably likely to move lower. just be more selective about your investment choices. >> markets usually don't die of over valuations. they usually don't die of old age but they usually die because a central bank gets over aggressive and raises rates too fast. we may go back and forth on this market. we haven't had a correction in a long time. that correction would probably be pretty healthy but what we really need to watch instead of valuations or politics is what the central bank does.

>> it's always something we didn't plan on or count on. my thank you. we are mentioning tim cook and apple. he has been talked about the benefits of tax reform. listen. >> without these policy changes, would you be able to announce today the creation of 20000 new jobs. >> no, let me be clear, there are large parts of this that a result of the tax reforms and large parts that we would have done in any situation. >> it sounded like president trump's tax bill with a huge windfall. >> there are two parts of tax bill, there's a corporate piece and an individual piece. i do believe the corporate tax side will result in job creation and the faster growing economy. >> that was a big deal for jim. they say all right, donald trump did something right. the democrats was downplaying this because none of them voted for it. we get some surprise upside

from this. will a lot of them pay for it? correspondent aaron, what you think? >> i have noticed a shift for a number of democrats i talked to who are really worried about this, going into the midterm elections. i wouldn't call it cockiness but a real belief that they are going to win the house from republicans later this year but suddenly the economy is doing really well and this tax reform package has already been better than most expected. they obviously messaged it going into it in such a way that it looks like it was going to be a windfall for the wealthiest americans and not for most americans but already, like in the apple example, you are seeing the trickle-down effect. democrats are really worried that voters will say i guess the economy is doing well and we should keep republicans in power. there is some worry about how they will message it now. going into the tax bill is not popular. i think you will see a shift.

now democrats are having this discussion about what are we going to campaign on, what are we going to offer. >> and people because they can't just say tax reform is bad. they have to say here is tangibly what we want to do if you put us in power. >> the thing i subscribe to, never by the consensus. never by what everyone else is saying especially when it comes to the markets, or for that matter, expectations that are still a year or so away. the one thing i think people miss, overwhelmingly to corporations and the individual component was really sort of scatterbrained and i'm not here to defend republicans, it just is what it is. unappreciated in that is the curse of riches for the same companies that were disparaged for getting all these benefits

that they almost had to because they have so much money coming their way, share the loot beyond the shareholders and that's something i don't think democrats or critics of the plan appreciated and that is something that could be a game changer. >> it could, and that's the thing people weren't expecting, and you remember jerry cohen did that wall street journal event and asked members of the audience what they would be doing with their tax cut and they kind of said nothing so what was expected that not much would come from this. suddenly things are coming from this and americans are immediately starting to feel the dividends from it. >> you know what i heard also, i talk to a lot of accountants but a lot of them are cfos are companies and that sort of thing. they were saying they have not had a chance to crunch the numbers but things like immediate expensing, it seems

like a nerdy issue, huge and then this one time tax to take money from abroad back home. you'd be an idiot not to take advantage of it, and they are. it's more money than they know what to do with it may show you are sharing the loot. that doesn't make them saints, but i don't think it was appreciated to the degree it's rolling out. your thoughts? >> i think that's absolutely true. i have heard a couple interesting arguments coming from democrats who have to find some creative ways to message around this. part of it is that a lot of the benefit is going to go to foreigners. foreign companies and others who are benefiting from this to, if they can show a contrast showing that foreigners are getting bigger benefits than everyday americans in a number of states, that might be a good message for democrats but it's

hard to get there. we'll have to see how that plays out. >> you think that some of the estimates we have, usually the party of power loses seats, that the republicans can stave off losing either body at this point. >> i think we're too far away to make that prediction. democrats are recruiting very well. i think a lot of that is that a number of democratic candidates simply don't like what they see coming out of washington. there is a new were younger generation of democrats who want to run for office. that's good for either party, but whether or not what's happening right now we can predict what's going to happen in november, i just don't think we know. we do know it's too early to say the house is gone because what we thought we could always can happen is just not can be the same.

