stuart: great question, what percentage of men in america have facial hair? i guess 10%. i was hoping for 10%. what's the answer? 33%. i don't believe it. what is this country coming to. by the way 55% of men in the world have facial hair. quick reminder, "friday feedback," we're getting back to it tomorrow. send your thoughts to varneyviewers@fox.com, okay? time's up for me. neil, it is yours. neil: i hope you use my letter, stuart. you can't miss it. it is written in crayon. show it exactly as it came. thank you, my friend, great show. looking at couple developments with oil prices slip-sliding away. we're tapping the strategic petroleum reserve. we done that a number of times. this is the second big moment for this administration, we never done it like this, taking it out at rate of million

barrels a day. this would last up to six months t would add up to 180 million barrels and drive it down by a third. in other words overall all we have in that strategic petroleum reserve. now is leading to prices declining not only here but abroad. it mass very, very clear effect on oil prices worldwide as did this push and pull what opec an opec plus countries are considering barely budging on their own production levels. so they could have increased production a little bit more. i think it works out 432,000 barrels a day added to the market but that is really kind of a wash in these high demand times. what we're doing on the reserve front captivating the market's attention. not good news for oil and oil-related stocks. they have been on a tear this year, one of the best performers not only this month but on the quarter. the lower prices go, the worse things could be for them. but they have since come back off their lows right now. the drillers are one thing we'll

look at a little bit later because the costlier the oil gets, less they are inclined to drill. the administration blaming drillers and oil companies for their reluctance to tap into this. in fact it is administration has at least stymied that activity. we'll get to dan dicker, what he makes of this reserves announcement. dan, normally you do this when you got an emergency or you got a crisis, war or some calamity. a lot of people look what is happening at the pump close to that but i think that is debatable but what do you think of this move and its longer term impact not just today? >> neil, i would say it is an emergency at sorts. the europeans are trying to supplant russian supplies and delivering some barrels out of the spr is one way the biden administration can do it. it might be over the top, a mill barrels a day. it won't last very long.

the spr has 115 million barrels. the rest of it is sand probably, been sitting down there so long. it will go pretty quickly. from a fundamental basis it doesn't have enormous impact. we're looking daily usage globally 103 million barrels a day. one million barrels adding is not making a fundamentally a difference. what it has done to try to scare the bejesus people long oil. that is why you see the market down about three bucks. neil: it is interesting opecnd these opec plus countries chose in the last 24 hours to say we're moving production up a little bit, not a lot, i think 432,000 after a prior jump of 400,000 barrels a day, that is proverbial spit in the energy ocean but what do you think of their almost rubbing this in our

face? maybe i'm over characterizing it but what do you make of that? >> we have to do a little history here. i think the american drillers are pretty much in the same kind of boat. they have been dealing with really, really low prices for the last four years and you know they worked very, very hard to get into a financial position where they could finally take advantage of prices going up. so it is the same with the drillers overseas and opec. they have been getting hammered and oil companies here in this country have 500 bankruptcies in the last five years this is not, this is not an industry that wants to step on their own success when they have had so much hard times but one would make an argument that the saudis particularly owe the united states a little bit of extra supply here, particularly when there is this consolidated rush to try to supplant russian supplies in europe and i think the saudis might respond at a little bit later date. they're sitting back enjoying

the high prices for a change. whether that is right or wrong you can do the politics. neil: i hear you. dan, thank you very, very much. go to edward lawrence at the white house. the president will detail all of this in about an hour and a half. one thing i found interesting preparing for this edward, the white house's view oil companies should be drilling more here and they're just sitting on land that they could tap anytime they wanted to. explain where it is coming from. reporter: yeah, there are 9,000 leases that have been approved but not acted on. the oil industry says, wait a minute, not all of the leases are actually viable. they don't actually have oil down there. some other companies are saying it is a little bit expensive for us to start the process of investment and have the administration yank the wool or carpet out from underneath us. this release of 180 million barrels total from the reserves when it is all said and done in the next six months will put the strategic petroleum reserve at the lowest level

since 1984. secretary granholm told me that the administration has no plans to make any regulatory changes. she adds the best way to help with gas prices is speed up the transition away from fossil fuels. >> but with respect to our own energy independence, we know that it is critical for us to make sure that we are not reliant fuels from other countries, for example, oil and gas. that is one of the reasons why we would like to see a greater push in the u.s. toward electric vehicles and reduce the cost of those electric vehicles. reporter: this will be the third release from the strategic petroleum reserve since november. then, see two on the screen and the one announced today which has not really worked to bring down gas prices. these are the steps that the white house now says they have been taking releasing from the reserves, asking opec to produce more which basically turned out to be a no and price gouging

investigations. white house economic advisors on "america reports" on our fox news channel blaming oil companies themselves. listen to this. >> they have to work to bring wells back online that they shut down during covid but there is nothing at all standing in their way doing that in the short term. what we're doing is working on how we can use our reserves, our national assets to help bridge that gap and also working internationally with other oil producing countries as well. reporter: to bring this back around to those leases the president is going to call later today for congress to impose extra fees on oil companies that are holding those 9,000 leases and not acting on those leases. congress would have to approve something like that. the oil executives will be in front of congress next week. we'll likely hear their side of the story about the unfavorable environment. back to you, neil. neil: edward, statistics are a funny thing. to talk about the 9,000 existing leases yet to be acted on but a little over a year ago at this

time they had three times that many leases that they did act upon. they pick and choose the ones that look like there is money to be made or oil to be found and the return on an investment to be realized. so people forget that. i'm just beginning to wonder here, targeting the oil companies for this, just seems a little misplaced, doesn't it? reporter: and this has been the case with the white house. they are blaming everyone. it is russia, putin price hike. neil: it is oil companies, price gouging at the pump but everything but the policies put in place since day one basically when the president canceled the keystone pipeline. a couple days ago the republican study committee put out 81 specific examples why gas prices and oil prices are much higher. this administration saying look, transition away from fossil fuels that will fix everything but that takes time. neil: thank you very, very much, edward lawrence on that. again not to bemoan this, facts

do matter no matter where you stand on the fossil fuels or guys that tap the energy or make money off the energy. oil companies, oil giants tend to buy a lot of leases they take bets where they think oil is, how profitable it would be to eventually tap. sometimes they have better than 100 more leases at a given time, they quickly seize on that to check out which are tappable, if you will, which are not. as i said a little over a year ago they had close to 30,000 such leases, down to under 9,000 today. that doesn't mean there are opportunities in the existing 9,000 but remember where we were, where we are, what has been going on since, the administration saying not going further than the existing leases, when the oil industry says we see promising ones here, public lands which cause as kerfuffle understandably. to put it in perspective these guys are in it for the money. if they can tap something that would make money they would do

it. it would be foolish of them not to. wanted to raise that here. perfect timing for kevin hassett, president trump's council economic advisors chairman. kevin, this occurs same day we got a key inflation number the federal reserve looks at more than any other, the personal consumption index. the core part of that index factors out volatile swings of food and energy t was running annual rate of 5.4%. the overall index was running at annual rate of 6.4% but that is way, way beyond what the fed likes to see, a 2% number so we still got serious inflation issues. how long do you suspect they drag on? >> oh, i think they're going on for years because the history of it is the fed has to get the interest rate kind of above the inflation rate for inflation to start to head back down. i know types are a little bit different and quantitative

easing and complications could make that a little bit different this time but the fact the fed will be moving too slow. and i really want to reiterate something you mentioned about the oil rises, the fact million dollars a day with is one 1/100th of global come assumption. if you change supply by 1%, you change price by 1%. there will be a 1% change in prices. a bigger move in markets today but it is really, really a small thing but attacking oil companies the way they're doing is the wrong thing. it suggests there could be more actions down the road. they want to get neil and kevin to go out there and drill. we'll going out there spend our money putting up wells if we think the price will be pretty good for a while. if they're declaring war on oil companies why would you go out and explore and sink the capital that takes five years to pay back given the biden administration really doesn't like you and is demonizing you?

