earlier. not sure it is there now. yes it is. 131 on walmart. that is where you have it today. this afternoon the president outlines guidelines for opening up the economy. i think that is very good for the markets. my time is up, neil, mr. cavuto, it's yours. neil: mr. varney, thank you very, very much. we'll follow up on amazon and netflix. two strong performers, record performers at that as you intimated. something giving market as little bit after prop up. news we're getting out of new york state. governor cuomo is having the daily press conference where he detailed hospitalizations regarding the covid-19 crisis are below 18,000 from around 18,335 yesterday. that rate came down from close to 18,800. that trend is coming down. the reason why i mention hospitalizations. they are considered to be a forward indicator. you get into the hospital, then the procedure from there.

sadly deaths are the lagging indicator you've been in the hospital for x number of days in extreme cases you could be put on oxygen or ventilator. that's it. hospitalizations are starting to decline as they appear to be at a steady rend in new york. that could be welcome news indeed. statewide hospitalizations have been averaging 1996 in april in the latest period versus better than 2250. the trend just the day before. meanwhile the governor is outlining he said we'll need an army of tracing investigators to identify people who may have been exposed to the covid-19 virus. you keep hearing this, tracers, indicators, who come into contact with those who tested postively for the virus. that is why the testing issue is so big. we're told jeff bezos of amazon, who is on the ad hoc advisory board, sort of giving advice to

the president how to proceed, if an when to reopen our government, our society, our economy so to speak. he has been saying not until we have many, many more tests going on. didn't spell out a number. testing going on in this country has dramatically improved. we were looking at one out of every 400,000 americans being tested. then is it got one every 300,000. now one out of every 100,000. it has to be a lot lower than that, at least the opportunity. separately there is a push for antibody test which would not only identify the virus, which would identify if you had antibodies that made the virus. you might have had covid-19 and never known. this will be tracer that can look back at history of those who didn't even know they were exposed. get a lot more of those going, presumably you're off to the races, a better understanding us getting off to business as usual. looking at that, looking what the white house is planning to do, take up with all 50 state

governors later today, blake burman with more on that from washington. hey, blake. reporter: hi, there, neil that conversation with the 50 state governors with the president will role out new guidelines could have some portions of the country reopening before the end of this month but this morning still more phone calls involving the president. yesterday it was leaders in business, every industry and economy some major industries. this morning, neil, i am told, president, 10:00 spoke to members about the house of representatives. it was a bipartisan group. about 20, 25 members of the house bipartisan. then after that at at 11:00 the president was set to speak with members of the senate, again a bipartisan group i'm told. it was about just about everybody republican member from the senate and probably about a dozen to two dozen democratic senate members. by the time you add it all up, probably about 100 or so

lawmakers, congressional lawmakers, speaking with the president today. we do expect to get a full list shortly though. i can tell you, neil, this is not being described as a task force even though some members of congress are putting it in that manner. in any event when you talk about opening up the economy you're right, a big issue going forward is testing and tracing. how can you go about several states reopening as the president suggests here, maybe in the upcoming days without a vast expansive testing system? the president in the rose garden yesterday teeing up this afternoon's big announcement said that the testing should be left up to the states. >> we have great tests and we want the states to administer these tests for the most part but we're standing behind them. we'll be working very much with the governors of the states. we want them to do it. reporter: elsewhere in washington, neil, the agriculture secretary sonny

perdue told maria bartiromo this morning that a bailout is coming for farmers. direct payments to the tune, secretary said of 16 to 1billion 1billion -- $18 billion. we saw the agriculture secretary said the food supply is fine, safe, had some hiccups but the ag secretary said on fox business that direct payments are needed so food can be on the shelves come fall time. neil: blake, thank you very much. as blake was speaking, tidbit from the governor of new york. he is announcing he will extend, excuse me, the new york pause, as he calls it to the 15th of may. in other words, not the end of april. 15th of may. hillary vaughn on this and, suddenly, a jobless program that is now out of money.

hillary? reporter: completely out of money, neil. paycheck protection program overwhelmingly popular. they burned through the $350 billion in just two weeks. to put this into perspective, small business administration processed 14 years worth of loans in just 14 days. we do moments ago, we did just get the final tally of numbers. the breakdown for where this $350 billion went. they processed over 1.6 million applications, included nearly 5,000 different lenders. every penny of the $350 billion has been spent. the sba saying this, quote, the sba is currently unable to accept new applications for the paycheck protection program based on available appropriations funding. similarly, we are unable to enroll new ppp lenders at this time. the president did ask congress to approve an extra $250 billion for the program last week, well

before the program was scheduled to run out of money. democrats in the senate rejected the request. the white house today giving us this statement, because of inaction and split equal stunts of congressional democrats is widely successful program is currently unable to accept new applications. democrats must join with president trump an congressional republicans now to provide additional funding to the paycheck protection program. we heard from house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, he said workers, leaders are paying money for democrats stalling process. they're paying through pink slips and shuttering businesses. >> all it simply takes is the democrats to say yes. i don't know what more that it takes. you have five million reasons today. you got 22 million reasons for this month. this is not a a time to play politics. there is opportunity here to make this happen.

i'm in washington today because i wanted to make sure this money is not running out. but if it takes some type of a negotiation, all it does is take a yes. reporter: today treasury secretary steve mnuchin is still trying to work out a deal democrats can stomach, negotiating until late last night with house speaker nancy pelosi. she says she still wants more money for state and local governments, more money for hospitals included in whatever this deal ends up being but there are some republicans in the house and senate, that are concerned whatever deal mnuchin makes with pelosi is not one they can accept. senator joan kennedy says mnuchin does not speak for every republican with congress, just because he makes a deal with pelosi does not mean it is a done deal. neil? neil: hillary vaughn, thank you very, very much. we're getting a couple more details on, this seems to be a very big development out of new york governor andrew cuomo. make we get something from

himself in this conference. he is extending the so-called new york pause through may 15. he called this as part, actually what has been a national pause, if you will, sheltering at home provision, in better part of three, 3 1/2 weeks. technically ends the end of this month. they were looking, that is the president is looking at what governors want to do in concert with the administration about reopening parts of the economy. it still seems to be, governors way of saying i would feel more comfortable if we push that back a couple weeks. we cannot discern from that whether he is saying that this, this is his total recommendation, whatever features are in place, sheltering, feature in place will continue another two weeks but certainly appears that way. you might recall as well, neighboring new jersey governor phil murphy said i'm more comfortable looking towards june or july. the new jersey governor did not

say he was talking about a full-scale, you know, continuation of sheltering provisions as a right now through june and july. he did seem to express, you know, his concern that you don't want to go back too soon. clearly for both governors, for both key governors in these two key states that lead the country in coronavirus cases, it ain't going to be the end of this month. it won't be may 1st. at very least in case of new york it will be may 15. gerry baker joins me, "wsj at large" host, so much more. that is development itself. states are free to do in their residents best interests to do, if new york pushes this back a couple weeks, that is a game changer, what do you think? >> i agree, neil. as you said right at the beginning there are encouraging signs in new york. the number of hospitalizations is now significantly down. the number of icu admissions,

actually number of deaths which is still very high is down sharply already from where it was at the peak a week or so. new york was the first really into this in serious way. washington was first cases. but on any major scale new york far and away has had the most cases, the most deaths, mostly affected by it. it was really the front of, the point of the spear here. so if new york is talking about at least another in effect four weeks, the shutdown which governor cuomo is, then that does perhaps rather suggest that the rest of the country maybe, may have to move more slowly too. we'll see. tricky thing, neil. you've been talking about this a lot, neil, balancing issue how much do you keep the lockdown in place to really clamp down on spread of this virus? do you significantly increase number of hospitalizations, or number of deaths, how far do you