>> your right and it's gonna turn a number of ways. very good seeing you again. the dow jones down about 92. it was up in excess of a thousand points. the quickest run from 25000 to 26000. a lot of the concern could be a pullback and another could be this concern of government shutdown. when you look at the mercedes-benz glc... with its high-tech cameras and radar, contemporary cockpit, 360 degree network of driver-assist technologies

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i'm sure the democrats would like to flood that by shutting down the government. the group that loses egg would be the military and we are never letting our military lose at any point. we will fund our military and have a military like we've never had because we've just about never needed our military more than now. >> if the senate democrats want to shut the government down or deny funding for our troops or stop funding for unrelated issues, that's a choice they could make but that would be their decision. >> the president and the speaker, putting democrats on the spot for saying if we do

shutdown and the latest odds that we are going to shut down, we had a congressman tell us he thanks it's very likely, a little higher than that, three out of four likely that we would have it. who knows better than our senior capitol hill producer. in the house they will vote on something tonight but it's not exactly popular in the senate regardless. >> i asked paul ryan why do you keep criticizing the democrats if you have the votes on your side of the aisle to keep the government (he said i'm not saying that. i think were in a good place. when the house of representatives vote between six and 8:00 p.m., they might be a little short. they can only lose 23 votes. keep in mind steve's scalia's is not here. he is recuperating from surgery. patrick mchenry would be the chief deputy.

they have what they would call, case of emergency, they would release the members and if you can get it on your own, great. them about yes and hold our nose into it. there might be some democrats who would vote yes. they would wait to see if republicans can carry this bill on their own, carry the freight on the republican side of the aisle because they have the majority. you're absolutely right, the bigger question might be in the united states senate. it comes down to the map. there are 50 republicans. john mccain is away, he is recuperating. he is indicated he is out so that down to 49. 60 is the magic number to break a filibuster. this is why republicans are trying to put this on the democrats and you don't want to vote, this is the game of

their right now and they're looking at this toward the midterm election. if the government shuts down you can bet they will document that vote in the senate whether happens tonight or tomorrow and they will say aha, remember back in mid-january when they voted against this, people will remember this vote if the government shuts down. >> how long does that affect, let's say we have a shutdown, didn't republicans pick up seats in the midterm because maybe it was a distant memory or what. >> you had issues with the obamacare website and that narrative was rolled off the table almost immediately. when you talk to a lot of people on both sides of the aisle they know there is a lot of chaos. you might not like the tax pay off but you can argue about the merits and demerits. it contributes to the merit of chaos of part of the calling card from the trump presidency. they don't want any part of

that. that's weather so sensitive. your hearing all this rhetoric about democrats, did they shut down, the minority leader in the house, nancy blows he said if they had the votes they would not even be talking to us. they talked about putting on this children's health insurance, tacking that on as a sweetener. they described this it's like taking a pile of doggie do, putting a cherry on top and calling it a sunday. these are words of the minority leader. in the senate i should point out that the two democratic senators from virginia, mark warner and tim kaine, think about all the workers who live in washington d.c., they both said they are no votes on this. they are willing to put their workers, they have hundreds of thousands of constituents in northern virginia, look to see how those members vote.

kristin holland, the house of representatives, don bier from northern virginia. this would be some of the ones we would watch but also those from swing districts. >> there's no risk in voting no. in that case i'll blame on republicans. thank you very much. let's go to clear politics and caitlin. i think the consensus seems to be that among democrats the risk is greater that this falls negatively on republicans and us. the white house said they did an attack about chip funding and raising all sorts of questions. they were blamed for the shutdown and then they ended up winning back the senate but they had, they didn't control all of government at that time. now they do control the house, the senate and the white house.

>> you can explain this process. >> it's a really hard argument to make to people who are being furloughed or wondering if they're in the military or what their strategy is. it's hard to make the case that it's a partisan issue but they did have ways to put pressure on some of them that trump won overwhelmingly. i talked to an aide who said we don't have an interest in shutting down the government. but the fact that republicans don't have the votes makes it a little bit easier for democrats to hold their own line. >> we were discussing earlier with concern among democrats, whatever happens, they are getting concern about the tax cut, how good it could be, more companies like apple doing what they're doing and it could come back to bite

them - i think it's a very risky bet that the democrats are taking by running against this tax bill because if you do start to see some positive things come out of it, remember we talked about the way in which people are going to need to feel the effects of this in their paycheck and if that doesn't prove, we've seen some polls that have seen a little bit of an uptick in approval of the tax bill. that makes it very hard for democrats to go and say we could give you a bigger tax cut. and it's always been a risk and republicans have a lot to talk about on the economy. the president is not helping them stay on message. there's a bunch of things coming out from the white house that are not on message bmac he sometimes does that. thank you very much. all right, a couple things following up, timings, this might be a moot point or make it through the house. the senate is proving a very difficult battle. then there's the issue of spending. let's say they cobble together

