all the volatility we've seen and talk about the debt ceiling push and we hit that debt limit on thursday, it's close, very, very close around midnight thursday when everything proverbally hits the fan here and they have to do something to make up for that. there's really no way to know how they're going to make up for that and what they're going to do. republican haves a very different idea how to deal with this, spending constraints to the white house that is in no mood to hear that. the two sides appear to be miles apart. we've seen this before, but this soap oprah is playing itself out again. here we stand now a couple of days from being on the brink, again, edward lawrence at the white house and how they plan to deal with all that. they've got to, i guess, edward, contingency plans, they have to, do we know what they are? reporter: that's exactly what they're doing here. we're not going to hit that debt ceiling on thursday because the treasury secretary announced she's going to do what's called extraordinary measures to stretch out the money that the federal government currently

has. now, first, they're going to suspend basically putting into government retirement health benefit plans and they'll suspend the investments and the civil informs retirement and -- service retirement and second the treasury department spending investment in the government security's investment fund for the federal work herb retirement plans. the secretary says thiothece moves will extend the money the government has until at least mid june. hire's the new house speaker on sunday morning futures about the current spending. >> eliminate all the money spent on woke itch. eliminate all the money they're trying to find different fuels and worried about the environment to go through. i want our men and women trained to be able to defend themselves, to secure to have the best weapons systems possible. so, yeah, i'm sure they can find some places that they could be more efficient. reporter: now, having the conversation though, that might be difficult. speaker mccarthy says he's had

phone calls with president biden but no negotiations took place. the president and the white house passing the buck on this one, listen. >> the sooner congress acts, the better since even the prospect of not raising the debt ceiling will have damage, the full faith and the credit of our nation and again, we are going to continue to encourage congress to act. as far as the steps and how that all works, i would refer you to the department of treasury. reporter: this will be the first real test for the new house speaker and the first real challenge for the biden administration with the new congress. back to you. neil: all right, edward, thank you very much. my friend edward lawrence at the white house. we had famous market there peter in the last hour and he's not encouraged by this and he's more ttechnician and a market cycle guy and don't get excited about the market's comeback so far this year. take a look. what are you in for now, peter? people looking saying maybe we're getting ahead of myself.

what are you telling them? >> here's a statistic i read the other day, neil, and i have not verified it but i believe it. i think we're going to have another down year and here's the interesting thing, since 1928, the market has only been down two years in a row, i think it's the s&p they were talking about, four times. here is the interesting statistic, on every one of those four occasions, neil, it was down more the second year than the first. neil: all right. now you can agree or disagree, he's a market kind of cycle guy, not an economist, not a mark zandi, one of the best on the planet i might point out, and mark is in this not necessarily recession camp as much as i think slow session camp, something like that, mark? you definitely see things slowing down but not a collapse; right?

>> yeah, that's right, neil. i think the economy at first with the recession and inflation and on high alert. but i think -- coming in relatively quickly and we can make our way through with that [ audio issues ]. recession high without a recession. neil: mark, we're having some problem with your audio and hoping it improves as we continue to speak but if not we'll try to patch it up. i'm interested to know what you make of peter eliadi's thoughts and he's saying with unemployment as low as it is, in the past when it's gotten to that, it's cablooey time for the markets. i'm wondering if it's time for the markets could it be for the economy as well? what do you think?

>> well, unemployment is low. but with the fed rate hikes, i expect -- high enough, fast enough to slow the economy's growth a little bit, get inflation back in and now the rates so high so fast and the economy with the recession so it's tricky and that's why -- when you have a fighting chance to make our way through. one of the reasons -- different than previous cycles is the fundamentals are good. leverage is low for businesses and the housing market is underbuilt versus overbuilt and infrastructure system is in great same and the governments are flushed with capital and -- typically in front of a recession to start your day. neil: okay, i apologize, mark, but we still are having the audio problems. i got most of what you were saying, it's not necessary that we're going to hell in a hand basket but we'll keep an eye on it. mark, thank you, hope to fix

