larry: special monday why taxes matter maria, charles, stu, arndt laffer, forbes, portman and special guest coolidge, jfk, reagan and trump all implemented supplies side tax cuts and brought fabulous prosperity to america. dagen: america unmasked. adults only? what about the kids? mixed messages from the top. we talk to dr. nicole saphier in just moments. plus, some democrats blasting israel, siding with hamas? what the far left is saying now. and clearing putin in the colonial pipeline cyber attacks, why are the hackers shutting down now? i'm dagen mcdowell, this is "fox business tonight." ♪ ♪ dagen: our top story, america

unmasked. hysteria ensues. >> i don't have a right to go to my workplace up vaccinated. sure, you can do what you want, but it doesn't mean you can go on with your prepandemic life if you're not willing to contribute to society. >> frankly, i was shocked by this announcement. the major step that's missing here is how do we know that people are telling the truth? >> people may want to continue wearing masks, because we've been wearing them for 15 months, and it's going to be hard to let go of them. dagen: no, it won't be. after the cdc updated guidance that fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear a mask in most settings, president biden tweeted out this: in order, the rule is now simple, get vaccinated or wear a mask until you do. the choice is yours. dr. tony fauci insists unvaccinated children still need to wear masks. listen to this. >> yeah, the children do when they're out there playing with

their friends and, you know, particularly in an indoor situation. they do. dagen: what? joining me now is dr. nicole saphier, fox news medical contributor, author of the new book, "panic attack." doctor, great to see you. >> thanks for having me. [laughter] dagen: what is he talking about? >> you know, this is another one of those moments where i have to say with dr. fauci, let's just agree to disagree here. you know, when it comes to mask wearing, if you look back to a year ago from now when we had tens of thousands of people being hospitalized every day and our daily deaths were exceeding 3,000 people, we didn't really know much about this virus. it made sense to declare that national state of emergency, it made sense at that time to do everything we could to lessen the spread including wearing masks. here we are about 14 months after the fact. cases, hospitalizations, deaths have precipitously fallen. the lev of risk now -- level of risk is nothing like it was a year ago when you add the

natural. immunity and vaccine-induced immunity and the low level of risk in children, the risk level is exceedingly low, and it can even be lower than flu and rsv for these kids. i don't actually think that the benefit outweighs the risk when with it comes to generalized mask wearing in children. dagen: my friend carrie sent me a text a short while ago. in north carolina they've ended the mask mandate. but then in fine print it says except on public transportation and in schools. and she said everyone who's vaccinated could be mask-free, but kids can't be mask-free when in the u.k. kids under 12 have never had to wear a mask in school? that's where we are? >> well, the cdc is really the only global entity that is saying children over the age of 2 have to wear masks. as you pointed out, nations all across the globe are not having such young children wear masks

claiming that it's not good for their development, and it can actually breed more infection. i really don't agree that young children need to be wearing masks for 7-8 hours a day. i do think there's a lot of consequences to that. now that our teachers, now that our school workers, our parents, any adult that wants to get vaccinated can get vaccinated, and the supply is there. therefore, it is time for us to we're now getting to that level of acceptable risk where children should be able to remove the mask. it can't just be for the vaccinated. we have to include the entire community. that is the role of herd immunity. so the majority of people have protection so everyone can resume normal life. dagen: what about nancy pelosi? she said masks on the floor until everyone is vaccinated, and then biden saying that you have a choice, either get vaccinated or wear a mask. but what about the people, dr. saphier, who do choose not to to be vaccinated? that's an option. >> of course it's an option. and let's also -- i don't know

why they keep ignoring natural immunity. there was a study that came out about a monthing ago that showed protection -- a month ago that showed protection from severe disease following infection, that natural immunity, it prevents disease in about 94%. that's pretty equivalent to what the vaccines are offering. they only had seven months of follow-up, well, hey, the clinical trials of the vaccine had less than that. the people who have existing immunity have just as much protection as those who are vaccinated as of right now. you know, it doesn't make sense to me and, again, there are people where the vaccine is contra-indicated, and there's also the children. we're creating this level of discrimination, expect people who are not vaccinated, there's going to be shaming coming, and that's a whole other ball of wax, it's ridiculous. dagen: and the whole reaction from the left yesterday was, well, how am i to know when i see someone without a mask if

they've been vaccinated. if you've been vaccinated, then the vaccine works, so you shouldn't have to care about someone wearing a mask. their messages is we don't trust the vaccine, but they don't know that's what they're saying because they're caught up in their bubble of id go city. >> i agree with you. if you're vaccinated, you shouldn't feel concerned about having unvaccinated people around you. i understand some people say i don't want unvaccinated people around my children. okay, but again, let's get out of the panic-provoking verbiage. let's look at the facts, look at the data. facts over fear. the risk to children of severe covid-19, the morbidity, the mortality of it is exceedingly low. i mean, like flu level, even below flu-level low. again, all of a sudden we have this level of protection that the risk is much higher than it is. dagen: right. and i just want to, before we go, stay right there, dr. saphier.