i think the policy is political panic. that they know that the high gas prices are real liability for them going into the fall and you know, i think it is kuhn of interesting it wasn't one of their professional economists came out said this is a good idea. the cea at the white house always argued against releasing oil from the strategic reserve. economics of it makes no sense. i think it's a political move that is not really going to have a big effect on the oil price. neil: you know we keep doing it. i didn't realize the third time. they had two big hits against the reserve to try to tap it. never have we seen anything like this kevin, you're taking a million barrels a day. you can keep this going for many, many months. ultimately driving down the number of reserves we have there by a third, up to a half at rate we're going there. that is supposed to be sort of a chit in our back pocket, maybe it is justified what we've got going here but there are easier ways to go about this.

i am wondering what the signal is though for average folks who might like at a sign this will maybe ease pressure at the gas pump, as you pointed out, as big as that sounds, a million barrels a day, demand is 100 million a day. so what good does this do? >> right. well i don't think it does any good at all. i would have objected vehemently if i were at the white house still. two things to think about, one, geopolitical risk as you talk about every day is about the highest it has been in memory because of the russian war with ukraine. it is exactly that time we need to be ready for really dire circumstances. we shouldn't be running down our reserves just for political purposes but the second thing is we'll have to refill the reserves. really not that far off into the future so what we start buying a million a day more six months from now, what will it do to the price then? my view this is just political partisanship.

it has no economic supporting it whatsoever and it will not make much difference at all at the gas pump. neil: as you're well aware opec and opec plus countries barely moved on their own production. a lot of people looked at that and thought, if that is not another reason to rely less on guys that don't flip over us, i don't know what is. what do you think of that? >> right. i think that you know, being energy independent is a good thing. having lots of pipelines and exploration in the u.s. and renewables where it makes sense is a good long-run strategy but biden reverse ad whole bunch of that when he came into office and i think we're paying the price for that right now. again the final thing i want to say going back to the geopolitical point this million dollars, mill barrels a day is a huge amount for the military, right? if there is actually something that we have to do because the russia ukraine thing standers to spill over, something like that,

that oil is incredibly important. but it is not incredibly important relative to the total consumption in the world or in the u.s. what they're doing is they're exposing us to a serious geopolitical risk for almost no benefit at pump. i find that unpatriotic and disrent puttable policy. i'm really shocked the economic team would go on tv to defend it. neil: whatever effect this has for the time-being easing oil prices you think it is short-lived, don't get used to it? >> again there are different models but you change the supply of something by a percent or two you change the percent of it by a percent or two usually. oil prices are a little what economists call nonlinear. you might get a big effect for that. by the time you get to the summer months and mixing ethanol, in food prices skyrocketing it will be in the

with watch with not much effect at all. neil: we'll see president trump's head of economic council advisors. it is about supply and demand. we're inching up on supply pouring all the oil from strategic petroleum reserve, you think about demand not moving things much. markets look at future supply and future demand the hope today it will last if there is a signal we can tap sources where we can. here is the thing about the strategic petroleum reserve. it is sort of like your rainy day fund, if you deplete it by a third or a half, you're not as ready for as many rain any days, are you? -- rainy days. more after this.

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neil: we're ending the month or quarter for stocks, talk about averages and how poorly they had done beginning of the year but not as nearly as the free-fall we were in four or five weeks ago. look at the comeback we've seen just in the technology names like tesla, nvidia, amazon from

their lows. it is an interesting perspective because the nasdaq itself had fallen more than 20%, was well into bear market territory. some of those very issues you're looking at including tesla, nvidia, and amazon were way beyond market falloffs, 25% or more. look how much ground they recouped since those lows. amazon up almost 14%. nvidia up almost 24%. look at that for tesla, 42%. the major averages for example, at least in correction territory 10% or more. nasdaq fallen into bear market territory. the s&p and nasdaq on the quarter are looking at about 3% or so losses but they had been well over 10 years and the nasdaq, which had fallen as far as 22%, shaved that by 2/3 now down 7%. moving targets i grant you, but

a sign we come back from the super, super lows. interesting development a lot depends on the course where this war goes and where talks go. some growing doubts as to not only what our military experts are getting a handle on but what vladmir putin is getting a handle on because the latest intelligence reports seems to indicate his advisors aren't telling him a lot of stuff or might be misleading him or afraid to talk to him. let's get the read from lucas tomlinson at the pentagon. lucas. reporter: neil, good afternoon, one of the top british spy chiefs outlined some of the problems the russian military is having on the ground in ukraine. >> we've seen russian soldiers short of weapons and morale refusing to carry out orders. sabotaging their own equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft. even though we believe putin's advisors are afraid to tell him the truth what's going on and

the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime. reporter: a senior u.s. defense official says russian airstrikes in ukraine have doubled in the past 24 hours despite claims about moving some forces back. 300 airstrikes in total. 1000 russian mercenaries arrived in eastern ukraine in recent days. other reinforcements could be coming from a fresh wave of conscripts heading off for basic training. russian president vladmir putin signed the decree, ordering 135,000 russian men between 18 and 27 to enlist. russian defense minute stays says none will be deployed to afghanistan. the soviets made the same claim in 1980s about sending conscripts to afghanistan. they are asking whether more weapons could have been sent to the ukrainians sooner. >> if the ukrainians had ink stingsers months ago, haddable

to train on them would that make operability to fight. >> congressman it could have. reporter: two u.s. navy guided missile destroyser were ordered out of the black sea ahead of russian administration. he said that was a policy decision made by the biden administration. on the previous segment about oil, it is notable president zelenskyy's chief vick advisor says russian oil exports have not decreases since the invasion. they have gone up and $19 billion has been put into vladmir putin's coffin since the invasion, neil. neil: i believe that. we were importing, there is a dark market for this. of course there are many eager countries happy to get their hands on it. india, china come to mind. they get a discount on it. thank you very much, lucas, good

reporting. roger wicker key republican on the senate armed services committee. i want to talk about so much including this latest report that vladmir putin is in the dark. his own advisors are afraid to talk to him. they haven't given him the skinny how things are looking on the ground in ukraine. that is a little scary, do you think? >> you have to realize this is classified information that the british and the american intelligence community had and yesterday they decided it was important enough to make this public. i think it is very revealing this is again so much like adolf hitler in 70 years ago in world war ii. unable to be sure that they could give the the fuhrer bad news for fear what he would do. neil: the fuhrer didn't have the internet, 24/7 tv, to show how things were turning by 1944 and

