stuart: i think a lot of people must have one of those money jars, you chuck in your spare change because the average amount of spare change in your house is 56 bucks. quick programing note, former president trump joins maria bartiromo "mornings with maria," 7:00 tomorrow morning. my time's up. but neil, it's yours. neil: thank you, stuart, very, very much. we are in a down market, everyone, down 142 points. earnings are not the problem. maybe anxiety what the president of the united states announces tonight with plans for more spending $1.8 trillion plan added to stimulus efforts already. talking close to $6 trillion new spending not all paid with the high taxes, record high taxes. we'll get into that in a second. suffice it to say there is skiddishness whether the any of this will stick and whether the president gets what he wants.

slimmest majorities in the house, tied senate, with the vice president being the tiebreaker. he has done it before on covid relief. $1.9 trillion package. hopes to do the same with a 2.25 infrastructure plan. the one getting all the attention tonight, plan for kids and families totaling better than $1.8 trillion. hillary vaughn handicapping that ahead of the president's speech tonight. hillary? reporter: neil, president biden will be pitching his next trillion dollar spending package directly to congress. he will make the case for the american families plan. in it is a lot of expensive proposals to pay for things like universal pre-k, for every 3 and 4-year-old in america. free two-year community college for everyone. republicans say these programs should be targeted for the people who cannot afford to pay instead of approving billions in blanket spending. >> i think the biden administration is trying to turn us into europe.

social welfare economy, rather than the vibrant economy that we had pre-pandemic. they don't even want to means test it. for people who actually need help. reporter: biden has a way to pay for it though, raising the top tax rate to 39.6% for the rich. also raising capital gains but the white house says, if republicans don't like that way to pay they can come up with another idea but some republicans argue the government should not be paying for these things in the first place. they may get a commands to tell the president exactly what they think about that. white house press secretary jen psaki saying today republican lawmakers may get an invite to offer a counterproposal to the president at the white house next week. >> so we're talking about here bringing together members in washington. that is also important. there is a proposal, a counterproposal just last week presented from some republicans. we're looking forward to having a discussion about where we can find agreement moving forward. i expect the president will

invite members down to the white house next week. reporter: neil, south carolina senator tim scott will deliver the republican rebuttal tonight after biden's address and republicans tell me today, that he will talk optimistically about the future of the country but says that future should not look more like europe than america. neil? neil: hillary, thank you very much. hillary vaughn on all of that. this will be a special session tonight. only 200 will be in attendance. normally for a presidential address to a joint session of congress they can cram 1600 people in there. we'll talk a little later with kevin brady, the texas republican, former house ways and means committee chairman, ranking minority member what he wants to hear tonight, ahead of that i want to go to scott martin, kingsview asset management. we have brandon arnold with us, national taxpayers union executive vice president. brandon, end with you, begin

with you, own some of the cost associated with this for all the record tax increases it really doesn't foot the entire bill even on this package, let alone the two others. so you have got about $6 trillion worth of spending which less than a third is actually paid. what do you make of that? >> yeah. we're looking at an enormous debt problem already been a major issue for this country. we had to spend over $5 trillion on the covid pandemic. now we're looking at deepening that enormous problem with additional spending that, by the way is accompanied by tax increases that will further slow the economic growth, further slow the recovery we absolutely need right now. so this is a devastating combination of higher spending, higher taxes our country simply cannot afford right now. this is the worst time to be raising taxes by trillions and trillions of dollars, exacerbating our debt problem. neil: you know when i look at some of the plans spending

initiatives, scott, i'm reminded of that warning coming from investment banks, sort of take all of this in, don't do anything rash. this is advice for investors. what do they expect to hear that we don't know already? >> well, look, neil, i mean we know the mantra of this administration is, to be fair a lot of administrations on both sides of the aisle. the government likes to spend your money, mr. and mrs. american taxpayer, and spend money they don't have yet. that is the scary thing to brandon's point. this will jeopardize the reopening of the economy, this great robust economic future that supposedly we have in front of us. the administration has not even given this economy a chance to reopen and rehire and refire from all the doldrums that we've been in the last year largely government-initiated. before we get the economy back to the american people, we're

just going to tax the heck out of it because we need to pay for all the spending for all these crazy programs. that is the upset part of me, the fact that we let the economy create jobs, have people go back to work and get training. the government doesn't need to do that for everybody. we can do that on our own. neil: you know what is interesting about all of this, brandon, is that the american people really approve of this. they like some of these spending initiatives. they don't really care if it is going to be maybe adding to the deficit, adding to the total debt. they're okay with the rich paying for them, that better rich than themselves. what do you make of that? the president actually has fairly widespread support? not off the charts but more generally favoring than not? >> well i think the problem here is that people see this as purely a tax increase on the wealthy and on big corporations. the truth is the tax burden will

fall on every day americans much more than they realize. the tracks association of manufacturers did a study the corporate tax rate increase would lead to the reduction of one million jobs. those will not be corporate c-suite johns. those are every day americans jobs. the higher individual tax rate might appear just to affect the wealthiest americans but that falls on independent businesses as well. independent businesses which are the major job creator in this economy. it is not just hitting the largest companies and wealthiest taxpayers. it will have a major impact on everyday americans more than people realize. once they realize, i hope and anticipate the support for this plan would drop precipitously. neil: you know, scott, as you reminded me the market has been running up with all the various stimulus plans we've seen. the notion that estimate us is good, no matter how it comes, i'm wondering if that will still prevail?

>> it will for a little while. i mean, look, this harkens back to gosh, dare i say my high school days. everybody loves the late-night party until the parents come home. in this case the algoer there is, everybody likes the spending and anticipation of this great reopening until it is like, oh, my gosh, we have to actually pay for this. there is an adult will come into the room, this wasn't free even though the government said it was. that is really the concern. with respect to what you asked brandon, neil, the psychological damage though that the government has done to everybody through this period, which some of it was necessitated, believe me, as far as what we needed to supply the economy just to stay alive and stay open. now they have a lot of folks on this dole, hey, we'll take care of you, we'll pay for this, we'll cover that, we'll tax that rich guy, that businessman, the one who is created economic growth, creating jobs for you. that is the issue where we've got everybody kind of hooked on this spending, on this government reliance that will be

pretty hard to get off of, i'm afraid. neil: i think you're right. we're all hooked on this. scott, final word. bret, thank you very much. thanks, guys. very much. to hear a number the democrats tell us this is something the economy needs and far from criticizing the president spending too much, some like ro khanna of california, you know what he should be spending more. by the way this is largely paid for. take a look. is it fair to say sir other people will have to start kicking in dough, not just the rich? >> no, i don't think so because i think the productive investments are going to lead to an extraordinary amount of growth. when you have a low interest rate, low inflation environment if you're investing in things that will grow the economy, 3, 4, 5%. that is going to expand the tax base and will allow us to pay down our debt. neil: all right. i'm not sure my next guest buys all of that. kevin brady, the texas