i just want to point out what rachel maddow said last night. i feel like i'm going to have to rewire myself so when i see somebody out in the world who is not wearing as mask, i don't instantly think that you're a threat, that you are selfish, that you're a covid denier and you definitely haven't been vaccinated. we're going to have to rewire the way that we looked at each over. don't worry, rach, you could always look for a red ball cap or a red t-shirt to tell you who to hate. although the cdc updated its guidance, many private companies are keeping mask-wearing rules in place. grady trimble is in chicago with details. >> reporter: hey, dagen. yeah, there's this lag time between the new guidance and businesses actually telling customers you can ditch the masks at our establishment. look at all of these national retailers and restaurants. all of them are keeping their mask requirements in place. they say they're reviewing their policies, but for now if you go into any of their locations,

you've got to have a mask on. some businesses, though, are starting to buck that trend. trader joe's among the first of the national retailers to say, you know what? if you're vaccinated, you don't have to wear a mask. on their website, they say we encourage customers to follow the guidance of health officials including, as appropriate, cdc guidelines that advise customers who are fully vaccinated are not required to wear masks while shopping. several las vegas casinos are also letting vaccinated customers ditch the mask. white house press secretary jen psaki says the white house is leaveing -- leaving it up to businesses. >> we also understand that private sector companies may decide that they want to have requirements. that's up to them to make that determination. >> reporter: the cdc says it's reevaluating all of its guidelines including for airports, schools and summer camps. just a few weeks ago the tsa said it's extending its mask

mandate on planes, trains and buses through mid september, and all of the major airlines say they're going to follow that guidance at least for now. so, dagen, we are in this strange in between where we have this guidance the from the cdc, but businesses not quite caught up to it yet. dagen: thank you, grady trimble, in chicago for us. dr. saphier, back to you on this. companies or retailers in particular could use this as a competitive advantage if they decide we're going to get rid of kind of the mask requirements. >> well, you know, i think it's just a dangerous precedent here when you just restrict -- when you're saying those who are vaccinated can remove their mask. businesses can tell me to wear shirt and shoes, if they want to tell me to wear a mask, fine, it's my choice if i want to go in there. but i don't think they should be checking vaccine cards at the door. first of all, you're going to get people who are going to show fake vaccination cards and, i

just, again, it really ignores the science. and for the last year, we've been trying to get the message across, follow the science. president biden said let's actually follow the science. the science tell us when we get to such low community transmission levels like we have now, percent positivity at about 3% for the country, it's time to remove those masks. now, private businesses, they can do what they want, but it's time to move forward. dagen: in terms of masking of children, i can kind of sense9 that the teachers unions, randy wine randi weingarten saying the schools must reopen. okay, in the fall. but they will use that as a hitch to kind offing drag their feet, if you will, about forcing children to be fully masked going back to school in the fall. >> undoubtedly the cdc, the teachers union, whoever's going to continue to drag their feet on updating the guidance when it comes to school openings, and at this point it's criminal because

we have so much data showing the negative consequences that is occurring to our children, an entire generation from keeping them out of school. and now, again, we have data. they're not even tapping. we have private schools, charter school, each some public schools that have been in person, full time since september without major outbreaks and without contributing significantly to community transmission. and many of the schools have not had masks. ifis the cdc tapping those resources saying how did you do it? because they're not using the data from all of the other countries that have been able to do it showing that it's safe. we can't be saying we're going to be overly restrictive when you're not proving what the benefit is. you can't just keep saying it's for best interest when you don't actually have data when i actually have data showing you it's not in their best interest. a. dagen: and when they have data, they drag their feet which is why yesterday, finally, they got around to saying, oh, if you're vaccinated, you can take your