1945. certainly vladmir putin does and i'm just wondering are his aides afraid to state the obvious or they might disappear or there is concern amongst themselves? reports of top generals, i think we're up to seven now, senator, who died in battle in ukraine. what is it, do you think? >> well, it is hard to say but what we can say is this is a real concern. this is an assessment not only by our defense community but by also our nato allies and it is important enough that they felt it should be divulged. i think we know that vladmir putin in so many ways is delusional. he thought his troops were equal to this. in four or five days he is bound to be badly disappointed and shocked what he has been told but also the more important point that really need to make is the exchange between

congressman waltz and general walters. the ukrainians are fighting their war. they're telling us what they need and the response was, if we had given them stingers earlier they might be in a better position. we met with six members of the ukrainian parliament yesterday. they told us what they need and frankly they say we're not getting it. so there is a disconnect with what we're hearing from our military team and our state department team and what we're being told by the government that is actually fighting this war with boots on the ground. neil: i don't know if it would be a 180-degree difference to your point, senator, but certainly having access to those weapons, to say nothing of the 100 killer drones, these switchblades the ukrainians are still waiting for would have made an enormous difference. on those killer drones, snort,

we're told it is almost like a amazon delivery, they're waiting for the package but still not there. they don't have that kind of time. this was all approved more than a week ago so why are they still waiting? >> again, it is a frustration that i expressed in our closed session yesterday. we can't tell what we heard but i can sure tell you what i said and that is, the folks that are fighting this war, female members of parliament whose husbands are fighting as soldiers right now are telling us they're not getting what they need in real time and it is a concern. neil: senator, thank you very much for taking the time. roger wicker, republican senator. fair and balanced we'll be hearing from senator tim kaine also sits on the senate armed services committee, virginia democrat, hillary clinton's

running mate, you remember that in 2016. he had a big concern about nato being obviously in lockstep with nato, making sure, this had bipartisan support, that no president, democrat or republican can ever pull the, pull out from nato without congressional approval. it seems like a very obvious thing but apparently up now that is possible. he wants to make sure that can never happen. that is next. you can forget the personality tests and social media quizzes. because the only way you're ever gonna know is by heading into the big, wild, raging so-damned-beautiful- it-hurts world and finding out for yourself. were you born to follow a path? or were you born free? these are the things we thought about when we made the new grand cherokee. made for what you're made of. ♪ ♪

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♪. neil: all right. oil prices continue to slip 'n slide here on news that the president's tapping the strategic petroleum reserve up to a million barrels a day, could be for many months. that could end up being 180 million barrels when all is said, driving down the amount of oil we have in that reserve by a third, others say up to a half. senator tim kaine joins us right now, sits on the senate armed

services committee, very important person there, a former vice presidential candidate. senator, good to see you this measure is apparently it for the administration from now. nancy pelosi was just asked by our hillary vaughn about talk that maybe there would be a federal gas tax holiday. she said that is off the table for the time-being if i got her, the gist of what she said correct. what do you think of that? tap the reserve, urge oil companies, work on existing leases some controversy with that but no gas tax holiday, are you okay with that. >> here is what i think, neil, i'm glad to be on. i'm glad we're tapping with the reserve. the challenge with the gas tax holiday, it doesn't necessarily bring down prices at the pump but that needs to be the test. when i was governor of virginia, our gas was dramatically lower than the north carolina gas tax, but if you drove back at the

price at pump it was the same. not that virginia was lower in the tax. if you drop the federal gas tax it doesn't lead to saves at pump, why do it? i think the better strategy the big five oil companies in the united states are incredibly profitable right now. you might do excess profits tax and then rebate money back to consumers. that could actually help them with the cost of gasoline in the short term. i would be more open to that than a gas tax holiday that might not lead gas to come down by a penny. neil: are you afraid though that the signal it sends to the public is that all of this is born because of the oil companies? so tax their profits which seem obscene the way the president seems to be looking at it, hardly an apologist for that industry, senator, there are other factors going on here, are there not? >> no. clearly there are other factors, absolutely. that is why the strategic reserve is really important.

i think what, the oil companies are profitable, that is great, i want them to be profitable but when their profit the spike up at the very time when people are hurting the most, that is what is troubling about it. you may be able to look at some kind of a temporary excess profits tax so that they their profits don't spike at the same time that people are suffering. neil: i don't know, maybe i'm showing my age, senator, when i hear a temporary tax, history suggests it is not temporary. but we can get into that. >> right. neil: i want to something you led in a bipartisan way, i didn't even know that it was possible, sir, a president of either party could walk away from nato, his or her discretion you're trying to make sure not before congress can weigh in. tell us where that stands right now. >> it's a very exciting thing and it goes after sort of an ambiguity in the constitution. the constitution says the u.s. cannot enter into a treaty

without a 2/3 vote of the senate, clear as day. the constitution doesn't say anything about exiting a treaty. this actually has been kind of a live debate that has gone on for years that has never been resolved to anyone's satisfaction. the u.s. supreme court took a case in 1979 dealing with president carter unilaterally backing out after treaty over taiwan's defense. so members of congress sued, hey, you can't do that. the supreme court said they dismissed the case. they said it's a political question that has to be worked out between the executive and congress. to me that says congress has a role. so senator mccain and i first introduced this bill in july of 2018. it was the last bill i believe he introduced before he died to say no president can back out of nato without a vote of congress. the timing wasn't right but the timing is right now because we're seeing the value of nato. we had a vote in the senate foreign relations committee on it yesterday.

21-1 in support of the proposal but now senator rubio i are leading it. has huge bipartisan support. we're hoping to get a floor vote on it soon. it would send a great message to our nato allies right now, nato membership of the u.s. doesn't depend on the president. it is a bicameral, a bipartisan desire to stand strong with our nato allies. neil: was this triggered by then president trump nato paying respective fair share around questioning article v, whether he would respond to an attack on one, was it born of that? >> yes, it was. now pushing nato, nations to up their defense, we liked that about president trump that was a good thing but saying that we might get out or why would we want to do something to defend a small nato nation, that actually made us go, ask the question that you just asked, wow, i didn't think a president could

get out after treaty. we went back and looked this is an issue the constitution is silent. as a general matter the supreme court says when the constitution is silent it is something that congress can legislate in that silence. clearly the senate has always had a role in approval of treaties. we think we're completely on fine legal grounds but this treaty in particular, this particular moment, sending a bipartisan message we're behind nato seems like a good thing to do. >> it woke me up. i didn't even know the president could have that prerogative. i want to touch on something. you battled covid. i had same issues. it was very scary for me. you're dealing with -- of it as am i. hopefully not to the degree either of us were but it lingers. you want to explore that. a lot of people coming out of this in varying degrees of health but there is a lot we don't know. explain what you are personally

going through. >> yeah, neil. look your covid story really grabbed my attention, i know many because it was so serious. my covid story is not serious but it is weird. i had a very mild case of covid at the beginning in march of 2020. we were working on the cares act here. i got covid. i had non-standard symptoms. i gave covid to my wife. she had all the standard symptoms. we know what is going on. we got anti-body tests that showed we got covid. one symptom i got at beginning, every nerve ending in my body tingled or buzzed 24/7. i describe it as every nerve independenting has 4 cups of coffee. i can exercise, sleep, and i felt my body had for 62 1/2 years and felt different and i never gone back. i am dealing with it. i'm not suffering under it but starting to hear people who are

having much more serious honk term covid symptoms including not being believed. maybe it is anxiety. when people started to report this experience not being believed. i thought i want to know more about what the phenomenon, what are the cures and treatments? i talked about my own experience so people going through a post-covid syndrome, hey, there are policymakers who believe you, who are living through it too. we got a sizable amount of research money in the american rescue plan a year ago to dig into causes and cures and neil, this is an interesting one. we may know cures before we know causes because some of the symptoms are similar to other kinds of symptoms not related to covid. so we can use medications for more rob -- nur rob pa think, nerve tingling, does that work with somebody with covid symptoms.

we need support for those dealing with it. this could affect 5% to 30% of people who had covid. that is such a wide swath. we have to dig in, understand what it is. neil: right, right. >> but the symptoms are completely variable. mine is nerve tingling. some people lose taste and smell permanent lengthily. could be racing hard. i was a marathon runner. i can't walk around the block. the symptoms are very, very broad. there are a lot of questions. we've got to get answers. neil: interesting. i was a marathon runner as well, senator. no, i really wasn't. but you didn't milk all the attention like i did, senator. i mean you even though you were dealing with it. you know, there was no milking it. but no, you raise a lot of very good points. go ahead. >> neil, what i will say on this being willing to just share my own experience. again i'm dealing with a we are thing. neil: absolutely. >> means an awful lot of people

come up to talk to me on the street, around the capital, here and there, thanks for doing this bill. somebody yesterday was talking to me about their wife who was dealing with long covid symptoms. thanks for doing this bill, bringing some attention to it. the good news is, people who are dealing with these symptoms, if we share the symptoms and kind of get good research on them we will not only long covid sufferers but it is very common for other viral illnesses to have aftereffects, lyme disease. research on covid will give answers to help others too. neil: to your point, five to 10%, that is millions of people could be affected. >> millions and millions. yeah. neil: senator, very good seeing you, thank you very much. >> neil, glad to be with you. we'll come back. neil: senator tim kaine on all those developments. with he have the dow down 154 points. oil prices still going south as well. so it is not helping stocks today, is it? more after this.

