insult and disgrace. it's been picked up in the media. stuart varney, this is what they're saying about me -- don't you love it? i made the media, neil! [laughter]. neil: glad they got my e-mail! [laughter]. stuart: that's good, that's really good. neil: you have every right. that was tacky! come on. what a disgrace. we live in a real world, whether you are right or left, people think it's fair game to be tacky. it's never fair game. stuart: well said. neil: thank you, my friend. a market rally despite disappointment on the gdp figure coming out a little less than the 3% that some hoped to see again which would have been something we hadn't seen a better part of a decade to see three back-to-back-to-back quarters. this might not be revised up. way too early to tell. another report circulating out of bank of america, merrill

lynch. that's a mouthful, they are under the same umbrella. talking about the money pouring into the market. individual money in the latest week, a record 33.2 billion in the stock-based funds. that is through wednesday. i guess they do it that way. to put that in perspective, stepping back, 278 billion for all of 2017. if you were to maintain that pace and it were to continue to go at that frenetic pace, the gist of the merrill report is things would be looking frothy. now they've been saying that for many years, you could go back to a few years into the bull market that celebrates its nine-year anniversary in march. but among some of the things out there, and a big disappointment for me was starbucks. they were very high at holiday sales and a lot of that had to do with dismissing the pumpkin latte. [ laughter ] >> moving the peppermint latte to the front of the line, and i warned the baristas here,

locally, i said you're giving up the cash cow, they said what do you want? and that was it. those two developments from my money are the developments today. the starbucks thing just shy of estimates, they made money hand over fist and enough share the wealth on tax cuts to come with workers. i don't want to make too big a deal out of it, adam, pumpkin is still big. still being the president of the united states talking in davos and signaling america first means everybody invest in america now. take a look. >> i'm here to deliver a simple message that has never been a better time to hire, to build, to invest and to grow in the united states. we support free trade, but it needs to be fair and it needs to be reciprocal. i believe in america. as president of the united states, i will always put america first just like the

leaders of other countries should put their country first also. but america first does not mean america alone. when the united states grows, so does the world. neil: all right, now he was politely received, i wouldn't say robustly applauded. the fact of the matter is he was entering the lion's dare, doesn't care much, but he is enticing foreign capital to come to the united states that suddenly we are the cheaper tax draw to say nothing of the big investment beacon. seemed to be resonating with ceos of companies representing half trillion dollar market value yesterday. how this could follow up on that. let's get the read on this to real clear politics caitlin huey-burns and our own charlie freeman and our own watch what i want to say, charlie gasparino. we are open for business, come bring us your money?

>> that was a great speech, i thought. i think when donald trump is at his best, it's usually about the economy and talking -- neil: he's in his element with that. >> i've been to davos a lot. i choose not to go now. neil: the davos, switzerland or davos, new york? >> is there a davos, new york? neil: where i've done a lot of reporting. >> okay. it's a place filled with euro, quasi socialist bureaucrats and american ceos. neil: great fondue. >> horrible food. >> nonprofit beard strokers there. neil: he's an elitist. >> neil, this is like quasi socialism. that's what he was walking into. the u.s. ceos are openly embracing him. they all boycotted his business councils post charlottesville. they are all meeting with him now. jamie dimon, as we reported yesterday had a private meeting with him last week from

jpmorgan chase, steve schwartzman from blackstone meeting with him lately. they know his policies are good, most of his policies are good. neil: and they like making money. >> a slowdown in gdp this quarter, guess what? the tax cuts haven't kicked in yet. neil: by the way, wasn't trade part of that? that worsened it, right? >> because of the way they calculated doesn't mean imports hurt us because the way they want to avoid double counting things. >> some worry this could drag future gdp numbers. >> the trump agenda is a concern. i think the actual capitalists in davos are concerned about that. they might have been reassured. neil: put them in a phone booth, where were they? >> right. gdp number, look, the very good story underneath the headline which absolutely was disappointing is 6.8% growth, nonresidential fixed investment. businesses investing in the u.s. it's the same thing you're

hearing from that crowd in switzerland. it's going lead to productivity growth going forward. >> this is a president who campaigned and the reason there was so much focus on davos, is he campaigned as populist entity. a lot of his policies have been traditionally republican. he gave a lot of tax cuts to ceos, that's why they are happy with him. neil: he gave them a curse of wealth which he almost had to share. i'm not judging one way or the other. they got so much out of this, so crazy much, that's why they're handing out bonuses and seeing the folks do this? >> right, great pr for them, the republicans and to run on. different economists are looking at whether people get money back, whether they spend that money, shows whether they are involved and whether that money does come back -- >> i'm sorry, go ahead. >> the first time he's ever apologized --

[laughter] >> you know, i'm optimistic about the tax plan, okay? and optimistic about much of trump's economic agenda. i think we have to give a reality check because we have viewers buying the market. trade agenda, hopefully protectionism stuff, the anti-nafta stuff is all rhetoric, that's going to hurt the agricultural industry and the other industry that needs nafta to grow. number two, the individual side of the tax cuts are pretty lousy, and he's actually raising taxes in a lot of states by just -- neil: a lot of individuals ironically are getting the benefit of the corporate tax cut without the individual thing. >> people that don't pay a lot of federal income taxes get a small tax cut, there are people in five or six states that get hosed. and the third thing i would say is the tax cut for small business which is generally the driver of economies is pretty weak, and i would just -- so usually big corporations, they move like freighters, slow.

i just worry that jamie dimon and blackstone and all the big companies, they may be handing out checks but not going to be hiring in what people think. neil: i don't know. >> different indicators on the other side. wage growth has been a real concern among a lot of people, that's one indicator, just on the personal side, just thinking how people vote and respond to this. neil: i know it's a simplistic question, thousand dollar bonus, $2500 bonus, wouldn't be that reflected in a wage? >> if you are benefitting from, that working for one of the companies -- neil: are they substantial enough to show up in the numbers? >> short-term, absolutely. long-term, it's the growth in the economy, and whether you are one of these people who get bonuses and more than 100 companies now, starting next month, you're going to see more aftertax take-home pay. i think -- neil: that will depend how much pay it is, right?

now people who dismiss the amount. >> people who pay taxes get a tax cut. neil: i agree with that, but i think that's going to be more of an -- exactly, and i think that could be more of an economic boom, whatever you think of the president, his tweeting, all the other stuff and the latest conversation he might have wanted to fire mueller, that will be inconsequential to the bigger debate as to whether this significantly reduces the economy. i think it will. statistically, you say? >> i think the political impact is the tax cuts, people don't realize they're going to get them, they're going to get them. almost everybody is getting a tax cut. the big economic impact is on the corporate side, the xrurm is healthy, the consumer is spending and it's the business investment rising that's been the story so far in the trump era, and that's where you see the growth going forward. neil: caitlyn, that has been the argument that this will have a pay it forward effect.

