package. then came the federal reserve pumping trillions of dollars into the economy. then came a market selloff. i think there is some frustration that we didn't get the rescue package there is also some negative news on apple which has driven the price of apple's stock way, way down. it is around $220 a share. i tell a lie. it is down to 214 right now. apple is the premier american company. no longer worth a trillion dollars, really taking it on the chin along with the rest of the country and the market. my time's up. neil, it its yours. neil: stuart, thank you, very, very much. just in case you're counting here, we're back to levels before the election of donald trump. not just before the inauguration of donald trump but before all the gains that have been realized since he was first elected to the presidency have been wiped out. we're in and out of these areas right now. but a lot of stocks gone along for the ride, premier tech names

and global names are all taking it on the chin. the market itself is down close to 40% from highs reached a little more than a month ago. and this is feeding on itself. now, the excuse de jure seems to be the fact that the senate could not cobble together a rescue package late last night. 2 trillion-dollar package, democrats say was tilted too much towards businesses. now they're scrambling again to come up with something that might be more mutually acceptable. questions whether it is too little too late. if you consider the 3 1/2 to $4 trillion that the federal reserve has provided through everything from cutting interest rates down to essentially zero to buying mortgage-backed securities, buying corporate paper, buying anything that they can get their who little hands on to get the cash in the system, that is what it is all about, get cash in the system so people don't feel they're frozen out, or there is no money available, you hear a lot about this quest for liquidity. liquidity, my friend is cash.

making sure it is readily available for everyone, from biggest companies to smallest individuals. the fed has not failed at that approach. it is doing everything it scan to help people out. here is the conundrum. it is not enough. whatever trillions the fed pours in and government pours in to help them, it is wiped out in market losses eclipsing $8 trillion from the highs. there you to. you're pouring everybody you can into this, losing out the other end what is happening with corner of wall and broad, and markets across the globe. adding insult to virus injury, cases building exponentially around the globe, better than 350,000, a huge jump in new york. a huge jump in new jersey. we're going to get to that in just a second. now on to the floor of the united states senate where mitch mcconnell is trying to get things back on track on that

stimulus bill. >> democrats and republicans sat down together. we crafted this version of the proposal together. this compromise package would push tens of billions of dollars to hospitals and health care providers. it would send direct checks to millions of american households, direct checks. it would massively expand unemployment insurance in this crisis. it would stablize industries to prevent mass layoffs, and crucially, it would deliver historic relief to small businesses to help main street employees from being totally crushed, crushed, by this pandemic. but yesterday, when the time came to vote on these urgent measures our democratic colleagues chose to block it. so why are the american people still waiting? it is a good question to ask?

i hear the markets are not doing well today. they would like to ask the question of us, why not move? why are democrats filibustering the bipartisan bill they helped write? appropriate question to ask this morning as the country waits on us. so let me give the american people a taste of the outstanding issues we woke up to this morning. here are some of the items on the democratic wish-list over which they choose, over which they choose to block this legislation last night. tax credits for solar energy and wind energy. provisions that force employers to give special new treatment to big labor. and listen to this, new emission standards for the airlines.

are you kidding me? this is the moment to debate new regulations that have nothing whatsoever to do with this crisis? that is what they're up to over there. american people need to know it. democrats won't let us fund hospitals or save small businesses unless they get to dust off the "green new deal". i'd like to see senate democrats tell new york city doctors and nurses, who are literally overrun as we speak, that they're filibustering hospital funding and more masks because they want to argue with the airlines over their carbon footprint? i'd like to see senate democrats tell small business employees in their states who are literally being laid off every day, that they're filibustering relief

that will keep people on. payroll because democrat special interest friend want to squeeze employ erstwhile they're vulnerable. squeeze these employ erstwhile they're vulnerable. i like senate democrats full h tell american seniors seen retirement savings melt away as the markets track towards the worst month since 1931. that they're continuing to hold up emergency measures over tax credits for solar panels. tax credits for solar panels. even with the federal reserve announcing even further extraordinary steps today the markets are tanking once again as i said because this body can't get its act together. the only reason it can't get its act together is right over here on the other side of the aisle. so these are just a few of the

completely non-germane wish-list items that they're rallying behind preventing us from getting this emergency relief to the american people right now. 11th hour demands democrats decided are more important than american paychecks and the personal safety of doctors and nurses. so remember when one of speaker pelosi's top lieutenants in the house said just a few days ago, this is a direct quote, this is a tremendous opportunity to restrict things to fit our vision. to fit our vision. that was the democratic whip in the house just laying it out there. remind me of the definition when a washington politician tells you what he really means. we heard something similar here

on the senate floor last night, just last night, here is one of our democratic colleagues, quote, how many times are we going to get a shot at a one trillion dollar plus program right here on the floor last night? i don't know how many trillion plus packages we're going to have. in other words, let's don't waste this opportunity to take full advantage and get our whole wish-list done. they ought to be embarrassed, mr. president. in fact i have heard from some of them who are embarrassed. talking like this is some juicy political opportunity. this is not a juicy political opportunity. this is a national emergency. we had days of productive bipartisan talks to get to this point. senate democrats senate down with senate republicans negotiated furiously to get to this point. the bill now contain as huge

number of changes that our democratic colleagues requested including major changes. we were this close, this close. then yesterday morning speaker of the house flew back from san francisco and suddenly the senate serious bipartisan process turned into this left-wing episode of supermarket sweep. unrelated issues left and right. i'll tell you what will really lower our carbon footprint, mr. president. if the entire economy continues to crumble with hundreds of thousands more americans laid off because senate democrats won't let us act that will lower our carbon footprint all right. every single american outside of washington knows this is no time for this nonsense. a surgeon in fresno, california,

says, quote, we're at war with no ammo. we are at war with no ammo. that's a surgeon in fresno. and intensive care nurse in new york city says, if we don't get the property equipment soon, we are going to get sick. democrats are filibustering more masks and aid for hospitals? every day more americans wake up to the news that their jobs are gone! their jobs are gone! democrats are filibustering programs to keep people on the payroll? and they're filibustering a huge expansion of unemployment insurance which they themselves negotiated and put into the bill. hundreds of dollars extra per week for laid off workers on top

of existing unemployment benefits. and democrats are blocking it? this has got to stop! and today is the day it has to stop. the country is out of time. out of time. when the democratic house passed their phase two bill, even though senate republicans would have written it very differently, we sped it through the senate and passed it quickly, without even amending it. i told my colleagues to gag and vote for it for the sake of building bipartisan momentum. because republicans understand that a national crisis calls for urgency and it calls for bipartisanship. it is time for that good faith to be reciprocated. it is time for democrats to stop

playing politics and step up to the plate. the small businesses in their own states deserve it. their own states emergency room doctors deserve it. their own constituents who have lost their jobs deserve it. and my home state of kentucky the governor effectively paused commerce across the state. and our unemployment system crashed due to demand. kentuckians need help now and we aren't alone. i have heard pleas from health care workers in new york and seattle. i have listen to the the small business owners crying out in brooklyn and chicago. why does only one side understand that this is urgent?

why are these hard-hit cities, our own senators, are happy, really to keep this slow walking going on indefinitely? that really, something these folks on the other side are comfortable with, indefinitely slow walking all of this? how can half the senate not rise to the occasion? at a time when everybody else in the country is pulling together they're pulling us apart. the examples are all over the country, that we ought to look to. health care heroes to neighborhood volunteers, to national industries, everybody is unifying and pitching in. what about here in the senate?

time to get with the program. it is time to pass historic relief. that we have built together. country doesn't have time for these political games. they need progress. so we're going to vote in just a few minutes and i assure you, mr. president, the american people will be watching. neil: that sounds like mitch mcconnell is teeing up the very same measure that was failed to get enough democratic votes, and trying to put them on the spot again. we're waiting to hear from chuck schumer but that stimulus measure you heard a lot about

didn't go very far in voting last night in the u.s. senate. it provided upwards of $3,000 for families and also focused on helping businesses get through the next 90 to 120 days. there is no clear price tag on that because that's a moving target. it also provided up to $4 trillion, that is not cash up front, but a credit line up front for the federal reserve to tap should it need it, to provide liquidity to banks. something is kind of arcane but essentially cash. so we're looking now to get a gauge on how democrats are going to respond to this new pressure on the part of mitch mcconnell. chuck schumer. >> treasury, the president's congressional liaison, getting things done. we democrats are trying to get things done, not making partisan speech after partisan speech. now in the past 24 hours we got

word that a member of this chamber, senator paul, has tested positive for coronavirus. and the husband of another member, senator klobuchar, also tested positive. he is in the hospital. i want to let them know, both of them, that the senate is thinking of them, praying for their speedy recovery, as we are for tens of thousands of american families who are confronting the same situation right now. whether you're afraid for a sick family member, an older relative in the hospital, or a struggling without work, income, or the knowledge of when your isolation might end, our thoughts are with you right now. these are trying times for all of us but the scourge of this