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♪. reporter: welcome back to "cavuto: coast to coast". i'm hillary vaughn. president biden's budget calls for trillions in new government spending and also new taxes but even with inflation soaring some democrats are now second-guessing taxing more and spending more. more taxes and higher spending a good idea when inflation is hovering above 7%. >> when you have massive income wealth inequality, when two people own more wealth than the bottom 40% of the american people and we have billionaires in this country giving paying less than federal tax than you do, i think we have to deal with that. reporter: some democrats are worried about biden's agenda stalling headed into the midterms, they want biden to take executive action on a number of things now. congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez telling "new york" magazine this, quote, if the president does pursue and start to govern decisively using executive actions using other tools at his disposal, i think

we're in the game but if we decide to sit back the rest of the year not change peoples lives yeah i do think we're in trouble. even though flushing the economy with stimulus during the pandemic helped drive inflation higher some democrats in the house are considering more government stimulus. this time checks to pay for gas. after speaking pelosi today told me a gas tax holiday is off the table because there is no guarranty it would get passed down to the pump she says checks are being considered. would you support the idea of something like gas checks, rebates, vouchers to americans. >> one something could be a rebate card or a direct paint and those are the things that are being considered. but some of the things that looked appealing in the beginning to some, if this were my caucus one has, let's go with that, the other half would say, wait a minute, it is not going, did you know, it is not going to the consumer?

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neil: they like to call it the happiest place on earth but the trouble lately is that disney has gotten so woke that for a lot of folks they're not happy. let's get the read right now from kelly o'grady anaheim, california, of course at disneyland. what's going on, kelly? reporter: hi, neil. yes, happiest place on earth, maybe, maybe not. listen, so many disney fans are frustrated by disney's reaction to the parents rights bill in florida. i have spoken to a number of people here that question whether a business should be taking a political stance. take a listen. >> i don't think it is their place. i know they have a lot of pull but i still think it should be up to the parents. >> i don't think you should have any problem talking about something that is natural to your kids but i think that is up to the parents and not up to a business. >> i personally don't think businesses should take a stance on different things necessarily just because you're either going to harm or hurt and sometimes it

is better to stay neutral. reporter: that backlash has grown in the last few days after a number of disney decisions came to light. after one video showed a creator boasting about her lgbtq plus agenda, the company stopped using gender specific terms like boys and girls at theme parks. it is trending on twitter with countless comments from parents. florida lawmaker returning donations as the company is enemy of parents. prepandemic disney's park segment accounted for 6.billion in profits. that is nearly half of total. that financed 2.9 billion of investments in new rides and attractions in 2020 as well as significant content investment in disney plus. neil, that impact will come down to what percentage of people are tired of disney's woke revolution, one woman told me she is really frustrated by disney's antics, this may be her last trip to disney. last ride on splash mountain. i hope she enjoys it.

neil: it is not a cheap place to go to, that is for sure. thank you so much. kelly o'grady following all of that from disneyland. all this comes at at time when a lot of people going to disney parks around the world, shanghai, you can't, shut down right now because of covid square, it is getting pricey, with all the politically correct stuff it is also getting annoying. where does it go? we shall see. we'll have more after this. ♪. moore. jessica was born to care. she always had your back... like the time she spotted the neighbor kid, an approaching car, a puddle, and knew there was going to be a situation. ♪ ♪ ms. hogan's class? yeah, it's atlantis. nice. i don't think they had camels in atlantis. really? today she's a teammate at truist, the bank that starts with care when you start with care, you get a different kind of bank.

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♪ if. ♪ ♪ >> every day it's rising, especially the gas. like, it's crazy. >> what's the most you've paid for gas? >> well, here i would think i -- $4.50. >> and how much is that to fill up your car? >> almost a third more to fill up my cars from last year at least. >> i drive an f-150, so it costs me about $1350 fill up my tank now, which is getting a little ridiculous. >> and a posed to last year, what was that around? >> maybe $75, $80 usually. >> when you were making travel plans, was there a change in price? >> yes. taxi cab prices have increased since the last time i was here pre-covid. hotel prices seem pretty stable. >> you're looking to rent.

how does that look for you? is that more expensive for you? >> it's honestly, yes. it's impossible. it's almost $800 more a month for me. so i actually had to move into my cousin's basement. >> i'm a college student, so i live pretty, pretty broke already are. but, yeah, it's definitely just overall affected how i'm spending my money. >> how is the price going up from last year to this year? is it a little tougher? >> oh, definitely. i'm making sure to take the cans back this year. >> have you had to make adjustments to your day-to-day living to adjust for these rising prices? >> shing down -->> walk to schoe have to maintain our routine, you know? standard of living. >> do you think that's going to be solved quickly, or do you think it's more long term? >> honestly, i think it is what it is. in terms of gas, you'll see that fluctuate, but in terms of grocery store prices, an extra

10 cents here, 20 cents here, i think that's for the long term. >> i don't see it changing for a while. neil: all right. that's a top of mind issue for a lot of americans, high gas prices. the president's arguing help is on the way at least when it comes to the gas thing by announcing he's tapping the strategic petroleum reserve like no one else before him, to the tune of a million barrels a day. it could be 180 million barrels to bring down the price at the pump. at least it's having desired effect today in oil prices. we'll see how long that lasts. is that really the solution to all of this? very good to have all these folks with us, steve moore, former trump senior economic adviser, danielle dimartino booth, on the role of the federal reserve to ease fears, dan geltrude, luke lloyd. luke, ending with you, get your take on whether tapping the reserve as the president will

detail momentarily -- i think a little later this hour -- is the answer. what do you think? >> is that for me? neil: that's for you, luke. >> okay. [inaudible conversations] neil: go ahead, luke. okay, we're having problems -- steve moore -- go ahead. >> okay. sorry, i'm hearing you now. >> no, i don't think so. neil: man, oh, man, this is my worst nightmare. steve moore, let me go to you. i apologize. this idea that tapping the reserve, it is an emergency where a lot of americans, that can be short-lived, right, steve? >> yeah. so my view on this is smart move by biden. i think it does make sense to tap the reserve especially when you've got oil at, what, $110 a

barrel. i think that the price dropped, neil, you probably is those numbers right in front of you, by about $6 a barrel when that was announced. so this was certainly a welcome reprieve from these high gas prices. but it's a band-aid on a cancer patient. i mean, the main reason that we're seeing these high gasoline prices and the surge in oil prices is because of an anti-american energy policy by biden. we should at the same time we're tapping those reserves, we should be doing everything we can to increase american oil and gas production, and we should declare it a national emergency to get those wells nowing again, get the pipelines -- flowing again, get the pipelines built, build the lng terminals. this should be what i and others have called an operation warp speed to get the production if back up. we're now producing about 10.5 million barrels a day of oil. i believe that we could easily be producing 15 million barrels

a day, and that would do a lot more than tapping the strategic reserve to bring the price of gas down. neil: you know, danielle, thed administration's going to come back and say, look, all these oil guys, they have these land leases and they're not tapping them. the fact of the matter is they dramatically paredded those leases down from where they were, now a little over 9,000. but the administration is clearly going to say this is not all on us, and it will, no doubt, be looking at the culprits being the oil guys who are all going to be dragged on capitol hill next week to explain themselves. what do you make of all of this? >> look, there's a certainties ingenuousness about this, neil, because they've been slapped on the wrist for years now, they've been told they're going to be run out of business and rendered irrelevant once we're a fully green any -- economy, and they actually have these things called shareholders who they have to answer to the.