other companies are doing, it we're seeing other examples of fedex and other benefits and companies are trying to outshine the pr factor of this. >> the pr factor is huge in this. >> i don't care about the reason, but if i'm working, i'm getting this. >> you're not carrying about it -- there is always that incentive. talking to voters as i often do, it's the longer term security factor. do you feel you can make bigger, better decisions because you feel economically secure, i don't think that has been answered yet, certainly republicans are hoping that these small things make a difference and make people feel they have more options to spend money. >> i know i'm simplistic, you are quite smart. charlie, i always prefer my boss to be happy as a rule of thumb. >> yeah. neil: when he or she is happy, they're more predisposed to do good things, and i like to think, for me.

and i like to think for the place i work. some of them have been stingy in the past because they've had to be. they've been kind of regulated, the death tax and that mentality changes, i suspect, this is the psychological view, i suspect that will have an effect that will reverberate? >> yeah, it should. listen, i'm worried about a couple of things here. you know, i look at what can get us to 3.5% growth, okay? a huge corporate tax cut helps you get to 3.5 growth. what could help us get on 3.5% growth is real tax reform on the individual side, which really did not occur. i'm telling you people who don't pay a lot of federal income taxes are going to get a few bucks but some won't. neil: huge surge in upgrowth. >> it should. it's going to be good for stocks, publicly traded companies are getting a huge

tax cut. small businesses are got getting a big tax cut here. neil: i don't agree with that. >> some of the biggest cheerleaders for this plan were at national federation of independent business, members telling them they've never been more optimistic. >> but it's not a great deal for them. if you look at the way the pass-throughs are working -- >> with all due respect, they've looked at it pretty closely. >> have you seen -- >> i understand in this town among people in our industry there is a lot of concern. neil: and the elitists. >> if you talk about small businesses, stick to that. what is the real -- do you understand the tax cut on the small businesses? it's marginal. neil: the bottom line, they wouldn't be -- no, no, no, they wouldn'ting -- believe me, i'm not apologist or cheerleader. i'm talking about the guy that

runs the local drugstore in my town. he's going to be hiring, the small mom and pop operation, he's going to expand hiring. >> he misread the tax law. neil: he is some of the smartest people i know. he does my taxes. >> the concern, as he tries to high, is can he find the workers? that's the biggest challenge right now, and that's where i think immigration -- j just echoed what he was telling me, it's hard to find people. >> james, he's not getting a big tax cut. >> negative behavior, charlie. caitlyn, do you see this having full effects on the economy, enough to help let's say politically finally republicans in november? >> i think that this is where the president's own actions come into play, because we have seen in polls he's not getting credit for the economy yet. it is january, but the fact his approval ratings, people view him the way they view the economy is reflected in the way they view the president and the

philosophical argument -- >> they like what's happening but don't like him. >> right does, that encourage people to show up -- you show up when you want better -- >> fox poll had him at 45%. >> among the economy. >> do you show up to register your support or show up to register a complaint? and typically in midterms you show up to register a complaint. neil: to offset those who are happy. >> creates issues for democrats trying to undermine all of the pr coming out from this tax bill saying to people, oh, this cut is not big enough for you. i think they'll run into problems there. but the overarching -- neil: thank you, guys, i didn't mean to jump you on. blame charlie. i'm kidding. we are going nob washington for the president's state of the union address, he will be crowing about a lot of this and mentioning this.

i caught the cnbc interview, he did mention it once or twice. his view is that will reverberate and benefit americans. charlie gasparino will be damned. more after this.

. neil: all right, you might have

noticed in this day where stocks are soaring, in the casino industry, wynn resort is tumbling. there's a "wall street journal" story that hit the wires recounting wynn resorts employees and others accusing the guy who runs the place, mogul steve wynn of sexual misconduct. they cite the names and severals not identified including mr. wynn paying a $7.5 million settlement. mr. wynn, who we reached out to, dismissed the story saying the idea i assaulted any woman is preposterous. since he is the wynn in the wynn resorts and the brains in this casino operation that goes now to facilities all over the world including dubai and elsewhere imperls him and could in the financial community

imperil his company. it comes at a time when such allegations seem almost legion in any industry beginning with our own about a year and a half ago, and at this very company. the fbi text story raising credibility concerns. where you stand on this issue whether questioning the fbi is a proper patriotic thing to do. the bottom line is that you have two key players in this sometime back who are not big fans of donald trump. bigger fans of hillary clinton, and trying to orchestrate from some texts coverage and investigations that went that way, but those are the early reads we're getting from some of these, might be much ado about nothing, adam shapiro on capitol hill how they are following now. hi, adam? reporter: hi, neil. republicans think there is something on capitol hill, and not much ado about nothing. chuck grassley, the chairman of the judiciary committee

released more of the text messages some, 50,000 over more than a year of a relationship between fbi agents peter strzok and lisa page. here's the latest text messages that senator grassley has released. in the first text message, this is page to strzok, she says -- referring to hillary clinton, the last thing you need is going in there loaded for bear. you think she's going to remember or care it was more d.o.j. than fbi? strzok texts back, agreed i called bill and relayed what we discussed. he agrees. i will e-mail you and -- this has been redacted -- same. much later, he says -- this is referring to mr. mccabe, this text exchange

and his connections to terry mcauliffe via his wife, mr. mccabe's wife and whether mr. mccabe should have recused himself from investigation of hillary clinton's imails. what does this all mean? jim jordan, one of the republicans very concerned about what's happening at the fbi, said this. >> i think the logical thing is if the fix was in on the clinton investigation and these same top people at fbi started and ran the trump-russia investigation, might there be bad things going there as well? as you look at the text messages, sure looks like there is. reporter: democrats are pointing out that republicans like jim jordan are trying to undermine the fbi and the department of justice as part of an attempt to undermine robert mueller and his investigation of collusion or potential collusion with the trump campaign during the presidency. so here's what mark warner from the senate intelligence committee put out. he's the ranking member, he said in a tweet, quote, and

this is in references to allegedly there's a tweet which there's reference to a secret society, he wrote -- so take all of this with a grain of salt. president trump referring not necessarily to this, but the bombshell report in the "new york times" that he had directed officials at the white house counsel there, mr. mcgann to fire robert mueller. president trump in davos said that wasn't true, called it fake news. fox news confirmed he did have the discussions with white house counsel. back to you. >> adam, thank you very much. and to that final story there he's touching on, and adam, elaborated a little bit on it whether the president wanted to fire bob mueller. john roberts traveling with the president in davos said it may have come up at a meeting as one of the possibilities or concerted effort shut down by the white house counsel who

were separately told threatened to resign if the issue were forced. let's get the read from washington examiner white house correspondent. gaby, i tend to be simple not because i'm trying necessarily to be a fair journalist about it but because i'm not that bright. and what i see right now is that mueller is still there. so whatever was entertained and, whatever was kicked back or rejected because it was entertained, muller is still there. what does it mean now? >> it means that somebody along the way talked the president out of firing bob mueller that was something he was considering. but there is, you know, further questions that need to be asked about how serious he was on that? we're not sure if this is a directive, whether or not he actually asked don mcghan, the chief counsel what it would take to fire bob mueller or suggested if this investigation takes a turn for the worse or