weigh that, go in that direction, at expense of really killing economic activity? that is a really delicate judgment to make. we've seen extraordinary number of unemployment benefit claims up to 22 million nationwide in the last four weeks. that will clearly go on. how love longer do you want to do that? can the economy, new york economy take another month effectively completely shut down? well the governor is saying yes it can. it will have to do that. neil: you know, you think about it as well, gerry, position of everyone in public in new york wearing facemasks, the now the governor extended it when you take any public transportation systems in the state, even private transportation carriers like uber, obviously that is something that is coming fairly late in this process. and recommended by the cdc and other health authorities but it is an indication that this is going to be maybe slower unwinding than we thought. i just wonder with new york

potentially, new jersey, looks like, i'm taking this leap here, gerry, you probably know more, michigan probably following suit, if anything they toughened their standards right now, where do you see this whole coming out process going? >> i think it is worrying. the governor has been for the last week now has been laying out a tentative plan when the economy, when the new york economy is reopened for how it would work with essential workers and non-essential workers and areas of risk of high infection, against areas of relatively low infection. so that plan supposedly is in place. saying that is not, none of that is even going to start really until may 15th. i think that i worry that the damage to the economy is going to be really significant. and it is not just, there is this view you can shut down economy and start it up again. larry summers, very prominent economist said a couple weeks ago, it will be a little bit like what happens to seaside beach resorts in the summer. a bit what happens to cape cod at the end of the summer it

shuts down. it goes into depression, goes into hibernation and comes back. it will come back and economy will bounce back quite quickly. the longer it goes on the more structural damage you do to the economy. not just question will you shut off economy for a month and you get it back on and takes a month to recover that. the longer you shut down an economy the more damage you do to people's confidence about coming back, the more damage you do to people's skills and abilities to find work again, more damage you do to companies willingness to actually take risks of taking on employees, it just, every day, every week that goes by doesn't just extend the dan by a week, it extends the damage by more than a day, more than a week. i worry the longer this goes on the deep are recession we are having. in fact, the longer it takes to get out of that, more damage done to the economy in the process. neil: no i think you're right. not just her, gerry, as we're speaking here, learning in the united kingdom extending the

national lockdown for at least three more weeks that would jibe where we are. they are going further that way. we're also seeing seeing that is under a lockdown, it hasn't made any decision as to formal break, or even partial break. justin viewed dough -- trudeau warning that restraints will be several weeks to come, could be two or three. across the world people are dipping their toes into this but they're not plunging. right? >> companies in europe started reopening. austria started. many so countries didn't go into lockdown. sweden is country that looked at very closely. they didn't have the precautionary measures rest of the world has. accelerating infection rate but not dramatically out of line with other countries in the region. germany will be reopening. they have lower cases, lower death rates. the period we're looking at is,

that period as you say for most countries, does look like for most states, sorry for the new york state at least, is going to be at least another three to four weeks. i think that they're going to have to measure very closely what happens obviously to innexts, what happens to fatalities over that course, and then see if we got to period end of that where they really, really, suppressed this thing. so that the economy can come back and they can get people back to work quite quickly. that must be the hope here. you go further, you suppress it hearter, suppress it deeper so you can really bring people, maybe, in mid-may, you can bring people back to work. get economy going. we can get restaurants, bars, businesses open again. maybe for a period at least until the autumn, when there is a fear the virus will come back in some form we can have period reasonably sustained economic activity in that period, so we got ourselves in some kind of a shape and mate ourselves ready for the wave, if and when it

comes. neil: gerry, very good catching with you, my friend. gerry baker, "wall street journal at large," phenomenal show. getting into very issues we got in here. news that might have added to selling turned positive in the market, in new york, number one state with cases and deaths an indication that these provisions sheltering at home, all the distancing stuff, everything goes with it are going to remain in place for at least another two weeks. some might interpret this as a sign that the business boom that many hoped to see is also then delayed for another couple weeks. we shall see. stay with us.

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♪. neil: the new york pause policies, close down policies, will be extended in coordination with other states to may 15th. neil: all right. that was andrew cuomo just a few minutes ago. notice when he said the pause will continue with other states until may 15th. not april 30th. not the so-called may 1st return date that a lot of people have been looking at, the first business day, would be obviously

monday, may 4th. he remember, was working in concert with sort of a regional group of governors that included connecticut and new jersey, delaware, pennsylvania, rhode island. i think i covered the key ones there. so that seemed to indicate from the governor that at least those states are holding offer, you know, unwinding some of these sheltering provisions until at least may 15 now, not, may 1st. whether other states follow suit is anyone's guess. california, goof vin newsom works in concert with the governors of oregon and washington state. they were coming out of this very, very early. remember it started out in the west coast, continued to spread, jumped actually to the east coast. they're unwinding this. i'm not quite sure they would be in sync with such a policy but they might. this is the first sign here the deadline to get people back to work sooner rather than later is

pushed back to well, just a little later. representative lee zeldin, republican congressman from new york right now. congressman, what do you think of that, may 15? >> so i happen to represent a congressional district in suffolk county in long island, we have been hit really hard. this is maybe one of the largest hot spots, if not the largest hot spot in the entire country, look at new york city through the east end of long island. for our area this is not a surprise. i do think that for other parts of new york state, for other parts of this six, seven, state regional pact, there might be areas might be more restless, you're seeing a coronavirus lower positive rate and a lot of anxiety to get back to work and school. so formy area probably won't be that much pushback. we certainly need the economy back up and running as soon as possibility. we'll see what the feedback is for other parts of the state or region because as i mentioned, a

lot of the other geographic area here is not hit as hard as my area is being hit. neil: congressman, i think the president announced you are among those on his task force or advisory committee, i don't know what it's called to be honest sir, to decide if and when things open up. if you come out of the district heavily hit by this virus were to make a recommendation to him based on what you heard from governor cuomo and by that extension the other five governors in the northeast who are working in concert with one another, would you tell him, we should make it the 15th? >> i think for an area like mine it makes sense. i had a call this morning with the president where this was a topic of the conversation. talking to one colleague about three nights ago. his district, entire congressional district had less than 50 cases. whether it is another part of

new york state or this region much six or seven governors banning together or parts of the country, what i'm expecting to see in my opinion is that you will see a reopening, maybe even before the end of this month, other parts of the country this is also really drives home the need to continue ramp up the rapid testing there is an approval process for multiple different types of antibody testing there was an emergency use authorization with cambio, which is company in my congressional district, produce that across the country and getting that approval process over the finish line is what you want to do this smartly, precisely in a way that doesn't cause another outbreak. factor in geography, not just in new york state, the other country, you will not be able to turn on a switch all across america at once.

i think the president gets that. neil: all right. i'm just wondering what happens now, congressman? because obviously as you indicated they want to do this carefully. districts like yours, it matters a great deal for their health, public health and safety to not rush anything. you also talked in the beginning about the need to see more testing. jeff bezos, who i guess will serve on the same advisory board with you, you're in an elite crowd, by the way, congressman, he also talked about the need for a lot more testing. do you know what a lot more is? in other words, do they want to get to the point where it is one out of every 10,000, 20,000 americans tested which it got very, very close to in germany, or, or, could they live with levels now closer to one out of every 80,000? i don't want to be arcane about it, but apparently those are the kind of numbers that the experts want to see, what about you?