this is america. this is capitalism. and so congress can do what it wants, but until you align incentives and make it make sense for hem to make long-term investments -- these are not, this isn't one or two or three years, this is plunking money down for five or the ten-year, long-term investments. build up those ports, build up that lng export if capacity and now a permanent boost to the economy and productivity. neil: luke, and i hope everything's working now, i apolo vise if it's not, just blame the other panelists. your sense of how big a market development this is. the markets, iron create from their lows, have come back mightily. and i'm wondering why that is in the face of steadily climbing oil prices throughout this. >> yeah. so you have to remember the economy and stock market are two different things. so the market has already discounted a lot of the bad things happening, and even though i think it's time, you

know, to think about the economy from a global standpoint, it's time to invest in the united states. i think that's what a lot of countries are realizing. if money's flocking right now to the u.s. equities which is propping up the stock market. it could actually be enough to offset some of the big issues in the economy like inflation, supply chain issues, the federal reserve policy errors. i mean, when i set you up to invest in the u.s., you have to think globally from an economic standpoint though because, again, they're two different things. all the central banks around the world, they're not coordinated. and when you have russia on the brink of default, central banks are going to do different things. once russia defaults, germany goes down with it, then europe, then china, then the united states. so we're seeing profit margins roll over in the em space mainly because of china. everybody's coming to the u.s. neil: all right. we're a victor by default certain my if you discount how

far we've come off our lows. but, dan geltrude, looking at this market -- the markets right now, this war really clobbered stocks. and i'm not saying they're all back with a vengeance, but a lot of them are back mightily from deep, deep down in bear market territory to barely 7 or 8% right now. some have actually made even money. so which is9 accurate, the way the war started or the way the war continues right now? >> well, i think the market is looking at the progress of the war, and what we're seeing right now is incredibly ukraine is holding on. and by them holding on, could that ultimately lead to true peace negotiations or a way for putin to be able to actually pull out of ukraine somehow and save face. i don't know if that's possible. but when the market is looking at this and say, okay, maybe it's possible we can actually

have a more favorable outcome there because, certainly, russia taking over ukraine in a long proprotracted war is not -- proif tracted war is not good for the economy, and it's certainly not going to be good long term for our stock market. but i think the market is looking at maybe there's some light at the end of the tunnel here and reacting accordingly. neil: you know, danielle, there are reports right now that the next fed meeting they're going to raise rates a half a percent, not a quarter percent. and a lot of that could be based on this personal if consumption number out today, apparently a favorite -- and maybe it was when you were there, dallas fed -- but that showed things increasing at about a 6.4% clip which i guess is real fancy, 5.4%. either way, way, way over what they call an okay level of about 2%. so they start getting super aggressive. do we have super problems, or will the markets -- [inaudible] >> yeah, the fed is so late to

this game, and we're already seeing signs that the u.s. economy is slowing, that we're kind of on the slippery slope to stagflation. right now first quarter estimates, they're at about 0.1% was kind of wall street's best e.t. tracker. that's a hair away from falling into negative territory at the same time that you've got profit margin being squeezed and inflation increasing as we saw at the very beginning of this segment. a lot of americans sound very distaught about the fact that they lost control of their budget. neil: you know, we're already seeing it too in buying patterns and the confidence numbers of consumers, steve moore. sometimes one can follow another, purchasing activity down a fraction of what it was, a tenth of what it was, you know, from february to january. if or from january to february, i should say. something has got the consumer stalling here. where are we going?

>> well, the latest number from the atlanta federal reeverybody board for the first quarter of gdp which i believe today is the last day of this first quarter, 1%. so that's anemic growth. we should be growing at 4-5% given the fact that we're coming out of covid. the economy's stalled out. now, that doesn't mean that we're headed to a recession, i pray that we're not. but when i look, for example, neil, something you've been talking about this last week, biden budget. you know, it's all these massive increases in taxes, $2.5 trillion in taxes, increases in government spending. wait a minute, it's the private sector that's the goose that lays the golden eggs, not government. and when we're -- now, the good news is, as you know, those taxes aren't going to happen. still, the fact that we have a budget that is so skewed towards growing the government rather than growing the private sector and private companies, i find it highly disturbing. neil: you know, luke, when you look at consumer spending and the latest, as i said, it was a

fraction of what it was. had been up 2.7% in january, and i wonder if fear breeds fear. in other words, you hear things are bad, you go to the gas station, things are bad. you're talking to people, man, i can't keep up with this. it's psychological and then it becomes real and palpable because you too start cutting back. are we in a stage here where no matter what the president does on gas prices, many seem to think it will have a short-term effect, but that something has stuck in the american consumer's mind not to go fending -- spending crazy. what do you think? >> well, they actually are still spending a lot of money. but the problem is things are too -- neil: luke, you've got to keach my wife out of this -- keep my wife out of this. [laughter] >> right? that's what my dad says as well. neil: there we go. >> yep, absolutely. neil: finish that thought. >> the prices are just so expensive right now, right? so, you know, when it comes to the government spending, they

continue just to pump more and more money into the economy, they think that's the answer. but, again, it's the lowest levels since we saw -- we saw since the '08-'09 time period. so credit card balances, again, nobody is talking about this. credit card balances are on the biggest quarterly increases that we've ever seen in 22 years since the numbers came out. the last three months of 2021 saw, again, the biggest quarterly increase. so these next couple years are going to be an absolute roller coaster for the average and middle class america. when you said people are going to pay for what the government was doing, the last few years with all the spending, this is it. this is exactly what it feels like. people still are spending money, but it's starting to eat into their pocket, and it's going to actually debt. and again, the government's answer right now is to continue to spend money, so they're only going to make things worse. it's not a good situation. i think we're too far deep to

get out of this situation, but it's not too late to make the situation not worse. and that's what the government's doing. neil: all right. guys, i want to thank you all a very, very much. because of the time here, i robbed you of a chance to tell you about what my wife and i paid for our first mortgage -- [laughter] because we're back, we're back to the 1983 inflation levels here. but, you know, your loss. i'll tell you about it sometime. guys, thank you all, seriously, very much. we've got a lot more coming up including, obviously, what's going on in ukraine right now and the read from poland just trying to keep up with all all that, after this.