republican congressman, house ways and means committee ranking member. that growth will pay for this. that essentially what democrats have been arguing, congressman. what do you make of that? >> yeah. this is a, this is a big flip-flop for them because when we lowered taxes brought jobs back from overseas, when american families and small businesses had more to spend they argued that wouldn't grow the economy enough to pay for it. their belief this comes from the, remember from the obama-biden administration, this is the crowd that argued expanding food stamps would be the best stimulus for the financial recovery. they were that far off. they used that same thinking now. they ignore the fact that when you raise taxes on local businesses, when you drive our tax rate, uncompetitive around the world, when you increase and punish most likely to invest in your local economy, local

community, they ignore that america become as net loser economically when you do that, especially right now as we are working our way out of this pandemic, frankly their argument is absurd. neil: you know, congressman, we were showing the amount of spending thus far. we didn't include the covid reliever package, about 1.9 trillion. bottom line whether you're looking a little bit north of 4 trillion, heading that in, over 6 trillion, with a third of it paid for via tax increases might or might not bring in revenue here. we'll be looking at worse deficits at a minimum. how bad do you think it gets? >> you know, i think it is, as your previous guest said, the american public understands you know, the government is looking less like, washington looking less like a pandemic fighter. more like college kids on extended spring break.

party now, hangover tomorrow. the party is on. seeing this in stimulus checks with all of that, no wonder it seems popular. the american public understands when you have even the smallest conversation, look, we're spending trillions of dollars on programs we don't need and don't want, and there is going to be tax increases that hit everybody. i think they understand this. i think tonight in the president's joint address. i think he will make the case why there is no hangover to any of these actions and we just need to tax investors, local businesses more. i just don't think, at the end of the day the american people buy this. neil: are you going to the speech tonight? >> yep. i will be here. i came in to watch it last night. i'm one of the 40 republican house members in the chamber. yeah, it is important to be here for me. neil: you know, you're retiring,

from the house. i'm just wondering tonight, in this setup tonight, it is going to be a little odd, different, maybe owing to these covid times. do you know congressman whether they will spread you guys out? how will all of this go down? >> so great question, neil, i think what you're hinting at, this feel as little more like political science than real science. we are almost all vaccinated, masked, social distanced, i think this is far more theater than, just reality, but i think whole speech will be that as well. so it is a little frustrating. the other thing too is, we're often asked whether we want to see the president talk about? what i would love to have him say, he should, i inherited this strong economy and life-saving vaccines from president trump. the border crisis is of my making, and i'm proposing we tax, spend, borrow from our

children's future because that would be the truth. my guess is we're not going to hear that. neil: i wouldn't be waiting for that exact script. but let me, get your take what is going on. the market as you know, congressman, the economic numbers have been booming. a lot of trump loyalists a lot goes back to the cares act last year, started under president trump and the treasury, federal reserve, monetary stimulus to say nothing of that 900 billion-dollar relief package, i think, correct me if i'm wrong, sir, right at the end of last year so that might have provided the wind at the administration's back but he is getting credit for it. does part of that bug you? >> you know, it is frustrating because, you know, i think he lucked into a very strong economic recovery, 12 million jobs have been recovered. 60% of the jobs lost. clearly the vaccines and reopening of our states are

accruing now to joe biden's benefit and of course, you're buying support when you're pouring that much money, free government checks into families and communities and state budgets and all that, it does have an effect. i think it will have an effect on the economy in the short term. the worry i think of everyone, what about the hangover? when you're taxing businesses, making us less competitive than china, punishing investors that invest. what then? the bottom line is, i think economically, america becomes the net loser. ultimately that catches up. neil: we shall see. congressman, great seeing you again. have fun tonight. i don't know if you will have fun with the distancing, masking,. >> that wouldn't be the case. neil: maybe those weren't the right words. congressman, thanks again. the dow down 117, 118 points again. much of this is telegraphed. some of the tax increases the

president wants, what we didn't go, we're getting more details now, how much extra dough is going into this including about $80 billion to boost funding for the irs so they can squeeze even more money out of you. we'll explain after this.

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his number... delete it. i'm deleting it. so, break free from the big three. xfinity internet customers, switch to xfinity mobile and get unlimited with 5g included for $30 on the nations fastest, most reliable network. neil: easing up on on res we're getting word governor cuomo announced an end to covid-19 curfew in bars and restaurants, saying that will end next month for both indoor and outdoor dining areas. that bar seating can return to new york city beginning on may 3rd. part of a part of a you're sighing for mask requirements and go outside, dispense with the mask. i don't know how you prove you're okay to go outside with the mask unless someone comes up

to you and says i want to see your vaccination records. molly line, with more on this sort of unwinding process. hey, molly. reporter: good afternoon, neil. there are some states that already dropped mask mandates, texas new hampshire for instance. some others politically blue states also relaxing restrictions in the wakes of president biden announcing new cdc guidelines. digging into those a little bit the the dc guidelines say fully vaccinated people don't need to wear wear mask unless they're in a big crowd. others can drop them in certain situations. colorado to illinois, states are responding to updated guidance. breath of fresh air if you will for many, but health officials in some hardest hit states like michigan continue to urge caution. >> we're continuing to monitor what the cdc is recommending. our data here in michigan, i would anticipate forthcoming policy changes potentially that will feel a little bit more normal for all of us.

reporter: president biden made the big announcement lifting outdoor mask requirements for the fully vaccinated after walking up to the podium yesterday wearing a mask. he is taking a heat for it. some argue it sends a mixed message. here is dr. marty makary, johns hopkins public health also a fox news contributor. >> it is one thing for public officials to wear masks, good role modeling that masks help but at some point we have to give people something to look forward to and right now a strong message could be sent with public figures, once you're vaccinated you can take off the mask. that is what we should do. reporter: this comes as more than half of u.s. adults received one dose of the covid-19 vaccine. more than a third were fully vaccinated. now there is growing concern a lot of people are not showing up to get the second dose, right now the cdc is estimating that is five million people. neil? neil: molly line, thank you very much.