disease will pass, the american people, as always will prevail. as number of confirmed covid-19 cases in the united states eclipses 35,000, the senate continues to negotiate what will likely be the largest emergency funding bill in american history. as i have mentioned we have had almost continuous discussions with secretary mnuchin. he left my office at about 12:15 last night. he was there at about 9:00 this morning. the white house congressional liaison, eric you land has been in and out of the office as well. we're close to reaching a deal, very close. our goal is to reach a deal today and we're hopeful, even confident that we will meet that goal. we have been working on a few outstanding issues that are no surprise to everyone, from the very beginning democrats have

insisted on a marshall plan for our medical system. more money for hospitals, community health centers, nursing homes, and urgent medical supplies like gloves and masks, icu beds, testing kits, ventilators to and ppe. since our negotiations the numbers have gone up dramatically because the hospitals our health care workers, need the help. we're fighting hard and making progress for funding for state and local governments. they're propping up local health care networks virtually on their own. their revenues are dramatically declining. many towns and villages across america, smaller ones in particular might be going broke pretty soon if we do nothing. if we can help the big corporations, we can help our local towns and villages and the taxpayers they represent. on unemployment insurance, the bill has moved in the direction we've outlined.

the original bill had unexpanded employment benefits. lasts only three months. we need to make it longer, because the dislocation caused by this crisis will not be over in 90 days and people who lose their jobs need help. but it says to every american who loses his or her job, the democratic plan that is now in the bill, that you will get your full pay from the federal government, you can be furloughed by your employer. that means you will keep your benefits, health and otherwise, and, it means that you will be able to come back and business you had to leave, can reassemble itself quickly after god willing this crisis ends. the bill still includes something that most americans don't want to see, large corporate bailouts with almost no strings attached. maybe the majority leader thinks it is unfair to ask protections for workers and labor to companies that are getting

hundreds of billions of dollars. we think it is very fair to ask for those. those are not extraneous issues. that is a wish-list for workers. nobody else. and so we are looking for protection. we're looking for oversight. if this federal government is making a big loan to someone, to a big company, we ought to know it and know the details immediately. the bill that was put on the floor by the republican leader said no one would know a thing about those loans for six months at least. and in those things, in those so-called bailouts, we need to protect workers. the workers those industries employ. we've been guided by one plan, workers first. that's the name of our proposal. the bill needs to reflect that priority. now we're working on all these items in good faith as we speak,

and we hope and expect to conclude negotiations today. this vote in the senate is no surprise. it is about, it is to take a merely repeat of the vote that failed last night. leader mcconnell continues to set arbitrary vote deadlines when the matter of real importance is the status of the bipartisan negotiations. so let me be clear, the upcoming procedural votes are essentially irrelevant. the negotiations continue no more than 30 feet away from the floor of the senate in our offices, where the real progress is taking place. once we have an agreement, that everyone can get behind, we're prepared to speed up consideration of that agreement on the floor. so i'm going to get back to negotiations. we all know time is of the essence. the country is facing the twin crises in our health care system

and in our economy. we have an obligation to get the details right. get them done quickly. that doesn't mean blindly accepting a republican only bill. that was the bill we were given. a lot of things we didn't even know about, saturday. that means working to make this bill better, better for our small businesses, better for our working families, better for our health care system. democrats, democrats will not stop working with our republican counterparts until we get the job done. i will continue to update the senate on the progress of our negotiations. and, note the absence of a quorum. >> the clerk will call the roll. >> senator from maine. >> mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that proceedings under -- neil: we're monitoring this, but this is happening concurrently.

political infighting whether you're on the left and the right, they're just arguing over whether this is tipping to businesses hands. that is what democrats are saying about the measure. that republicans came up with. republicans countering they're throwing in goodies, dem crass of their own. this childish argument goes back and forth, keep in mind, the w.h.o. director who just said the following, now that we have over 350,000 global cases of the coronavirus. i'm quoting here. it took 67 days from the first reported case to reach 100,000 cases. it took 11 days for the second 100,000 cases. just four-days for the third 100,000 cases. people are getting sick here. people are dying here. and not only here.

470,000 in the united states, startling jump in the number of cases in the united states to 35,000. they're expo exponentially going up at a rate every day of 40% in new york. in excess of 60%, and this back and forth continues. and this concern that a lot of people have to stay home, grows. we have close to a dozen states with stay at home initiatives in place, essentially comprising of about half of all americans, they include, massachusetts, new york, new jersey, california, delaware, washington state, wisconsin, michigan, louisiana, ohio. we're told that we're going to hear from half a dozen more states by the end of the day. you have whole streets, once the busiest ever, now essentially ghost towns. no matter where you go, it is slow, it is invisible. there is nobody there.

as one analyst put it, as if a bomb went off and only things remaining are the buildings. it exceeds and accelerates. all of this at a time politicians are pointing fingers. again it is not a right or left argument. it is a wrong phenomenon. this is the kind of thing that rattles wall street. not so much who's right but what is going on with this virus that is wrong, very, very wrong. markets slide on that, continue to swoon on that, on concerns this is not stopping. in fact the markets are now at or about the level they were, not when donald trump was inaugurated. we already sunk through that but about what it was at when he was elected president. and now he is president. and at the white house is blake burman. hey, blake. reporter: virtual ghost town in washington, d.c., and surrounding states here, maryland, virginia as well. here in washington you saw the scenes playing out fast and furious on the senate floor a

little while ago as the politics of all of this is still front and center as we just witnessed. mitch mcconnell, essentially saying, the american people are going to be watching this upcoming vote, democratic no vote to stop this nearly two trillion dollar stimulus package. chuck schumer then taking to the senate floor after him saying that vote is quote, irrelevant because the real action is taking place behind closed doors and schumer trying to reassure, when all is said and done there will be a bill to put forth that democrats and republicans will be able to vote on, he believes, he is hopeful at some point later today. earlier this morning the treasury secretary steve mnuchin spoke with maria bartiromo about this package he says is approaching nearly two trillion dollars and the focus of the treasury secretary at this point are the loans to small businesses. that is where the attention should be paid because it will keep people employed or at

least, keep people who work for many of these small businesses receiving checks. here was treasury secretary talking to maria. >> for any small business, 500 people or less, most of these businesses have been shut down at no fault of their own. they are going to be able to take an sba loan, that will give them two months ever payroll and some overhead and, if they hire the workers back or they keep their workers hired, the government will forgive that loan. pete: tweet from over the weekend, neil, has many wondering what the president might do with the 15-day guidance period essentially where we are now. we're halfway through it. at the end of the month is when the 15 days is up. the president tweeted quote, we cannot let the cure be worst than the problem itself. at the end of a 15-day period we will make a decision as to which way we want to go.

just a little while ago, president's top economic advisor larry kudlow, had this to say regarding that tweet. >> the president is right, the cure can't be worse than the disease. we'll have to make some difficult tradeoffs. i'm not disposed, i don't want to get ahead of the story. i spoke to the president about this subject late last evening so we'll be looking at number of different things. reporter: we're going to have to make difficult tradeoffs you heard, at some point down the line, larry kudlow. before us here in washington, the negotiations are taking place up on capitol hill. neil, you're right, millions of americans across the country saying essentially why? just get it done and get it done now. part of the argument was making, chuck schumer tried to put reassurance saying this will get done. we'll see if actions are matching the words at some point later today. neil? neil: yeah. so far they are not, but you know, blake, it is interesting, this move on the part of the

president hinting he didn't want a cure worse than the disease. the disease is pretty bad. so there is very little risk of cure doing that but is he intimating that he will dial things back at the end of 15 days? >> that is the question and the president repeatedly said when asked about this, there is 15-day guidance. he is going to make a decision on day 14. we're on day seven into this. 15-day guidance put into place last monday. however you want to calculate it, seven, eight days in. they're over at white house going to let the thing play out at least for the next handful of days, so it appears at least what they're saying publicly at this point. you heard larry kudlow back up the president's tweet, suggesting that maybe, just maybe, there could be some bold actions coming at the end of this 15-day guidance. we'll have to see, neil, over coming week or so what the president might say at 5:30,