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neil: all right, our ambassador to poland got a chance to visit the polish border and see for herself what's going on there. to say it is a nightmare administratively in dealing with the better than 2 million ukrainians who have left the country to settle in poland for now, that is probably an understatement. let's get the very latest from alexis mcadams who joins us from poland with the very latest. >> reporter: hello, neil. that's right, cindy mccain was here, she was touring one of the many facilities stacked with humanitarian aid. check it out behind me, this is up one of those areas that has

boxes and boxes of aid stacked up here. we're talking medical supplies, also food coming in from american companies that are doing their best to step up and help poland because, as you mentioned, that need and the refugees just continues to grow. this all comes as united nations is stepping up their own efforts. this week cindy mccain here in to ifland, the u.s. ambassador to the unite 3 nations agency -- united nations agency for food and agriculture toured this massive wear hoist in -- warehouse in poland. mccain tells us the crisis has evolved into a global food security situation, putting the blaum directly on russian president -- blame directly on russian president p vladimir putin. >> putin can stop this. he can stop bombing. he can pull out of ukraine so that the ukrainian can go back home. as far as what we can do as the united states of america our u.n. agencies, we're going to work with our partners and encourage more partners to come in and help us and work together

as a world to not only take care of the ukrainian people, but also stop what's going on. >> reporter: now, as the u.n. focuses on supplying more humanitarian aid to refugees, this is a mission out of florida that's been on the ground since day two of the attacks in ukraine. they are based here in poland right now. now, that organization has two warehouses in poland alone and has collected $85 million worth of supplies serving about 30 containers direct/-- 300 containers direct9ly into the ukraine. >> right now we have 34 requests from different municipalities inside ukraine begging for food and things for the people. and with all that coming, we won't even be able to fulfill those needs, that's how big it is. >> reporter: neil, so far that group tells me that they've been able to get 22 truckloads into ukraine, calling it a miracle because of those checkpoints and

the heavy shelling that is happening all over the country. some of the things i that they're sending in are actually packs like this which are portable charging packs. they're going to places like mariupol -- mariupol, those people have been inside of those warehouses and sitting in bunkers for 15-20 days. they don't have is food, water, and they sure don't have anywhere to charge their phones, so that's something different they're trying to send to those people who need help deity by day. neil: that's a brilliant idea and very practical. alexis, thank you very much. you know, there are obviously a lot -- millions now -- of displaced ukrainians, but a good number of ukrainian scholars too who have nowhere where to go. the president of purdue university, mitch daniels, joins us right now with a possible welcoming initiative. very good to see you, governor. tell us what this is about. >> well, first of all, i hope it's a wasted effort, neil.

we all -- we'd love to discover that peace has come to ukraine and people can remain or return there. but that looks far from likely. so our university has opened its doors and indicated we look forward to welcoming ukrainian scholars who feel the need to flee or seek refuge. we've already secured the first such agreement, we're hearing from the others, some of our faculty already had contacts and made them to colleagues who might be interested, and we're hearing spontaneously from others whom we didn't know previously. so if we can make a home at least temporarily for outstanding talents in academics, that's what america's always done and so often benefited from in the past. neil: governor, i'd be curious what role would they play there? it's one thing to help them out. would they teach at the university? how would they contribute at purdue?

>> they would teach, and they would in most cases collaborate on research. again, some of these people we're already talking to were previously known to some of our fact all -- faculty. but you know, neil, beyond that i think simply by their presence they will personify the quest for freedom, they will be living reminders to many of our students who have never seen what true oppression can mean of how precious freedom is and how fragile it is. neil: i'm just wondering how you deal with that even at purdue as the president, governor, because maybe owing to the fact that you're also a former governor, omb director, you know, you know money, you know responsibility, you know administrative issues. but these are very tough economic times. the cost of everything going up, you've managed to keep a lid on tuition costs and all going up. but eventually, you know, you're up against a brick wall. what do you do?

>> i don't consider this -- i consider this a positive investment if we're able to make it, if these focus are able to get here which is a challenge right now. neil: no, no, i'm not saying that, governor. i'm sorry, i was just talking in general, in the aggregate how you're dealing in this inflationary environment beyond this with concern. >> we're in very, very strong -- yeah. well, thanks for asking. we're in a very solid financial shape. our university, it's true, we have not changed tuition in ten years now. it's less expensive to attend this school than it was in 2012. but on the other hand, this has helped to contribute to nearly a 30% growth in the student body, so we're in very solid financial shape. and certainly capable of making an investment to, that we hadn't contemplated to bring a few new additional faculty in from the

ukraine if we can make that happen. neil: the only bad news lately was that loss to st. peter's, i guess, right? >> i'm not sure what you're talking about the -- [laughter] i may have blotted that out -- [laughter] neil: i thought i'd sneak that in there. governor, it's very good seeing you. this is great news and especially for those scholars who need a place to go and a place to make a difference. thank you very, very much. all right -- >> thank you. neil: that'll do it on that part. if you think about what they're doing at purdue and trying to reach out not only help parents with kids there, but to help those who really need it and maybe can offer something to those parents and kids. there's a concept. mitch daniels, purdue university president. the dow right now in and out of session lows here. a lot of people are wondering whether this oil slide can wrap, also wrapping up a quarter. to matter how you slice it -- no matter how you slice it, it'll be the worst we've had in two years. that was the start of covid,

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neil: and you think you're paying a lot for gas, take a gander at that truck that's going up to the diesel pump. madison alworth following it all in east rut orford, new jersey. there's no hiding from this onslaught of higher prices, huh, madison? >> reporter: no, there is not, neil. yeah, we're seeing higher diesel prices, and like you said, even if you yourself are not filling up with diesel, those prices are impacting you and me as the consumers. so taking a look at diesel prices today, the national average sits at $5.11, that is way up compared to just $3.09 a year ago. for truck drivers that is hundreds of dollars extra at every fill-up, and that increased cost, like i said, passed along to us. new analysis from moody's estimates that higher d.c. e el

costs account for 17% of the runup in commodity prices in the past year. and you see this quite with directly with companies like fedex. they are raising their fuel surcharges for shipping next week. and here's the thing, even though these diesel prices are hitting us hard here, europe has it harder. take a listen. >> in the united states, gasoline demand is over twice that of distillate fuel. but in europe it's actually the reverse. and as a result, europe imports several million barrels a day of diesel fuel. and half of that is coming from russia. >> reporter: so, you know, he said even if these things get better in the ukraine, we're still dealing with sanctions, it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon, so this is going to be a continued problem. and because of that, lipow believes we will be seeing higher prices through at least the edge of the year, he's estimating prices for diesel

will stay between $4.75 and $5.25 through the end of this calendar year. buckle up, neil, high prices are not going anywhere. neil: yeah, and we're lucky if it stays in that range. madison, thank you very much. madison alworth. that isn't enough of a worry for you, covid remains a big issue even in terms of the united states government and requirements that at least for the foreseeable future airlines continue requiring masks and the same requirement at airports even though the cruise industry seems to have backed away from that and keeping it more open-ended and letting you decide. i guess my next guest would figure why can't we be more like the cruise industry. roger downs, u.s. travel association president and ceo. roger, it's different for different industries, right? i mean, within hospitality and leisure. and, by and large, this requirement that you cited that on airports and on planes you still wear masks and other restrictions, that that's going to put a crimp on things.

that's your big worry, right? >> no question about it, neil. not only does it put a hurt on people traveling, but if you look at all the problems they've had on airlines, 6,000 people thrown off airplanes, 75% were due to masks -- neil: is that right? so it all started with a mask, but i could see that. now, what's odd though is that the cdc itself is sort of, you know, dialing things back, allowing the cruise industry to do what it wants to do. but not airlines, not, you know, at airports themselves. why is that? >> there's been a lot of, i would say, schizophrenia going on with cdc from week to week, month to month. neil: right. >> when you look at the airlines, last year we had 600 million people fly domestically, yet we have a hard time tracing any cases of covid to airlines. it's safer to be on an airplane

than at the grocery store. neil: what i always notice too half the people you see wearing masks while well intentioned, they're wearing them improperly or not covering their nose, so it makes me wonder about the wisdom of having a mask at all and, obviously, extending this to kids who are not a fan of it anyway, it just seems like a needless mess, you know? >> it certainly does. and we're hopeful, we put a lot of pressure on the administration to take a look at removing this. they're next going to visit it april 18th, and i'm hopeful at that time they will take the mask mandate away. and the other thing they have to do is get rid of the pre-departure testing when you come to the u.s. we're one of the few countries left where you have to have a test 24 hours before you fly, and people are terrifieded they'll get a positive and not be able to fly and lose their ticket and ruse their hotel room. neil: does this latest variant worry you? now some with it spiking in 15 states, some have talked about some restrictions.