that. meanwhile the back and forth on where this whole document stuff goes with the investigation into that on the weaponization of government and back and forth we go. i imagine these are just also just the opening salvos. what are you hearing? >> that's what i would call them. hey, neil. good afternoon to you. in just about two hours here, congress is supposed to be out but we've been told that top house republicans are actually meeting on capitol hill today and for about three days to finalize those committee assignments, including which nine republicans and which six democrats are going to sit on this new select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government. this is important because of the biden document situation of course. democrats call the biden docs embarrassing while republicans say it's yet another example of the double standard federal agencies have been playing here for years. >> can't imagine this double standard in the justice system being applied on mlk day.

the black folks versus white folks. can you imagine how this administration continues to treat their friends and themselves versus president trump or their adversaries? we can't have a two-tiered justice system in america. >> so this new panel is going to actually have subpoena power over federal agencies. democrats say republicans will obstruct justice by launching such investigations, house oversight is also looking into the biden documents and in fact, chairman james comer just demanded visitor logs to the president's wilmington residence today citing national security concerns and, neil, even former intel chairman adam schiff admits lawmakers have to look into potential national security concerns here. >> is it possible that national security was jeopardized here? >> i don't think we can exclude the possibility without knowing more of the facts. i'd like to know what the documents were, i'd like to know

what the ic's acespedesment -- assessment is. >> again, underlining this point the fact that republicans are meeting on this holiday shows just how eager they are to get their investigations underway. congress is back next week, neil. neil: you know i the one thing i wanted to ask you about is i ask you about comer and the house oversight committee and jim jordan is doing the same for the house oversight and we have the special council simultaneously looking into this and saying nothing of the other special council looking at donald trump. man oh man, that's a lot of investigations like tripping over themselves. >> all of washington is looking into this. not to mention the journalist, the white house press core, capitol hill press core and everyone else is wanting to know more about what happened here with the documents but i will say this new subcommittee, the webbization of government is actually under the -- keeper

weaponization of government is overthe committee and there'll be some democrats on the committee and we'll have to wait and see who they pick to sit on the committee and that'll be the one to watch, i think, not to mention oversight and intel which has asked for information and we've been talking about the house here, the senate hasn't come back yet. they come back on monday and then they'll also start demanding information, some briefings as well. neil: wow, i can only keep track of so much here. isha, thank you. >> same. neil: thank you. chris wecker with us right now. chris, always great seeing you. i'm just wondering where you see this going because part of the argument that the president has raised with the revelation of these documents is that as soon as i knew the word got out, we told authorities, et cetera, but the timing of that was weird because presumably the white house got wind of this back in november and kept a tight lid on it before the midterms and that's what republicans argue.

so to plead ignorance might not quite add up unless there were people below the president were aware and he was never tipped off himself. your thoughts? >> yeah, everything about this is weird. my lawyer hat goes on and my agent hat goes on at the same time and i see lawyers rummaging around in early november in a biden office in a third party office, and i say why are they there? lawyers don't go moving things around. they're looking for something very specific. now, we don't know what they were looking for, maybe it had to do with pending litigation or upcoming congressional hearings and that sort of thing. they find things and that's when they supposedly call into the justice department saying hey, we found documents. that's when you freeze everything. you allow fbi agents to come in, i say fbi agents not doj attorneys, but real investigators come in and they can follow them around if they want to but look for more

documents and look for the context and the way the documents were stored. were they there with letters, personal letters and tipper prints on them and dna on them? how accessible are they? there's so many things that go -- this is essentially a crime scene and it happens three other times where lawyers go in and do picking and choosing and choosing and i look at this and say it just leads you to believe there's something to hide here and something to manage and manipulate. this is a private investigation sitting back and watching. >> president biden made aware of the raid on mar-a-lago and documents from the national archives and back and forth there and gave them a mighty lecture. part of me wondered there and i'm not nearly the expert you are, chris, but e i wonder about