6:00, when he steps into the briefing room at the coronavirus task force meeting. neil: blake, i haven't had a chance to talk to you, on this issue after division or seems to be division among some of the president's top advisors, aside reining the president in optimistic view of this virus here. comes to mind, enat this mating hopes the president is right, a lot of this. we're sending wrong message. pairing that with whether the president could change his approach, perhaps dial back the approach in another few days, how is that being received within the white house? reporter: well, you know, dr. fauci is one of those, there was an interesting interview with him, science magazine i believe over the weekend he said essentially he is putting information before the president and the president is making his comments. that is a lot of us see after

that. the president clearly, much more optimistic or i shouldn't say much more optimistic, optimistic that a cure or at least these therapies are going to be coming in the near term. you know when he was pressed about that, repeatedly a couple days ago, he said look, i'm just, i think this is going to work. some of the questions might be,ing a as youd he is he too overly optimistic? fauci has been saying a vaccine is not until 12 to 18 months away. there is question whether hydroxychloroquine could potentially provide relief in the near term. even then that might be weeks, into months down the line. there is soar of this, this, giverren this get of the president putting an optimistic tone going forward whether or not it is realistic tone, at the end of the day, neil, cdc is going to provide guidance. the states need to make their

own statewide decisions as we're seen. president of the united states making executive actions panned executive decisions we have also seen for the last week, for now, halfway in, they will let this play out. the real question as what we might be saying one week from today. neil: you know you're right about that. blake blake burman, thank you very much. , in this vacuum, wall street sells own unknown and not really resolved and asks questions. it is asking questions for a long, long time. it is more selling for a long, long time. with this downdraft today, of the dow is off close to 38, 39% from its highs reached about a month ago, very similar for the s&p 500. very similar for the nasdaq. you have apple, deep, deep, deep, deep into bear market zare territory in and out of the trillion dollar market cap that was heralded not more than what, three weeks ago. that is sort of thing that sort of unnerves markets here, they

just want to make sure everyone is on the same page or at least they're kumbayaing together and on the surface does not appear to be going right now in washington a lot of companies, taking things into their own hands. chase is for example, extending, forgiving a lot of its members, they don't have to pay the bills right away. they can pace it out over a number of weeks and months. jetblue trying to reduce more flights, but trying to help those who might be stranded. united responding to flights that may be stranded getting them out of there, before it taking actions. this is soar of corporate america taking things in their own hands to get necessary control under this. much more are doing things aggressively. cvs is hiring in excess of

50,000 workers to address the coronavirus demand. yet in all of that, we still have big sell signals going on here. jackie deangelis with the latest. jackie. reporter: good afternoon, neil, the you can see the dow trading down 639. not at session lows but a rough day still on the markets. some things to think about. the fed backstopping the market, essentially saying it will continue these operations indefinitely in a limited way to make sure that liquidity you mentioned is there in the markets. so what i step book and look at this from 10,000 feet. i think back to the financial crisis. the fed stepped in in that way. you needed tarp passed as well. that is what wall street is waiting for here, to blake's point, it wants the stimulus package. this time it is not just about the banks, keeping that system moving. it is so pervasive across so many different industries. industries that will need help. industries we want to prevent from going bankrupt. i remind you in the case of

tarp, the banks paid back that money that would be the objective here, just to keep the ball rolling while we're shutting the economy down right now to stem the pandemic from spreading forward. there is a couple of things out there though giving me a little confidence. i look at the 10-year note right now. if all of sudden we saw a spike in the 10-year treasury, which meant folks were selling treasury and selling stocks, hoarding cash it, would be a little concerning. but i heard several fund managers showing way the yield is trading people are buying our treasury, they think it is the safest place to be. the other thing i was listen to governor cuomo before. he has had a calm, steady hand, new york is one of the hardest hit places the financial capital of the country, the epicenter where we're experiencing a lot of pain. he expressed some caution. i want you to hear what he has to say. >> we have 53,000. we may need 110. we have 3,000 icu beds. we may need between 18 and

37,000. that is my greatest concern because that is where we need ventilators. reporter: that is what wall street is worrying about. still how far the pandemic can spread. how many people will be hurt by it. how the health care system is going to deal with it. so there is still a lot of unknownses, neil. that is why the market is trading down. another thing i might add, today is the first day new york stock exchange is closed. we're full-on electronic trading. traders are saying, human element is very important. this is very fast trade. that is potentially slippery. that could be dangerous. there is volatility we are inin for. we were off more than 30% during the financial crisis. we're going lower than that. a lot of investors are burkeling up and they're prepared for a bumpy ride until we have more information. neil: all right. jackie, thank you very much. jackie deangelis, following things very, very closely at the

corner of wall and broad. this is that day on the new york stock exchange where they don't have floor traders. if you have ever been on the floor of the new york stock exchange. they are certainly iconic. not numbers like they used to be where they would crowd them in like a subway station. now all computers are doing this. what the computers are doing is clicking sell signals. it is what it is. you talk about bear markets, we're down 20% from our highs. the speed which this has taken on some steam. it is the fastest drop of 30% we've seen, even dating back to the depression. so it is a reminder whether you find that akin to that, justified by what's happening now with this global freeze, essentially in human activity, whether that is a little bit too much but it is the fast swoon in stocks in a bear market than any other crisis at anytime.

the speed, a lot of bulls are out there. they're still out there picking through ashes, that sort of thing. they cite that as example, all right, already, cool it, cool it. who wants to be the brave trader who dives in, says, all right. i think this is the moment. then end up catching a knife still falling further. no way to handicap this. this is just a reminder how cooler heads yet to prevail. that is something you wait for in situations like this. it all comes back to the coronavirus. we talk about economic stimulus around this, whether it is going to do any good. i always argued on the show, with some of the smartest mind i know, no matter trillions promised by the federal reserve, the trillions that could be coming out of washington, if democrats and republicans ever get their act together, out of this stimulus measure, we have seen that wiped away in market values that have gone away. so the yes then becomes, what could turn that around? more often than not, anytime, anytime we get good news on this virus, reports that show it is

slowing its momentum in places like china where it has, or the number of deaths, for example, in italy has declined, unfortunately it is not, markets trade on that in a weird, gruesome way, the better news on virus front, not necessarily coming up with a vaccine, cure for symptoms, all sorts of companies are doing that, we'll highlight them in the next hour 1/2 or so, the fact of the matter we need to see the progress of the disease itself, or stepping up case diagnoses so you don't have to wait days and days before you have it or people in authorities know what they're dealing with, when they're trying to attack it. there is a company really pursuing this, something well-known for, supercomputers. ibm is a master in this business. they thought they used that technology to more rapidly coalesce all this data together, quickly as possible.

then be able to attack it head on with us, with our data, with kind of material stuff the u.s. has inherent edge. ibm a key player in that. dario gill, ibm research director with us right now. dario, how does this work, using your fanciest, most amazing computers coupling them all together, to what end? >> yeah. thank you, neil. so let me first tell you what, what we just announced in partnership with the white house science and technology policy office and the department of energy. we have coalesced earlier this week and we brought an effort how could we bring all the best supercomputers in the united states together and coalesce it around a consortium so we could accept rate the pace of discovery. let me give you an example how

you use this very special machine to make progress in the discovery effort. the ibm summit, fastest supercomputer in the world, managed owned by oak ridge national laboratory with colabtores in the university of tennessee, the team there, took 8,000 compound and were able to simulate them, to figure what molecules combined to fight proteins in the virus using to infect the host cell and figure out which selection of those molecules to be used to for the development, treatments and vaccines. so they took something that would have been month and months of work and compressed it to analysis that could take a few days to speed the scientific effort of therapies and discovery. so what have you learned thus far? i know it is early this process.

>> selecting from 8,000 to 77 small molecules that could be experimentally analyzed and being able to do in this process of therapy. so the key thing, as we all come together as communities around there, there are different horizons how we all marshall our resources. we have urgent tasks in our society. we need to mobilize the scientific community and accelerate the discovery. this is why so important that the creation of the covid-19 consortium and using computer power and with best scientists to compress the time. ultimately we need to get to a cure. neil: all right. i wish you luck, with this, sir. this is fascinating. i hope it goes the way we at least can get answers fast or at least culling information and spread of thisser. that is power -- faster.

that is putterful information and thank you for providing that. that is the conundrum of this whole virus. there are more cases than being reported. ultimately many, many more being appreciated here. new york governor cuomo earlier today talking about the fact he thinks this could be ultimately a 40 to as high as 80% infection rate. now he was not looking specifically at new york. he was just speaking in general terms. other medical experts with whom we chat on this show, my other shows on fox news, elsewhere, they have been saying kind of the same thing here. there is a possibility that the number of cases will be explosive but, flip side of that is, having known those cases and knowing those cases and knowing roughly 80% of those individuals tend to be okay, that a small percentage require hospitalization, and a smaller subset of that percentage again ends up having serious problems with this or god story bid dying

from this, they need the numbers, they need that data. that is a lot easier said than done. now that is why you're hearing a lot of lot of states across the country, as we get the case count now in excess of 35,000, 471 deaths, you need people to stay socially separated, socially apart here and keep their distance. that is being enforced now in number of states. about half the american population that is, you know, under direct order, if not worse to do just that. joe borelli, new york city councilman minority whip. already the case, in new york, joe, massachusetts wisconsin, dell care, con connecticut i go on and on. half the population in the country is in stay at home order. how is that going snoop causing

a lot of economic anxiety of folks here? -- in new york city. the delay in testing, symptoms forming in people to get testing, we have won't even see results of self-isolation happening for another week perhaps. so it is going to be disheartening for people who have been putting up with this quarantining, with the self-isolation when they don't see the results in form of numbers leveling off happening for a long time. but, i tell you, neil, it is getting very real here. we're 5% of the world cases right here in new york city. at this point i would say just about everyone knows someone, who is sick, maybe a couple people are sick. we hear people who have or likely to pass away. neil: how do you think this is playing out with the fighting back and forth on capitol hill over the stimulus measure? i should stress, this is the excuse de jure to say the markets are dropping.