>> yeah. so, as far as which specific tests and as you referenced the experts as well, that's a key factor as well, the different tests are also a factor here. what are we trying to do? are we trying to identify positive? are we trying to test immunity? how does that fit into a plan? i think testing in an area where it is more densely, more of a ends did population will be bigger issue of concern and need than other parts of the country more spread out. so the answer to that question may not be the same for only one state to another but also from one region of a state to another. i do think there is going to be a need in place like new york city, long island, westchester, new jersey, michigan, louisiana, elsewhere, there is going to be need for more testing. so that number of how many tests of a particular type of test per population i think will be different. i use the michigan example,

might be different in detroit than some other part of the state. meanwhile, you're going to have to figure out how to ramp up manufacturing, understanding that sometimes the prototype of a great design, an accurate design, a cheap, a fast design, can be developed by someone who may not have the business mind-set or the resources to produce 10 million different versions of that particular test. so the federal government working with states, private industry, will be key over the course of the next two weeks, towards the end of the month, to allow those particular designs. we don't have manufacturing capability, to help set them up with a partner who really can. neil: congressman, i know you've been a busy guy. continued good health. and to your constituents. congressman sell didnt of -- zeldin of new york. unwinding provisions of in

effect better part of three weeks but the news story today will get a lot more currency and traction as the day goes on, decision on part of new york, looks like connecticut and rhode island and new jersey and delaware and pennsylvania, that this is what will be the case through at least the middle of may and pennsylvania's governor tom wolf is on the wires, while there is republican push on the state to reopen businesses immediately, and they pushed legislation in that regard, the governor said he would veto that legislation. so what does that mean for a lot of people making their plans, whether, even if kids can get back to school? now they have toe think that things are pushed back to may 15th, typically school years end, end of may, if you think about it, is it june or trouble or the date to even consider sending kid back. all of that is now in play as a key deadline to pushed back two

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neil: all right. we live in a bifurcated country and this might be the latest example of that what is happening in the eats coast with states like new york and pennsylvania, new jersey, delaware, connecticut, massachusetts, rhode island among those say you know what, better part of valor to push the self-quarantine, whatever you want to call it for at least another couple of weeks past the may 1st deadline which would mean another four weeks what 94% of this country has gotten used to, to residents in those states. they make up, i'm doing the rough math in my head, about 1/5 of the u.s. population will continue under these provisions for at least another month. now you might notice on the left-hand side of your screen we're looking at washington state and oregon and california, they have largely, eastern though a lot of this started,

particularly washington state, seattle area, they have been coming out of this and so we always like to see what they're telegraphing. maybe santa cruz county in california is giving the first sign of that. officials announced, parks, beaches, some recreational areas will open to the public starting on april 16th. that would be today. this of course at a time when states stay-at-home orders remain in effect. there will be exceptions certainly in santa cruz county. the governor, gavin newsom there, working with in concert with the governors of oregon and washington state, talking increasingly how the trend and arc improved dramatically in all three of their states. so whether they would be inclined to extend sheltering measures, another two weeks would seem doubtful. that's my leap there. it is probably not accurate but would seem they would not go

that route. so you hear about this sort staffingerred roll out, getting back to business appears to be business, but slowly, some parts of the country, not all parts of the country. then there is what is going on in michigan right now, in the last couple of weeks, shot up to the third highest case of coronavirus cases in the united states behind new york and new jersey and further crackdown on measures to keep people distancing and far more has not gone down well. mike tobin with the latest. mike. reporter: the latest that you have a group of sheriffs in michigan who now say they will not strictly enforce stay-at-home orders from michigan governor in gretchen whitmer. in press release, four sheriffs in the lower part of the state we question some of the restrictions she has imposed overstepping her executive authority. she has created a vague

framework of emergency laws only confuse michigan citizens. now that argument is part of what had demonstrators out in their cars locking up traffic in the state capital at lansing. demonstrators say elements of the stay-at-home order are arbitrary, too restrictive. they impose same restrictions on rural parts of the state as detroit where the spread is very severe. >> time to open up. the sick taken care of. if you're sick, stay home and stay in your house. the ones that need to work, need to work. we need to open our businesses. reporter: whitmer pushed back at demonstrators, saying behavior getting out of cars put people at risk and likely created a need to extend the stay-at-home orders. a similar sentiment was expressed by kentucky governor andy beshear. they said open up kentucky, so loud, that the governor's briefing on coronavirus was interrupted.

>> the orders -- [inaudible]. >> believes we should reopen kentucky immediately right now. folks, that would kill people. it would absolutely kill people. reporter: reopened virginia protest is underway right now. there have been protests in ohio, in texas, all over the place. more are planned for the weekend, neil. neil: mike tobin, thank you very, very much. update you on states, countries as well that are updating what they're going to do. you heard yesterday about germany intending to get everything back, or try to get most everyone back next week. kids back in school the week after that. we're hearing separately from the united kingdom their provisions will remain in effect for three weeks which would take us into the first week of may. even that they're not guarantying would be the right time to ease up on anything but in britain stay at home provisions in place here. they came relatively late to

britain, would stay for at least another three weeks, total of five to six weeks from that first wave that started there. again, britain was one of the last countries to institute such provisions. we got dr. jen caudill on all these developments. every time i talk to you we always have breaking news developments and you flawlessly address them with little or no warning. i gave you no warning here. so what do you make of what at least tentatively decided in the new york area, the northeast, some of the biggest states in the country, certainly in the case of new york and new jersey, the hardest hit of virus cases in the country to push this getting back to you know, work for another couple weeks? >> i'm perfectly fine with it. i think it is a good idea. i'm one of the people who live in these states. i live in pennsylvania. you know, we know what is happening here on the east coast.

i agree with it, neil. we talk every week about this issue. and it scares me, it really, really scares me, talk about getting back without seemingly well-thought out discussion about how we're going to go do it and how we're going to do it safely. that is the name of the game. nobody is saying we can't and shouldn't get back. of course our economy, we need it, our people need jobs but we also have to protect lives. and we have got to save lives. we know that social distancing, these measures really do that. it's important. neil, i agree with it, i really do. neil: you know, doctor, it's always a delicate balance as you reminded me. if you think about it i don't want to put it in crass terms, we're simply saying when we go back how much hardship or potential increase in cases, even deaths can we endure or can be justified to get the economy

back? it is a tough choice but that is really what it comes down to, right? you don't want obviously to see a serious spike in cases but is it your sense we will get, no matter when we get back to work we will see a spike in cases? >> you know, neil, i think you put that quite well. it is a hard thing to put into words and kind of astonishing to hear, right? you're really encapsulating quite appropriately. what's the balance? how much are we willing to lose? and that's what is so wrong about this in my opinion. that is the problem with this. now we do think that we're going to have coronavirus cases that go well into the future. it is not going to suddenly just stop but this is what my problem is. it almost feels like a very odd dichotomy, for example, here in pennsylvania, i live in philadelphia, right? pennsylvania just now released an order for all essential businesses, for customers and

workers that go into essential businesses all have to be wearing masks. on one hand we are still ramping up in this country, protective guidelines and protocols but at the same time there are other parts and other people talking about getting back to work. there is a very odd sort of confusing dichotomy with that. not that we can't and aren't supposed to be getting back to work, but we're literally still trying, in the thick of things trying to save people's lives, trying to turn this thing around. we can do it, but i think we need more time and need more protoke tiff measures in place to get back to work at a later time. neil: you know that is very profound, doctor. i hadn't thought of that, you're quite right in the middle of all of this, in state the like new york, pennsylvania, elsewhere, new jersey where i live, they're talking about now everyone wearing masks. so in the middle of mask why would you rush back. it is a weird conundrum. doctor, thank you very, very much, much appreciated.