you covered the entire nation there, molly. appreciate that. molly reporting from boston. again not everything going hunky-dory across the country as molly touched on. in oregon the governor reimposing restrictions because of an uptick in cases and hospitalizations. we have the chef's table owner and founder, very, very popular right now in that neck of the woods. curt, good to have you, but just as you're looking forward to get things back on track, these new restrictions how will they affect you? >> we're fortunate to the extent that the places that we've opened already, there is many restaurants we haven't opened because of the general situation in portland. the ones that we have opened have pretty extensive outdoor dining, big impact is for restaurants that don't have outdoor dining where this effectively closes them. neil: i would imagine, correct me if i'm wrong, curt, big worry

is making sure everyone is safe, right? not about the virus but protests that have gone on and off, back and forth the last few weeks. where are things, how do things stand now? >> protests are kind of add this element that i think makes portlands specially more difficult for our industry than any other market in the country outside of seattle. not only do we have covid, we have a homelessness problem in portland, persistent for years, really metastasized something bigger now. the protests although day-to-day, if you live here you don't really see them. you don't know about them, read about them in the morning. there is this kind of you unexplainable violence that happens to locations and landmarks that make no sense. as a result it has had a devastates impact to the reputation of the city for tourism. tourism is a major driver of the food scene here in portland. also really impacted the

reputation that the city has with our surrounding areas, like beaver ton. feeder communities come in eat, they have perception of portland being a dangerous place. if you live here it's not but perception is devastating and it is really impacting our business. neil: so all they need to hear or see is, you know, some footage of people, that must be everywhere. you're saying it's not but i'm wondering if that is actually your bigger concern these days? not so much the bumpy reopenings which you seem to have handled quite well, but what could stall that, if the perception is, it is just not a safe time to be going out or in to any restaurant? >> neil, a great data point in downtown portland, really the most impacted, the stores are plywood up over there. the apple store looks like it is in a demilitarized zone. you have a fence around it to go

into security to get into the stairs to lead into the apple store. neil: wow. >> the problem is that tourism was the driver of the downtown food scene. one out of three diners in our restaurants downtown were from, were visiting and that industry is gone and will be gone until portland is able to kind of you know, clean up its reputation nationally because why would you want to come to a city that you see on the news being dirty and you know, huge homeless problem, with riots happening. the city itself is still beautiful. it is where i grew up. it is my hometown so i'm very proud of it but we're in a hard spot right now. and i agree with you, i'm not sure what is the bigger challenge for us. whether it is protests leading to the long term impact on our reputation or, if it is, you know, our kind of spastic response to covid and opening and closing and letting us go and then stopping us.

you know it is emotionally exhausterring earnings i'll exhausting. neil: i'm sure it is, kurt. you have a great city. beautiful city. been there many times. >> appreciate it. neil: hang in there, kurt. the chef table owner and founder. want to pass along an item we're getting into our newsroom concerning federal investigators in manhattan executing a search warrant at upper east side apartment rudolph giuliani, former mayor, might have something to do with the criminal investigation into mr. giuliani's dealings in the ukraine. a number of people are relaying this to "the new york times" and associated press. we don't know much more than that. we don't know if the search already happened but they are executing that warrant. some are reporting that it is happening as we speak. we'll keep you posted. more after this.

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>> my husband and i travel internationally probably about three times a year. do you have to prove you're vaccinated i probably don't think we will go. if it is having a clean covid test a negative covid test we would definitely go. neil: all right. not exactly back to where we were but a heck of a lot better than where we've been. overall flight bookings up 111% in march. grady trimble at o'hare international airport with how it is looking there. hey, grady. reporter: hey, neil. and the airlines, they are expanding routes and buying aircraft once again which is a promising sign as demand comes back. boeing reported earnings this morning a loss of some $537 million in the first quarter, but some good news as

well. they're starting to deliver a lot of planes again, 77 in the first three months of this year to commercial airlines and ceo dave calhoun says he expects this year to be a key inflection point as the vaccine distribution ramps up here in the united states and across the world. he does caution though that he doesn't expect travel to return to pre-pandemic 2019 levels until 2023 or 2024 but in talking to people today, what we're experiencing here is certainly a leisure travel boom. as you heard in that sound bite people are getting vaccinated and more comfortable with the idea of travel. even the possibility of traveling to the european union this summer was floated this week. i talked to folks here at o'hare about that possibility and we got some mixed responses. >> we're from romania. so we were looking into traveling to turkey over the summer if it is possible. we're starting to explore that option. some of the countries in europe

are requiring folks to be vaccinated. so i hope to have a equal pathway for those with antibodies and equally immune. >> i've been to europe, just because flights are long, you know, there is so much international travel i just can't see being as safe as you know, staying domestic and staying close. i'm still in my bubble. reporter: whether people actually go to europe this summer still up in the air but what people are certainly doing is searching about it on-line. searches for european destinations surged 47% once the eu made that announcement that it vaccinated americans into the european union in the summertime. on your screen now some of the most popular destinations that people are searching. denmark number one on the list. and if you are comfortable with flying overseas this summer, you might be able to save some money as well. the average ticket price for

international flights is expected to be down about 9% compared to 2019, up just a little bit from 2020 but, don't know too many people who are traveling internationally last year. neil? neil: yeah. anyway they can incentivize them to go. grady, thank you very much, my friend, grady trimble at o'hare international airport. the great reopening is on. we keep stressing that. being a business show we thought we would keep track of it. in fact many employers are talking about getting their workers back a lot sooner than the fall type of deadline you've heard a lot of companies echo including investment banks, including right now jpmorgan chase that is expecting a good many of its employees back as soon as june or july. can they force that issue? a lot of workers had better part of a year to do all of this from home. they might not be keen on leaving home. a business law attorney joins us, a very smart person what you

legally can or cannot do when your boss is kind of ordering you back. seth, let's say folks don't want to come back. they're leery, they're anxious, they want to hold off. can they tell their boss no, not yet? >> generally no, they can't. but the good news at jpmorgan, a lot of other employers are taking a kind letter, gentler approach. generally in the world of employment law, companies such as jpmorgan have a lot of tools in their tool box to get people to come back. those include a hammer that can require them to come back more quickly. frankly require them to get a vaccine as condition for return to work. the good news jpmorgan is not really doing that, they're taking a softer, more diplomatic approach. you can come back in two months. we'll gradually do it. we'll have a revolving presence in the office at a 50% level. vaccinations are not required

but they're encouraged and therefore, they're also providing other ways for a softer entry. they're providing an information line to provide helpful information and updates regarding vaccines and other things for return back to work, what we're seeing a lot of our other clients doing. so, no, employees don't have the leverage to say no but the good news is that this is being done in a month pittable and legitimate fashion -- hospitable. neil: i cannot imagine, in the case of jpmorgan chase as well, even though they're building a brand new facility on park avenue that will house everybody, for now spreading people out in their existing offices, there is only so much room. a lot of people will not have to come back. how do they legally handle that deciding who does return and who doesn't? >> sure. well the employ hears significant discretion in terms of how to accomplish that. and what jpmorgan has said to its senior managers is that