there have been plenty other catalysts in the past, you pick your poison, i could go on and on about that. it is very, very clear, behavior among politicians, by and large, a lot more, sal i say kind than it has been in the past, they fundamentally disagree how to attack this, how to provide stimulus in light of this. therein lies the rub, right? >> there you have it. you can really see a disconnect from what is happening on the ground in new york, l.a., washington, elsewhere and what is happening on the ground in the capital in washington, d.c. to know the sausage making is still happening as though it is almost normal is very disheartening for someone like me. i was hoping to hear out of chuck assume ear es rebuttal, real need for his constituents, about mta near insolvency, something like that, we are hearing reports there is attempt to put in increased emission standards for airlines,

expansion of wind and solar tax credit? these are not the things should be quibbling about right now when we need the stimulus, we need the package fast. neil: there is a mint that the president might revisit when this whole first 15 days, we're little more than hatch way through it right now what is next. he did telegraph something, some responded with alarm. others with curiosity that the cure, we don't want the cure to be worse than the virus essentially. if he were to dial some of these measures back, do you worry about a move like that? >> yeah. i mean would be very cautious especially in a dense community like new york city, that it might not be long enough. that said though we do have to realize, we're seeing this now, with people that have these main street stores in our communities, i'm someone who

might be able to survive without a paycheck for two weeks or three weeks. you might be but we're finding that more and more people are going to be more impacted by the economic fallout of this than perhaps the virus itself. i think that is what the president is hinting on and finding that balance is going to be difficult, whether we want to admit it or not we're trying to fly the plane as we're building it. neil: joe, thank you very, very much, my friend. before i get to a doctor to respond to these latest developments here what you have to do at home, and others have to do, i should point out that boeing right now, its stock temporarily halted. we're told that it is going to be, temporarily suspending some production, pudget sound production operations in response to the covid-19 pandemic. you might recall it too said it was severely impacted by the coronavirus to say nothing of all the jet max issues that

preceded this. but on the virus itself, the fact that so many airlines stopped ordering planes period, stopped flying period, there was talk about a rescue package that would include boeing and major airlines this has nothing to do with that but evidently having to do with suspending production in the as everyone in airline industry has. this is airplane maker in tandem with that. dr. nicole saphier joins us. doctor, people hear this kind of stuff, apart from the virus, apart from the developments and they hear about jobs that will likely go away and they hear talk about unemployment in the country could hit 30%. they get nervous, look around if they get a paycheck what happens to them, what happens to restaurant workers and diswashers and waiters and waiters, and waitresses and the like and you can see how that fear builds and makes them sick,

right? >> neil, let me tell you this is a huge issue we're dealing with right now. a lot of people at home, watching the market, watching what everyone is saying, rise in arranges sight, depression. we have to make sure people need to know this is temporary. this is tangible threat we're dealing with, not just a great depression, but overall feeling of uncertainty and secular stagnation. what we have right now. we actually have a threat. we have a time period we're trying to shut things down, knowing we will get back to where we were. we started out with a very strong economy. very low unemployment rate. it is imperative that the legislators get together to come through with the rescue bill. this is not a bailout bill. this is a rescue bill. and we'll try to get the small businesses and even large businesses back to where we need to go. people sitting at home right now, do what you can, support those around you. make sure you still have social connections. if people depend on you for income, if you are able to, try

to continue to support them this is a temporary period and we're going to get through this. neil: you know, doctor, meantime, it is interesting to note that we have 20,000, a little more than 20,000 reported cases in new york. i believe yesterday at this time, we were a little over 12,000. we're hearing these figures of every day it climbs, depending on the state, some more than others, 40% on daily basis. and that we could ultimately see 40%, the governor quoting his own medical officials in new york, said 80% of americans would have this thing. doesn't mean they have any problems with it. 80% i'm told tend to do just fine with it, survive wit. others might need hospitalization but numbers percentagewise smaller but still the pool of potential virus patients will grow dramatically. do you agree with that?

>> that's right, neil. so this is what we refer to as the are not, that is the doubling time. as of right now there will be large increases of cases we hear every day. people need not to be obsessed with the numbers, because the numbers will double and triple and keep getting higher and higher. that is why they're taking such restrictive measures right now. unfortunately there will not be seeing if any benefit to the measures for another couple of weeks. my colleagues in new york city, that is where i work right now, we're very concerned that the hospital systems are going to be overwhelmed. you have 13% of people with infections right now who have tested positive requiring hospitalization. you have about a quarter of those, about 24% needing icu beds. that is why we need people to stay home. if you're able to be home, able to avoid infection, make sure the icu beds stay open because we want to be able to save as many lives as possible. but we have to know we will get to the other side of this. it is just a matter of severe

social distancing right now. we'll get to the other side of this. we need to continue testing, be very strict about isolating, getting their contacts, self-isolating them as well. just know we will get to the other side of this. neil: so when you hear talk, we don't want the cure, presumably, some of that is other measures as we take as a country to be worse than the disease, which is was thrust of what the president was hinting at, what do you think he means by that? >> i believe that he means that the potential economic and financial devastation may outweigh that of the virus itself. i do agree with that. we need, that is why it is so imperative that people are following direction right now so we can get back to business as usual. we want our kids back in school. we want to open up businesses. longer they're delayed or closed, more jobs will be lost and more businesses are lost. if we want this to be short term disruption we need to follow in

place and need to have really strict social distancing right now. otherwise we'll have more of a long term devastation. the good news is, that we have the world health organization who just launched a trial last week for the solidarity trial to come up with potential treatments. we have vaccines underway. although we're not there yet with treatments. we have a lot of hospitals trying various different methods, combinations to try to get people better. the bottom line we have to take care of people getting severely ill. mind you, that is less than 5% of the people are getting infected with the illness. we have to make sure we can turn their illness around. that is why there is so much positivity right now around certain medications because we are looking for something that we can give safely and effectively to help turn around this disease. neil: all right. doctor, thank you. reassuring words always. i appreciate that. i'm sure all our viewers do as well. close to 55 minutes after the

hour. we have the dow cascading but not cascading as much as it was earlier here. there is talk one way or the other they will shove some sort of stimulus through. i hasten to add, if you're doing the bidding at the behest of the markets be came of that. it is grabbing the tail of a tiger. i can distinctly remember at the time of the financial crisis, in the waning weeks of the bush presidency before barack obama had come in, congress was rushed together to vote on something called tarp, troubled asset relief program that was going to by and large rescue financial interests and others and that vote ultimately failed, that first vote failed. well the markets nosedived. they were down 800 points, a record point amount at that time. they scrambled back together to try to calm the markets down. they ultimately did vote for it then. but wouldn't you know, within the months that would follow, the dow would fall more than

6,000 points from there. so just be careful making clear the reasons you are doing something, not to calm the markets or do the markets bidding. important though they are, i have been they are not the be-all and end-all. know who is the be-all and end-all? you, average americans. all those americans who are dealing with this, sheltered in their homes, trying to get work done, if they have any work at all with this. the folks who lost their jobs. the waiters, the restaurant industry, car washers, movie theaters, the guys that clean up there, so many who are in direct line of fire as a result of this. doesn't my next guest know it very very well. he can speak to what's happening right now. zane, first of all, how are you doing some? >> i'm fine, neil.