>> thank you. neil: doctor as concerns no with standing, some of the states saying better part of valor for now, we're going to push this back a little bit and don't be surprised other states follow suit and others do not. that is the idea of slow roll out on this, some roll, some don't. stay with us. dow down 223. elieve moderate pa, yet non-addictive and gentle on the body. salonpas. it's good medicine. hisamitsu.

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♪. neil: all right. there are landlords and then there are landlords like this one. david run as company called bpp holdings run as country in real estate. he decided to do something that shocked peopled, tenants in month claire, new jersey, april, may, june rent, don't worry about it. he has been praised by the tenants and new jersey governor phil murphy of politicians of both stripes. amazed by the generosity. some other fellow landlords across the country are saying, are you nuts? david is kind enough to join us right now. david, a nice thing to do. what made you do it? >> appreciate you having me. good for business in our mind. we were fortunate enough to be in a position to provide this to

our tenants. but the real reason is we think to pay it forward to our tenants. we asked them pay it forward within the local community of montclair, new jersey where they're all based. some are small businesses. some are residents. we think that is good for the local community, good for the local economy. it will come back and be good for us as landlords and stewards in the community. neil: there's a concept but you will take a financial hit, david, you know that? are you okay with that? >> yeah. it's, you know, it is dollars out of our pocket but we're looking at this, kind of through a long windshield, looking down in the distance and you know, the immediate impact we think will be earned back tenfold plus down the road as we progress through all the uncertainty we have ahead of us. you know hopefully we retain all the commercial, retail tenancy through the other side of this.

thus far we were contacted by number of other tenants in the surrounding area, when my lease is up i would prefer to be a tenant in your building. i have a viable business. great job paying me rent. i appreciate you being my landlord versus where we are today. that is great to hear. i certainly don't think every landlord is in the position we are in or don't think every landlord should be obligated to cover rents for tenants. a conversation is necessary, if you're a tenant in distress, if you are a landlord, have compassion for your customers. we view tenants as customers. reach out to them, see if there is anything you can do to help them out of a tough situation. i think it will benefit both parties coming through the other side of this. neil: what is your their reaction, your tenants reaction? >> obviously elated. one wrote me said this is the kindest thing i have ever seen, that is unusual.

honestly sad so unusual, that land lord caring for the tenant base. i'm not unique caring for their tenant base. a lot of landlords are concerned about viability of both a lot of their tenants on the residential side and commercial side but having compassion right now for these folks is what needs to be done. i think more of us that can do it, the better we're all going to be coming through this. neil: what made you do this for three months? >> great question. it started with two. we made a decision to offer again for june. really just not knowing how long, you know this is going to last. when i say this, the shutdown you were just talking about it. it is the contentious debate right now when do we open things back up? certainly when things certainly open back up we don't know what the new normal is going to look like or if we ever return to what normal was in our minds.

three months was something we could afford to do. we brought that to our tenants. june is the last month we're financially capable of abating rents. we're asking our tenants if they're in financial stress beyond june, let us know and we'll try to come up with a solution for both of us. neil: no matter what happens in your state of new jersey where governor phil murphy talked about a june, july time frame before he thinks of things getting back, i don't know whether he talks about lifting these provisions this does not go beyond the three months you guaranteed your tenants, right? >> yeah. right now we're comfortable with three months i guess. you know when we get to june we'll see where we are, where the world is. certainly we want to be compassionate for our tenants if they're does tested. we don't want to close a business or be the us cause of closing a business and forcing somebody out without a roof over their heads. we will handle each case on a case-by-case basis. neil: david, you're a remarkable man. christmas came early to a lot of

tenants who were no doubt worry what would happen. david, thank you very much. >> thank you, appreciate it. neil: all right. be well. nice story to hear. you don't hear too much of that, again when you think about it, maybe he has the where with all to do this to make it possible but the real estate market is looking a little bit dicey period, to say nothing, say nothing what is going on the residential side or corporate side. it is a whole different ball of wax and much more worrisome one. charlie gasparino has been looking at that, charlie? >> we're talking about a major collapse in commercial real estate, neil, if lock downs continue. they probably will continue through may. look at this way, if you can't pay the rent, the banks will foreclose on your property, guess what will happen? you will, lay off everybody anyway whether you get a ppp check or not. that is essentially what is going on right now. banks have been ramping up

foreclosures. businesses are being put out of business. obviously lay offs are going on, spiking, spiking unemployment to very high levels. there is a cascading effect if it keeps going. if the lockdowns continue, as you know, they probably are into early, at least early may, this is going to be, have a cascading effect. so at least one major real estate investor, commercial real estate investor pitched an interesting plan kind of along the lines of your last guest. he is scott schiel. on fox often. he is a big commercial real estate investor. he rents properties to planet hollywood and wendy's you name it. a lot of people can't make payments because they are not going to gyms or wendy's that much. his plan, he presented to the treasury department was pretty simple, again like your last guest, three-month forbearance

on commercial real estate payments, residential real estate payments and credit cards. we're not give forgiving any loans. principle interest gets added on at the end. people can't pay it. if the banks foreclose on properties, get multiplier check, forget about the ppp check, forget about assistance that is coming, you're essentially putting people out of business right now based on those foreclosures. what does the treasury have to say? we should point out, that scheel, interviewed him. he presented it to mnuchin'ss office, treasury secretary steve mnuchin office, kind of got the cold showedder. working the round. jared kushner reaching out to. so far no good as far as he is concerned but it is an interesting plan because i will tell you that commercial real estate, i've been hearing this from multiple sources is starting to get hammered know like there is no tomorrow.

there are foreclosures by banks. the banks are putting businesses out of business based on foreclosures. a couple other things we're pointing out. people on the front line, doctors. there is a lot of doctors that spout off about this, they haven't been in an icu ward ever in their lives, including as residents. the doctors on the front lines, i've been speaking with them, my brother is one of those doctors. have been telling me lockdowns have made significant progress in halting spread of the virus. if anything made significant progress, not the malaria drug people keep touting, even the president, it is lockdowns. now that is the positive thing. lockdowns have helped stop spread of the virus, no doubt. the negative things these lockdowns are crushed our economy and you are seeing knit commercial real estate and at some point, we got to figure out you know, is the cure worse than

the disease obviously? the medical profession like dr. fauci would say we need to go further. economists say we're creating a great depression. this is probably the scariest story i have ever covered. you and i have been around for a while. been through the financial crisis. this thing is an unbelievable travesty, what we're going through right here. neil, back to you. neil: it could get worse. charlie, thank you very much. to knows that are looking to extend the stay at home provisions indefinitely. this includes st. louis, missouri by the way, but now indefinitely. we'll have more after this. life isn't a straight line.