they're going to get together and make internal determinations in terms of what management believes is the most appropriate way to interact and people in on a shifted basis. it is not uncommon to see employers across america doing that as you noted there are a lot of firms on wall street doing that. as long as they do it in a measured way, this is entirely consistent with the recommendations and practices under cdc guidelines, then they're definitely well within the right to do that. i think in general this is a feel good story. we have the great reopening. we have people coming back to work. people are vaccinated, they will be vaccinated. employers are being very careful. jpmorgan, and other employers are recognizing they have to do it in a very diplomatic way to preserve their brand and to make sure that from an hr standpoint people are comfortable coming back. they have a lot of good employees. hopefully they're really eager

to get back into the work place. neil: yeah. a good many are nervous to your point. seth, don't wander too far. we'll tap that legal brain later in the show, typically regarding a supreme court case getting a whole bunch of attention. >> you bet. neil: dow industrials hanging on, down 107 points. there is skiddishness. they want to hear the president's details in the speech to a joint session of congress. a lot of broad issues they knew well, hike in capital-gains taxes, target the rich, and everything else, what they didn't know all the little spending goodies, the one caught my attention, add-on of $80 billion to the irs to to track of what you're paying and how much. we'll have more after this. ♪.

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simplify diabetes. simplify life. omnipod. ♪. neil: we're trying to get more details on this apparent search warrant executed in manhattan today in the upper east side of amount of rudy giuliani jewel, former mayor and became president trump's personal lawyer. it might be to do whether giuliani was illegally lobbying the trump administration on behalf of ukrainian officials, high business, political officials to get some dirt. that was the charge at the time on some of mr. trump's political rival. they included joe biden. so much we don't know i want to piece this together with what we do know with our own charlie gasparino who has been following this story around others and giuliani circling trump for some time. what can you tell us, charlie?

>> the only thing i know about the former mayor, he does business all around the world. here is what i would say before jumping to conclusions here, there is a fine line what is legally lobbying and what isn't and you know, before people start saying rudy is guilty of act lobbiest, you know, these lines are blurred all the time. i mean all you have to do is look at some of the hunter biden stuff to understand that this is what people in influence do. they have clients. they talk to important people about the clients. and you know, sometimes it runs afoul of the law. a lot of times it doesn't. i would be really careful with this story. the mayor, if you don't like his politics as one thing. he was a very good mayor. he was a good prosecutor. he has got to know where those lines are drawn. if he doesn't he will have some problems. this is a snapshot, neil. we don't know a lot right now. they're looking at everything. cy varnes, the manhattan d.a. is still looking at trump,

donald trump's former president's business dealings. there is a lot of, there is a lot of legal eyes on the former trump people right now and trump himself and his former people. you know, you can't help but think it is politically motivated you know. we hear nothing about hunter biden and his business dealings, but rudy giuliani gets his apartment raided. it is completely interesting story. neil: interesting, when you think about it, charlie, to do something like this against a lawyer, let alone a former confidante of the president of the united states. >> his attorney, u.s. attorney for the southern district. the u.s. attorney for the southern district. neil: for the southern district. >> that is the premier federal law enforcement agency in the whole, sort of u.s. attorney system, the southern district is, you know, is the big one and you know, he brought cases against the mob, against wall street businesses. i mean, this is pretty unprecedented.

i can't remember the last time a u.s. attorney, you know, got targeted like this but, you know, we live in interesting times right now. the other thing i want to say, i did have a whole hit prepared just so you know, this biden tax plan you know, say what you want about new york democrats, they hate high taxes too and they're all moving to florida. and unless s.a.l.t. gets put back in, s.a.l.t. deduction, state and local tax deduction gets put back in the new york city partnership, i got off the phone with kathryn wylde, head of that organization, represents business leaders here in new york, she is telling chuck schumer and anybody she can tell, that you're going to discuss destroy the tax base of the state. she laid out some numbers to me that were astonishing. apparently 56% of high earners already have a place out-of-state and they could, all they have to do is domicile out-of-state to not pay new york

taxes. i mean this is, we're at a tipping point right now with the new york tax base. so i think what you are going to see, the new york city partnership trying to put a coalition together, banks, maybe even unions, to try to get the s.a.l.t. deduction put back into the tax law which it is not in there right now. if that doesn't get put back in, i'm telling you neil, there will be a rush for the exits among anybody who can. and it is going to further erode the new york state tax base. governor cuomo knows this. chuck schumer, the only reason why he isn't saying anything about this right now, what i get from the banker sources he is worried about aoc. can you imagine that? he is worried about a congresswoman from the bronx, the senate majority leader not appear too liberal. so he doesn't appear -- neil: she might challenge him for the democratic primary. >> yes. it is interesting, to put it mildly, what we got up to now close to two dozen congressman from largely high-taxed blue

states saying they're no votes on infrastructure unless that thing is scrapped, the s.a.l.t. thing. it ain't over yet, right? >> it is definitely not over. new york city partnership feels confident. it is just odd that chuck schumer, not bury the lead here, chuck schumer represents new york state. who he is kidding? just amazing. neil: thank you, my friend. we'll monitor the developments closely. charlie gasparino. this one is an interesting case for the supreme court. this is about a cheerleader whose rant on snapchat has brought her case all the way to the supreme court of the united states. oh my, god. after this. ♪. lately, it's been hard to think about the future. but thinking about the future, is human nature. at edward jones, our 19,000 financial advisors

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>> neil? may be the moist consequential free speech decision in the last 50 years when it comes to free speech. deals with a 2017 case out of pennsylvania. a teenager named brandy levy, posted a snap on snapchat online back in 2017, expressing some frustration when she tried out for the varsity cheerleading squad. she didn't make the team. off school property, she posted

"f" school, f softball, f cheer, everything. school policy prohibit the foul language and inappropriate gestures by athletes on internet. brandy levy's post was made off campus after school hours. >> i have the chance to show other people like me it is okay to express how you feel and not get in trouble for it. reporter: fox news reached out to the school district for an interview. the district declined n a court brief the district doubled down on punishment, putting message on snapchat, brandy was reaching a school audience. justices at the supreme court weighed in seemingly defending brandi levy in some case. >> what bothers me when i read all of this, it seemed like the punishment was tailored to the offense. a year suspension from the team seems excessive to me. >> it might be students speech

that occurs outside of school is sometimes going to cause fundamental problems, disruption of the school's learning environment. reporter: this is all about disruptive speech, neil, and the implications could last for decades about this off campus speech, what it means, we'll find out from justices at end of june, latest, early july. neil? neil: thank you, david. seth, the business law attorney. what do you think of this case though? >> landmark case. it will be fascinating to see what they do. this is an issue that has really not been dealt with directly by the supreme court, freedom of speech for students since 1969 in the so-called tinker case where the supreme court said that a silent protest with black arm bands objecting to the vietnam war was okay as long as it wasn't significantly disruptive. now we jump ahead decades to the present. now we're living in the world of social media. i believe that the supreme court will probably rule in favor of