something, keep going for another few weeks. that is kind of the tragedy, not how they go about it but the fact that we are getting used to it. stick around. liberty mutual saved us almost eight hundred dollars when we switched our auto and home insurance. liberty did what? yeah, they saved us a ton, which gave us a little wiggle room in our budget. wish our insurance did that. then we could get a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey, welcome back. this guy... right? yes. ellen. that's my robe. you could save seven hundred eighty two dollars : liberty mutual insurance.

. neil: we hear earmarks, nasty connotation, right? that is until the president of the united states raised the possibility. maybe back to them, that's how deals were made, progress was made. house committee is debating whether to restore the ear marks. adam shapiro with more. reporter: ten years ago we were talking recovering the earmarks, house committee is talking about how to reinstate

the process of using earmarks but with different kinds of rules. this is calling for taxpayers for common sense who are advising, they testified on ways to curtail earmark abuse. first put a term limit how long the earmark is going to last for and forbid private or for profit entities, also create a digital list of some kind that taxpayers can go to to see who is getting earmarks. right now you have to dig through the budget and complicated to find, they want transparency, and eliminating earmarks associated with campaign contributors. these are just suggestions but the committee is open to the idea of reinstating ear marks. here's what pete sessions had to say at the start of the hearing. >> if we do nothing, we give up to $15 billion a year that we appropriate directly to the executive branch. where by we give up not only

our oversight, but we give up our congressional authority. reporter: there is some concern among republicans about going back to an earmark system that both parties abused, wasn't just the democrats or republicans who abused the earmark system. remember the bridge to nowhere, one of the famous instances of earmarks. they don't want it coming back, back to you, neil. neil: jason lewis, republican of minnesota, house budget committee member. what do you think, congressman? >> how did you know i'm from minnesota? i would have never known you are a vikings fan. neil: congratulations to your team and good luck to them. >> thank you. neil: what do you make of that? earmarks are the way to getting back to business? >> we appropriate the money, we want to hand it over to executive agency to spend.

of all the things on our plate right now. continuing resolution, reauthorize chip, get rid of the medical device tax, look to a budget in 19 that's way down the list. i don't think now is the time to be discussing that. neil: i guess the impetus of the president saying this is back to the days of ronald reagan and tip o'neill saying trading horses back and forth is the way things got done. what do you think? >> well, i'm not altogether certain that those were the best of days when it comes to budget deficits or anything else, you get people who want to spend money for political gain. you want to buy votes through the public treasure, i don't think that's a good idea whether you have earmarks or not, and i'm in the certain it makes a difference. so many important things we've got ahead on our agenda. look at economy roaring back right now and make certain that stays, get the government funded. all of those things take the place of earmarks or certainly come before earmark discussion

in my book. neil: how is this vote likely to come in the house, congressman, to keep the government going for another few weeks. >> i don't think republicans in the house are going shut down the authorize. we're going to reauthorize chip, get rid of the medical device tax which hl hurts minnesota and see if senate democrats shut down the government over daca amnesty or anything else. we'll get it out of house and do the right thing by the american people. neil: are you worried your party gets the blame when that happens? >> i certainly think if the democrats shut down the government, we would get the blame. i think it's why they shouldn't shut the government down or any other chamber. >> there is doubt among more conservative members this might be a tough sell. they're worried it's stumbling, staggering more like it into a temporary continuing resolution, that's not the way to do things? >> there's no evidence whatsoever, we vote this down, the democrats come on board. why would you want to do that?

there's good things in the continuing resolution, vis-a-vis the medical device tax, the cadillac tax, anti-missile defense and keeping the government open. i'm not certain how anybody votes no, to be honest with you, neil. neil: to get back to your near and dear minnesota vikings. people are concerned should your team advance to the super bowl, that it would be unfair because that's where they're going to be playing the super bowl! >> first time in 52 years, home-field advantage. neil: how do you deal with that? they say the nfl better stick to those guidelines. half vikings fans, half whomever fans. >> no, no, no, this is the only way to make certain the footballs aren't deflated is to have it on our home field so none of the shenanigans, should the patriots make it past jacksonville. neil: good luck. >> thank you, neil. neil: tech stocks are starting off on a very, very strong

note. a lot of the people are surprised because last year they ended on a very, very strong note. that is the disproportionate again in the averages. tech again. for how long? after this. let's begin.