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neil: all right. staying at home a little longer. for much of the east coast, at least some of the biggest states along the east coast, the stay-at-home provisions are going to remain pretty much the rule of the land until at least the middle of next month. separately, i'm sorry, st. louis county, missouri is talking of keeping these provisos in effect indefinitely. that's in the eastern-central part of the state, including st. louis, but these provisions would be in place indefinitely, so that's a sign that maybe, another provision that missouri will be pushed back beyond just the april 30th deadline. so there's a lot going on, lot of moving parts to this. no indication what other states might do. i mentioned the new york, new jersey, connecticut, delaware, rhode island phenomenon along with pennsylvania because those states conducted a joint presser earlier this week to say that they would move in concert and

coordination with one another so we can only assume those six states then will, in fact, keep these provisions going until the middle of next month. in other words, another full month. so that's what's happening there. the market which had been mildly to the positive before we got this news quickly turned south, not exclusively on this news but most of the financial community, i guess like most americans, would prefer this end sooner rather than later and this delays that light at the end of the tunnel or getting to it. depending on who you're talking to, it's either a relief or bit of a concern. connell mcshane has other developments that are fast-moving as well on the fallout from all this. connell: we know the economic hardships being experienced not only in these states but all around the country and obviously, those hardships will be extended with the headline of the day coming from the governor of the hardest-hit state by this coronavirus pandemic, andrew cuomo in new york saying may 1st as a date of reopening for the economy is now officially off

the table. stay-at-home orders stay in place at least until the 15th of may. hoor here's how the governor put it a short time ago at the state capital in albany. >> when is it finally over? it's over when you have a vaccine and that's 12 months to 18 months. we have said to the fda any way we can be helpful in the testing of that vaccine, how do we accelerate that, how do we expedite it, new york is ready, willing and able to do that with the fda. connell: now, the governor did outline his own plan for reopening the economy once the time is right and he's focused on things like controlling the infection rate, he says, strengthening the health care system and really putting an emphasis on that third point as are other governors, increasing the amount of tests available and the contact tracing and governor cuomo says he will need a federal partnership to do that and once new yorkers do return to work, they won't do it all at the same time. it will be phased in, says governor cuomo and to the point neil was making off the top,

this is being coordinated with other states in the region and we know the states new york has been working with, it's new york and six others in the east, new york, new jersey, pennsylvania, delaware, rhode island, massachusetts and connecticut. separate from that coalition, we will wait to hear from more officials in those states as the day goes on, the three states out west are also coordinating, california, oregon and washington. that's separate but the governor of california yesterday, gavin newsom, outlined his plan for reopening. he also, like cuomo, emphasized testing. he didn't put a date on it and it's interesting to watch as all of this kind of develops at once between state, local and even federal officials. we had a head line, for example, speaking of california, from santa cruz county that came out today and they say they are opening in the county the parks and beaches and starting to reopen some of the parks and beaches as early as today. in that same announcement they acknowledge that the stay-at-home orders both on a county and state level will remain in effect. so that opening might be almost in name only but again, it

speaks to how all of these things need to be coordinated on local level, on state level and on the federal level. on that final point, we will hear from president trump later today. he's expected to announce guidelines for how the states should go about reopening their economies but you know, as we have learned from speaking to all the legal experts this week, we know those are just guidelines, carrying with them the power of persuasion, whereas the legal authority to make these decisions, that rests with people like andrew cuomo and other governors. we will see how it all plays out but big announcement from governor cuomo today. neil: thank you very much, connell mcshane. new york mayor bill deblasio is doing a radio interview now and also updating new york city residents about what's in store. i don't know if he was directly asked about the governor's plan to keep these stay-at-home provisions going for another couple of weeks, so about a month more, but he was asked about opening beaches, public

pools, in the summer and he seemed to put the kibosh on that, saying it is distinctly possible they will be closed all summer, quoting imagine coney island in the summer, popular new york beach retreat, hundreds of thousands of people packed tightly together, i don't see that happening any time soon. any time soon could be the present period and the early spring but the summer is the real money moment for coney islanders and those who like to go to beaches and concerts in the summer. if that is the case, the beach that would be under his immediate jurisdiction, it might not happen. so those are among some of the developments you look at. you might have heard again from the mayor of los angeles, even though they are in a much better situation as far as the arc of this virus, the fact of the matter is he was very much against reopening large venues, concerts, convention centers, saying that large crowds, getting together at this time

would be unwise. that might continue through the rest of the year there in los angeles. but it is a reminder that in dribs and drabs one one state or locality does is often imitated, albeit in different ways, but the upshot here is that this staggering effect or delayed effect is going to be delayed and staggered a little bit more than people appreciate. carol roth, former investment banker, very good at sort of crunching the numbers on all of this because, well, someone has to do that. carol, i would imagine given these latest developments, it delays what economic pickup many hoped to see from average folks all the way up to the president of the united states. might be fully warranted, might be the better part of valor for these states, but it's going to jar folks. what do you think? >> yeah, absolutely. i think too many people are treating the economy like a computer, like you can unplug it and plug it back in and reboot

it and all of a sudden, all of your problems go away. unfortunately, that's just not the case. we've got two separate but related issues on the business side. you've got small businesses which are half of the economy, which don't have the financial wherewithal to withstand months and months and months of being shut down, and we are even seeing the ppp dollars for the small businesses they cover running out. so if you can survive that, you may have to come back online at 30% or 40% or 50% of your work force, then on the consumer side, if you have lost your job or are concerned about you are going to be rationing dollars and it's going to be a complete change in consumer behavior. even if they open up coney island like you were talking about, it doesn't mean people are going to want to go there. doesn't mean people will want to see their dentist for a cleaning or get a massage or all the things people usually do at the same level and the same ways they did before. you put all of that together,

that's going to have a severe impact on businesses and on jobs in the short and medium term, and then long term effects from there. neil: you think about it, carol, looking at the immediate effect already, the latest, you know, jump of 5.25 million americans applying for jobless benefits in the latest week. we are well north of 22 million not getting a paycheck. where do you see that going? >> yeah. i certainly think that you will probably see, you know, a slowing of the increase in the numbers but they will continue to add in the aggregate and even if you don't have people unemployed, you will have people who are underemployed, who maybe have to take a different type of job or work fewer hours because of what i had laid out on both the business front and the consumer behavior front before. so this is going to be a major drag on the economy and if you don't believe that we are in a

recession right now, then you will believe it in the coming months. neil: it certainly looks that way now. you always hope you bounce out of these things. it's going to be tough, what you indicated would be the reluctance on the part of americans, whether it's an edict from a county or a mayor, to open up venues, the fact of the matter is they are going to be scared to do that so i look at surveys out of philadelphia, out of the empire state, new york, that at or near all-time lows. they have never been so bad. then i see retail sales sliding more than people thought and feared. i also see the housing industry potentially contracting, home sales, other related data shows serious, serious stalling going on here. where does this all go? >> yeah. i think that it's going to continue to slide until you can get that consumer confidence back up, and testing certainly will help some of it. i think some people who have gotten over the disease able to

feel hopefully if they get the information that they have the antibodies and are immune from it, which we are still waiting the find that out with some definition, you know, that can help more people be part of the economy. but until there is a vaccine or clear treatment and some sort of comfort of how people can go about their lives without contracting the disease, people are going to be, you know, in large part, not everybody, but in large part very reticent to engage in the same kinds of behaviors and that is just going to have a continual drag on the economy, unfortunately. i hate being the bearer of bad news. you know i like to keep it light and funny but this is the reality we are facing. neil: i want to tip my hat to you, if i wore a hat, because no hat could sit on my head but the fact is, you were saying forget the economic numbers, i'm kind of paraphrasing, look at the progress or lack thereof on this virus and that will kind of dictate the course of things. you have been right.