i really appreciate all you're doing, frankly. we are at the control desk here. i'm sitting, i don't know if you can see behind me, sitting in a three-story restaurant on the corner of 50th street and broadway in midtown manhattan and it's just me and our general manager who came in to open it up for me so i could skype with you right now. just the two of us. we would ordinarily have about 400 or 500 employees here. we do about 20,000 guests a w k week. we have done zero per week now here and we are down to the general manager and me. neil: wow. obviously, though, once you have to close doors, you can takeout, delivery and all the rest, but bottom line is, that's not going to cut it. that's not going to make up the slack, right? >> no, not at all. we are bleeding cash. tell you what we are doing, we have 12 restaurants that are

open in the boroughs but they have parking lots and easy access to public transportation. we have neither of those. but nonetheless, we have gone from something north of 3,000 people in our company, about 3500, to we now have a grand total counting the 12 restaurants open, about 72 from 3500 to 72 in 24 and then 48 hours. we did it in two cuts a week ago, we continue to bleed cash, and my heart, my soul, everything i've done in this company is about our people and i bleed for them because i know firsthand, to get the folks in washington that are debating this right now, there are people that don't have food. we will pay two more weeks of payroll, which will be a million plus dollars each, then the third week, i'm scrambling

around to borrow whatever because we will run out of cash, zero cash, and to bridge that gap for those folks who literally live hand-to-mouth, rent check to rent check, three children, two children, single mom, single dad, and they're debating. zu just do it. someone called me, by the way, and said the government's going to put it through right away, aren't they? i said the government can do nothing right away. nothing. well, they got the bill. no, they haven't passed the bill yet. let's see if they pass the bill. this is two days ago. here we are watching chuck schumer get up, and it's a prepared speech. he didn't ad lib anything. he was prepared to say why they're not accepting it which to me is unconscionable. pass it, put the money through, let people eat. if they went noop sointo some o

people's homes and see what this is about with regard to the economic devastation, i think there would be no discussion whatsoever. they would do it. who cares whether if it's boeing or my dishwasher? get the meeting. by the way, no bragging, but i have been an investor for 15 years in a bioterrorism company that the government has been stockpiling doses for the last three years. we ran to sell the government these doses. it took, boy ty the year, to gea approval, when we got the government to buy these stockpiles we ran computer models, we spent many, many months compiling. neil, this is exactly the computer models we ran. so when you get people -- neil: i'm not up on that stuff. i did want to focus on this, if i could. it sounds to me what you're

saying is your workers and everything, they were depend pinning that are hopes something comes out of washington. i looked at a lot of the particulars of that. it's not going to make one of them whole. they are still going to be out of jobs for a long, long time. i'm wondering -- >> without a doubt. neil: do you think they are ready for that? you think the nation is ready for what could be, you know, forget about the social distancing and all of that, stay at home and all of that, the impact there, this could fundamentally change the way we are as a country? >> it unquestionably will. we don't think twice about walking through tsa security, getting to the airport two hours early so you can get security. that's all 9/11. that didn't exist before 9/11. so how it will change, what it will change, i'm not smart enough to know that. but unquestionably it will leave an indelible mark on how we as americans continue to operate. having said that, there's no

doubt the doctor before me just said, we will get to the other side. it's how dinged and dented and bruised will we be when we arrive. but unless money comes out, we just, you know, and the only way we are going to find that out, how much dinged and dented we will be is let's get going. it will take me, if i had the money today to reopen today, we are only closed seven days, probably two months to hire back 3,000 people, retrain them, get them up. that's today. a year from today, i don't know. candidly, i'm not sure i'm here. i'm not sure i'm here. neil: don't say that. we'll see what happens. very inspirational fellow. one nice thing about zane's, all

these restaurants, he's not one pound overweight. not one. he's fit as a fiddle. he always say when you go to my restaurant, try eating in moderation. okay, fine. remarkable fellow. all right. back with us, a little after the top of the hour, we are following a couple developments. markets trying to claw their way back. only in these environments can you look at a dow down about 281 points and say hey, a home run. it's a home run because we were down almost 1,000 points. we are so used to moving in swings of 4% up or down, that has become far more common than we have ever seen, that when we see a day like this, 275, 280 points, not a big deal, it is a big deal when you add up all the capital that has evaporated in this country as we swooned from highs recently, more than a month ago, as i said, and lost trillions of dollars in market value. that's the kind of thing, the fear that's out there about the direction of this virus and where it is going and where our politicians are going trying to address it and find ways to

stimulate the economy. hillary vaughn on capitol hill with the latest on that front. reporter: i want to show you a live wi live look at the senate floor where tensions are running high. senators are blocking each other from speaking. one senator stood up, asked everyone to take a deep breath and calm down while they try to work out a deal to get this relief package through. senate democrats say they are stalling this relief package because they don't want billions going to businesses with no strings attached. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is calling their bluff saying democrats are tacking on a wish list of requests not connected to coronavirus including things like changing environmental regulations. >> this is not a juicy political opportunity. this is a national emergency. tell you what will really lower our carbon footprint, mr. president. if the entire economy continues

to crumble, with hundreds of thousands more americans laid off because senate democrats won't let us act, that will lower our carbon footprint, all right. reporter: mcconnell pointing the finger at nancy pelosi for showing up on the hill yesterday and blowing bipartisan progress on the deal. an aide says some of the things democrats are asking for that have nothing to do with coronavirus relief include collective bargaining power for unions, increasing fuel emission standards and expansion of wind and solar tax credits. >> large corporate bailouts with almost no strings attached. maybe the majority leader thinks it's unfair to ask protections for workers and labor to companies that are getting hundreds of billions of dollars. we think it's very fair to ask for those. those are not extraneous issues. that is a wish list for workers, nobody else. reporter: some senate democrats are getting antsy to put politics aside and get this financial aid to families. i talked with senator chris coons, who tells me he thinks every person in the senate

should do a gut check and see if what they are wanting to have included in this bill actually has something to do with the epidemic at hand. neil? neil: all right. hillary, do we know when they will, if they will, get a vote on this again? reporter: we are expecting it this afternoon. mcconnell says he wants a voice vote for two procedural votes, then an hour of debate and after that, that is when they would vote to move on cloture which would start this process to revote on a bill that failed over the weekend. neil? neil: all right. thank you so much. great job, as always. let's get the read on all this. the battle back and forth between democrats and republicans. i always step back when i see these type of things. you have to understand human beings. i don't know how it is for you in your house, you have people at your house, and your kids are home, you have to help them with their homework, everyone has to get along and sometimes you just need fresh air so people's nerves fray and all that

happens, italian american house holds too, now and then, so everyone has to sort of dial it back a little bit. it's certainly understandable. i'm giving a little sway to both sides, democrats and republicans, on this friction over this measure but that measure or some representation of it has to be done and has to be done soon. my panel joins me. noelle, i can understand cooler heads not prevailing. tough environment, i get that. but we all have to take it down a notch, don't we? >> yeah. this is not a time, neil, to play politics with the american economy and you know, what's going on at hand. this is far from the time to do it. it's also not a time to add pork to any crisis bills that are coming up. that's one of the things which you will remember like tea party, club for growth and a lot of organizations founded on was people that were getting

extremely upset about pet projects put in bills at times when you needed something else mainly passed, they pad it in order to get it passed. this is not the time during a pandemic to try to push extra agendas. neil: connell, the fact of the matter is, when playing politics it's always someone on one side and the other side, i get it, but the fact of the matter is stuff isn't getting done here and whether you are a believer in big stimulus measure or not, it's being interpreted by the markets as anyone running the shop back in washington, is that a real concern right now? >> to me, it's just the regular person, the main street worker, the small business owner, that's who this really is about, people who had to make decisions not now or tomorrow but last week and already started to make those decisions about laying off workers, about kucutting back o payroll and are understandably

frustrated with what's going on in washington. for wall street, i think the decision now is who do you believe. do you believe hillary vaughn's reporting about all the back and forth or do you kind of read between the lines and look at what the minority leader chuck schumer is saying which is essentially listen, i know these procedural votes are going to fail, i know this is going to happen and that's going to happen but at the end of the day we are very close and he's quote confident, it will get done. frustrating, yes, but with the market coming off its lows a little bit, the betting, not a big bet, not 90/10, maybe 60/40, is this does get done by the end of the day given schumer says he's relatively confident. we'll see. it's frustrating. neil: charlie gasparino, on that point, your reporting has been spot-on through this but you are also a lover of history and you like to go back in time here so as the sort of older nerds here, what i find the most

destabilizing about its particular selloff is its speed. it's happening so quickly. it seems to be sort of saying all right, not getting what i want, that's one thing, but also talking about the virus itself and how it exponentially grows, thousands more cases than we had yesterday, growing 40% to 50% per day across the country, to say nothing of across the world. that is unnerving. that's unnerving. >> right, that's unnerving the market. that's unnerving the markets to the point where if you look at charts, lot of wall street guys, i have been sharing these charts with you folks, and putting it on my facebook and twitter feeds, lot of these charts resemble the crash of '29. the chart we have now, in terms of velocity and movement and all the sort of market indicators, looks like a '29 crash. you know what happened after