mask off indoors. dr. nicole saphier, always a pleasure. great to see you. have a great weekend. calls to revisit the keystone xl pipeline as massive fuel shortages plague the nation. mick mull saneny, former president donald trump's chief of staff, sounds off next. ♪♪ oh, i've traveled all over the country. talking about saving with geico. but that's the important bit, innit? showing up, saying “hello! fancy a nice chat?” then we talk like two old friends about sticky buns and all the savings you could get by bundling your home and car insurance. but here's the real secret. eye contact. you feel that? we just had a moment. [chuckles] who would've thought it? geico. save even more when you bundle home and car insurance. ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪♪ dagen: the colonial pipeline back up and running, but americans are still lining up for gasoline. so maybe it's a good time to revisit all of our energy infrastructure? like the keystone xl pipeline? >> it's really an apples and oranges when we talk about the consequences of a cyber attack on one pipeline versus the idea of introducing another one, which the president kept his promise that he didn't think that was a good policy, and he acted to keep his promise when he took office. dagen: here now, mick mulvaney, former chief of staff to president trump. isn't it -- mick, give your reaction to that. isn't it just best in terms of our energy infrastructure to keep all our options open? >> sure, dagen, thanks for having me.

last time i checked, i think talking about pipeline a and pipeline b is as close to a apples to apples as you can possibly get. i think you're seeing the democrats are struggling with what they mean by infrastructure. what they really mean is stuff they like, and they don't like pipelines. they never have. i don't understand why they don't think infrastructure includes pipelines. the reason they got rid of the keystone the pipeline, by the way, had nothing to do with infrastructure and everything to do with their promises to the environmental lobby. we could have had an infrastructure bill in this country three years ago when president trump was in office if the democrats had agreed to change the environmental laws. the problem right now is even if you passed a bill today, roads and bridges with that money wouldn't get built for five, six, sometimes even ten years. so what you're seeing the democrats do is twist in the wind because they don't really like infrastructure, they just like to tell people they're doing infrastructure. dagen: right. although the secretary of energy, granholm, kind of

slipped up and said pipe is the best way. [laugher] but she also said, well, if you were driving an electric car, you didn't have a gasoline shortage problem. i digress. so dark side, the hacking group link to the colonial pipeline attack, said it's closing, unclear why that is, if it's true or not. i wanted to pose this question to you. you were chief of staff under president donald trump dealing with russia. if this happened and president trump immediately kale out and said -- came out and said, this hack came from within russia but putin had nothing to do with the hack, what would the reaction be to that, which is what biden did. >> the exact, exactly what you'd expect. it's sort of a rhetorical question. anytime anything happened that touched on russia, most folks in the media, especially with other networks, just assumed it was the president in cahoots with putin. it was really frustrating to deal with that because i think what the democrats are learning

firsthand, this stuff is really hard. cybersecurity is really hard, and we don't really do it very well. when you do come out and say, well, putin wasn't involved. maybe that's right, maybe that's wrong. i hope it is right, by the way, but your point is well made which is that everybody knows in this business most of the media didn't have a double standard, they wouldn't have any standards at all. and they just need to realize let's hope the biden administration's doing everything they can. they had a halfway decent executive order come out in the last 48 hours that i thought did some good things. this stuff is hard, let's hope they're doing it right. dagen: but their goal, and it started day one with canceling the keystone xl pipeline, after every president since richard nixon talked about energy independence, their goal is to have the us bow down to nations that hate us as they aim to transition away from fossil fuels which biden promised in that debate with president trump that we're going to transition away from the oil industry.

they have taken, made pretty good strides in doing that. but at the same time, they're handing more power to iran and russia. so where does that leave us a year from now? >> when it comes to solar power, they're giving a lot of the cards to china who we heard this week might be making solar panels with forced labor. there's another possibility, not that the democrats want us to bow down to our enemies as much as they don't like economic growth, they don't like development, they don't like a healthy american economy. that sounds foolish to say, but let me see if i can make sense of it. they're so beholden to their environmental lobby, the extreme left wing, the tree-huggers of the party that they have to be against the automobile, they have to be against pipelines, they have to be against roads are. keep in mind, even if they spend this money on roads and bridges like they say they want to, it will be five, six, maybe ten years before those things get built. if you really wanted to build things, you would have let

donald trump do it. you would have said, okay, let's do a bipartisan deal on infrastructure, let's change the environmental rules so we can still protect the environment but build things relatively quickly. we had the chance to do that, but democrats had no interest. i really don't think they have interest in doing real infrastructure now, and that's a shame, because the country really does need it. dagen: i've said it before, president biden is governing for greta then berg. how dare him. mick mulvaney, thank you for being here. have a terrific weekend. members of the squad facing a bipartisan rebuke. ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ engines revving ] ♪♪