probing things that doesn't tie into the russia meddling in the 2016 election, then i want this on the table. that we still are trying to weed out based on the different reports that we're seeing. but either way, i think it is important that this is something that the president was even talking about. it really shows how frustrated he is by this investigation, and it kind of lends itself to the narrative that we keep hearing out of the white house, they expect this to be wrapped up soon, that they're hopeful that nothing is going to come of it and they maintain there is no collusion whatsoever. neil: you're bob mueller, you hear the president might be considering seriously or just batting it out there, firing you, does that change your investigation or god forbid, your vindictiveness? >> i would hope not. he is leading this investigation, and things like that, different media reports that are coming out, that have been coming out for months now over the course of this

investigation, aren't supposed to influence what it is he's doing in terms of that job, of leading this investigation. but i would have to say it's probably very difficult to hear that news, to hear that the president was considering firing and you to not feel some sense of obligation to pursue this even further. after learning of that. neil: hearing a bunch of lawyers talking on the subject, i don't know what the channel was, they were saying almost all presidents investigated with the exception of richard nixon who acted on it, feel tempted to fire the independent entities looking into them. i don't know if that's even true, so i'm trying to get the president the benefit of the doubt here, he could have batted this around, the lawyers, and would have summarily said, that would be volcanic, it would be nuclear, be a big mistake, or do you suspect there is potentially something more here? >> i think if he directed don

mcghan to contact the justice department and fire bob mueller, this is huge. and it's a serious concern for people following this investigation, particularly the congressional panels that are also looking into russian collution and what impact that had on that. neil: would you be surprised by that? if the president thought the investigation was a waste of time and all that, you would not glean that to be a huge deal and angels prevailed whether that was a threat, counsel wanting to resign, if you pushed the point. the guy is still there, the investigation ensues, the president is still not happy. maybe still not happy that the guy is still there, but nothing happened. >> no, nothing happened, and i think it's obvious he was talked down from that ledge from someone inside the white house. it comes down to whether that was a directive that was issued or just this idea floated. if it was something that was

pursued and then shot down, it's serious. if it was just president trump venting about frustrations, feeling like his privacy is being invaded as mueller's team goes through his tax records and banking statements and all of that, it's nothing burger. neil: nothing burger, i love that analogy. thank you very, very much. see where this goes. the dow up about 92 1/2 points right now. obviously focusing on things they can get hands on right now. earnings that look good. guidance that looks favorable and tax cuts that within a matter of days for most americans will keep this all going. more after this.

. neil: all right, we just got a tweet from the president of the united states talking about this latest immigration battle and whether they can get daca resolved in the 11 days they have to get it resolved. daca has been made increasingly

difficult by chuck schumer took such a beating over the shutdown that congress is unable to act on immigration. the white house as proposal for dreamers on all of this. bob cusack. on this issue, he had much more conciliatory, kind things to say about chuck schumer, and we're all -- i'm paraphrasing -- embarrassed when we push points and lose them and they'll be able to negotiate something else on another day. i'm oversimplifying it. but this tweet sounds tougher than that. what do you make of it? >> yeah, neil, the white house had to put out principles and proposals because even mitch mcconnell said i need to know where the white house stands. i think this is a step forward in some ways but at the same time, neil, you know, congress has been debating immigration for over a decade. they've gotten close a couple times, but to think that they're going to get a big deal, i think in the next few

weeks is folly, and this is -- we're already in an election year and this is anything to be an election year issue. i think something could possibly pass out of the senate, negotiated among the centrists, is that bill going to move in the house? i don't think so. hard-liners don't have the own proposal that's very different than things floating senate. neil: yeah, i think to your point, the problem isn't with the chuck schumers or democrats, the problem could be with the base, that is the president's conservative base, who every time they here about eventually making these folks citizens, no matter the process, no matter the time, they see it as a complete capitulation, seen this happen before with the so-called gang of eight fell apart on the same issue, but i guess my point is it's not such a done or sure deal that it will be done, right? >> absolutely. and also the liberal base, let's say basically, i know it's accompanied with this. a wall for dreamers, the left is not going to like that at

all. chuck schumer got killed by his base for offering 25 billion for the wall and took it off the table. this is a very complicated issue and i just think that congress has been punting it and the house wants to pass the bill, i don't think they have the votes to pass their bill and certainly in the senate, no bill that has 60 votes at the moment. neil: is it your sense if they can't get something together, they have another extension or are we looking at another shutdown? >> definitely not next month for another shutdown for the february deadline. as far as the march deadline, that's the dreamer deadline, there's a better chance of it, honestly, i don't think the democrats are going to use the playbook, it's back fired and conservative democrats' interest, they don't want to do that again. neil: you are right about that. which means, bob, you should run the other way. you know, democrats are still panning the tax cuts, nancy pelosi the latest to say that

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to a dexcom receiver. dexcom helps lower a1c and improves quality of life. if you're over 65 and you have diabetes, you should have a dexcom. if you get a dexcom, you're going to be very glad that you did. visit dexcomnow.com to learn more. . >> i'm not sure that a thousand dollars, which is taxed, taxable, goes very far for almost anyone. >> it's cheating on them and this amount -- [inaudible]. neil: all right, so democrats not big fans of the tax cuts. nancy pelosi among others saying that these are crumbs, thousand dollar crumbs, be that as it may, to a lot of folks, a thousand dollars isn't crumbs,

and this is prior, prior to what individuals might see in their net beginning next month. having said that, new york governor cuomo announcing new york, new jersey and connecticut are launching a coalition to sue the federal government over the tax cuts. as you know, they are very, very damaging to high-tax states like all of those states, and they've been trying come up with ways around them so their residents aren't hit severely. republican representatives from the states voted against the tax cut precisely because for their residents they could boomerang. but they're facing an uphill legal fight. former obama official, we've got trump 2020 media board adviser member gina loudon. gina, they're saying this ain't fair, this ain't right, and we think we have a case to make in court. do you think they do? >> this is like the dying bray of the donkey, neil, emblematic

of the democrats right now, who have zero issues to run on for the midterms or 2020 unless obstructionism is an issue they care to run on. that would mean obstructing money in the pockets of americans, that would mean obstructing what the president has even offered now to daca. that would mean obstructing low unemployment, record low unemployment for women, blacks and hispanics. the democrats don't have an issue, they are trying to make hey of nothing. neil: not the first party charged with obstructing justice. jeff, i want to get your take. a very few envisioned, including apparently the white house that so many companies would be seizing on this to share the wealth with either their workers, their customers, to the degree they have, in this pay it forward trend that seems to have picked up steam is something that could boomerang on democrats who universally opposed it. what do you think?