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. neil: you know everyone is talking about apple commit all this dough to not only pay 35 billion dollar in u.s. taxes. where is the wherewithal to do that? bring money back home courtesy of the tax cuts. that is the wind at the back of the tech giants to whether that can continue with the "wall street journal" greg, what do you think, greg? >> hey, neil. i think one of the reasons the companies are doing so incredibly well, they have terrific products, obviously, and monopolistic or quasi monopolistic positions in the

market. it's great for prices and stock prices. the question for customers, investors and policymakers is going to be are the monopolistic positions cominga the expense of customers and competitors more broadly? thus far, regulators in the united states have said no, if you look at europe, you've seen that when the question is looked at through a different eye, sometimes they say yes, that is hurting customers. that is something i think the companies and investors have to be aware of. neil: i wonder too, greg, to your point, whether companies get cocky, amazon, buying everybody and his uncle or threatening whole sectors even sniffing around, normally comes a point which regulators or government overseers say wait a minute, are we at that point? >> well, i think we've already seen that there. have already been antitrust accusations against google for example, and they were not ultimately upheld but were forced to settle on other things. but i think if you look back in history, neil, interesting, if

you look at at&t or john rockefeller's standard oil, we forget this now, but those were the technological innovators of their day. their reputation then is what apple and google's is today. while they were building up the market share, they were innovative geniuses, once they locked in the markets, behavior was predatory and they would do anything they could to prevent competition from coming along. when you hear the volume of complaints leveled at the high-tech companies, you wonder if we are moving in that direction. as i said, it's hard to prove that, if you look at the numbers, you invest a tremendous amount, great product, well loved by the public. i think you're right, neil, with success and dominance comes a certain bit of arrogance, human nature. that's why i say this is a space to watch closely in the comes years. neil: can work your way, if you are concerned about that take place, and i agree with you, that's more likely than we appreciate. in the at&t case as an example,

that, the breakup started and the investigations started under the republican administration, that was under ronald reagan. you could make an argument with the baby bells and everything that boomed from there that that was a good thing in retrospect? >> right, the funny thing was nobody complained about the quality of phone service when at&t ran everything. with each passing year, somebody had a new innovation and device, the carter phone and the hutchin phone, things we haven't heard about for years. mci wanted to do long distance over microwaves, fax machines, it was hard to do traction with the products because at&t was so proprietary about what it allowed to hook up to its equipment. it was trying to protect monopoly in equipment manufacturing. it is hard to find exact parallels these days, the companies are careful not to make the mistakes that other companies did. if you look at the case of microsoft, for example, that

one dragged on for years and years, the government never won a conviction, they ultimately settled. fact that microsoft knew that the government and the competitors were always looking over its shoulder had a restraining effect on conduct. neil: i think that's a brilliant analysis. it's exactly right. you should run the other way. greg, "wall street journal" chief economics commentator. they got a little too cocky, and you know the rest of the story. on the show, i always try to avoid looking at the prism of business development through a red or blue lens or whether this market is donald trumps or barack obamas. it's almost a nine year market. is there anything wrong with giving both of them credit? i'll explain. i'm sorry, leo. i know i'm late. traffic on the ponte vecchio on a monday.

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. neil: all right, this is an associated press headline, trump claims credit for what is obama's economy, the bull market does go back to march 2009 after barack obama took office, i can give him the benefit of the doubt, that is fair to say the bull market was under the former president's

leadership, but, but, but, to not give the latest president any credit for anything that's happened in the last year did seem like a bit of a stretch. i come down on the position that we give presidents the blame when things turn south in a hurry, so might as well take a bow whether they exclusively deserve it or not when things are going well. for barack obama, you can make the argument after a meltdown and due to go up and the federal reserve kept interest rates at zero. it did happen under his watch. credit barack obama. then you go to the election of donald trump and the suspicion that he's going to tank the markets and the early futures market was just that, maybe the run-up since all these thousands and thousands of dow points, maybe he should get some of the credit for that. it isn't necessarily so black and white. the committee to defend the president, amanda hedge, research director rich noise.