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live from thes israel/gaza border. trey, to you. >> reporter: dagen, good afternoon. intense fighting continues tonight, and we know the israeli air force is striking the gaza strip the as we speak. last night israel's military launched both a ground and air attack against hamas inside gaza. reports indicate it was extremely successful, and we have seen less rocket fire today. but still, there is expected to be days of fighting taking place across the region. you can see in some of this video the airstrikes against the gauze strip have been intense, both day and night, hammering gaza. the palestinian death toll is now more than 120, though that number is expected to rise. on the israeli are side, artillery units were active earlier showing different positions along gaza strip. sirens blaring throughout the morning as incoming rocket fire was intercepted by the iron dome. we have seen a number of tanks

and armored personnel carriers preparing for the possibility of a ground operation. i do want the show you what it looked like earlier in a field just next to where we're standing now. israel is slowly but surely preparing for the possibility of a ground operation into gaza. defense forces are moving personnel and equipment to the border as prime minister benjamin netanyahu said hamas will continue to pay a heavy price for rocket fire into israel. there are major concerns that this conflict is unraveling so quickly that it will spread to other parts of the region. today more than 10 people were killed in the west bank during clashes between palestinians and the israeli defense forces. of dagen? dagen: trey, thank you so much for that. trey youngs, be safe -- trey yingst, be safe, my friend. members of the squad are under fire for recent remarks on the intensifying violence there. take a listen. >> if you read the statements

from president biden, secretary blinken, general austin and leaders of both parties, you'd hardly know palestinians existed at all. >> members of congress have instead fallen back on a blanketed statement defending israel's airstrikes against civilians under the guise of self-defense. >> the president and many other figures this week stated that israel has a right to self-defense, but do palestinians have a right to survive? dagen: here now, david harsani, national review senior writer with. i read everything that you write, david. good to see you. what is being said by members of the squad, particularly ilhan omar, rashid e data look on twitter is even worse than what you just heard. you wrote about it. >> right. i mean, the worst part of it is the moral equivalency. it's worse than that because they actually don't believe israel does have a right to defense itself. they constantly lie about the reasons that started, you heard

one of them just say that israelis are bombing civilians. well, that's not true. israelis are bombing hamas who hide behind civilians. one of these forces is protecting civilians and the other is attacking civilians, and it's really that simple. morally, the equation is quite simple. so for them to defend terrorists in that sense is, on the floor of congress as they did yesterday, all of them, it's odious with. dagen: it is odious because the math that i do is these women are anti-israel and pro-hamas. that makes them anti-semitic and haters of the jewish people. and this is not this instance. this has been happening over and over again. you can go back to 2012 when ilhan omar wrote on her twitter account israel has hypnotized the world. may allah awaken the people and

help them see the evil doings of israel. that's what she said. and she's on the house foreign affairs committee, david. >> right. listen, people can be critical of israel. it's another country, it makes mistakes, it's imperfect. but when the only country that you ever criticize, almost, is israel and you don't even believe that they deserve a homeland, then your argument is that all of israel is simply occupied and all of jews there are colonizers even though they have a history going back to at least 1000 b.c., and there's something to be said about that. it seems to me that you are peddling, functionally, anti-semitism. you don't believe jers ws should be able -- jews should be able to defend themselves, have their own homeland? considering recent history, i think that says a lot about you, and we have at least four, probably more like ten the democrats who essentially make that case. and i don't know, i mean, i don't hear chuck schumer or nancy pelosi or anyone standing up to say this is wrong. or, frankly, most of the media

either. and i think that should be paid attention to as well. dagen: why don't we hear that though? i mean, given modern history and what happened -- they are welcome to talk to my friends whose families were completely wiped out during the holocaust. and, you know or one family member out of dozens managed to make it to the united states. the fact that this is what the democratic party, and let's rope everybody in, that they're standing for this, because again, silence is accepting the unacceptable. where's that leave us? >> well, i think there's little upside anymore for them to say anything, there's only downside because the progressive wing is growing, the progressive wing is the activist wing, and they have much more involved and louder and more aggressive. so there's really no upside because people, you know, i think that israel's fallen out of favor among many democrats