>> let's take a step back. republican tax law didn't give bonus to workers, what it did is give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest americans and to corporations. neil: but our regular workers getting a chunk of that? >> few are. here's the deal -- neil: it wouldn't have happened if they didn't get the tax cuts, right? >> the way republicans pay for the billions of dollars for the wealthy is raising taxes on americans making less than $75,000 a year. neil: what do you mean raiseing? when certain credits expire in five years? >> talking about when credits expire in five years. if you are one of the americans getting a one-time thousand dollar bonus from your employer. neil: almost four million americans. >> the republican tax law means you have to pay it back and then some. >> you don't know that for sure, right? credits come and go, you are right, if they were to expire

and so many allowances and provisions come up to bite them. >> republicans saw this law by saying they expired. neil: the way democrats sold affordable care act and obamacare, right? >> democrats want to keep the affordable care act going and that's what we've been saying. republicans have repealed the individual mandate which means premiums for families are going to go up. neil: it's still early, and you right, it's still early. gina, it is still early, but i am wondering, given the fact that so many companies dorring this, and i think jake is right, that it was disproportionately weighted to big companies and the like, but because they got such a curse of riches, because they got more money than anyone could have figured, they're doing more than just giving it to their shareholders because of the curse of the rich, however you want to define them, sharing it with workers. and i don't believe that was appreciated going into. this that's all i'm saying. you say what? >> no, i don't think so either, neil. i think you are exactly right. the horrible fear for democrats

right now has to be not just that trump is winning their voter base incrementally almost day by day, but even further that these provisions from cutting regulations to, of course, the tax plan, tax reform in general, and all of the things this administration has done are literally reforming the way americans are going to view free market economics. when you look at the fact that now we have parental leave increasing, minimum wage increasing, and these are all from supply side. these are the things the democrats tried to sell, could never happen it. all had to be done by big daddy government because trickle-down economics didn't work. neil: see how it sorts out politically. we might get a better idea in november. thank you, guys, breaking news, the dow briefly touched 100-point gain, a lot of this built on optimism the trend will be their friend.

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. neil: all right, we're getting an update on response as we were trying, a response from steve wynn at wynn resorts

accused of multiple counts of sexual misconduct on the part of workers, former workers, those visiting of the resort. appearing in the "wall street journal," he's responded saying the idea that i assaulted any woman is preposterous, we find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations regardless of the truth and the person is left with the choice whether publicity or engaging in multiyear lawsuits, deplorable for anyone to find themselves in this investigation. elaine wynn i'm involved in a nasty lawsuit she is seeking revised settlement. she is seeking to threaten, slander and destroy me. there is a lot of details and back and forth here that i won't go into, but suffice it to say it's roiling the stock because whatever you may think of mr. wynn or the allegations, he is the name behind that casino empire, and i do mean

empire. it is the largest on earth, if you include holdings and operations, far-flung across the globe, places like dubai and so many others. so something that could imperil him or drag him through, this will have a similar effect certainly today on the stock. we'll keep an eye on it for you. the feds are investigating the ford explorer, the big suv, after number of owners said it's making us sick. jeff flock has some of the details. what's going on here? reporter: carbon monoxide is what they say is the problem. i'm coming to you from the place where they make ford explorers, the explorer plant in chicago. the model years in question here which is starting in 2011 coincided when they started make the explore, not body on frame but unibody construction, some people think that was a problem, i'm not an engineer but sounds plausible when you

make the vehicle in one piece as opposed to a body on a separate frame. ford has had engineers looking into. this here's the quote from them, ford says -- this all started with a problem with ford explorer interceptors, the ones that the police use. ford did find a problem there with the modifications done to the vehicles, allowing carbon monoxide to get into the cabins of the vehicle. this as well as the miss on earnings roiled the stock. today it's down again. down 4% yesterday, down 7% on the month, and you know, that probably has hurt the stock more than anything else. sergio marchionne, by the way, on the earnings call for fiat chrysler said and i quote him now, there is a very strong likelihood we'll outperform

ford in 2018. ford obviously, neil, as you know from the coverage of the auto show in detroit, devoting resources to autonomous vehicles, but they got a problem, because the explorer is popular. i've driven explorers for the past 25 years. never had anything but an explorer. mine is the old one, it's so old, not part of this issue. by the way, ford, has a fix -- not a fix because they don't admit a problem but say if you want to bring your vehicle in, we'll test it out if you want us to. neil: thank you very, very much. latest on that with jeff flock. i think donald trump was an original investor and didn't work out then, might work out now with something vince mcmahon is working on. >> this xfl is coming back, neil. the new football league, same

as the old failed football league with a much different approach, according to vince mcmahon, the famous wrestling executive. he wants to bring back the xfl since the last one closed up shop. it only lasted one season. it was in 2001, cost combined $70 million. that league was more known for cheerleader than players, the players that did make a name for themselves, didn't do it for their real names. there is baby boy, and he hate me, the running back whose name is rod smart. the league launching with some new ideas. they don't seem set in stone for all these. talking about no half time, no cheerleaders. feuer commercial breaks, simpler rules and the new xfl will be family-friendly, players will be forced to stand for the national anthem. >> a time honored tradition to

stand and appreciate the national anthem with any sport here in america, and any country they do that. i think it would be appropriate to do that. reporter: we'll see if this all works out, neil. first season supposed to be the year 2020. they have a couple years to get themselves set. neil: want to allow more time for jason whitlock of fox sports 1 on this. what is your take where this is going? is it really a go? do they need financing and all of that, what? >> vince mcmahon is going to finance the whole thing himself. the wwe stock and he sold off the equivalent of like $100 million. he will finance it himself. it will be single entity league. mcmahon will own all teams. they'll have eight teams play a ten-game regular season. if it fails, it's my fault, if it succeeds, he's putting himself on the line and feels it can work the second time

around. it's a lot different the way they're going about it. he's going to go on a listening tour and come up with ideas how to put the league together. neil: buddy, thank you very, very much. we wanted to allow more time for jason whitlock who breathes this stuff in the next hour. also getting from charlie grady, our stocks genius, wynn stock is down 6%. triple the average buy-in on these harassment allegations and worse, that are coming out against steve wynn. he's called mr. casino. the largest purveyor on earth and being dragged through the mud on allegations he might have abused a lot, a lot of women. he's saying it's not true. not one bit of it. more after this. ...