it and it would indicate to me he had no idea what was happening under his roof more literally or if he did, he's either one is a little perplexing hawaii do you make of -- what do you make of that? >> look at someone that spent an entire career in government in elected office doesn't know whether he's in possession of classified documents. i mean, you can't miss them, they have big red jackets on them or blue jackets or yellow, they're all color coded and you simply can't miss them. so either it's incompetence, gross incompetence or gross expenditure or something else -- gross negligence or something else is going on here that . is a case where the investigator should be stepping in and you don't have to go in with search warrants and swat teams and that sort of thing. you can come in and a less intrusive way with agents accompanied by their attorneys so they can actually preserve

the evidence, retrieve it the way it should be retrieved, and handle it the way it should be handled because context is everything in this kind of use of these kind of criminal statutes. it goes to intent, it goes to how accessible these documents were. i could go on and on about it, but it's a booming disparity between how this was han handled mar largo and -- mar-a-lago and doj was allowed to inspect them. neil: it's been more than five years they've been sitting there presumably. others were just discovered also. i always wonder in that period of time, the number of people who could have seen them and you mention the folders, the top secret documents are in, you could have someone take them out of the folder. the folder remains butt papers are gone but that's a lot oval window time for a lot of -- lot of time for a lot of scrutiny on the part of people who might have been doing, you know, nefarious things or learning things they shouldn't have learned down to the lawyers and

teams of lawyers we're told are going to the president's home right now. i know his chief counsel is, you know, has those security clearances, but i'm sure not everyone with him does. >> no, and the only way, i mean, this ought to be treated again like a forensic crime scene where you can tell who handled the documents with fingerprints. every government employee has fingerprints on file or they can submit them. you can tell whether their dna is on it, whether these documents look like they've never been opened up, they're sealed up and that sort of thing or whether they're in there with personal letters or whether the box has been opened and reopened and that sort of thing. all that can be determined forensically but in essence this crime scene has been trampled by biden's attorneys. neil: thank you for helping us keep track of this because it's an ever revolving stories chris, i appreciate it. chris wecker, former assistant

fbi director. you're aware of the tragic plane crash in nepal over the weekend that killed 68, but we had something happen in this country the friday night before that could have put that to shame. how close two planes came to colliding oturu new york's jfk international airport. the latest on that after this.

neil: all right, they came been a thousand feet of one another and we're talking an american and a delt almost collided friday night at jfk international airport. we're just now piecing together what could have happened and what could have been one of the greatest tragedies ever in air travel, didn't turn out that way but could have. kelly o'grady with the latest. >> hi, neil, this was wild. there's all this air trouble of late and then aa or as degree a near crash at jfk airport and the close call happened friday night between american airlines plane crossing a runway and a delta flight that had been cleared for takeoff. the faa shared the delta flight was set to takeoff around 8:45 p.m. when it was frantically ordered by air controllers to stop after they noticed the american plane crossing in front of the jet

liner. the delta plane came to a stop around 1,000 feet from around where american airlines flight had crossed and for context that's just over three football field lengths but might seem far and a jet liner is reaching 150 miles per hour when it's in the midst of taking off. the flight, which had 15 passengers on board and six crew members returned to the gate following the incident and was delayed till the following morning and in a statement to fox delta said "the safety of our customers and crew is always delta's number one priority and they'll assist and work with authorities on a full review of flight 1943 on january 13 regarding a successful takeoff procedure at jfk and apologize for the customers on the delay and inco inconvenes of the trav. this comes amid the investigations of the flightmare

and i went on social media before i hopped on with you and the pads jerkinses describing it had as terr terr terrifies and g you'd want to experience. neil: glad you appointmented out how fast that one plane was going to make up that 1,000 feet distance. kelly o'grady. thank you very much for that we'll keep you posted on any findings they have from that and posted on a fight the florida of florida -- governor of florida had with the national hockey lying. the nhl just conceded, after this. ♪