'29. i will say the big difference i believe between '29 and now is that the policy response in 1929 was fed tightening, believe it or not, both herbert hoover and then fdr cranking up regulation and taxes, those policy responses are the direct opposite of what the trump administration is doing right now, and i think, listen, i know there's a lot of back-and-forth with the congress and trump and they want their little, you know, chuck schumer wants environmental stuff in there, mitch mcconnell wants a cleaner bill, they are going to do something. i give it 99% they are going to do something. either today or tomorrow, it's going to happen. there's going to be a fiscal stimulus response to this. there has to be. we already have the monetary stimulus which congress can't control under the fed so the policy response is going to be i think responsible in the short term. obviously we are talking about $2 trillion to $3 trillion deficit next year. so i think that is the good part

about what's going on here. the bad part, obviously, is the market doesn't know how to price in the unknown, just how many people get sick on this and one other thing, you know. the trump administration pats itself on the back a lot about stopping the china, banning the china flights in january which i think was good, most people would say was a reasonable thing to do. it wasn't xenophobic but i will say this. that is not having a lot of impact on what's going on right now. you know, the virus was probably already here in january. it was obviously spreading to europe and people were going to europe and coming back. the policy response in january is probably some of the stuff we're doing now or at least in february, and that's the problem with the trump administration playing this down for as long as it did. it prevented the appropriate social distancing policy response and now it will pay a price. the economy, we haven't -- stopping the economy in its tracks could be worse. here's the problem with stopping the social distancing.

it's the hospital systems that probably can't take the flood of patients coming in there. they haven't been prepared because we were essentially, government was downplaying it for so long. neil: you know, i thought about what he was saying there and it's way too early to judge whether the approach we are taking to this is the proper one, we are doing too much or too little. what the president or others should have done early on. but having said that, i'm wondering if future viral sensations that hit us, this is not the first, just the latest, it's a biggy, i'm not dismissing it, but from swine flu to obviously sars and a host of others in between, if this is the way we are going to react, i'm wondering if people are just going to constantly be in a total state of freaking out. >> well, neil, you've got a

valid point here. you remember after 9/11, this changed the way that we traveled from here on out. so the question of it is, this social distancing, will this be the way that we live from here on out. not meaning that we are isolating in our houses from here on out but are we going to be a little bit more cautious going forward and how is the market going to react to that. what sectors are going to be, you know, affected. first of all, we don't even know when the markets peaking on fear is. we don't even know if we have seen the peak of fear in the markets. you are actually having to deal with two things at the same time. biotechnology and markets. i think, you know, this is one of the first time when you are trying to have the marketplace kind of gauge where the peak on a pandemic is and what to look like forward and if we go into

depression it's probably going to look different than it did back in years ago because we are technology advanced, we have so many different factors of how we can communicate now as opposed to years gone by. >> here's the real problem, though. i agree with much of what you're saying but if we took this seriously earlier, the hospitals would have been better prepared. it would have been more social distancing early and less severe. you know, the fact is -- >> how are we going to -- >> we, we, the white house, unfortunately, even with their china ban in rhetoric tried to play this down for weeks. the nation was not prepared for what we're doing now which we probably have to do because if we don't do it, if we don't sort of stem the tide and it could really crush the economy, i get

that, i don't think our hospital systems are prepared for this. listen, one of the problems that we've had with hospitals over the last five, you know, ten years, particularly in the advent of obamacare and i'm not blaming this on president obama, just telling you with obamacare, you had a racheting back of hospital beds. it's been much more of a well, you know, we don't have the icu capacity essentially in this country for a lot of reasons. so you know, that's why i think governor cuomo and mayor deblasio are so freaking out right now and that is a huge problem. only way to deal with that is essentially social distancing, which will crush the economy in the short term. >> yeah. [ speaking simultaneously ] neil: i can't hear you guys, i apologize. connell, on that, what i was trying to lay out as the premise of this, what we're doing now, the way we're responding to this now will be the way we will

respond, i assume, to future viruses that are deemed to get out of control. i don't know if we are going to be up to that kind of thing in the future or that just telling americans that, like a year from now, god forbid or two years from now, something like that will come again, they're not such anomalies what's happening here, what then? >> that's why a couple different things. number one, we might actually, to charlie's point, respond differently in that we might respond earlier, there might be a lesson learned from how we responded to this so we might be able to get out ahead of it like countries did, south korea, singaf singapore, taiwan, things that were more effective that were doing things like we are doing now earlier and were able to flatten the curve earlier. the second point which i think, i just don't know the answer but it's developed over the weekend, a lot of the financial minds now, gary cohn was on some of the shows talking about it, bill ackman was on with maria this

morning, i know steve bannon brought it up, can we put a timetable on the shutdowns that we are imposing for medical reasons. ackman saying let's shut the whole country down for 30 days. let's see what someone like dr. fauci has to say to that at the briefing today. i'm sure he will be asked about it. that's kind of the debate that's developing. when we are, you know, unfortunately we probably will have to face if not the same situation, something similar, do we start earlier and then do we handle it differently as opposed to these rolling shutdowns over time. do we take quicker action but have the shutdown last a shorter amount of time. neil: guys, i want to thank you all very, very much. so many questions at playen and issues at play. i want to let you know about the states that have stay-at-home initiatives. new jersey is one of them. the new jersey governor was outlining the fact he might have to up the ante a little bit here. it's an issue that requires a lot more help, this is from

governor murphy. >> we still need a slug of support from the federal government. we got a fraction of our ask. we need a lot more. we are hearing this all over the state. secondly, i reiterated that i had hoped the congressional road would lead toward a result with a big chunk of direct cash assistance for states. it's too early to know where that comes out. neil: all right. so we will see how things go in new jersey. the roads, there's no one on them. this is one of the more densely packed states. i think the most, isn't it the most densely packed state in the nation? anyway, we've got steve sweeney with us, new jersey senate president, democrat, on all these developments. mr. president, always good to have you. let me ask you a little bit about what the governor is doing here. we know about these social

distancing measures, people staying home, et cetera. do you know whether he will rescind any planned tax hikes, particularly on the upper income that were to go into effect or that he hopes to go into effect this year? >> the last thing we are going to talk about is tax increases in this place and time, the situation we are in. we are in free-fall so talking about tax increases right now makes no sense whatsoever. we got to figure out our budget, we have a responsibility to get it done by june 30th and you know, we are meeting with the administration today to see if -- how we proceed because we are in uncharted waters. we had our first -- the assembly will have their first distance voting session i think this week. we are figuring it out, too. government has to function. we need to serve the people. the tax hikes, i wasn't crazy

about them before, especially now. it's the wrong message. neil: also while i have you, this is just a timing issue, but new jersey tolls, turnpike and related tolls, were supposed to go up and be a fairly dramatic increase, anywhere from 30% to 40%. do you know, the governor or you or others leading an effort to postpone those increases or what? >> the discussions are going because we will come out of this one way or another, hopefully sooner rather than later. i think governor took a lot of smart steps to ensure that people shelter at home to try to slow this curve but transportation, we will need huge infrastructure programs to get us out of this recession that we are going to be in, hopefully not a depression, but recession when we get done. when you hear about 20%

unemployment, that's scary as hell. so you know, priming the pump, whether it's tolls, whether it's, you know, we're not looking at tax hikes, farehikes but we have to get this economy going again. hopefully the federal government hasn't wasted its capacity so it can do major infrastructure programs when we come out of this. neil: the weather is going to get eventually warm, i'm told, in new jersey. new jersey has a lot of beautiful beaches. you saw what happened in florida, in places in california, people are congregating on beaches and ignoring that no congregating groups larger than ten. what does new jersey do about that when the warmer weather comes and people just are stir-crazy and want to get out? >> you know, i think the governor has set the right tone that we are not going to put up with it, even if it's nice,

social distancing is not that hard. it's not that hard to keep your space. when i saw what was going on in new york, it was shocking to me personally. but we will get through this and what i looked at so far, god willing, the percentage of deaths with this right now are below what the flu is, the normal flu. hopefully all the things we're taking, all the actions that are being taken are lessening the blow. the big concern is our hospitals and i listened to you earlier, they have known about this for over a decade that we weren't prepared for any kind of pandemic like this. we really have to learn from the lessons, we have to learn from the lessons we are learning now to make sure our hospitals are in the right kind of condition. my brother's an emergency medicine physician and he's at a hardware store trying to buy goggles because there's no more face shields and respirators are

being used, one-time respirators are being used over and over again. it's embarrassing that we weren't ready for this. what we need to learn from it to ensure that our first responders, the people on the front lines, we have to protect them. neil: all right. steve, be well yourself. my best to you and your family. thank you again. >> you, too. you, too. neil: steve sweeney. all right. so we have the dow well off the lows of the day. i know i sound crazy to say it's only 247, 248 points as if that's something to kumbaya about but the fact of the matter is woee were down almost 1,000 points and while it's routine to see four-figure drops, that was earlier. it's not happening now. more after this.