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neil: all right well with record territory, what's remarkable about this is that it's the world of wall street and a lot of people will always say you know neil i don't understand that. you've got the stories here confirmed that the president wanted to fire rob mueller which could be like nixon-era type constitutional crisis and the markets, well maybe that because it never happened. obviously, there was talk of it but bob mueller is still there so that might be an issue there and then you have these allegations against steve wynn the casino mogul a market darling that he not only harassed and might have abused a number of women over the years and he denies the story, the stock is down 9% yet even in the

face of that the general markets are still doing okay, so if this isn't a reminder how the markets are on sort of a cloud nine of their own maybe it's fueled by talk that $33 billion reported to stock based funds in the latest week we've never seen quite a number like that bank of america merill lynch report being it by way of comparison 278 billion poured in for all of 2017. so we maintain that base. we'll dwarf that number within like six or seven months anyway the dow is up about with this gain a little bit more than 7% year-to-date. maybe it's the market, the moneys made off the market and other investments that are prompting vince mcmahon to consider revisiting something, an alternative to the nfl. we've been mentioning this xfl, the host of speak for yourself, jason whitlock. so i don't know, jason, where mr. mcmahon will get the money to proceed with this. he's a very rich guy that i know but could it be a foolish

investment what do you think? we cannot hear. all right let's go, we're going to go first to blake burman then in davos which i didn't want to go guys but all right, blake what do we have? >> you don't want to come to me neil? neil: i did but i was doing with this first but i apologize what's the latest? >> i know live tv, live tv. so its been an interesting trip for president trump. he of course gave this speech before the world economic forum today. what's very clear here, neil and being in davos for three days is the administration feels that they have a success story to tell in terms of the economy you were talking about the market run not only this year but since the election but also the new tax cuts that are now into effect which the administration says people are starting to feel but will especially feel come february 1, so in his speech today, president trump said he came here to deliver this one point.

listen. president trump: i'm here to deliver a simple message that has never been a better time to hire, to built, to invest and to grow in the united states. america is open for business and we are competitive once again. >> the white house went back and studied what happened after president obama passed obamacare , neil and one thing that they learned, they feel that then president obama did not sell his signature legislative accomplishment enough so one thing they say they do not want to deal was fall into the same trap which is why you see the president not only going all across the country but going all across the world now to sell this tax plan and he acknowledge a couple times while here in switzerland that he now essentially is a cheerleader. president trump: i think i've been a cheerleader for our country and everybody representing a company or a country has to be a cheerleader

or no matter what you do it's just not going to work and the reason i'm a cheerleader is because it's easy because i love our country and i think we just are doing really well. >> so expect to hear more of that from the president on air force one right now over the atlantic headed back to washington. when he arrives there are a host of issues for him to deal with, neil of course the immigration fight will be front and center come monday the president in fact is tweeting about that aboard air force one and oh, by the way tuesday, he gives the state of the union address. neil? neil: all right but i do want to explain my friend, i always love going to you our feed to our guest on this exciting, it fell apart at the final second, so that was my fault, but again we love you. no worries you're the best thanks. neil: take care in your final report on this show. i'm kidding, okay? you know, the economy with the weak fourth quarter actually

registered a 2.3% growth for all of 2017. could this be impacted by trade? trade did play a big impact on the slower growth and the concern that the president could worsen things, could, could, if he picks up on a trade war theme with china over solar panels, with the south koreas ans especially those countries respond with tariffs or, you know how this goes. should you be worried as an investor for capital hedge fund manager jonathan hoenig after the bell co-host david asman so is this the start of something that should worry you? >> it should, neil it should forget the trade war. the trade war has already been declared neil and its declared against americans. american consumers want to do the unspeakable, you know, buy a washing machine that happened to be made in south korea and save a little money. this unfortunately is where the president falls off the rail and

i know the economy is doing very well but the key to doing well he needs to come out in support of free-trade not of tariffs as he's been not threatening but in just the past week here in america. neil: it's like he's stomping on his own party. he must know the risk that this has. >> let's be very clear. there is no trade war and president trump knows what he's doing. i served as president trump's statewide co-chair when nobody said it would be possible that he could become president and everybody had him all wrong when it comes to the success that he has had and i feel very strongly that president trump knows what he's doing when it comes to trade, the chinese government has subsidized the solar panel industry for a long time and we have been involved in trade deals that have compromised american sovereignty and have not put america first. we have a president whose willing to put america first. china puts china first, japan puts japan first, it's time that the united states put the united states first and that is exactly

what president trump is doing when it cops to trade. president trump supports free-trade. neil: i think you're a great guest but you don't put americans first when you risk having to pay more for a product that could spread beyond those products just my opinion but david what do you think? david: i think you're right. there are american consumers, there are american producers et cetera, and we have already a worrisome problem with inflation inflation is beginning to kick up. when you put tariffs on foreign goods you're increasing prices for american consumers and also they were talking down the dollar this week in davos the president tried to change some of that language but that also if you weaken the dollar that also increases the prices that consumers here in america pay for everything we get from abroad so i agree in terms of the surge in investment in america that's one thing that the statistics showed is very positive. we have an 11.4% surge in investment and that's not even taking into account all of the positive effects from the tax cuts, so we have a potential

of really soaring that's why the market has been soaring because they're viewing the future potential is great but i do worry a little bit about inflation and these hits on the consumer. neil: you know and i do by lena 's point, i think that was just what she said, jonathan but i do also think that, you know, maybe you never have to implement the tariffs or do anything because you'll put the fear of god in those countries that are targeted and others will think twice about doing it and the risk with that of course is it escalates regardless. what do you think? >> we are not headed into a trade war and -- neil: you hope not. i'll let you answer that but i hope you're right. jonathan? >> well i mean, neil there's two ways you deal with people through force or through trade and what's made america successful, what's made america prosperous is that it is a country that trades in a country that relies on trade so when government gets involved i have to laugh when term supporters

favor tariffs because neil, i mean tariffs is picking favorite industries, picking favorite companies, and benefiting them so if you're against tariffs and against statism you have to be for free markets and free-trades and i'll say is how many people in the trump administration seem to somehow feel that if practicing free-trade neil puts us at a disadvantage. neil: they're arguing these countries that do this aren't practicing free-trade but lena, your thoughts? >> the trump administration is very inaccurate and inappropriate and unfair and untrue to say that we love tariffs so that people associated with the trump administration support tariffs. president trump supports free-trade and his actions have supported that claim. there is nothing wrong with supporting free-trade and wanting american companies and american jobs to grow and flourish. president trump said this morning in switzerland he said

that the united states is open for business. we are the country to invest in, to reinvest in, to bring back your people. that is putting us -- david: can i just say one thing. neil: go ahead. david: i want to support lena's position on one point. we had one thing that pulled down the gdp number for 2017 was the surge in imports. we had a 14% surge in imports so it is true that we're a long way away from a trade war. we are importing even more than we were before; however, the language is really worrisome and you combine that with the fact that they're talking down the dollar. those two facts mean that consumers may end up paying a lot more in 2018 than they are now. neil: what do you think jonathan of course consumers who paid the bill and it's not a government thing it's consumers who pay that tariff. >> that's right. neil: with solar panels where do you see it going? >> neil that's what's so

tremendously frustrating is it's not the corporations or china that pays it. american consumers just as you said. i just think there's a real disinformation campaign, maybe trump campaign folks say they don't love tariffs but yet they're passing tariffs. neil: they said they don't like you jonathan that's what they said. >> well they should love trade neil because trade is always win -win. neil: but how can you love trading partners jonathan who screw you right isn't that what the administration says? if they dump this stuff on our shores, even ronald reagan dealt with that when toshiba was doing this with chips in the early 80s right? >> and harley-davidson unfortunately as well, neil but when countries engage in trade manipulation, neil when they pass tariffs when they pass taxes they're screwing their own people and screwing their own citizens. that's who they're hurting so if americans say leave me free, i believe in a free country they should demand free-trade. david: but you also have to