amanda, my take on this, there's enough credit to go around, i'll do that. to dismiss donald trump for having nothing to do with it. say if you will the personality, the sweets and all of that, that doesn't seem fair to me. >> this conversation is more nuanced, but the fact remains that a lot of the things have happened since president trump was elected. stock market hit 26,000 yesterday. lowest jobless claims since the 70s. there's a quote that says a good leader takes more than his fair share of the blame and less than his fair share of the credit. democrats and the liberals and the mainstream media want him to take none of the credit and all of the blame. neil: it is interesting, benefit of the doubt, rich, that many in the media, they don't like covering business. and i say not to disparage, it's not cool. that's why nerds like me are

not cool, never will be cool. but i'm sort of like, i'm built for comfort. so i think when i cover this stuff, it's not that i really embrace and get into, and a lot of journalists don't. so i'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and realize when i look at headlines of barack obama after the meltdown, he was walking on water. donald trump, not so much. what do you think? >> right, well, if you go back to 2009, the lesson the media, the liberal media were telling us, he was saving the world with a trillion dollar spending stimulus, but somehow they don't think that a trillion dollar tax cut is going to have any effect whatever, it's going to hurt people. we had a poll that "new york times" and survey monkey did. 71% of democrats surveyed in january don't think they're getting a tax cut. that's just not true. 80 to 90% of tax filers will get a tax cut. the media trashing the tax cut with misinformation all through

november and december, now that it's january, they're not covering the positive things that are happening to workers, to bonuses to actual taxpayers because of it. the benefit, the upshot of it is going to be when people say their own paychecks changed, they're going to be pleasantly surprised, that's going to give the media credibility problem. neil: amanda, i'm old enough to know that i'm a lot older to you but can say this sounds familiar to the press that ronald reagan and tax cuts got that average middle class folks wouldn't see it or feel it. that was a consistent drumbeat especially with the delayed impact, before the '86 tax act. and people saw for themselves that that consensus media reporting was wrong. they saw it in the paychecks. i don't know if lightning strikes twice here. could we, the media, collectively be missing something that average folks are going to see this?

>> there are a lot of people missing information and missing benefits currently because the economic growth, the media can't deny it. rather than attempting to spin it and take the risk of looking foolish, they ignore it. you have to wonder how many americans who primarily watch networks like msnbc and cnn and aren't aware of the current trend. neil: actually, we have higher ratings than they do, you know? i don't know. >> you guys are covering it. what i'm saying is there are people who aren't aware of this trend and some of them got bonuses over the holidays and thinking, why? where did this come from? a company in florida is making sure it doesn't happen, when they issued the thousand dollar bonuses, they wrote on the check trump, jobs and tax cuts.

neil: there is enough common sense that they could see it. one of the things that could be deciding this is discernible turnaround in the economy. competing for the story are the stories about russia and everything else, trump and his tweets and he steps on his message. with the better part of valor be for the president to step out of that and let people look and see for themselves that the media on this might be wrong? >> i think so, and let people discover it. so much more credibility when people do their own taxes and see the benefit, and then you have to give them some leadership on it. but they'll learn this for themselves, they don't need to be told when they see what the benefits are. the media realize they were misleading them and thinking this is only for the rich or corporations and people are paying more, which is what we heard. those things aren't going to be true. neil: guys, thank you, very, very much. as i like to remind people on the show, we cover it all.

if you find a news organization that is disproportionate one way. we have three business channels, three channels, the good, the bad, the ugly, the bull, the bear, the middle ground. you got to cover it all and got to be live on a saturday every week, 10:00 to 12:00 to do just that. we will be. more after this. . . . .

neil: no matter what happens in the house they will vote on some sort of measure to keep the government going for a few weeks. they are expected they will approve it the trouble seems to be in the united states senate where rand paul added his voice to the likes of lindsey graham saying no way. trish regan right now. trish: neil, that is the big question. will we see a government shut down? gop leaders are confident short term spending will actually pass the house tonight. i don't know. i don't know. we'll talk about all of it. all of it coming as president arise in pittsburgh any moment from now. he will tour a manufacturing company seeing a ton of growth they say thanks to the president's pro-growth agenda. welcome, everyone, i'm trish regan. well tom to "the intelligence report." the president is about to rye hive in pittsburgh to tout the republican tax bill when he speaks to manufacturers