the student. they're going to be walking a little bit after constitutional tightrope. on one hand, if there is speech that is off campus, that is not disruptive that is not something that would cause a likelihood of harm to anybody or cyberbullying, then that student doesn't check her first amendment rights at the door. on the other hand, cyberbullying, certain activity on line in or off campus is something that can cause a harmful environment. i think justice kavanaugh in that sound that you played showed that the supreme court will be careful but will probably side on the side of the student. this will have big implications because this is the first time that this first amendment constitutional issue is going to be echoed within the chamber of social media. neil: all right. seth, i apologize for the brief time here. thank you very much. seth berensweig. speaking of justice, only one was invited to the president's

join address of congress, that is the chief justice. no guarranty he will go. that is because of the limited room for everybody. we'll have more after this. ♪ ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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quiet uncle joe speaking and giving calm, soothing words. but the underlying policies that are being implemented, this is not ad moderate agenda. this is not a unity agenda. this is ad radical agenda. neil: well, it is an expensive agenda. the president will outline it all tonight in an address to a joint session of congress. going to be different in this covid world, it will be limited to a crowd of 200 people. i think chad pergram was telling me they can cram in as many as 1600 for these addresses. that will not be happening tonight. chad joins us from capitol hill. chad, what can we expect? >> reporter: good afternoon, neil. since the advent of television, the president's annual speak to congress -- speech to congress became the single most important day of the year in politics. only 200 people allowed in the halls of congress, members will be in assigned seats spread out

throughout the chamber. >> have a limited audience with people spacedded very far apart, it creates completely different atmosphere in the room. it's the crowding, it's the whole kind of mob scene that occurs as the president is announced when he comes in. >> reporter: it's now told there the won't be any glad handing, perhaps glad elbowing. ed president biden will wear a mask to enter the chairman bear and then remove -- chamber, and then remove it. but it's unclear if senators will have to wear masks or pass through metal detectors to get in. >> have they talked to senators at all whether they will have to pass through the magnetometer? >> i don't know the specific answers to your question. >> reporter: house rules require house members to wear masks and go through magnetometers to enter the

chamber. this may be the most different-looking speech since harry truman gave the first televised address in 1947 or when lyndon johnson gave the speech in prime time. neil? neil: thank you very much for that, chad pergram. let's go to congressman dan kildee, democrat from michigan. congressman, very good to have you. are you going tonight, sir? >> no, i'm not, and i did not press for a seat, you know? the seats are limited and, frankly, i love my home state of michigan, so i decided i'd rather be back here. neil: that says a lot about you. you could have just gotten that ticket on your own, but you didn't do that. that would not have been me, congressman, i would have just stolen the thing and gotten in there. what do you make of the weirdness of it tonight, right? not to blame republicans or democrats, but in this covid world it's going to be a little stilted, it's going to be a little, you know, scattered. do you think it will impact the import of the speech?

>> neil, i think it's going to have a different feel, that's for sure. as the reporter that was just on was saying, i've been to many state of the union addresses on the floor, and no matter who the president is, there's this sort of energy and excitement, maybe some tension on the floor because of that the, and we're not going to see that. it won't be quite the same. i sort of think of it the same way the inauguration was. it was in the same place and it took place in many of the same ways but a much different feel. neil: you know, last we chatted, congressman, a lot of the progressives in your party saying how pleasantly surprised they are by the taupe, tenor, commitment -- tone, tenor, commitment on the part of president biden, that he's a lot more liberal than they thought it would be and he's proposing spending that's a lot bigger

than they thought it would be. are you? >> i can't say i'm surprised. whenever there's a bold agenda, no matter what it is, it's going to have people on both sides of that question. but he's basically implementing what he ran on. i mean, the american families plan that he's putting forward tonight will include early childhood education, you know, the universal access to two years of community college, the stuff that we've been talking about. once it translates to actual policy, it tends to get more reaction. it's a big, bold agenda, know question about it, and it will cause some feathers to be ruffled. no question there either. neil: yeah. you know, obviously republicans are saying it is so targeted against the rich and so much about raising cap gains taxes, the top rate far more than was earlier thought even when joe biden was campaigning for president that he put all of this on the back of the rich. and even with all of that, congressman, it doesn't come close to paying for it all. do you think it's going to have

to spread out, that these tax hikes are going to go well beyond the well to do? >> i think it has to do with where we land ultimately after going through the legislative process because the president is going the lay out an aggressive plan. we're going to have to legislate this, and it's not clear where we're going to land on any of it. i be i think it's really -- but i think it's really important to note while it might not be specifically offset, in other words, the costs may not be offset with taxes, taking the page of some of my republican colleagues, growth of the economy is how we grow our revenues to off set some of these expenditures. and what i see in this plan is a clear opportunity for us to continue to expand our economy. you know, putting more people through community college increases the skill base, makes us more competitive. investing in infrastructure grows our economy. so i believe that while we might not have specific tax offsets for each aspect of this, when we

look at the growth that we project will come from this, i think we're going to be in good shape. neil: do you think, congressman, after all this if the president gets what he wants, that the rich will finally be paying their fair share? are we at that point? >> well, i think many people are not paying their fair share now. where we land in the tax code is an unanswerable question right now -- neil: but if he's got everything he wanted, because the lament has always been amongst your colleagues that the rich are not paying their fair share. we thought we addressed that when the top rate was at 39.6%. thought we were at that when states didn't impose these new surtaxes that brought this up, the capital gains, to well over 50% of taxation. we -- will we be past the point? >> i think, obviously, if the president gets everything he wants, that question would be answered. but the problem9 with the tax code that i'm sure you know is

looking at the rate and looking at how the tax code is often used are two different things. so it's a complicated web. we know, for example, some of the biggest, richest corporations in this country pay zero taxes even though the corporate tax rate would imply that they're paying 21%. they're not. so it's a little more complicated than just looking at the rates, but i think if the president were able to succeed in getting what he has put forward, i think we'd be knowing that fairness is in the eye of the beholder, we'd be much closer to a fair tax code. neil: far more important right now, congressman, is whether that drum set i see behind you is yours. >> it is mine, and it's my 1960s rogers drum set that i have been restoring during this whole covid. pandemic. it's a beautiful settlement i play it every day. -- set. it's a lot more fun to play than my electronic set, that's for sure. neil: not too shabby. congressman, thank you very

much. congressman dan kildee of michigan will not be at the address. john lonski and george, if i can begin with you, it's very clear that the rich are going to be bearing the costs of all this, and it doesn't even cover the cost of all of this. their taxes are going to go unfairly dramatically. i think we're closer to fair share, but even the congressman was cautious not to jump on that. do you think we are at this point? [laughter] >> yeah, neil, i do. you know, i think that the top 1% pays 25% of the foxes and the top 10% -- taxes and the top 10% pay more than that, and i think it's the top quartile that pays well over 50%, so i think the, quote-unquote, rich do pay their fair share. i've heard that the president is not going to be as draconian on the death tax as was predicted, and i've always felt like high