focus jonathan, on what trump has done as posed to what he's saying as opposed to what he said in a campaign trail was very different from what he has been doing at least in the first year of his presidency with regard to trade issues, so people like you who are purities on free-trade and i appreciate your thought on that issue i am generally so too but in a real world trump has not been acting the way he's been talking so just wait a bit and see what actually happens. neil: lena, are you afraid this could escalate? i know you say it's not a trade war and we hope you're right. >> i am not concerned about this escalating. the pundits and the so-called experts have been wrong about donald trump almost every step of the way. neil: this has nothing to do with what people thought about donald trump in the past. just answer my question. are you afraid that this having nothing to do with donald trump that this changes things that he is maybe with the best and

justified intentions starting a trade war, he might regret? >> not at all. i am not at all concerned about that and in fact president trump is a global businessman. he understands interacting and doing business with other countries. he wants the united states to be operating from a position of power and he said this morning in switzerland, he said when the united states has a strong economy, and we do have a strong economy, stronger than its been in decades even generations, when we have a strong economy the whole world benefits. that's a very powerful statement neil: no one would argue that. this is not the way to go about it is all we're saying. jonathan? >> i don't agree with that. neil: you're entitled to that. go ahead. >> quickly what makes a country powerful neil is free. somehow many people now feel that we'd be better off if we engaged in tariffs and micro managing the economy. neil the reason america is

prosperous is because its always had the free economy. now people say well trump doesn't believe in tariffs or this, that's what he's doing neil and we're headed more in that opposite direction. david: but remember jonathan donald trump lived in the real world the non-political real world where the economy really exists and he knows how to deal in trades. he was dealing more multi- national trades than he was national trades towards the end of his business career so he understands the way the world works. i get your concern, believe me i understand it. i do believe that what you said is true about why america is strong because we do believe in free-trade. his talk though has to be separated from his actions and so far, and neil pointed out ron old reagan had a couple of examples of protectionism with regard to chips and motorcycles and everything so it does happen and presidency even in the most free market presidencies where they go over the line at times but it's up to you and me to keep them from doing that too often. neil: guys i want to thank you all for expressing your views strongly, fairly, a little more

after this the dow up 115 points i'm a concrete mason.

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neil: here the media is telling it questioning the fbi on whether it has balanced credibility when it comes to

going after hillary clinton or donald trump heinous but if you think about it what's wrong with doing both? in other words at the time in the pentagon papers when everyone was trusting and believing that everything the pentagon was saying about casualty counts well that same thinking applied then we would have never had the pentagon papers and never been able to question those reports the same if you think about it after 9/11 and whether there was miscommunication among intelligence agencies we all respected and admired but something happened, so what is wrong with looking at the textbook and forth of two key players in the fbi who had serious reservations even before the release of these once- missing texts about donald trump eventually becoming president and some months before he was elected saying even though they didn't think it was likely he ever would be president, russian investigation would be a good insurance policy that's in there. that's out there. now, is that indicative of the behavior of the fbi?

certainly not. just as rigged information coming out of the pentagon was it indicative of all of the work of the people at the pentagon but two different presidents at the time. but this is the time right now. is it fair that the media ignore this sensation as if it's nothing at all and just blindly trust the institution? i have serious reservations with that, media research center research director bill daily fbi investigator. bill as a former fbi guy, what is wrong with questioning some key fbi players who didn't uphold those standards that i assume you did and do. >> yeah, neil i don't think at all it's extremely painful i'll trompe l'oeil you on a personal level from a number of people i know who have been from the fbi it's very painful to see that but putting light on it helps the fact that we can make sure this doesn't happen again. as you well said, this is not

the 35,000 fbi employees who around the world every day protecting us from criminals and terrorists. this is just two people we know communicating and perhaps a couple other people who might have some involvement but it's important to bring it to light and these get out in the public sector of course when they're vetted they're not releasing classified data but when you know these things are happening it's important the doj and fbi director can make sure they write it and going forward we don't have this in this organization or other organizations and have a more empirical investigative approach. neil: well put. you know, purchase i just think fair is fair and it's my concern about whether the james comey probe into hillary clinton and there's something there, there's nothing there, they were right to be a little confused by his back and forth on this and call into question the things we get out of the fbi. i just see this as another flavor of that in reverse so what is wrong with either?

>> well there's nothing wrong with, you know, investigating the investigators. the media themselves and democratic politicians 20 years ago, you know that was the main thing they did with the star investigation of president clinton was, you know, challeng ing ken star, challeng ing his investigation, trying to hold it accountable even more so than trying to hold president clinton accountable for his conduct and then, the white house challenging the special prosecutor wasn't a cause for alarm. it was something the media joined in on and now they're horrified there would be any questions about robert mueller or the people who worked on that investigation. i think you've got to do both at the same time and do it in a calm way but it's not unseemly to ask questions about some of these text messages. it's the proper role of journalists. neil: you know what's going to happen here is everyone gets locked in their political positions, bill, democrats think it's a waste of time for republicans to even dig up these old texts, republicans who say that they're being ignored on

this but what happens is in the agency involved like near and dear fbi, it's stuck in a position of having to try to look at something that might be out there that they can't share, can't read, and can't verify and then, and an institution that should be accountable to congress can't do anything because then it's looking at congress accountable to it. it gets to be a mess. >> yeah, and unfortunately, neil in this particular situation, you know the way it's being politicized and we need to understand that when this investigation took place both with hillary clinton as well as now the current investigation with donald trump it takes on a political spectrum and of course the fbi gets drawn into it and now we have these text messages that seem to suggest so politicization by the people involved. i'd probably suggest to you at the end of the day most of these things and we've seen them over the years not just with the fbi but many other organizations is that it's somewhere between is

that we start to read these conspiracy theories and start to draw all types of conclusions and bringing this altogether to paint it with one brush but it's not that and i think at the end of the day we'll find out that in fact it was just a small group if not two people or a couple people who had these particular views but as i said before this is certainly not speak to the fbi as it is today around the world doing all that it has to do and i have a great confidence in all of the other investigative work that if you come out of the fbi even though some people like it tainted and painted with the same view as they're seeing from these texts. neil: rich what i worry about is the media sometimes has interest in only reporting one set of facts. i'd say we have a lot of time the business networks are on 24 hours, i think we have time to get into it all. >> there is time to get it all and again to think about the news judgment, imagine if these same text messages were coming out but the names were reversed and these two people were calling hillary clinton a moron

or idiot and horrified at the idea she would be elected and go easy on donald trump because he might be our boss some day. i think the hotter heads of the media would be in full outrage over the idea this is going on and they would be leading the charge to investigate the fbi not saying it was a terrible thing to do, so it really is the partisanship of the journalists deciding what's investigated and what's not. neil: we can only hope fox wouldn't be leading with it. guys thank you both very very much. again, fair balance transparency folks if it matters if our institutions matter then questioning them, questioning potential bias, questioning whether they're if to snuff, it worked in the case of the pentagon papers and we got details on how a lot of us were with the figures we got on the vietnam war and trying to get intelligence agencies all on the same page after all of the disruptions and lack of communication that led to 9/11 there's something to be learned

having the guts to say that we've got to look at you very closely. more after this. hi sweetie.