including, frankly, jewish-american democrats, so there's really no upside for them. you have the republican party, basically, is the only party that stands up for israel these days. dagen: based on the things that have been said recently and historically from some of these left-wing democrats, this isn't just, it doesn't sound like it's about israel. i mean, i'll quote a column for "the wall street journal." this was a few years ago. and she said that ms. omar's statements require no sophisticated parsing nor a deep understanding of historical prejudice. real hatred rarely does. >> yeah. i mean, what she does and what they do is blood libel. they are, they make it sound as if israelis go around killing children. the reason they do it is, you know, to take more land, to steal more land. aoc said this other day, that jews are trying to attack a

mosquing in jerusalem, which was a lie -- a mosque in jerusalem. it's not true. israel has handed over the administration of the mosque to jordanian, you know, muslim officials. so they spread the rumors that hamas spreads, that hezbollah spreads, and they spread it here at home. and i see it, you know, on social media. obviously, that's not always the real world, but you see it in increasing numbers of people spread these rumors and talk about it this way, and they're leading that charge. i think, you know, if democrats don't speak up, it's going to be a cancer in their party that takes over their party. dagen: as you wrote, david, and i'll encourage people to read everything you write, but the recent piece on the squad, you said the fact is that rashida tlaib wants what hamas wants, an arab state from the river to the sea. >> that's what she said. she has said that. you know, she had a map of israel in her office, and she put palestine over it. she says, she calls it the

catastrophe, as does hamas. when she talks about the catastrophe, she's not talking about occupied territories from 1967, she's talking about 1948 and the creation of the jewish state. i don't know how else you could -- [laughter] how else you can translate what she's saying. dagen: david, great to see you. thank you so much. it was terrific of you being on. i hope you have a great weekend. >> you too. dagen: border crossings hitting record levels and now border communities are delivering a new warning. ♪ ♪ retirement income is complicated. as your broker, i've solved it. that's great, carl. but we need something better. that's easily adjustable has no penalties or advisory fee. and we can monitor to see that we're on track. like schwab intelligent income. schwab! introducing schwab intelligent income. a simple, modern way to pay yourself from your portfolio. oh, that's cool...

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control. ranchers at the border are caught in the middle of the migrant surge. fox's bill melugin is in del rio, texas, with the story. hey, bill. >> reporter: hey, dagen. good afternoon to you. things have been a little bit slower where we are today compared to past days, but there's a reason for that. the mexican military has been posted up on the other side of the river from us, and that's been scaring away a lot of the migrants and coyotes who have been bringing them the, but there still has been some activity. we'll show you some video. we got up early this morning, take a look. this is down at the rio grand, fresh footprints in the mud, discarded clothing along the river bank. they walk down a road, state troopers are waiting for them, and we did see two migrants who presented themselves to law enforcement, one appeared to be a very pregnant woman. but let's talk about those mexican marines, if we can pull that video up. we shot this yesterday, a group of migrants pulled up in a van.

mention. can marines were waiting in the brush. they came out, detained all of those migrants and also took into custody two young men who appeared to be their guides or coyotes. they took them off in the pickup truck, took the family off in a white van. and just down the road from where we are, this is a half-complete border wall. all construction stopped during the biden administration. there's only a little mesh fence connecting the united states and mexico in some areas rebar is still sticking out of the ground. chunks of the wall are missing entirely, and the local sheriff out here not happy about it. he's got a message for d.c., take a listen. >> are they going to finish that? you know, one way or the other, or put it back to what it was originally, because it's a mess. i guarantee you if that, if that -- a fence was left like that around the white house or around some of their homes? some of our administration's homes, they wouldn't tolerate it. >> reporter: and i'll tell you, it's been interesting,

after five straight days of live shots showing dozens of migrants crossing the rio grande every day and just walking into the united states, the mexicans certainly have beefed up their side of the border, the u.s. has as well. we've been seeing helicopters and patrol boats, and we didn't see any of that in our first few days here. back to you. dagen: bill melugin in texas, thank you for your terrific reporting. here now, chad wolf, former acting secretary of homeland security under president trump. bill was reporting about the mexican military kind of moving in across the border down our southern border. but it's kind of strange for the biden administration to be asking these other countries to stop illegal immigrants this when we are -- there when we aren't enforcing our own immigration laws. >> well, that's absolutely correct. they continue the talk to mexico and the northern triangle, as they should. but again, what they're asking