neil: there's a debate at the pentagon for back service for service members that refused the shot for covid. providesunder the defense funding to the pentode gone and defense secretary lloyd austin rescinded the military's covid-19 vaccine mandate last week and considering back pay to 8400 former service members discharged for refusing the shot. "regarding back pay, the department is still exploring this and will provide its views on legislation of this nature at the appropriate time and through the appropriate process. the thousands who sought exceptions and were denied will have their records updated and any letters of reprimand

removed". a breakdown of those diggs charged, 1,851 soldiers, 2,064 navy reserve is and sailors and 834 air and space force personnel and 3,717 marines. they can all get their jobs back if they'd like. "providing back pay would be a win for republicans like senator rand paul who fought against the mandate and threatened to hold up the pentagon's $816.7 billion budget last december". some service members could be required to get the vaccine and commanders have the leeway to curtail assignments and foreign travel to troops that still require covid vaccinations. >> pending on the circumstance and situation it is pending on commanders to do what they're needed to make sure the forces are ready. >> neither the pentagon nor the white house is happy about the mandate's repeal and had no choice but to comply with lawmakers that threatened to

block the defense budget if it weren't. some republicans argue that had the vaccine mandate was adversely affected recruiting efforts but a survey by the pent gone last year -- pentagon last year showed the vaccine mandate was not a large reason for the re-enlistment numbers being so low. neil: jennifer, thank you for that update. go to rich edison right now in this environment where a lot of workers are still quitting their jobs at historical levels, even with the iffy economy. what's going on, rich? >> the pandemic up ended the labor market and pushed older workers into retirement and people to leave the labor force and businesses are looking for millions of employees. >> the declining labor force participation is not really a problem. but then there's another chunk; right, and there's a percentage of the work force that's simply choosing not to work. we need to be targeting to get them back into the labor market

and to ensure that public policy isn't allowing them to stay on the sidelines for no really good reason. >> last month fed chair jay powell said there was a structural labor shortage with more than 4 million fewer workers available for the demand. percentage of working age americans in the united states labor force is still a full percentage point lower than before the pandemic. robert rikes, the secretary of labor under clinton administration writes "there's no shortage of labor but jobs paying sufficient wages to attract workers to fill job opens and republicans cited trillions in benefits, government checks, rent payment successions and reasons as americans stayed out of the labor force". the white house is reportedly examining action on child care and housing and child care to get americans back to work and some democrats are calling for immigration reform to boost

legal migration to the u.s. to fill some of the open jobs. neil. neil: all right, rich, edson, thank you for that. bring you up to date on a hockey summit that was scheduled for florida. let me give you an idea who was invited to attend. ing" here, participants must be 18 years or older and based in the u.s. and female, black, asian, pacific islanders, hispanic or indigenous and lgbtqa or person with disabilities and veterans welcome and encouraged to attend. you get the gist and a fairly focused crowd and the governor made a stink of it in florida. go to the manager executive chairman, author of the run away best seller nation the victims. they've dialed it back. i don't know to the degree they've dial it had back, vivek, but what do you think of all this? >> it's a fitting day to be talking about it. today is martin luther king day, mlk had a dream in this country

that his children would be judged not on the color of their skin but on the content of their character, and i think we have made a mistake in this country in the last five years somehow believing that more race consciousness is the way to fight racism when more race consciousness is what causes racism in america today. i think today is just such a good day to celebrate that dream that martin luther king had 60 yearsing and to revive the idea that you get ahead whether it's in hockey or whether it's in the classroom based on the content of your contributions and your skills, not the content of your melanin. neil: that was the gist of what desantis' office was saying and press secretary said discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of florida and don't awide by the woke notion that discriminations should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a popular demographic. this is a strong win for governor desantis who has reminded people both in the