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neil: welcome back. with the dow down about 258

points, a lot of the attention right now seems to be focused on getting this stimulus measure that was sort of stymied in the senate last night approved. that might be an uphill fight. they are getting really nasty with each other, calling names and yelling at each other, almost coming to fisticuffs but they hope to resolve this. what mitch mcconnell wants to do is put up for a vote again the exact same measure that went down in flames last night to put the pressure on the democrats, yea or nay and get the blame for this. you know how this works. ultimately both parties don't look great when something like this happens. neither looks great right now, now that this is happening. all this concern about the virus, stimulus to address the virus notwithstanding, is raining in on everyday events including potentially the olympics this summer. japan so far is not saying it is pushing them back or canceling them, but a number of countries are saying well, we have already

taken ourselves out of the equation including australia and canada, you know, the better part of valor would be for them not to go at all because they don't think it's a good idea. again, we don't know what tokyo is going to do. we do know the pressure is building to put this off. doug eldridge, sports agent extraordinaire, on what happens then. let me ask you about the signals we are getting out of tokyo. one is how about we push it back a year. what do you think of that? >> i think it's incredibly complex. incredibly complex. i always use the analogy of trying to do a u-turn with an aircraft carrier. seems simple until you have to execute it and understand exactly how much space is required and exactly how many moving pieces go into executing it. we are in a very strange time right now. today marks exactly one month until the nfl draft. tomorrow is four months until the start of the summer olympics. ironically, saturday was the 40th anniversary since president carter informed american olympic

athletes we would be boycotting the moscow games. strange serendipity there. neil: that was in response to the nation of afghanistan -- >> i understand. neil: four years later the soviets skipped out of the l.a. olympics. it's all driven by this virus and concerns about leaving the athletes' safety out of it, even fans, whether they were in the stands or not. what do you think the effect of this will be? >> yes, and i draw the comparison just for the underlying uncertainty as it relates to the athlete. we have discussed how different the olympics are. it's every four years. roughly 73.7% of all olympic athletes over the irt the of time only compete in one olympic games. the notion of two time, three time, four time olympian is statistically the anomaly.

they train their whole life for this. to move it one year may be an opportunity lost. obviously all this will give way to a greater safety for the common good but in terms of the work that goes into it, it's incredibly difficult. one thing to consider, too, is track and field and usa swimming both sent letters over the weekend urging the games be postponed. that's significant because when you look back at the rio games, team usa won 121 medals. 65 of those came from swimming and track and field, roughly 54%. this is obviously also going to push trickle-down pressure on nbc because two of the three bellwether events, the third being gymnastics, they will possibly pull their athletes, team usa swimming and usa track and field and that will have a tremendous economic impact, especially when nbc does roughly 1.2 billion in integrated ad sales around rio, estimate even more for tokyo. everyone is in limbo, athletes, respon sponsors, networks, everyone. neil: all right. we will see what happens. no official word from tokyo but

again, likely a delay of upwards of a year. we don't know for sure. doug eldridge, very good read of all things sports. we are still waiting to get word out of the senate on what they will do with this stimulus measure. we will get the read from the senator from the state of georgia. where do things stand? >> they just opened the vote so i'm eager to get to the floor and help move this forward for american families. this is critical. these delays this morning were really just terrible. senator schumer was putting solar panel funding over the safety and security of american families and it's just wrong. neil: while i have you, i haven't had the opportunity, i know you have addressed this about the timing of certain stock trades. we are told after a meeting of january 24th about the coronavirus, and some interpreted that timing that you got bad news on it and sold a

lot of stock. that particular transaction afterwards, more than $3 million. is that true? >> that's absolutely false. it's completely false. all the data we have put out there is counter to that, it's fake news. very disappointing to see that this was picked up by legitimate outlets like the "wall street journal" repeating what a fly-by-night liberal outlet like the daily beast wrote, that i sold stock. neil: senator, could you tell me what was fake? what was fake? was it the timing of the sale, that it had nothing to do with that coronavirus briefing? when did you sell the stock? was it after that briefing? before that briefing? >> i don't do trades, neil. i'm not involved in my portfolio. my husband is not involved. our portfolio is managed by third parties. the actions are blind to me until they put it in front of me at the end of the reporting period and i will just tell you, in that portfolio, it's absolutely false that we sold millions. actually, it was a more bullish

bet. we ended up owning companies like delta, like goldman sachs, like prudential, companies that have been hard-hit and ended up losing money. no one has reported that and it doesn't, you know, it has nothing to do with knowledge i had or didn't have because i had no involvement in these trades. neil: so this was left to outside parties, you and your husba husband, the chairman of the international -- intercontinental exchange, new york stock exchange, you had parties, individuals maybe who have your account, and then sell, do they check it with you? do you check with them? how does it go? >> it's reported to me on a piece of paper, at the end of the period. i don't want to be involved. listen, i have been in financial services for 20 years. i have been around material non-public information for that long. i'm a chartered financial analyst. i understand ethics and s.e.c. compliance at the highest levels. that's all we have done to comply with it. i have been around much more

substantial material non-public information than probably any of my peers in the senate. i know exactly how to manage through this. this is fake news. it's preying on the emotions of the american people and trying to create a narrative that's absolutely false and no one's bothered to fact-check it. neil: maybe given your notoriety as a united states senator, your husband a big muckity-muck, it draws more attention than it might have. your husband did sell intercontinental exchange issues later on, just a couple weeks ago. that again was handled the same way on your behalf, a third party, you know, took that independently, took that as an opportunity to sell those shares? explain. >> so you may be familiar with the s.e.c., securities and exchange commission rule 10b-51. this requires any trades have a

cooling-off period. as an executive, plans are filed far in advance of any transaction being executed. that's exactly what was required and has been required. that's how we conduct any security sale that comes as part of compensation. most executives will understand how this works. you cannot just turn around and sell a stock. it has to be filed far in advance. look, this is something that everyone can look into. these are public filings. that's how we have conducted our affairs for 20 years. and it's just the fake news blowing it out of proportion in terms of trying to scapegoat someone who like myself, like my husband, who started working our way up -- look, i worked in the field. i waitressed my way through school. i lived the american dream by climbing up through increasingly responsible positions in business and you know, attack my hair, attack me who you don't like my clothes but don't attack my integrity and don't attack my husband's integrity because we followed the spirit and --

neil: i understand where you are coming from. you might think it's fake news and all of that, but you are a legitimate, and your husband, legitimate real big deals so obviously, in the middle of a selloff in the markets, something that you do whether timed to anything or not is going to get more scrutiny than something someone else does. so are you just saying just to be clear here, that those stock sales particularly the latest ones in march, had nothing to do with the free-fall in the markets and just getting out? >> i have no involvement in stock sales in any month of the year. it doesn't matter. i can tell you that i had no input in deciding when those -- what was in those reports and look, we were in a bull market until february 20th. i mean, this economy was strong and unemployment reports were at all-time highs, you know, record

employment. the economy was strong. we hit the 13th record in the s&p 500 on february 19th. i mean, this is, you know, when people were selling, portfolio managers selling, someone was on the other side, people were buying, when the market was going up and down. that's the nature of the market. i'm not involved with that. neil: senator, thank you very, very much. i know you have to get back to the floor. i know you will have a vote on this. senator loeffler of the beautiful state of georgia. we are sort of picking up steam on the south side with the dow off about 487 points. a lot of attention is going to be paid to whether they can get this puppy up and running again, in other words, take the same measure that was rejected in the senate and give it another shot right now. they are hoping with exposing this, that is mitch mcconnell leading the republican charge, exposing this and how democrats are trying to put some goodies in there, you might have heard the democrats counted on no, no, we were looking at protections

for workers and that rt so sort stuff. they will do the exact same thing again. everyone seems to be confident that a deal will be done but i caution as i always do that if you were doing this to sort of get the markets to calm down and get off your back, do the bidding of the markets, you better come up with better reasons than that. because the markets hate you. they loathe you. they hate you so much appear your inability to get things done that you are a joke to them. so please don't do their bidding. they are already laughing at yours. 300 miles an hour, thats where i feel normal. having an annuity tells me my retirement is protected. protected lifetime income from an annuity can help your retirement plan ride out turbulent times. learn more at protectedincome.org.