we will see what happens now but carol, thank you very much for joining us. i appreciate it. >> stay safe. neil: you, too. carol roth on all of that. kennedy joining us right now, these latest developments. you know, it's one thing to say we will push things back another couple of weeks. you are seeing similar moves not across the board, in other parts of the world, in england where they are going to push it back another couple of weeks. germany the exception to that, maybe they will be back to things almost as usual next week, kids back in school the week after that. but it is a bumpy kind of road out here. what do you make of it? >> it's bumpy and very anxiety-provoking. it's hard for parents worrying enough about not having an income, not being able to pay the bills and provide for the family and at the same time, having to act as school teachers and caretakers for kids full-time.

this is a situation that no one saw coming and if that is not a partisan thing, it's not that it was just a failure of members of the administration or some senators. you have the world health organization, chinese propaganda that new york city health commissioner in addition to members of the president's administration who were really downplaying this and now what has happened is our plans have kind of been all over the place. so a country that had done best combatting the virus and flattening the curve, it's been all about testing and we are still lagging there. and you know, we are now really two months into this process and there are so many outstanding questions about testing and the efficacy, what do people do who have had a false negative? when can they return to normal and what do the antibody tests tell us if and when we can actually get them? there's a lot of talk about people who had the virus and

recovered using their plasma in order to heal those who are most vulnerable who contracted the disease. there's a one-month window between contraction and, you know, the terminus of that window and if you don't have the antibody test for another month, you may not have enough recovered people who had the virus to provide plasma that could heal people who are just now getting sick. so information is all over the place. i never am surprised when bureaucracies fail to operate in a straight line or transparently, and you know, we really have to rethink our priorities here. neil: to put it mildly. you touched on something about how we react, ultimately. i'm sure you think about what is the safest time as a mom to get

back and unwind no matter what a state governor or mayor tells you to do. my last guest was getting into that about whether the edict coming from a state house or the white house, people are going to feel a little anxious about going no crointo crowded venues theaters, restaurants. so it will be a slow moving back, won't it? >> yes, absolutely. and you know, gavin newsom, i don't agree with him on very much, he's the governor of california, but he said it's not going to be a light switch, it's going to be like a dimmer and as parents, we have to think what does the future of education, the short term and longer term, look like. are we going to have future contraction periods where we are going to have to have social distancing and quarantining again in the future and if so, we are going to have to have flexible employment but we have to have the employment. we have to have the employment so we can continue to support small businesses and william bennett said something i thought was actually great advice for

parents and that is lead your children with your own compo comportment how you want them to react. so if you are calm and in control of the circumstances around you, your kids will follow. it's really hard to do that when you are not quite sure when your next paycheck is going to come in, but you know, it really is an exercise in meditation for a lot of parents to try and stay calm, employ some of that flexibility and really try and figure out together as individuals and as families and as communities, where we go from here and how we support each other. neil: very well put. very well put. kennedy, thank you very much. good catching up with you, my friend. >> good to see you. neil: kennedy touched on a couple key points about how we comport ourselves through all this, especially for those who were hoping if you are in any of these six states affected by this push-back on at-home

provisions here, and maybe hoping they could get out and back with their lives, they can't. at least not right away. how do people adjust to that? after this. here's huge news for veterans with va loans. mortgage rates have dropped to all time lows. by refinancing now, you can save $2000 a year. and newday's va streamline refi shortcuts the process. veterans can refinance with no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. one call could save you $2000 a year.

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neil: all right. real quickly i want to pass along some news from the chairman of morgan stanley who was saying expect this contraction, this recession, this slowdown, to last through the end of the year, no matter what happens elsewhere with various states and regions, and that it could potentially go into 2021. i don't think that warrants necessarily a fox news or business alert, kind of stating the obvious, but again, indicating that the hit on our economy is real, pronounced and it's going to hang on quite awhile. we are following that. we are also following what the government is trying to do right now to deal with this on two

different sides. to deal with it now and to deal with how this started. especially how it started in china. right now, we are looking into that and investigating into how this all began. reporter: right now, fox news can confirm two new important pieces of this coronavirus puzzle. there is an investigation, a u.s. investigation, into this infectious diseases lab inside wuhan, china and investigators are looking at the possibility that an employee of that lab accidentally released the virus into the wuhan general population back in december. sources we have been speaking to over the last 24 hours tell us this scenario is becoming increasingly likely. now, the chinese foreign ministry also responding directly to fox news's reporting on this story. listen to what their spokesperson says. >> translator: the head of the w.h.o. has stated many times

that there is no evidence that the new coronavirus originated in the laboratory. many prominent medical experts in the world also believe that the so-called laboratory leaks have no scientific basis. reporter: now, secretary of state pompeo cautioned fox news last night there's still a lot to learn before investigators can conclusively say the virus was released from this lab and didn't originate in a wet market, as china's government has claimed. listen. >> the mere fact that we don't know the answers, that china hasn't shared the answers, i think is very very telling. we know that there is the wuhan institute of virology just a handful of miles away from where the wet market was. reporter: trade adviser poe er navarro says one of the reasons china's government delayed reporting on the virus early on was to buy time so they could stockpile ppe and medical equipment. take a listen. >> it was going systematically around the world, vacuuming up all of the personal protective

equipment that people in america and milan and everywhere else would need to defend themselves, and they bought over two billion masks between january 24th and the end of february alone. reporter: neil, we are also digging into the safety protocols in place at this lab. we are learning that in addition to those two state department cables that flagged worries about lax safety practices inside the lab from state department officials two years ago, we are also learning this lab may not have been operating at a biosafety level 4 that they were clear to operate, we heard from sources, the practices they had in place closely mirror a biosafety level 2. we will bring you more on that as we get it. neil? neil: jillian, thank you very, very much. jillian turner on all of that. in the meantime, we are focused on california before, told you about santa cruz county planning to reopen, in fact, some of the beaches reopening today as

california moves a little bit more aggressively since they hit their peak some weeks ago and are now coming out of that, so it did raise suspicions that maybe the state itself will be more inclined to get back to any of these stay-at-home provisions along with much but not all the rest of the country at the end of this month, beginning of next month. you heard the northeast, some big states like new york and new jersey, it's going to be at least until the middle of next month. that would be may 15th. so another month there. in the middle of all of that, the state has started raising the issue of stimulus checks that are going to apparently miss a lot of californians. the details, though, that among the californians who are not going to be participating in this, about 150,000 of them who are technically illegal immigrants. the governor wants to address that by providing some support to them.