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and it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. neil: all right, apple's home pod speaker or whatever it can talk it's out there now you can order it but the question is why would you? because a lot of people are saying it's late to a party it's more expensive than some of the other products already at the party we've got deirdre boulton. i'm not quite understanding the pod. >> the answer we'll cut to the chase is the apple halo effect if you already subscribed to apple music this is essentially why you're going to pay $350 for an apple home pod over and i

have the list here amazon echo is about a hundred and google home is about 130 so apple is really selling this as a phenomenal speaker so it's really sort of for the music buffs, people who might be interested in sonos speakers for example,, people who care about woofers and tweeters. neil: but, you know, jim, i'm just wondering what the big fuss is here, especially coming at a time when people are looking at its latest iphone, maybe it's not living up to sales expectations we won't get an official read on that maybe for a while but as investors should they be worried? >> look this is a product that's been out for more than two years already from amazon. its already got version 2.0 out there that's a lot cheaper. now this apple ecosystem argument i don't really get that either. i've got the amazon alexa in my

house and i play my apple music library over it all the time so i'm not going to go out and buy a whole new speaker at three times the cost because it's a slightly better speaker. you can buy good speakers very very cheaply these days so in terms of what apple is going to look at her microsoft surface tablet is a good example. when they came out everybody said it's late to the game but they made changes and now it's pretty well reviewed. neil: it's a very good point. you're right that was given up. >> depending on what features they add that other items like this don't have, maybe they can make this work but these things are very now and someone has it sitting on their night stand they won't add another one. neil: deirdre the irony would be if it was one-up by alexa it started all of this as siri. >> it certainly did. siri was groundbreaking not in new york city you see people walking down the street with

their speaker on speaker phone asking siri like whatever conversation or argue p they're having or what year did washington cross the delaware. i actually think it's typical for the apple playbook. yes it's more expensive and yes it's late to the party but they're really focused on quality almost like if you're not a true music lover unless you buy this apple homepod. i think that's what the they're banking on so we'll see if it works to your point after the fantastically expensive iphone 10 we'll see if they can pull it off with the speaker but it's a bet on quality of sound and you hack an apple addict. that's really simple. neil: very quickly i'm sorry, markets up over 20 points the dow well into record territory, yet again. do you ever worry about this somewhat do you watch for? well we all worry when you haven't had a 3% correction for the second longest streak in history yeah you're worried but the advanced decline numbers are very strong high yield spreads,

we're not seeing all of the tradition traditional warning signs of a market top and not an inverted yield curve either so interest rates remain fairly low moving up very gradually and inflation is low, earnings are revenues, so we're seeing very very strong numbers from corporations and that's what stocks are, they're corporations so we look healthy right now. neil: thank you guys very very much. of course when he speaks about decline ratio number moving up versus a number moving down and a heck of a lot more moving up than down. 119 point gain in the dow we'll have more after this.

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president trump: people have a lot more money in their paycheck we really thought february 1 it was going to kick in and everybody was well we haven't even gotten there yet and its kicked in and its had an incredible impact on the stock

market and the stock prices. neil: i love the q & a with this guy, afterwards. tell us what's going on. >> the guy from the head of the world -- neil: yes he's a very smart guy but the whole thing. >> i trolled him once on twitter neil: sure who doesn't, well stocks, you know the same thing the president was talking about in davos he was talking up and probably continues to talk up on air force one as he makes his way back here. charlie gasparino, elizabeth macdonald, charlie brady, charlie beginning with you what do you make what the president is saying, we've got a great story to tell, invest here be part of what's going on here, it's not america first but first you should invest in america. >> yeah, i think that's a strong policy and one that works. i'm not really fond of his trade protectionism and the confusion -- neil: you should hear what he says z about you.

>> the confusion over the dollar this week is not helpful and it is drowning out the bigger story neil: but other administrations have fallen prey to that. liz: yeah they have that will influence economic behavior when the dollar is like a ruler or a yardstick you're not supposed to do that to manipulate the dollar to create economic risk. that's the problem but i thought the president's speech was terrific today and he was on point and i come from a long line of reagan democrats and i think that this policy, i don't think so it's a secret, but so i think it would sound like any old time democrat saying those same policies that's how he sounded to me. >> i come from a line of obama democrats and i just want to say approaching this like i'm a man from mars just coming down here trump is getting a very bad rap. a horrible rap. neil: from who?

from everybody. neil: from me? not from you guys. okay? but i mean, it is just nuts. the economy has done very well and it's deregulations have been a major part of it this tax cut is working out a lot better than i thought it would initially. charlie: on this show we delineate between his policies which we say is good and because it's obviously it's good, and his temperament. i mean, think about what he did today and this just shows you how he, you don't know if you could trust him and today he came out this new york times story about him thinking about firing mueller is obviously accurate. he comes out and says it's fake news. he lies about the size of his, um, his campaign rallies or whatever. neil: i thought you were going somewhere else. charlie: but a whole bunch of other stuff but that's the self- defeating part of donald trump. >> it's how he lies. he does it in such an aggressive

fashion. no, i never wanted to fire mueller. well, you know, you did. yes and if you did, if he didn't want to fire him after he hired all those democrats, listen -- liz: right but he can't personal ly fire mueller. hang on he would have to do it through the attorney general. yes, but liz hang on a second. >> why lie about it? >> he would not be a normal human being if the special prosecutor is appointed in may, in june hires a whole bunch of democrats if he didn't at least think about firing him. neil: i read the times story. calm down. but he could have been batting it around and nothing came of it because mueller is still there i don't know what happened but you follow the markets and everything else what's remarkable to me and makes sense of it is they run up through this they run up the mueller investigation and well yeah we want to talk to the president and the president wants to talk to us, they run up through text

memos and allegations, what's going on? >> look at the dow. today you'll see it's 99th record close since election day. neil: is that right? >> yeah don't forget that night paul krugman said the market would never recover from that knee-jerk sell off we saw overnight in the stock index futures but the three pillars are holding up this market with strong earnings, about a quarter of the companies in the s & p reported right now more than 80% are beating earnings and revenue estimates. you've got the effective tax cuts. and guidance for 2018 is strong. liz: and hang on a second 21 trillion in central bank money printing around the world is chasing those returns. neil: but what's really driving it? liz: i think it's central bank money printing. charlie: it's starting to drive it and i think stocks should go up bass you take the corporate tax rate down from 35 to 21. liz: you're absolutely right charlie. charlie: the one thing that worries me is the retail money is plowing into the markets and it's usually if you look at

history usually when the retail gets in it's usually towards -- neil: the individual investors. >> the end can be 18 months from now. neil: can you let us know now so we can plan? >> [laughter] >> i would say neil may 15 next year. right around there, you know give or take. charlie you're right about that though -- >> the other thing to worry about though. liz: it's really when interest rates go up and inflation takes off. neil: they have been ticking up. charlie: ticking. >> neil one thing to worry about a little bit. neil: you seem very agitated. >> like i said i woke up with this epiphany that trump is getting a bad rap. it's almost impossible to feel sympathy for a guy like trump. liz: stay on that if you took away his tweets and took away him stepping on his message wow where would he be at in the approval ratings? neil: you're right about that. charlie normal human being.