reelection campaign and now potentially as presidential candidate that florida is the state where woke goes to die. this might be an illustration of that, but your thoughts? >> i think this is a much more national issue and i applaud govern herbs taking a step -- governor in their remittive states but a little bit of unknown fact but not a lot of people are aware of, neil, affirmative action in this country was driven by the federal government. there was a johnson era executive order, it's 11246 that mandates government contract herbs that's over 20% of the 20% of the u.s. work force has to be hired based on race-based quo toes and republicans could have rolled this back and not a single one of the last three republican presidents rolled this back and it's a opportunity to take come of the smaller steps that individual governors are taking at the states to hopefully in 2024 and beyond making this a national issue to revive merit in america. i think that's something the people are hungry for. american identity is about excellence regardless of race, regardless of your gender

identity or your sexual orientation. people are hungry for that on the left and right. i think there's a opportunity in the next couple years to take these to a national level, which is where i want to see it go. neil: i was wondering too, vivek, in this case of the nhl, don't be so blatant about this and saying this is the crowd you attract and don't be so blatant and spell it out to the degree you do, what you're shouting is the rest of the world is not invited. and that is what doomed them. i mean, if they wanted to be sinister about it, they could with a wink and a nod saying this is where we'll show our favoritism, but we just won't let people know it. >> well, i don't like the non-transparency of that. >> i agree. i agree but it would have gotten them over this controversy. >> yeah, but the goal shouldn't be to avoid a particular controversy. if these are the issues lurking beneath the surface, air them and have it out as a debate.

ibram kendi wrote how to be animality racist and the way to stop past discrimination is stop present discrimination and the way to stop present discrimination is stop future discrimination. so many of the institutions like the national hockey league embraced that and i'd rather us have this debate than to have it behind closed doors non-transparently and that'll be good for the country because merit is on the winning side of the doe bait, and that'll be good for black people, white people, asian people and everyone in between and i'm looking forward to that. there's a cultural movement back towards reviving excellence, let's have it in the open rather than hiding behind closed doors. neil: the only reason i mention in the context of governor desantis is some of the potential rivals, should he run for president of the 2024 presidential nomination have criticized his using the government in this case the state government as sort of like a way to get what he wants un-woke or to stop wokism.

what do you make of their argument? >> so look, putting aside the trave y'allties of -- trivialities of state law in a particular state, i think the federal government was in part responsible for creating this tide of affirmative action-driven race based organization and we have to take a look at the role the government itself played rolled that back. that's the lowest hanging fruited and getting rid of the executive order that mandates 20% of the u.s. work force be hired in part on the basis of attributes and color of their skin and last three going back to reagan didn't want to take that political risk. i think we're going to need republican leaders who will say that, you know what, i will take that political risk and risk of black lash if it means doing the right thing on this issue of ending race-based affirmative action once and for all and i think, neil, the supreme court's upcoming ruling which i expect this year to roll back or even eliminate race-based preferences in college admissions can be a

catalyst to take this to every other sphere of our lives and less the nitpicking about one particular state's limitations on the state laws or use of state power, i think the right place to go is to admit the role the state itself has played in creating this kind of racial reverse discrimination and end it once and for all so we can move forward as a country rather than driving in the rear-view mirror. if we keep doing that, we'll run into actions like you would in the past. neil: thank you, vivek, the supreme court is taking up just that matter and we could know where it stands on this very issue in the not too distant future. thank you, my friend. always good seeing you. in the meantime, the people of georgia dealing with a storm that was horrible but between georgia and alabama, the damage is incomprehensible. after this.

neil: it's a major cleanup going

on down south after the tornadoes in georgia and alabama and the tragedies and robert ray is is there in griffin, georgia, with the latest. robert. reporter: neil, yeah, griffin, georgia, 40 miles to the south of atlanta and you see this is just one home destroyed by a twitter, part of the roof collapsed. there is wood like this really just all over neighborhoods, neil, and this is the problem, two people unfortunately have lost their lives in griffin. in total nine people, seventh those in the state of alabama. last thursday, neil, as we look at some pictures of the devastation and the aftermath, all these systems came in, nine southern states were hit by severe weather, 34 twisters in total popped from the sky down creating all this havoc and as i said, nine people have unfortunately lost their lives, neil. five people were of the same family, and over in alabama to the west of where i'm standing