again, it is an election year, after all, they're dialing that back, but they could, you know, reimplement them like what they're doing in china and parts of europe: >> there's always that possibility, but everything that we're seeing, the cases, the severity is down significantly, and we've got to get from a pandemic to an endemic and manage to live with thing. because the seriousness of the cases, not to make things light, is not there. neil: yeah. we'll have to watch closely. roger dow, u.s. travel association president and ceo. we want to be safe, to roger's point, but we also want to be practical about this as well. you know, help out everybody or and try to make sure you're aware of the person next to you and around you. but just be cautious about all of this, be cautious and don't panic. all right, we have a lot more coming up. waiting to hear from the president of the united states on his plan to tap the strategic petroleum reserve. oil prices are falling, so it's already having the desired effect. the question is for how long. after this.

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neil: all right, we are wrapping up the month and the quarter. a group that is felt it very badly in the quarter although not as badly as a lot of others, real estate investment trusts, some of the prominent if ones have lost from 8-35%. paying a very handsome dividend, so it compensates, and they're supposed to do well when inflation rise ares many in protecting your assets. but, you know, in volatile times everyone gets hit. as a group generally, as a group, doing better than the average. but not across the board here. everything got sort of -- of course, here in a market that went from a correction to bear

and has since come back, at least this month, to take a lot of averages well off their lows including reits, including some of these. we'll see how that goes now going into the next quarter. let's go to charlie gasparino on that because whatever's going down in ukraine and however it finishing -- it finishes, he's been talking to some very smart folks what's the latest. >> yeah. i mean, what they're talking about is at least for the short term the end of global. i mean, being a -- globalization. it has a bad connotation with a lot of our viewers, but globalization, free trade, helped essentially decrease inflation, and now that's over. we're isolating russia, we're probably going to have to isolate china. i've been talking to ceos about this, what this means for the u.s. i spoke with larry fink if not too long ago, the head of blackrock, the biggest money management firm. let's9 hear what he has to say. >> since 1990 with the

dismemberment of the soviet union, the world benefited from this incredible peace dividend. >> absolutely. >> it created opportunities for american firms worldwide. we expanded globally -- >> right. >> you know, we were able to expand and build and do amazing things. and as did other countries that were able to do that. but also importantly, you know, we raised the standard of living for the entire world. that peace dividend is now over: and this is a big, seismic change. >> okay. so what does he mean by seismic change, neil? he means much higher inflation at least for the foreseeable future. he means the fed will probably have to raise rates not 25 basis points at the may meeting, but most people are saying now a likely 50 basis points. if you notice, personal consumption expenditures down dramatically month over month, and the reason why is because people are getting whacked with inflation. so the fed has to be more aggressive e, we're going to have to isolate are china and

russia because they have expansionist aims and there's only one way to get at them. you don't want to start a nuclear war, so you do an economic war. so that whole era, what larry fink was talking about, free trade, globalization which in many ways dampened inflation because you could buy stuff from whereever is over, and americans might have to get used to inflation. now, there are solutions to this. my view as a free market capitalist -- and i think you're in that same group -- is supply-side economics. you know, lower taxes, lower regulations, start drilling for oil. the biden administration does not seem to be amenable to any of those, is so look for higher inflation for the near future unless, you know, you get a change in fiscal policy, and look for jerome powell to raise rates. now, what happens when he raises rates? again, mortgage prices. it's going to cost more to, essentially, buy a house through borrowing. i mean, that reverberates through the economy. we're going to get a slowdown.

again, scary times out there. it's not a one-off if you listen to the experts, the ceos like fink, because we're in, we're going into, i guess, another cold war is the best way to put it. and you and i remember how that was, because we're old enough. neil: i was very young -- [laughter] but you're right about one thing because take a look at the latest spending numbers -- >> yes. neil: -- an annualized rate that was .2 of a percent. >> i know. and that's because of inflation. neil: how you feeling, my friend? >> you know, thank you, neil, for asking. i will say this, i'm such a superstitious guy. my dad was a bigtime gambler, we we leaved -- believed in hexes and hoaxes and, you know, the whole thing, things running against you, if the sun didn't come up the right way -- [laughter] so i'm superstitious. i just want to tell you that i caught it early, the doctors are much more optimistic than i am because i, again, am

superstitious. but i am feeling great, and i am happy to be here and just go get your stuff checked all the time, please. [laughter] neil: absolutely right. >> that's the message i'll give. i feel great. i worked out for an hour and a half today. neil: yeah, i missed you. we must have passed each other. [laughter] i love the e-mail i got afterwards. i don't have it in front of me, you know, i don't like gasparino, but, man, i want him alive. and i said, i recognize your wife's writing a mile away -- [laughter] so that was nice. >> by the way, call her st. ginny, by the way. neil: absolutely, she is. [laughter] she is. she has a pass-free ticket to heaven. thank you, my friend. and stay just like you are. >> thank you. i'm planning on it. neil: all right. excellent. i want to go now to a great human being, chad pergram in washington, following a bit of, i guess, a little bit of a shocker here, chad, the fact

that this whole title 42 thing where you ship those who you catch at the border back to mexico, that might not be dead after all. >> reporter: that's right. ending title 42 could allow a flood of illegal immigrants to cross into the u.s. fox is told the plan if ends in late may. however, health and human services secretary javier besera would not commit to that during testimony today. >> title 42 will remain in place so long as the folks at the cdc and the others, the scientists, give us the fact that the science shows in order to protect public health we can and will use title 42 to protect americans. >> liberal democrats want to lift title 42. that would make it easier for some migrants to seek asylum, but the gop says democrats are selective when it comes to public health compared to guarding the border. >> republicans and the more than people reject this -- and the american people reject this false choice between permanent covid versus open borders.

we americans deserve secure borders all the time. >> reporter:ed moderate democrats oppose ending title 42. >> i think they should reconsider. i sent a letter, i'm against removing title 42. if anything, having a good -- maybe that would get us to, spur us to get a good immigration policy that works for americans to secure our borders. >> reporter: there's already a pulse of migrants teeming at the border, and the administration will continue the policy of vaccinating those who enter the country illegally. neil? if. neil: real quickly, chad, we're expecting to hear from the president any if minute on tapping the strategic petroleum reserve. you know, other presidents have done this, the third time for this president, but nothing like this. what's the reaction on capitol hill? >> reporter: nancy pelosi at first said she wasn't going to comment and then gave about a 5-minute answer. she was asked whether or not it was appropriate for democrats to say that this was the putin premium. she said the gas prices were

going up, you know. >>, starting to go up about a year ago so, you know, that's one issue i to look at. she tried to pin this on former president trump. you know, you're going to have some members all over the map on this. there's going to be some who are going to say this is just a drop in the bucket, something that the minority leader, mitch mcconnell, has said in the senate. then you're going to have other folks continue to say this is an opportunity especially on left to implement portions of the green new deal. go to alternative energy sources. neil: right. >> reporter: that's something that i are have heard. i did a story about a couple weeks -- neil: the president will outline it, chad. i'm jumping on you, my friend. now to the president. >> -- about the cost here at home of putin ice decision -- putin's decision to invade a sovereign nation. fact is he's causing thousands of deaths and untold destruction. working with our nato allies and our european partners and beyond that, we're responding. we're aiding the ukrainian