>> [laughter] >> the last thing we should do and i don't want anyone to take this the wrong way. in no way should we sympathize with russia, no way but i think he came in with a plan to try and get putin away from china. china, and i know you'll make fun of me charlie. charlie: i'm not. >> china is the real en enemy and listen to steve bannon. whatever you think about steve bannon. neil: he loves me i don't know where you're going. >> i'll tell you where you're going. neil: can you say it in 10 seconds? >> he said china's a mortal enemy to the united states. and we pulled the rug out from them. charlie: this makes no sense to me because i've been reading up on that stormy daniel stuff why she hit him with forbes rather than fortune. liz: do you think the millennial s care about that story? neil: i'm wondering and you have these numbers than anyone i know but i look at them and i'm always so impressed, not

impressed like i react to it but stunned at how the markets have this life of their own. i don't know what really really, the regulation that charlie alluded to and i know the tax cut thing what's driving that? >> well a lot of it's money coming in as charlie said new money coming in and also, you know we've talked about this before but we had years of zero interest rates driving growth which wasn't really growth. now we finally have the economy picking up. charlie: we have decent to good to really good. liz: because of trump and the republicans. >> neil the market is cold blood ed. neil: i'd say the same thing. >> it's not going to upset earnings. the market is going up no matter what it is. neil: all right in the meantime, see we finished in time, in the meantime new jersey voters, new jersey investors pay attention. your new governor is still going after the richer among you.

could that especially if it happens at a few other high tax states derail all of this after this. building a website in under an hour is easy with gocentral... ...from godaddy! in fact, 68% of people who have built their... ...website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. build a better website - in under an hour. with gocentral from godaddy.

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jersey, connecticut, high tax states are lawyering up to sue the government over the tax plan that is already the law of the land took effect january 1 while the individuals start seeing tax cuts presumably in checks that will be issued next month. a lot of companies seizing on this to share the wealth. we've not new jersey's new democratic governor phil murphy promising that he is still going to go through with the tax on millionaires en his state. he could be facing some opposition from his own democratic state senate president. >> is he advocating what he advocate on this the millionaire s tax? >> well, he's talking about that right now, but ever since things happened in washington, you know i basically put a pause on moving forward right now with the millionaires tax and something i actually voted for several times but neil things have to change in new jersey and i mean, they have to change in a big way. we're going to look at everything and pretty much have to blow the system up and start

over. neil: all right, now keep in mind new jersey's one of eight states where the democrats have the run of the table in other words they can vote both branch es of legislative government and the read on all of this from former new jersey republican governor. thanks for taking the time. what do you make of this it seem s to be a little battle going on in the family business here. you have a state senate president whose looking at this and saying, you know, this is not the environment to increase taxes on anyone, even the rich in our garden state. what do you say? >> well first of all i think he's right. we are the most highly taxed state in the nation as far as property tax and what the new tax law has done is not going to make things easier and if you raise the millionaire tax those are exactly the people who can move and unfortunately, most of them are the ceo's of businesses that they've brought to the state because they love the quality of living there and they wanted to live there and they didn't want to have to commute

very far. they're going to take some of those jobs with them as well. neil: do you ever worry though at i know the hope is from republicans, governor, that these high tax states change their ways, that all of a sudden they look at their spending and why there's such high tax states to begin with. i don't think that's going to happen but what do you think? >> well i think it's very hard because in new jersey the average property tax is over 8,000 dollars. when you know your deduction now from the federal taxes that combined with your income that's going to make it very hard for people to stay in the state, but the state doesn't control the property tax. that's determined at the local level. that's about school spending. that's about municipal services so it makes it very hard for the state to come in and say we're going to fix this problem because the only way you can really do that is by providing more money to the municipalities to counties so they don't have to spend money. neil: but that's just part of it governor because the states themselves like new jersey, new

york, connecticut, illinois, california, they have high state taxes to begin with, so i'm just wondering where this goes because some of them are trying to get clever with this and new york there's a measure on the table to move that to payroll tax, so the people want to write up their payroll tax and they still can and they can try that. others are saying make it a charitable contribution, i don't know what's legal or sound or right but i don't see any of it happening but what do you think? >> well what we really have is a spending problem. its never been really about an income problem in any of our states. we saw that when i was governor and i reduced the income taxes by 30%. we were able to when i left we had the biggest surplus that we had had up to that point and our pensions at that point were each over 100% funded and we had a large rainy day fund as well and that came after we had cut taxes for people. you have to be careful you have

to balance that. you have to balance your spending. neil: are you surprised that the number of companies, governor, doing what they're doing, sharing the loop, the wealth, whatever you want to call it, with workers, in cases of some utilities, with customers, that it's more than thought? >> well i think it's great. it's great for the people who work for them and it's great for the customers but i'm afraid it's only one-time. i doubt you're going to see there's a continuous thing and we would hope it would be but i'm skeptical. neil: all right we'll watch closely governor thanks for taking the time. christine todd whitman, big changes in new jersey with the democratic legislature but signs right now that it isn't always going to be everyone on the same page. we'll have more after this. you know, i used to be good at this. then you turn 40 and everything goes. tell me about it.

you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today with td ameritrade. . . . .

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♪ neil: all right. the dow well into record territory. larry summers, the former treasury secretary on wires speaking on cnbc which he talked about these tax reform bonuses, whatever they're calling them, as a gimmick. again this follows on heels of nancy pelosi and others saying that 1000 bucks, chump change, crumbs, whatever. you know, whatever your point of view careful how you frame it, to folks getting 1000 bucks, 2500 bucks 5500 bucks in case of

chrysler fiat. that is real money. might be a rounding error to some of you, might be a gimmick to some of you, but a gimmick they take to the stores and spend long before they see anything in their own paychecks. be careful being so condescending. trish regan, the dow is up about 130 points here, i think this is the battle royale on the left and right, trish. they either amount to something or they're nothing at all but i think most people would look at that and those bonuses, whatever the motivation, say, yeah, i like it. trish: that is a lot of money. you can't call it corrupts as nancy pelosi. neil: i can buy a lot of hickory farms cheese baskets with that. trish: hey, neil. thank you so much. president trump on his backpack to washington delivering a powerful america first on the