income tax rates on people who do extremely well and do it under this country's system, that you should pay your taxes, and you should pay 'em cheerfully. but aye also said we should -- i've also said we should eliminate the death tax. we're going to get a little bit of everything now. we're going to raise rates, and there'll probably be some adjustments to the death tax. i've heard it's going to be the stepped up -- but the rich are in the crosshairs, no doubt about it. neil: well. you just can't die, george, that's the bottom line -- [laughter] do not die. so, john lonski, if the markets are panicking about it, i know i mentioned this a lot, they have a funny way of showing it. today notwithstanding, not all of these hikes will go into effect or they won't be nearly as damaging as feared, where are you on that? >> well, i think what's going to happen is that instead of getting a doubling of the capital gains tax, you know, that may go no higher than from

20% to perhaps something between 25-28% once everybody in congress comes to their senses. you know, you double the capital gains tax, the argument is that you end up getting less revenue than you do currently from capital gains taxation. so there is some optimal tax rate at which you can maximize federal revenues from capital gains. common sense. it's not going to go that high. they'll also rethink this proposed hike to the corporate income tax. it's probably going to end up going no higher than the current 21% to 25%, forget about 28%. neil: we'll see on that. but, you know, guys, it just means i think the far more crucial speech today isn't going to be from the president tonight, but from the federal reserve chairman in a little over an hour. and he's been very accommodative so far. he hasn't said anything nasty about the spending so far. he is concerned about deficits

and down the road we have to address them as he said with donald trump and as he says now with joe biden, but what do you want to hear from jerome powell right now, george? >> well, i think most americans are not aware that the chairman of the federal reserve is the second most powerful man in the world, and it's the second hardest job in the world, i would argue. medical school neil yeah. >> it's very hard for them to get it right. i think right now they're doing a really fine job about keeping the economy from falling apart during the pandemic and positioned for a huge upsurge post-pandemic as we're seeing already. but i really do think he needs to signal to the market that if the data does support that inflation is coming back with a vengeance, that he will change course. that's what he needs to do if that happens. usually the fed is late are on inflation, so i'd like to see that from them and not a sub bornness to -- stubbornness if

something else is called for. neil yeah. i just wonder if they risk, to that point, john lonski, falling behind the proverbial curve. we are not necessarily seeing the inflation, but we're seeing more than we have. and we've seen a host of commodities, even today on its way back up in yields. nothing like i can remember when i was much, much younger but still noteworthy. what do you think? >> yeah. we're not going back to the 1970s, but some of these commodity cost increases are incredible. copper's now up 100% from a year ago, steel is up 200%, and lumber up 300%. this tells me that we are going to see some commodity cost inflation fairly soon. my guess is that forthcoming crises may do more to reduce unit sales; that is, consumers may have an affordability problem with higher consumer prices as opposed to where

higher consumer prices will need to pass the wage that in turn leads to even faster price inflation. so it could very well be a pce price index inflation rises above 3%, maybe approaches 4%, but it's going to be self-correcting. and, of course, by that time i think we'll find that the fed will have begun to have tapered down its bond-buying program, perhaps offer some hint of an eventual hiking of fed funds. neil: guys, thank you both very much. we'll see what the federal reserve chairman has to say, wrapping up a two-day meeting of the federal open market committee where often times when the chairman does get a chance to speak, he'll elaborate on what is expected to be no change in policy, that is nothing to get in the way of this recovery. so we'll see what happens. inin the meantime, i do want to pass along some sad news here. michael collins, the payment of

apollo 11 -- pilot, has died. he was 90 years old. many look back at that mission in 1969 as the defining event. but, of course, collins was famously circling above the moon as both buzz aldrin and neil armstrong were walking on it. he took the jokes and jabs from folks to say i loved what i did, writing that as an astronaut, i always thought i had the best job in the world, and i still think that. but for me when it was over, it was over whether circling or being on the moon itself. it was incredible. it was special. and i was there. indeed, he was. michael collins dead at age 90.

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act now! ♪ neil: now that things are starting to open up, you've got quite a different problem on your hands. could you explain? >> oh, yeah. i've got -- well, mainly, hiring is really hard right now. it's hard to find employees that are qualified, basically, for the jobs. there's not as many people coming out and applying. neil: what's preventing you -- your business is booming, no problem on that front, it's just

finding workers, right? >> it is. you know, we've used the indeed platform to get our staff for quite only time. however -- quite some time. however, when we had, my general manager and i reached out to 93 of those people that applied on indeed, and at 93 we were only able to set up 10 interviews. >> between the unemployment insurance expect stimulus, it's very difficult to find reliable and qualified staff. i've lost some of my staff, good people. neil: you noticing a common theme here? i certainly am. and in texas it's so bad right now that 91% of texas restaurants have job openings. they're having a devil of a time filling those openings. emily williams is the texas restaurant the association president and ceo. emily,ing thank you for taking the time. i guess it's a good problem to have that you can reopen and the surge and traffic in restaurants is across the board, certainly across the state, but then you

have to get help, and that's proven to be a real problem for these guys, huh? >> yeah, it's unbelievable actually. we came out of the crisis after really nine months, and we rep opened fully -- reopened fully, believe, in january. and it's clear that americans love their restaurants, and the volume is outstanding. unfortunately, we can't service them. there are so many reasons, i think. i think the unemployment is clearly an issue, but if you dig deep into that number, we still have 1.5 million women on the sidelines because schools are not fully open, childcare's still inconsistent, and that's a huge piece of our population. so i think until we have some of that consistency back, you're exactly right, we are having an incredibly hard time. in some cases restaurants are being forced to close early, they're9 shutting down evenings, they're the chosinging on weekends because they don't -- closing on weekends because they don't have staff. and how long are americans going to what wait for service to get

back to where it needs to be? neil: yeah, i didn't think of that. one of the other things i was thinking about was turning customers away. so many of these restaurants, they've been living to be fully reopened and fully engaged. now they don't have the help to handle those customers. it's just such a cruel irony. >> and think about the help that is there. in many cases you'll talk to a general manager, and they've worked 2, 3 weeks straight. i saw some gm this weekend, and often they were parking cars. they're doing everything they can. they saved their business through the worst crisis we've ever seen, and now they're facing a second crisis, and that's the inability to serve the consumer. it's very difficult. it's a problem that's being incredible -- turning out to be incredibly difficult to deal with. neil: the best of, you know, compassionate reasons, but they really have provided competition