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pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get 2 months free. shipstation. the #1 chedward jones is of it'swell aware of that.et. which is why we're ready to listen. and ready to help you find opportunity. so. let's talk. edward jones. it's time for investing to feel individual. neil: welcome back, everybody. windows as we are trying to make sense of what they are doing in washington, a more urgent topic of discussion seems to be where do we stand for the time being on the virus itself that seems to grow and spread at a faster rate no matter where you go, including the united states? we are keeping a very very close

eye on those developments here. in the meantime, i want to go to ashley webster, chronicling this crazy reaction to all of this and the fact that investors and even those at home trying to make sense of it can't grasp what's going on. ashley: neil, let me talk about this period. we have been talking about this since this virus first came on our radar. people have been losing their jobs, nothing more frightening than being stuck at home with the kids and no paycheck, nothing to pay the rent with, the bills, food and everything else. very very frightening. three million jobs could be eliminated by summer according to the economic policy institute. unemployment could double and oh, yes, we are likely headed the a recession. in fact, bank of america says we are already being pushed into a recession right now. i wanted to look at who is hiring. there are companies that are thriving in this environment. let's start looking at the list. walmart, of course. they are hiring 150,000

employees full-time, part-time, even offering cash bonuses, $300 for full-time, $150 for part-time. lets l's look at amazon. 100,000 associates across the country. hourly workers have gotten a pay raise from $15 to $17 an hour, plus they are offering double time beyond 40 hours. $550 million in cash bonuses is what amazon is passing out. cvs, of course, haven't we all been in the last week and a half? 50,000 employees, full-time, part-time, temp workers. then dollar tree, 25,000. papa john's, why not, 20,000 jobs open immediately. by the way, pizza hut offering 30,000, domino's 10,000. i detect a theme. we are stuck indoors and by golly, we are going to eat as much pizza as we can. they need help. they need people to deliver those pizzas. walgreens, dollar general, costco, all of these companies

hiring, saying look, we understand these are tough times. if you have lost your work temporarily, a paycheck is better than no paycheck. give us a call. in walmart's case, they will get your application and get you working within 24 hours. normally that process would last about two weeks. shipping and delivery, online learning companies doing very well right now. as we have just seen, grocery stores, delivery services, remote meeting and communication companies, zoom, we have all heard about zoom. lot of people are zooming. they are hiring, as are slack and microsoft teams. there's a lot of economic activity, if you like, on that side of things but really, what it does is speak to the bigger picture, people are stuck, often at home, being told to stay at home but they don't have any money and while congress sits around and argues with each other, each passing hour, each passing day means more stress and anxiety for a large number of people in this country.

neil: brilliantly put, my friend. very very true. ashley webster following all those cross-currents and developments. by the way, as ashley was just getting ready for that hit there, governor cuomo of new york is speaking at i believe the javits center to talk about sort of repurposing that as sort of like an emergency hospital of its own. it's certainly large enough. let's dip into this. >> and basically shutting down the economy where we only have essential workers who are now showing up who keep society functioning, food delivery, pharmacy delivery, et cetera, transportation services. that comes at a tremendous cost. i understand that. and i understand that many people aren't earning an income and that put an additional stress on them and their

families. sometimes in these positions you have to make difficult decisions. this was a difficult decision. but my adage in these disasters, emergencies, has always been do everything you can, prepare for the worst, hope for the best. this is a public health emergency. this is a matter of life and death. the economy, we can fix. you know the old expression a rich person is a person who has their health. anything else, you can remedy. you can't remedy a loss of your health. you can't remedy loss of life. and that has to be the first priority. we have to deal with this public health crisis, then we have to get the economy back up and running. i understand that. the federal government understands that also. the state government is not in a position to provide income to everyone who is not working.

state government is also suffering from a revenue loss. the federal government suggests they are going to pass legislation quickly to get money into the hands of unemployed people. i'm pushing very hard to get the federal government to do exactly that. but first order of business is deal with this virus and this health crisis. this is going to get much worse before it gets better. we are still in the relative calm before the storm. you are going to see the number of infections, the number of cases, increase dramatically. you are going to see an overcapacity of our health system. right now, you will see we are projecting you will see more people coming into the health system than we can handle, and

that is to me the number one priority for government, for society. once we get through that, we will focus like a laser on the economy. we are even planning now what do we do about the economy. but first order of business is we have to do everything we can to save lives literally and that's focusing on the health care system. reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> i'm sorry, i'm sorry. reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> well, days from now, by any of the projection, we can handle the rate days from now.

the immediate problem in new york city were the supplies, the masks, the gowns, et cetera. we have been working very hard to find and buy supplies all across the globe. i believe we have enough capacity for the entire state including new york city for the immediate future. but the main issue is we have 53,000 hospital beds, we are projecting a possible need of 110,000 beds. i have ordered today the hospitals that they must increase their capacity by 50%. if that all works, that takes us from 50,000 to about 75,000 beds. we still have a possible need of 110,000 beds so we're not there on the beds. i'm less worried about the beds

themselves. i'm more worried about the equipment. because many of these acute cases are going to need ventilators. and we need about 30,000 ventilators and we can just not get them. that's where we are going to need the federal government to step in and step up. i have said i think the federal government should use what's called the federal defense procurement act, where the president says to specific companies i need you to produce this equipment, i need it now, here's the date, here's the numbers i need. relying on volunteerism of corporations is great and american corporations have stepped up to the plate, new york corporations have stepped up to the plate. but we can't manage this operation on an ad hoc basis of volunteerism by corporations. we should be ordering the

specific equipment that we need and ordering corporations to produce it to the volume that we need. that is our limiting factor. yes, we need hospital beds. yes, we need staff. but most of all, we need the equipment. reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> we have hospitals that are operating in new york city. all hospitals have now been ordered to increase their capacity, a minimum of 50%. i have asked them to try to find a way to increase their capacity 100%, right. we have 53,000 beds. if everybody increases 100%, you would be at roughly the 110,000 goal. i don't believe it's reasonable or feasible to tell every

hospital you have to double the goal so we set a minimum of 50%. those hospitals that are first over capacity, this will be a backfill facility where we can relieve some of the pressure and the tension from hospitals by using these beds. neil: we are continuing to monitor governor cuomo of new york. one thing that's interesting, it's all about building capacity. he wants to raise about 50% of the number of hospital beds that would be potentially available, including i believe some at the javits center. this cures at a time when new york is dealing with 20,000 coronavirus cases. that's almost double from yesterday. at the rate it's going, next week at this time it could easily be at 100,000 plus cases so he is getting ready for that. the impact of states that take these type of measures to prepare for the unthinkable, even though it is looking very conceivable. jackie deangelis is with us, along with noelle and connell

and john lonski. john, one thing that's very very clear here is everyone has to have a disaster scenario in place and this includes new york, >> i think it is very important that every citizen of the united states they have a duty, an obligation to distance themselves from others, practice social distancing so we can alleviate the forthcoming stress that will be placed on hospitals. neil: jackie, i'm wondering when you look at these type of measures, and new york is one of the more aggressive states trying to prepare for something like this, but it is something that is going to have to be addressed, people are scared when you hear it, if you follow the growth of this, that they're planning for hundreds of thousands, millions of cases just if you follow the math,

right? >> absolutely that is the thing always bothered me about this right from the get go when i first heard governor cuomo say that the state of new york had only three thousand icu beds with ventilators, i shrugged my shoulders, how could that be? how many people will get the virus, so many vulnerable people and not have access to the beds. i think a lot of young citizens have been trying to take it upon themselves to practice social distancing, make sure they are not helping to spread the virus especially in this particular city. it is scary when you think about the people that need those beds not being able to have them. that is, we have a chart of the dow down 600 points, neil. that is part of what wall street is factoring into the equation as well. the time it goes on and to it takes on health care. neil: douglas holtz-eakin, who one is looking at costs right

now and that is understandable. there will be trillions of dollars of spend on the fed ram and state levels. what do you think of all that? >> i think it is necessary, neil. i don't think anyone should scrimp in any way taking on what will be the biggest economic downturn since the great depression. already started. it is accelerating. we need to have some effective and rapid action on both public health mission. they need to be better coordinated. they haven't been at all. but when you get to the other side they will regret starting from a position of trillion dollar deficits. there is nothing can be done about that. it is now history. hopefully the lesson will be learned, that they are serious about the starting position they're in. neil: connell mcshane on that issue you talk about, getting overwhelmed. the criticism of the bush administration through no fault of its own, it didn't realize the gravity of the financial

metdown until it did. it was too late and things got exponentially out of control and now there is move to avoid that easier said than done. >> especially new york and california and washington state. that especially in new york. important to highlight what the governor said there, hey, if things go well we can make this situation less bad or we can put people in a better position. he said we're currently on pace to have overwhelmed health care system. not entire country necessarily but yes, in the state of new york. he got into what is really biggest point of contention between his administration and the trump administration, the state and local level versus the federal level. the medical supply chain, getting all the necessary equipment to potentially overwhelmed hospitals should be quote, unquote nationalized taken over by the federal government. the president seemed resistant to doing that. saying it is already happening. peter navarro on fox news channel said he is in charge of it. it is happening but cuomo

clearly wants to see well. neil: i apologize, noelle, i will get to you next time. thank you very much. if it is not going to stocks where is it going? at least today, it is gold. gold up 85 bucks, almost 6%. when people get nervous they like the shiny stuff. cheryl casone in for charles payne. cheryl: we're looking fora light at the end of the tunnel. cheryl casone in for charles payne this is "making money." stocks sinking again despite best efforts from the fed. actions from the federal bank should have eased investor fears. it hasn't so far. the we're down 594 right now. the man who hosts this program,