people both economyically and militarily while leaving the most punishing economic sanctions against russia ever used against another nation in place and increasing them. thus far, these action are crippling russia's economy, isolating putin from the world and helping ukrainians fight for their country and ease their suffering. but as i've said from the start, putin's war is imposing a cost on america and our allies and democrats -- democracies around the world. today i want to talk about one aspect of putin's war that affects and has real effects on american people. putin's price hike that americans and our allies are feeling at the pump. i know how much it hurts. as you heard me say before, i grew up in a family like many of you where the price of a gallon of gas went up, it was discussion at the kitchen table. our family budgets, your family budgets to fill a tank, none of it should hinge on whether a

dictator declares war. toed i'm laying out a two-part plan not only to ease the pain that families are feeling right now, but to end this era of dependence and uncertainty and lay a new foundation for true and lasting american energy independence. present netically, just -- parenthetically, just imagine if europe didn't have to count on russian oil, if they were energy independent. it would change the nature of so much. the problem we're facing with gas prices has two roots. first, the pandemic. when covid struck, demand for oil plummeted, so production slowed down worldwide. because of the strength and the speed of our recovery, demand for oil shot back up much faster than the supply. that's why the cost of gas began to rise last year. the second root is vladimir putin. at the start of this year, gas was about $3.30 a gallon.

today it's about average $4.20, 4.22, higher in many states. nearly a dollar more in less than three months. the reason for that is because of putin's war, and now many people no longer are buying western oil around the world. i've banned the russian import of oil here in america. repalins and democrats -- republicans and democrats in congress called for it and supported it. it was the right things to do. but i said at the time, it's going to come with a cost. as russian oil comes off the global market, the supply of oil drops and prices are rising. now putin's price hike is hitting americans at the pump. which brings me to the first part of my plan. to immediately increase the supply of oil, our prices are rising because of putin's actions. there isn't enough supply. and the bottom line is if we want lower gas prices, we need to have more oil supply right now. for u.s. oil companies that are

recording their largest profits in years, they have a choice. one, they can put those profits to productive use by producing more oil, restarting idle wells or producing on the sites they already are leasing giving the american people a break by passing some of the savings on to their customers and lowering the price at the pump. or they can, as some of them are doing, exploit the situation, sit back, ship those profits to the investors and while american families struggle to make ends meet. look, this is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for american families. it's also a moment of patriotism. i want to acknowledge those companies that have already announced they're increasing immediate prediction production, they're investing money to produce more oil and also clean technology we need to reduce our dependence on oil in the future. they have everything they need. nothing's standing in their a way, and they've indicated they

will be producing an extra 1 million barrels of oil per day probably starting as early as this fall. that's progress. but some companies have been pretty blunt. they don't want to increase supply because putin's price hike means higher profits. one ceo even acknowledged that they don't care if the price of a barrel of oil goes to $200 a barrel. they're not going to step up the production. i say, enough. enough of lavishing excessive profits on investors and payouts and buybacks when the american people are watching, the world is watching. u.s. oil companies made nearly $80 billion in profit last year, and this year those profits are expected to continue to soar. this is a time -- not the time to sit on record profits. it's time to step up for the good of your country, the good of the world to invest in immediate production that we need to respond to vladimir putin, to provide some relief

for your customers, not investors and executives. look, i'm a capitalist. i have no problem with corporations turning a good profit, but companies have an obligation that goes just beyond their shareholders, to their customers, their communities and their country. no american company should take advantage of a pandemic or vladimir putin's actions to enrich themselves at the expense of american families. investing those profits in production and innovation, that's what they should do. invest in your customers. and it isn't just like -- it's not the patriotic view, it's good for your business as well. right now oil and gas industries are sitting on nearly 9,000 unused but approved permits for production on federal lands or more than a million unused acres they have a right to pump on. families can't afford that companies sit on their hands. so to help execute this first part of my plan, i'm calling for

a use it or lose it policy. congress should make companies pay fees on wells on federal leases they haven't used in years and acres of public land they're hoarding without production. companies that are already producing from these wells won't be affected, but those sitting on unused leases and idle wells will either have to start producing or pay the price for their inaction. look, the action i'm calling for will make a real difference over time, but the truth is it takes months, not days, for companies to increase production. that's why the next part of my plan is so important. today i'm authorizing the release of one million barrels per day for the next six months, over 180 million barrels, for the strategic -- from the strategic petroleum reserve. this is a wartime bridge to increase oil supply until production ramps up later this year. and it is by far the largest release of our national reserve

in our history. it'll provide historic amount of supply for a historic amount of time, a six months' bridge to the fall. and we'll use the revenue from selling the oil now to restock the strategic petroleum reserve when prices are lower. so we'll be ready. we'll be ready for future emergencies. folks, i've coordinated this release with allies and partners around the world. already we have commitments from other countries to release tens of millions of additional barrels into the market. together our combined efforts will supply well over a million barrels a day. nations coming together to deny putin the ability to weapon nice his energy resources -- weaponize against families and democracies around the world. now, the first part of my plan is about the immediate crisis. the second part is about declaring real american energy independence in the long term so that we never have to deal with

this problem again. ultimately, we and the whole world need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels altogether. we need to choose long-term security over energy and climate vulnerability. we need to double down on our commitment to clean energy and tackling the climate crisis with our partners and allies around the world. and we can do that. by passing my plan that's literally before the senate right now, the united states congress right now. it's been there for well e over a month. to speed the transition to a clean energy future that's made in america with american products and american values. we need to embrace all the tools and technologies that can help us, free us from our dependence on fossil fuels, move us toward a more home grown clean energy. technologies made by american companies and american workers so we can bolster democratic plc supply chains here at home

to reduce greenhouse gas greenhouse gases that is why today i'm issuing a directive to strengthen our clean energy economy. i will use the defense production act for materials going into batteries for electric vehicles and storage of reyou intoable energy, lithium, graphite, nickel, so much more. we need to end our long term reliance for inputs that will power the future. i will use every tool i have to make that happen. yes, building a made in america clean energy future will help safeguard our national security. yes, it will help us tackle climate change. it will help americans secure millions of good paying jobs for generations to come. most important, most important thing my plan will do right away is save your family money. here's what i mean. unmy plan which is before the congress now we can take advantage of the next generation of electric vehicles that a

typical driver will save about $80 a month from not having to pay gas at the pump. if your home is powered by safer, cheaper, cleaner electricity like solar or heat pumps you can save $500 a month on average. don't take my word for it. ceo's of 11 of america's largest utily companies came to see me at the white house several weeks ago. they told me if we passed my plans before the congress now typical families will see savings show up on the utility bills immediately. costs will come down even more as we innovate and develop cutting-edge energy storage technologies, clean hydrogen technologies, advanced nuclear technology, carbon capture and sequestration technologies and by the way this week the benefit i included in the bipartisan infrastructure law to help families weatherize their homes are being delivered. my administration is making $3.2 billion available from this legislation to provide up to

6500-dollars direct payment for working class families to be able to weatherize their homes, to save them money, to keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer. it's a direct grant. this program has been around for a while and in the past it has delivered to families, average families another $327 in savings when they weatherize. now we have the ability to reach 10 times as many families because of the legislation we already passed and the legislation. in addition to that we're also setting new standards to boost fuel economies for new vehicles sold in america. within five years we're going to travel 10 miles more on every single gallon we have because the average fuel economy of 49 miles to the gallon will be required. that means hundreds of dollars of savings for families at pump. we're setting similar standards for appliances from your air