for restaurant owners to hire people because the money is better staying home and especially if they have childcare issues, it's not worth it. so what do you think of that boomerang effect? >> yeah, you know, i think that's a big piece. we're very compassionate. i'm a mom, if i wasn't able facebook to do my job -- to do my job at home, i wouldn't be able to leave. when you're carrying all those burdens. we are a very high percentage of women within our industry as well as the retail sector. to they're making a choice for their family, and we understand that. we're working really closely with the texas work force commission, with congressional leaders to talk about different incentives we can put in place and maybe change the incentive to help people. we know they want to get back to work, but the incentive with what they're balancing isn't in the right place. and it's the second largest private employer in the state of texas. we have 1.3 million employees

when this crisis hit, i'd argue we're not going to fully recover unless we get small business back up and run again. neil: yeah, to put it mildly. emily williams knight, thank you very much. good luck. and to all of your members, man, i didn't see this one coming. a curse of riches but a curse because you can't address all those riches and do business with it. all right, we have a lot more coming up including apple earnings due out after the bell. they're expected to be pretty good here. the pressure's always good on apple after the busy holiday season, but they are looking at a couple of key numbers that are not just overall revenues or earnings. we'll explore that after this. ♪♪ ♪ ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪

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♪ neil: all right, or tim cook is looking forward to his company getting back to business as usual whenever that can be these days. susan li has been following this very, very closely. earnings come out after the bell. susan, i'm sorry if i stumbled there, i was expecting a quote from tim cook going into this, but tell us what's at take here. >> yeah. they have a razor thin margin of error, i think, and this is coming off that monstrous holiday quarter with $100 billion plus in sales, so wall street wants to see if the sales momentum of that 5g, high-end iphone 12 the continues with that momentum to start off this year. so analysts are anticipating iphone sales will grow by just around a third in the first three months, up 30 percent. and then couple that with the resurgence we see in mac and apple services, and music will be key also to the bottom line. this is also the time of year,

neil, when apple typically announces their capital returns like share buybacks and dividend increases, and that's a main catalyst why apple has traded close to near record prices. a apple's been buying back their stock since 2012, raiding their -- raising their dividend the past six years, so that trend needs to don't. now in terms of business, iphones make up the majority of their saw -- business. and then you had that 2020 comeback of the remote work and schooling trend and the need for mac computers once again and ipads. now apple's stock has lagged so far this year, underperformer. we did see an 80% jump last year so, yeah, priced in a lot of those gains already. but apple needs a catalyst in order to push higher. now, they did announce this week a huge investment into the economy, $430 billion over the next five years. their going to hire another

20,000 -- they're going to hire another 20,000 people over the next half decade and that includes its first east coast campus in north carolina. but we'll see if they give any guidance this time around. they haven't for a year because it's been unknown during covid. i'm also curious to hear what they say about chip shortages since it's been an impact on everybody. neil: susaning li, thank you very much for that. reaction to all of this, george is back with us, john lonski. you know, when you think about it, george, apple's much bigger than a technology company. you could really look at it as a retail play, a great barometer on the overall economy like a combined mutual fund. how do you see the significance of its earnings? >> well, it's a real bell cow, as you said, neil. so is microsoft. on the real speculative side, tesla is.

i think if you looked at earnings right now, the earnings reaction among market players, it shows that wall street is the cult of what's working now. they're all card-carrying members. and unless someone really blows out earnings like google did, they take the stocks down, they buy in anticipation of the great earnings and sell off after it's done. microsoft sold off, tesla sold off very hard, and i think apple's got to outperform. significantly because the expectations are i high already. it'll be fascinating to watch it play out tonight and in the quarters to come because it is really a reflection on the economy like ge used to be or ibm used to be or coca-cola used to be. neil: you know, if you think, josh, of apple and -- john, of apple and the other tech names, microsoft, pretty solid results, of course, alphabet's were particularly off the charts, it is a reminder how the tech titans have led the market rally. they were the great pandemic

plays. they stayed pretty much that way although not quite as eye poppingly post the elements of the fan demick. -- pandemic. could this be a reflection on confidence going forward? how do you describe it? >> well, i think there's a couple of factors at work. first thing is that remote work is here to stay, and you're probably going to need apple products in order to work at home. you're in a funny situation where employees end up paying for some of the capital equipment they need to perform their job. and another factor we have to consider is that seldom have households been is so cash rich. i mean, if you look at what's going on with household balance sheets in terms of what they hold in cash and deposits, savings deposits, money market funds, that amount seems to exceed what is normal by $2 trillion. and that $2 trillion of excess

cash held by households is, you know, it reflects the highest personal savings rate since the end of the second world war. and we would think then that as we normalize the economy, these huge cash balances held by households will help fund a considerable am of consumer spending over -- amount of consumer spending over the next 12 months. neil: george, how do you like these markets? maybe even particularly as a group technology stocks? >> yeah, neil, i'm holding my technology stocks, but i'm not adding. i think this trade that's been talked about for the last six months, a rotation from perfectly priced or overly perfectly priced valuations has legs. the reopening plays, cyclical plays and oil and gas stocks, pipeline stocks, they're up very

big right now. they've been outperforming these high growth companies over the last 3-6 months, and i think that's going to continue. i think there's much more value in that part of the market, and people are getting a little bit more nervous at how perfectly priced a lot of the market is, and they want to feel a stronger margin of safety and more upside. so i'm bullish on the market, but i think it's a market of stocks, it's not a stock market. you have to pick your stocks carefully right now. neil: you know, technology as a group, john loan i sky, has been a great -- john lonski, has been a great group of stocks to own. i know you don't like to get -- per se, but the backdrop remains pretty solid, right? i mean, the interest rates though bubbling up a little bit are still very, very low. consumer demand is building, consumer optimism and confidence surveys are very, very strong. so looking at the big picture, what do you think? >> the big picture, i think, has that these high-tech stocks that have done so very well over the

past several years are not about to fall into any type of swoon. i think they'll stay where they are, they'll probably do a little bit better going forward. you know, these very high pe ratios common to high-tech stocks create a higher bar if they are to move significantly higher in terms of valuation. i want to add one thing. i just noticed that the s&p 500's dividend yield recently fell to its lowest reading since early 2002. that's some time ago. and on top of that, this current s&p 500 dividend yield is in the lowest 10% of all of its monthly readings going back to 1984. perhaps that's a little warning sign that the overall market is going to encounter more we resistance as it tries to move

higher x. that resistance will become stiffer if we do have a significant rise by interest rates over the next 12 months. neil: all right. we'll have to watch that. john, george as well, want to thank you guys. that dividend yield -- >> thank you, neil. neil: -- average yield, you get -- thank you, guys. and right now it is decidedly lower than the return you're getting on the 10-year note. now normally when that happens it raises eyebrows because you've got more bang for your buck putting it in, let's say, treasuries than stocks. under the notion that if that's where safe cash is going, you're better off with a treasury note or treasury bond. that has the full backing of uncle sam and not the stock market which does not. we'll have more after this.