those countries to do is to enforce the law on their borders, but they refuse to do the same on the u.s.' southwest border. instead they continue to allow these individuals to come into the country and then release a large majority of both uacs, minors, as well as families into ther into i don't have to the -- interior of the u.s. they need to start enforcing the law on the u.s. border as well just as we're asking our international colleagues to do the same. dagen: do you think enough democrats get angry about this open border policy -- those are my words -- that something might happen with the biden administration? because you have heard that senators cinema and kelly -- senators sinema and kelly have been quite vocal about arizona, for example. >> well, i think that's correct. the individuals that live in those border states, that represent those communities, both the senators from arizona, but also the democrat

congressman, congressman cuellar from texas, obviously, is very outspoken about the effect this is having on their communities, the need for an aggressive plan, a strategy, one that's not working today if they have one. and they continue to talk about this publicly, and they continue to talk to members of the administration. so i think for those democrats that live on the border, that understand the border and understand how it works and how the cartels use individuals to come across that border, they're outspoken. is that enough to change the minds of the biden administration? only time will tell. dagen: and congressman cuellar even called out the biden administration for the kind of pr maneuver when they released the photos of the donna, texas, facility. it was all cleaned up. it's the only because those kids had been moved into health and human services tents that were nearby. so they were trying to pull one over the american people. chad, i want to ask you about this though. yesterday homeland security secretary mayorkas was lambasted

by even mitt romney. but he went as far as blaming the trump administration for the massive surge that we're seeing at the southern border now. your reaction to that. >> well, this is a refrain that we've heard from the biden administration for the last several months, and it's absolutely absurd. we handed them a very secure border with a number of pois, a number of programs -- policies, a number of programs that they could utilize, the list goes on and on and on. we gave them a variety of different initiatives to choose from. they decided to dismantle all of them, all of them. and now that has produced one of the largest crises along the southwest border in over 20 years. and so the more than people aren't dumb -- the american people aren't dumb. they understand there was a secure border in 2020 and that they took down those programs, and we're seeing the result of that. so this idea that we're going to continue to blame the last administration, just avoid accountability that they have,

but at the leadership positions at dhs as well as at the white house. dagen: chad, great to see you. former homeland security secretary chad wolf. take care. have a great weekend. >> all right, thank you. dagen: kentucky derby winner medina spirit warming up for tomorrow's preakness stakes but not without controversy. ♪ ♪ (judith) in this market, you'll find fisher investments is different than other money managers. (other money manager) different how? don't you just ride the wave? (judith) no - we actively manage client portfolios based on our forward-looking views of the market. (other money manager) but you still sell investments that generate high commissions, right? (judith) no, we don't sell commission products. we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in our client's best interest. (other money manager) so when do you make more money? only when your clients make more money? (judith) yep, we do better when our clients do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. sure, about this? experience capability, crafted by lexus.

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other kind of hidden tax increase, mileage tax, putting in that kind of thing. no. just do it straight up. if you can spend all these trillions on other things, a few bucks for roads and ports and bridges and the like, just go do it but don't put new taxes on the american people. dagen: that's why i say horse manure to this idea of raising the gas tax, because the democrats would never do that. it's a regressive tax. it hasn't gone up since the mid '90s. it would hurt their very constituents in a user tax impossible to implement, but also it would hurt all those precious electric car drivers. >> well, that's right. you're subsidizing them to buy these vehicles, what, upwards of $7,50 a year, then you're going to take some of it back in a tax. it makes no sense at all. and by the way, that gasoline tax was originally put in back in the 1950s, dagen, specifically to pay for the interstate highway system and to keep it in good repair.

and it's been rated numerous -- raided numerous times since. so if they'd stuck with the original user fee they had decades ago, we wouldn't be in this problem today. dagen: right. and i'll just point out there's about $174 billion in biden's infrastructure plan that is dedicated towards subsidizing more electric vehicle sales and then charging stations. so, again -- >> yes. and on charging stations, did the federal government have to subsidize gasoline stations when the auto came along? if these things had a real market, entrepreneurs would put those charkhing stations -- charging stations in. this is an artificial market, so let's just stop the it. you are right, spend that $174 billion on fixing bridges and roads. dagen: that's actually in excess of the proposal, the $115 billion they want for roads and bridges. >> that's ridiculous. dagen: that's the world of the