what do you make of this, in the middle of the shortage getting that money out to regular folks, regular citizens who are waiting for it, the governor of california wants to extend it to those who are not legally here, about 150,000 of them. >> yeah. let me first start by saying i have a heart for everybody that's suffering through covid-19, those who have experienced financial loss, 100%. truthfully speaking as we come together as a country, this is one in which we should pay attention to what the citizens of this country are experiencing, how we are going to help them more than anything else and when i look at the numbers in california, you are talking about 2.7 million people unemployed in the state of california, the business roundtable in california has suggested there's going to be over 43% of californians who are at high risk for unemployment and those numbers are actually telling the story, 2.7 number. you know, i was so jarred when i learned about this from governor gavin newsom using $75 million of state funds to support those,

not just those who are undocumented but you don't have to prove that you are an undocumented person, you don't have to provide much personal information at all, and i mean, to use state funds when there are legitimate citizens who really need the help, it was discouraging to me. we have over 150,000 homeless individuals on the streets of california who need the help. we have folks who are in the state of california who didn't qualify for a stimulus payment because maybe they made $1 over $95,000 or $99,000, i should say. these are individuals who also need that kind of money so to use $75 million of government money when we can use it for other things i thought was not the right move. neil: you talk about the timing of it, too, just as we exhausted this $350, $360 billion for small businesses and they are waiting for additional $250 billion in funding that as you

know is held in limbo here, do you know how average californians feel about all this? >> interestingly enough, from the conversations i've had with numerous people, people are clearly outraged. one thing that i can say governor newsom did well is by getting nonprofits together to provide for those who may be undocumented. i think putting that kind of funding together for them with the exception not including the state funding, i think that's great. i think nonprofits should, if they want to pick up the tab and help those in need, that's an actual way of going about it. however, there's a lot of people who are outraged because they don't feel they are being supplied for, their needs are being supplied for and at this particular point in time, we have to look out for those who are clearly doing the right things, talking about folks that are here legally, and we can't incentivize those who may be in the state of california illegally and provide funding for them. again, if you are a nonprofit and you want to do that, i think that's excellent.

however, not using state funds. neil: all right. gianno, very good having you. be safe, be healthy, be well. the president is going to be talking to all 50 state governors, it's a joint call that will be coming up in about 90 minutes. it will be the first opportunity to hear and respond to those governors who decided for the better of our safety and valor we are pushing this back another couple weeks so another month of stay-at-home provisions. the president is trying to find a way to get the country back to something resembling what it was before. or try.

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neil: you know, you think about all the impact to businesses as a result of the pandemic.

if only there were pandemic insurance. well, you know, it is and the folks behind wimbledon had it. ashley webster here with the latest. hey, ashley. ashley: hey, neil. wouldn't it have been great if you were the guy that said at the conference meeting you know what we should be paying? we should be paying pandemic insurance. that's exactly what happened and while global sport has been shut down, the wimbledon championships have been canceled and that is a huge financial blow. in fact, that's about a blow of $314 million in lost revenue, but organizers of the wimbledon championships, the all england club, said that that revenue loss has been softened a bit by an insurance payment of some $141 million. how did they do that? back in 2002 if you remember, we had the sars outbreak and as a result of that, the championship decided it would pay insurance against a pandemic stopping the tournament. that's almost 18 years. at, by the way, a cost of $2

million a year but it turns out to be money well spent. >> think about the risk manager that purchased every year for 17 years, i paid $2 million and got nothing in return then boom, all of a sudden, there's $143 million payout because this event that this pandemic event that happened, this insurance was purchased for what we call in the business low frequency high severity event. ashley: that's it exactly. by the way, the championship also insures against a slew of other things including terrorism, even the death of a monarch. the all england club sent a statement saying in part as a global event with significant public attention, we have always sought to purchase the optimum insurance cover available to us. it's not just wimbledon. the british open golf tournament also canceled this year as opposed to being rescheduled because the open had purchased pandemic insurance as well, but

reportedly had to cancel by a certain date in order to collect on the payment. but the bottom line is how many other sports groups, leagues, associations will now consider paying pandemic premiums going forward. neil: well, if only other sports knew about it, right? great reporting. thank you so much. ashley webster. you know, a lot of sports, they want to return, the stadiums and all of that, get baseball going, but they would be in empty stadiums, i guess. anthony fauci has talked about all of that, in which he said sports will return if fans stay home. i don't know what doug eldridge thinks about that but the sports agent no doubt has some thoughts. so we play ball but there's no one in the stands to watch it. >> well, yes, that's the idea. it's ironic that we are

discussing the opportunity of possibly playing in empty stadiums because the last time mlb did that was almost five years to the day, right up the road from me in baltimore, following the death of freddy gray and the riots. it was done out of an abundance of caution and safety. five years later we are living in a very different world, literally and figuratively but the underlying principle is the same. do so out of an abundance of caution but also with an eye and a step toward some sense of normalcy and return to life as we knew it and hopefully will know it again. it should be framed as a question of inconvenient versus inconceivable. if you have the buy-in from the players and some sense of operational logistics from which you can move forward, it might be inconvenient but it's not inconceivable. with the lack of alternative at this point it seems like the only option. neil: but it's a weird option. how do you think that will go down and how popular will it be? i heard one commentator talking about well, put mannequins in

the seats. i don't even know. how will the public receive that? >> well, you know, to put it in context, this past weekend, much of the country tuned in to watch a horse tournament. that's the only sport we have on television right now. that's not a bad joke. it was literally on television. the issue is this. the longer we go, players are going to be faced with a certain reality. some are already operating on a reduced paycheck. some leagues might obviate payment for its entirety obviously for a force majeur, whatever the underlying cause is, but there are a variety of really good questions being asked, not the least of which comes from prominent player mike trout, who said my wife's pregnant, this is going to be our first child. i'm not going to miss the birth but if i leave this pseudo-quarantine and go to be by mow wife's side for the birth of our child, do i have to re-enter the quarantine to be able to come back and play? the idea that's being floated is essentially all 30 ball clubs going to arizona and playing

some length of season, either the entire season or some abbreviated version thereof, but it would be entirely quarantined. the joke is biodome. all the team, all the personnel, all the hotels, everybody is there. nobody in, nobody out. you play out the season. so it is weird for lack of a better word and there are good questions being raised but at least there's a conversation and the dialogue and hopefully, a step toward engaging in the play because i think the entire country is hungry for sport. neil: yeah, but it was a great ali/frazier classic fight on one of the channels, i forget. that was pretty intriguing. i guess not too many takers beyond that. doug, thank you very, very much. always great learning from you, my friend. all right. as we were talking about whatever the baseball season does, with or without fans in the stands, dallas is the latest city to say face coverings are the rule. this is getting to be the case in new york, new jersey, a host of other cities and counties that are saying just to be safe, put the mask on.

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neil: all right. new jersey is keeping its schools closed through the middle of may, may 15th is of course on the heels of new jersey and new york and

connecticut, rhode island, delaware, pennsylvania among those saying we're not going to get rid of these stay-at-home provisions until at least the middle of may. not surprisingly, schools which had been closed for the stay-at-home order will remain closed until at least may 15th. i'm sure other states will, part of that group will confirm the same. in the meantime, we told you a little while ago that the money's run out of that almost $360 billion small business relief plan. now they are getting into the weeds here and discussing the possibility that maybe not all that dough went to small businesses exclusively. jackie deangelis on that. jackie: good afternoon, that's right. the ppp program was meant for employees, employers to keep their employees on the payroll, to pay their expenses, to keep the businesses going while we slow down and then restart the economy, but you've got some small businesses up at arms, saying why aren't my loans being

approved when some of these larger companies where it's legal but not intended perhaps, are getting their loans approved. take high end restaurant chain ruth's chris. it's received $20 million. but the company filed for loans by having two subsidiaries and applying under each of them. then you have potbelly sandwich shops also securing $10 million just after one of its executives received a $100,000 bonus. people angry about that. taco cubana got the loans, too. what are the rules? the eligibility for the ppp loan depends on the business employing less than 500 people per physical location. say a chain has, for example, 20 locations, less than 500 people, can you apply 20 times for the $10 million loan? no, of course not. but it is eligible to get one of those loans approved. in the case of ruth's chris, however, it got two because of that subsidiary provision. potbelly got the one $10 million