right now in selma, we know that name from the civil rights area, 1965 when martin luther king and others marched through there looking for justice and the day, sunday, bloody sunday, where they clashed with the police, unfortunately. that town, many of the neighborhoods were re-industried and power is out and -- destroyed and pipes were down and not water in that spot and what would have been a sell bra tourist weekend for -- sell bra celesell bratourist moment for d today on martin luther king junior day in a area, it's a day of mourning. more storms on the way across the south. we just hope they do not have the impact that they had last

thursday. neil. neil: you know, robert, i don't remember the magnitude of this in this time of year in so many states and parts of the country, particularly down south. what's going on? reporter: well, this is the fourth historical largest outbreak in the history of the south in january. so significant. the other thing too is we are in la nina, that comes off the pacific ocean and unfortunately in the winter months affects the south more deeply because what hams is the cold fronts and the gulf of mexico collide and create unfortunately these violent storms, which are the twisters. el nino, m which is what we're leaning towards and el nino will santa claus rally a bet -- will have a better psychountil the south and what ha brings to the north and northeast is more cold and snow in the coming years. perhaps this will be the last

year of la nina, we shall see but historically when you look at this, this being the fourth largest outbreak across nine states in the month of january, that's significant and as i stand here right now, we're in the 50s, you know, that is potentially quite warm so we'll see. i just hope that this coming week, midweek, we do not see a repeat because it's just how many times can these towns clean up and then, you know, as you know, covering businesses, you guys do so greatly, the insurance issues are just stacking, stacking up and we're running into major problems for anyone filing claims and frankly for insurance companies trying to give them out. neil: we're in the fight for the insurance now with this environment, you're quite right on that. robert ray, thank you, my friend. robert ray in griffin, georgia. we hope it doesn't concern but that's -- escalate but that's a concern. you've heard of the better than 40 killed in a apartment

building attack. that's something only attack -- that's not the only attack, after this.

neil: vladamir putin has a

strategy of going after civilians again. we haven't seen this kind of carnage in many, many months. alex is in kyiv. reporter: hi, neil, this is the most deadliest attack on civilians since the start or at least in the last several months and take a look at some of this footage, it's just atrocious as people there stand watching what took place, 40 people have died at least 75 others are wounded, including children. hundreds of workers and volunteers searched through the wreckage brick by brick trying to find more of the victims and some people were trapped under the rubble and they were texting their loved ones still alive at this point, 39 people have been found but 30 others remain missing. the mayor is warning the public at this point that it is unlikely that they will be able to find anymore survivors. in the last day in the eastern region, russian shilling killed three people and wounded 14 others. most of the weekend attacks however damaged the country's energy infrastructure and today

experts from the international atomic energy agency have traveled to ukraine to create a presence at nuclear power sites like chernobyl. back on the u.s. soil, 100 ukrainian soldiers arrived in the u.s. learning how to use the patriot missile system in oklahoma. now, american service members are also training ukrainian troops in germany as part of new combat readiness program and the goal of this program is to train 500 troops at a time and then send them back to the battlefield here in ukraine, the u.s. is hoping to do this about every five to eight weeks. neil, one other thing of context and the fears being created here in ukraine is that russia and belarus are now doing joint drills, this of course is alarming especially after the barrage of attacks we saw over the weekend. now just an infra-stuckture dealing with power plants, power stations but the horrifying images of what it's been like

for civilians who are just sleeping on a saturday morning. neil: at the wrong place at the wrong time. thank you very much for that, alex. chris whiten, the former state department official. any doubt exactly what vladamir putin's strategy is now? if you can't win on the battlefield, take out innocent civilians but we didn't expect anything like this. >> yeah, it actually -- it just seems very odd because it's one thing to target energy infrastructure and you can understand the strategy behind that and that's to de-moralize the population and put pressure on the ukrainian government to nerve nucleus gauche nate or take a different approach -- negotiate or take a different approach but to target civilians in a apartment complex for death, it's a no real tactical plot other than just terrorist crime. it's going to rally more support for the ukrainian government and in this case, putin just wanting