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neil: all right, we're getting an interesting little item coming in from across the pond. the government of the united kingdom says that self-driving cars, whatever their controversy of late, could be on the road by the end of 2021. we don't know how many they're talking about. with we do know that this is an appealing feature in europe as they look at this technology, but there have been bumps along the way. that, of course, comes on the heels of the demand for electric seeks themselves -- vehicles themselves which is just off the charts right now. seems like every major carmaker well, well, well beyond tesla is sporting a line of them. and the latest entrant is cadillac. rory, very good to have you. tell us a little bit, i think it's called lyric? tell us about it. >> yeah, that's absolutely right. we showcased the lyric some time ago now, and during the course of last week we broke some more news. general motors has now stated we will be all electric by 2035,

and i'm pleased to report the cadillac lyric will be one of the lead vehicles in that transition. cadillac is going to be the lead brand in terms of leading that transition, and we're really excited to have this. just to give you a few product features, it's an suv. it has -- [audio difficulty] it's got a range that's going to be in excess of 300 miles, and i think you could probably see for yourself, it's absolutely stunning. so towards that path of being all evs by 2035, this is the first ten for cadillac, and it's a very exciting step. neil: you know, it is a beautiful vehicle, and i understand the electric demand. that's an aggressive timetable to be all welcome trick in really, if you think about it, a little more than a decade or so. but i do notice some of your

rivals are trying to make sure they can do that themselves by buying, you know, into batteries themselves, making the batteries themselves which could be a real fly in the ointment. because at this point we're so dependent on outside players. what do you think? >> yeah. is so i guess in terms of our technology, you know, we have a joint measure. we announced previously we would have one battery plant in lordstown, ohio, and literally just announced a close to $2 billion investment in -- [inaudible] which is actually where the lyric will get built. so we're going to invest in a manufacturing facility, and we're going to build a new plant next to the manufacturing facility to build the batteries. so that's our plan. neil: do you know, rory -- you know this far better than the i, but i often times think are we getting ahead of ourselves with this technology? it's a beautiful vehicle, but there are a lot of people who

like traditional gas-powered vehicles for lots of reasons, and i'm just wondering if we're going head strong into a russia might -- rush that might not meet the demand? >> yeah, i think there's lots of different industry forecasts at the moment in terms of ev adoption and, you know, there are some concerns from customers in terms of some of the things with respect to ev; i.e. infrastructure, charging, range and the like. so from that point of view, i think, you know, adoption is growing. if you looked at the statistics this year, you can see the ev penetration of the market growing significantly, and certainly just about every forecast you can looked at whether it be independent third party, certainly a growth moving forward. ing having said that, i do think that we need to continue to have -- for a period of time so we're able to sell both products to consumers and allow the consumers to decide which is appropriate for them.

neil: rory, real quickly, is your charger compatible with tesla's charger which is compatible and -- not compatible, but with orr chargers? what can you tell -- >> yeah, so there are some differences in terms of that one, and that's something we're working through at the moment. one of the key enablers to expanding ev growth and adoption is having the public infrastructure out there. so from that point of view, actually, it's not going to be too long from now we're going to be announcing some of the gm position on this one, and i think it'll be one that is very positive and manes that we can step on the accelerator pedal from that perspective. neil: all right. thank you very much for that, global cadillac vice president there. beautiful cars, right? they're so quiet. did you ever notice that? so quiet. we'll have more after this. ♪♪ i'll be there for you, i'll

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neil: how is it so out of control? >> this is the biggest mystery so far of the pandemic. i've been studying it for 14 months, and i expected to see this a year

>> this new variant that's been identified called 617. so this is a big problem because it's a reinfection. that portends a very difficult future for the rest of us. i don't think this is reinfection. i think these are people who are getting their first infection for whatever reason and that it's not necessarily driven by some scary new mutant. so overall what i would say is i think that this is something that feels very far away but could have implications for the rest of us if it turns out these are reinfections. the other big problem here is that india one of the biggest global producers of vaccine. so when they get overwhelmed, when their country goes into lockdown, it does have ramifications for countries far beyond its borders. neil: doctor, do you know if they're not responding to the vaccines? not so much the government, but those who are getting the vaccines, whether it's not working for them if they have some of these mutated variants, whatever you want to call them? >> you know, only 1.7% of the

population over there is vaccinated. so it's not that they're failing to respond to the vaccine, it's really that they didn't have the health infrastructure in place to rapidly roll out vaccination the way we have, the way that other industrialized countries have. it's really a fact that they have a tremendous vulnerable population, and this virus is tearing through them. it honestly gives me ptsd looking at the clips of what i say back in -- i saw back in march and april last year in new york. an unvaccinated population that's just getting overwhelmed. and, you know, those people travel. they're going to leave their country. they're people who get on planes and go to other places, so this could extend to affect people who are far away from india. neil: you think that could happen? >> i don't think so. i mean, the challenge here, if you can't vaccinate your way out of this, that's the big problem. you can't just send in 2 billion

doses of vaccine and make this problem go away. you've got to send in oxygen, dexamethasone, the things that treat the patients now. i don't think this is going to be after ramifications for us in the immediate future. neil: thank you very much, doctor. we have a lot more after this. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today. . .

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♪. neil: all right. we're getting some more details quickly on what the president will offer tonight.

12 weeks of paid leave. $200 million targeted tax credits for those in middle school. right now the only thing he is not doing is expanding medicare. there is only so much time i guess. we've got charles payne looking at all of that, the impact right now. hey, charles? charles: neil, only been 100 days. give him some time. thanks a lot. good afternoon, everyone. i'm charles payne. this is "making money," right now. everyone on pins and needles. they brace for news events and react to the implications of them all. the fomc gather something coming to a conclusion. the street expects no change in policy but we have one of the most anticipated question and answer periods following the fed chair jay powell. that is at 2:30. president biden will make his pitch to spend another $1.8 trillion for things like early pre-k, free community college while saying rich should

pay their fair share. his approach to get everyone involved in the economy is not really all hands on deck. industry still digesting a avalanche of corporate earnings. big ones after the bell. apple, facebook, a lot to decipher. let's go to washington, d.c., and edward lawrence. >> the federal reserve decided to keep the rate unchanged. they're saying in this they added a sentence, amid progress on vaccinations and strong policy support, indicators of economic activity and employment have strengthened. they removed words moderation in relation to the strength of economy and added that. the statement was also followed by this inflation has risen largely reflecting transitory factors. the fed also upgraded the language to say the health crisis weighs on the economy and poses risks. they removed the word considerable