loan because its locations employ less than 500. the cases we mentioned don't break the rules per se, but it leaves these questions. where are the loopholes in this program and also, why are certain loans getting approved before others? now you find out today no more applications are being accepted. really tough on some of these small businesses. we did reach out to treasury to get some clarity on this. we have not heard back. back to you. neil: thank you very, very much. jackie deangelis on those payments or lack thereof to the folks who really really need them. again, we are sorting out the details here. also sorting out what's happening to our nation's farmers in all of this. the agriculture secretary was talking to maria bartiromo on this saying that if they need the help, farmers will get direct payments themselves. take a look at this. >> there will be a direct payment both to our specialty crops, both to our dairy, to our livestock cattle, cow calf hogs and others and commodities as

well that have suffered from this. it's affected all of agriculture. that's the beginning of our food supply chain. if we don't have the farmers and ranchers there to produce that food, then there won't be full shelves in the fall. neil: with us now, congresswoman vicky artzler, republican from missouri, on all of these developments. congresswoman, how do you feel about this? right now, you know, farmers that were hoping to benefit from the trade deal we scored with china, now waiting because of the post-virus effects and everything else, i guess, but trying to make good on this any time soon and now some of these hardships with the closure of the smithfield south dakota food plant, pork prices, no one knows what's going to happen, extended to beef, lot of scared farmers. what do you tell them? >> well, absolutely. i'm a farmer myself and talk to a lot of farmers in my district

and it's just devastating and heartbreaking to see what's happening with the prices plummeting as a result of covid-19, as you mentioned with the trade situation that we have, plus farmers have lost 25% of the value of these commodities and farmers are losing money on every pig they sell, every beef cattle that they sell. we have stories of farmers who are plowing their green beans and tomatoes, dairy farmers that are dumping milk and we're not sure what will happen to the extra hogs that now have no place to go with the south dakota plant closing. so it is a crisis. i'm anxiously awaiting to see the final plan that secretary perdue has talked about to release some funding to these farmers. it needs to get here as soon as possible. farmers are distraught and they need to have some certainty. so it's very important we get this money out to them as soon as possible, as well as advocate for even additional funding in a fourth package that's being

debated right now. neil: do you know how soon, if we can get to the bottom of that, i don't know if they would be part of the paycheck protection program but obviously that's hit its limit and they are waiting to see what happens, these direct payments if they come to pass, how soon would they come to pass? >> i feel like they could do it fairly quickly, because there are other government support programs and a lot of farmers are connected through the usda with those, so i feel like it could come out pretty quickly, and i'm very hopeful that it will because they need these funds right now. many farmers did apply for the paycheck protection program which will help to a small extent. as you know, payroll isn't a large amount of a farming operation expenses but still, every bit helps and i know many farmers did apply for those and it is very disappointing that that money has run out now and we have small businesses all

across this country who are the backbone of our economy that aren't going to be able to get them. neil: if i could tap your expertise as a farmer which matters probably a great deal more to your constituents, this smithfield food shut down after better than 100 workers tested positive for coronavirus, i'm told there's no danger to the meat supply. i know the fda said foodborne exposure with this virus is not known to be a route of transmission, but there are a lot of americans hearing about this who are wondering if their meat or pork is safe. what do you say? >> oh, absolutely it is. there's no evidence that there's any correlation or connection with humans being able to get it from food. but these plants are having a labor shortage and struggling to have workers for the last several years, since we had a growing economy and lack of number of people willing to or

can work in the plants, so when you add a sickness that takes workers out of the ability to go to work and help process this pork, that has made it very very difficult, so i'm certainly hopeful that they will be able to get this plant open as soon as possible. there's over 500 independent pork producer farmers that have relied on this plant. they process 20,000 hogs a day and now they have nowhere to take their hogs. so when secretary perdue is talking about the government buying some of these hogs and helping transfer them, get that pork to our food banks and get it perhaps to relief operations overseas where there's need, it's going to be critical to helping in this situation. neil: congresswoman, thank you very, very much for that update. we will see what happens. in the meantime, we will take a quick break. we are showing you down arrows on the dow jones industrials but some up arrows on some really big ones for amazon and netflix.

not surprisingly, people sort of shelter at home are streaming anything and everything and shopping there. all-time highs for amazon and netflix. stay with us.

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a lot of trucks out there, a lot of big mack trucks delivering goods all over the country. they're very much in demand. the president will recognize their importance to the economy. he is a truck driver and contributor to the federalist, among other things. hosts a show on youtube, called trucker hacks. he knows what he speaks and very, very much believes the importance of truckers, one himself. very good to have you, matthew. thank you for coming. it is true. people forget how important truckers are. man, if we had any importance of the lifeblood of our economy, they're still humming, aren't they? >> absolutely correct, neil. only thing that is a little bit strange out here, i can blow through chicago at 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon. but other than that, all us truckers are still out here, hauling good to construction sites. steelers are milling steel. construction workers are still building stuff out here. i think on the other side of this we're going to come out of

it a little better than we might think. really that is the backbone of our economy. granted we don't get get to go out to dinner or see a movie or go to the maul but us truck drivers are still hauling still as busy as ever. neil: one thing that bothered me, you guys have a devil of a time trying to go through drive-throughs, right? you can't even go through a drive-throughs to get something to eat. some locals walked out of trucks to go to the drive-through. one stop in new jersey, one trucker was refused, other people seeing what was going on, so incensed, let him hop into their cars to go through the drive-through with them. is that a big problem? it would be a huge problem for me? >> that is not a problem. trucks are not going through

drive-through honestly. in the midwest i walk up to windows. they're more than gladly ready to serve. all the truck stops are open. they have restaurants. you can't hang out there and eat. bring the food back to the truck. it is no big deal. neil: there is such a defor things delivered to homes and stores what have you, i'm wondering if it is even busier for you now? how would you describe it? >> i would say, i would say so, yeah. i'm getting less sleep and less rest. listening to the radio, talk about economic lockdown, no economic act fifth. we're just going, we're trying to keep our heads above water out here. it is going great guns. neil: matt what do you think of, a lot of states, including seven in the northeast, led by new york around new jersey, they're going to keep the stay at home provisions going for another two weeks. so another month at the very

least. when you hear that, and given the business that is strong for you now, despite all of that, what do you think? >> well, i, i'm not sure speaking out of school too much but i think, neil, at some point we're going to have to just roll the dice on this thing, say okay, this is affecting a certain age group, a certain type of person, healthwise, and we're, if we have to wear masks or whatever else we have to do out there, keep our social distancing but we're going to have, going to have to let the lion loose again on this thing because it is just not feasible to keep it locked down like this. there is just as much risk of life an health keeping people locked down too long as from the virus itself. some people will have to make some gutsy calls here pretty soon, is what i think. neil: yeah. i think you're right. that's the inflection point we're at. matthew garnett, thank you very,

very much. you represent your buddies very, very well. you look out for them. they're food to have a friend like you. thank you, matt, very much. to his point eventually you have to get back to work. as i was saying here, new york, new jersey, connecticut, rhode island, delaware, pennsylvania, massachusetts, i think i left massachusetts out, not for another four weeks. now to charles. hey, charles. charles: hey, neil, thank you very much. good afternoon, everyone, i'm charles payne. this is "making money." breaking at this moment major indices are mixed. the dow lingers, but nasdaq with companies more relevant to our everyday lives, it continues its improbable rebound even after more than five million americans filed initial jobless claims now. the number, better an than the prior two weeks, maybe it gets congress to stop playing games on additional assistance but it is still heartbreaking. president trump will celebrate american truckers at white house this hour, where there is