to appear to do something, it really makes you wonder. neil: i'm just wondering what it will take to end this, i mean in march we'll be a year into this and i always ask you, chris and you're always polite to endure this line of questioning that what it would take for vladamir putin to stop. he can't look like he's leading the country defeated but by the same token, he can't make it look like he has any chance at all of winning this thing in a big way. where does this go? >> you know, i think it points to a prolonged war. russia did just have gain in solidar and a small town of 10,000 people or was before they attacked it, but it has salt mines that can store lots of material and men and some -- a little bit of a gain and unexpected one and goes against the narrative through december that ukraine was on the march. and it'll take a long time and need a negotiated solution and

putin will at a minimum need some sort of recognition that crimea will be russian and not wanting to give up territory anymore than ukraine has and it could go to next winter even. europe got lucky this winter with warmer weather and some energy stored up and some that was rushed when russia started cutting off supplies but next winter might be more acute for europe and i think it'll take unfortunately it nay take more pain on both sides until a negotiation might emerge. neil: if you're right, i hope you're wrong, but then you got to wonder how much more economic pain for example putin can take because his country is in disarray. the currency for a lot of this isn't what it was, that could change, that could change, yet you can rely on china as a friend but few others so he gets more isolated but again, he's been isolated for almost a year now. >> that's right, there's the question of whether oil will decline as it would typically if

you have a recession in the united states and europe, which many people forecast. he has one of the most skilled central bankers and it's not someone we celebrate since she's helping an evil regime, but they've been able to muddle through. this war has been difficult on average russians but the russian military and government, their revenues have been basically normal or a bit disturbed so, yeah, that's something that unfortunately looks like he can persist and this is something where putin, you know, we theorize that by going after al garcias that would undermine support and the dissent is not permitted, not very often at least. russia has a habit under putin of tolerating frozen conflicts as well of not needing decisive ends to conflicts and it's had a number of those elsewhere so again, unfortunately and i hope i'm wrong, could persist. neil: we have a new congress, certainly the 118th congress in the house and a lot are

republicans in power now and, you know, that aren't so enamored with writing all of the checks to ukraine. a number of generals with whom i've been speaking, christian, are concerned about that and they think that vladamir putin is waiting that one out thinking that american appetite to help here might be waning. what do you think? >> i think that's a valid concern, especially since the united states has been paying about three quarters of this war. it's grown to about $100 billion. you know, those of us concerned about china and china's military aggression think that would have gone a long way to plussing up defenses in the pacific, more ships and planes that have been declining in number as china has been growing. there's a republican congress, part of the deal for mccarthy to get the speakership was perspective cut in the defense budget and that probably would come in europe and the middle east, not so much in the pacific. you know, if one way to head this off is to get europe to stand up and do more, they have more people than we do in europe. they have similar economy, about

$21 trillion in gdp, they could be paying more and doing more but, you know, germany just lost its defense minister because she was a clown on this issue. the uk just chipped in some tanks, not a big game changer but one that's in an attempt to sort of shame other countries to give more or so. europe is doing a little -- could do a lot more. neil: thank you, my friend. always good catching up with you. christian whiton following crowsly this war that's almost a year -- closely this war that's almost a year old in march, stay with us. .

. . call now to get started. (bright music)

neil: it is so weird the past two hours the market has not moved. it has just not, markets are closed today. okay. there you go. i knew that, i love it when people write in, didn't you know the markets were chosed today? didn't you know. lauren: lauren: is in to take us through the next hour -- lauren simonetti. lauren: good afternoon, neil. i'm lauren simonetti, this is "making money." markets passion to honor martin luther king today. it treasury secretary janet yellen warning we could hit the debt ceiling this thursday. gary kaltbaum and erin gibbs are here. they will guide us through. while the conference