democrats. i want to ask you about the red line that mitch mcconnell is talking about that he drew on raising any taxes. can he hold that line? >> the answer is absolutely, yes. the republicans know that the american people are in no mood for any kind of tax increase, gas leap, income tax and other -- gasoline, income tax and other tax increases. so, yes, absolutely hold the line, and they'll take the house and the senate back in 2022. and also save the economy. economy's going to be having headwinds from that massive spending if they ram it through through reconciliation or other gimmicks and the federal reserve printing a lot of money. that's bad enough. but putting taxes on will give us stagnation as well as innation. so, yes -- inflation. yes, that's a good red line to have. it's right for the country and right politically. dagen: and, steve, before we go, i don't know what's -- i heard a lot of people say, oh, retail sales were a disappointment. they were flat month over month, but -- and that's a sign that the economy is overheating.

i be i do know that -- but i do know that we've had unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus in the last year, and in terms of the $6 trillion that's been spent by congress and washington, virtually all of that has been monetized by the federal reserve. they've essentially printed money to buy the debt. and i don't know how this ends. does anybody. >> well, the key thing now going forward, is the federal reserve going to go on another money-printing binge, and that's the key thing to watch out for. if they refrain from it, which they won't, then we might get through with minimal damage. but who's going to buy the bonds? foreign governments are no longer buying our bonds. foreign buyers are a little skeptical now, so that leaves one buyer of last resort, which is the federal reserve. so, again, stop this nonsense, go on vacation for six months, and the american economy will take care of itself. the american people will do the

job that politicians want to do and can't. dagen: thank you so much, steve. terrific to see you, as always. and you can catch -- >> dagen, thank you. dagen: catch more of steve on a special edition of "kudlow," taxed to the max, at 4 p.m. eastern right here on fox business. steve forbes. now off to the races. medina spirit allowed to participate in the preakness this weekend despite the controversy of failing a drug test after the kentucky derby. millions on the line as some insiders fear that the outcome may not be trusted by all. lydia hu is in baltimore, maryland, with the details. hey, lydia. >> reporter: hi, dagen. after medina spirit won the kentucky derby, he failed the postrace drug test, and it wasn't unclear whether he'd be able to run in the preakness. the ownerses and trainers came up with an agreement that the horse would undergo three prerace drug tests ahead of the preakness tomorrow.

if all those come back clear, medina spirit will run tomorrow at pimlico. with a record $100 million wagered in 209, it's not just a victory that 's on the line here. industry insiders say the entire turn of events undermines the credibility of the sport. listen. >> i think a lot of people think that horse racing is dirty to begin with and crooked to begin with, so i don't think anybody's that surprised that they have another controversy. last year you had the horse that won the race disqualified. >> reporter: and now the other issue that is hanging in the balance at the moment is medina spirit's kentucky derby win. after that first postrace failed drug test, a second test is now being conducted. if those test results come back positive for the drug, then medina spirit will be stripped of that kentucky derby victory, it'll be conferred on the second place horse, mandaloon.

we expect those results in the coming weeks. back to you, dagen. dagen: lydia, thank you so much. a look at the markets at the close. all three gauges ending near session highs. it's been a red week, the s&p 500 snapping a two week winning streak, the nasdaqen ending down four weeks in a row. one chance to win $26 million destroyed. million destroyed. ♪ we are thrilled we finally found our dream home in the mountains. the views are great, the air is fresh. (sfx: branches rustle) it is bear country though. hey boo-boo! we hit the jackpot! bear! bear! bear! look, corn on the cob! oohh chicken! don't mind if i do! they're hungry. t-bone! that's what i call a smorgasbord! at least geico makes bundling our home and car insurance easy. they do save us a ton of money. we'll take the cobbler to go! good idea, yogi. i'm smarter than the average bear! they're gone, dad! for bundling made easy, go to geico.com. they're gone, dad!

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♪♪ dagen: $26 million down the drain. a lottery winner in california failing to claim her grand prize after she claimed the lotto ticket was destroyed in the wash doing a load of laundry. that does it for us on fox business >> from the fox studio in new york city this is "maria bartiromo wall street". maria: happy we can welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was in position you for the week ahead i am maria bartiromo insulation hitting wall street as jobless claims dropped to a new pandemic lot we are getting a read on the economy from cornerstone cofounder and chief economist nancy lazar coming up in my fox business exclusive interview with bank of america chairman and ceo ryan com