>> can you imagine holding a thermometer down there? i will go with 8280, number three. stuart: this is going to be a pure guess from mike murphy. he did not look up the answer. what is it? >> number two, 75 a 54. stuart: i'm going with number four, 93 -- well-done, stu. you got it. yes the answer is 9392 degrees fahrenheit, okay? we use fahrenheit in america. celsius almost everywhere else, isn't it? thanks to mike murphy joining us for the hour. ashley, good stuff, thanks a lot for being here. my time is up. that is it for "varney & company" literally three seconds it is "coast to coast." neil: oops, it happened again. home prices falling for the sixth straight month of december. what is a homebuilder to do?

we'll ask one of the biggest, ara hovnanian is here, only here. looking at tensions with china, donald trump vowed if he got his old job back he would ban all imports from china within four years. wonder what his former acting defense secretary thinks of that? we'll ask him. chris miller is here. so our buddy giano caldwell on the chicago mayor primary day. this is not about politics for gianno this is personal. what is at stake, who is at stake as "coast to coast" kicks off the last trading day of february. can you believe that? welcome, everybody, happy to have you what is snowy, cold day throughout most of the country, including the northeast metropolitan area. we'll have more on that in a bit. we have so many hearings, so little time, to kick things off. one military one focusing incredibly on the u.s. going into ukraine. jennifer griffin on whether they're nervous at the pentagon watching this.

jenner? >> reporter: neil, the u.s. has given security assistance and military sales of over $45 billion so far to ukraine, about 5% of the dod annual budget to put it in perspective. the house armed services committee hearing today on capitol hill was slated as an oversight hearing to insure weapons to ukraine end up in the right hands. instead most of the discussion has been why has the pentagon not gotten weapons to ukraine faster an slow rolled systems like stingers, tanks, f-16s that the ukrainians need to win? >> it has been overly worried in my view giving ukraine what it needs to win would be escalatory this hesitation prolonged the war and driven up the cost in terms of dollars and lives. this conflict must end and the president must be willing to do what it takes to end it with victory. >> reporter: dod trained 1000 ukrainian troops since january

bringing the total number to 4,000 since russia's invasion. ukraine while fighting a war has risen six places in the corruption index we learned today according to transparency international. >> bottom line is that the programs are working, diversions are not happening, equipment is getting where it needs to go, is that it? >> we're doing oversight to make sure the department placed all controls it needs to make sure that happens, sir. >> didn't quite get to what i'm talking about. no problems of any great significance, is that correct? >> right. well, again, a lot of these audits and valuation are pending with regard to the areas we are mentioned, we have limited findings. department is addressing them. we'll look at the issues, yes that's correct. >> thank you. >> reporter: republicans seem to be divided whether to speed up to give more weapons to ukraine so that putin loses and concerns that the pentagon may not follow to the letter of the arms control act of 1996 end use monitoring to make sure stingers, other sensitive

weapons don't end up in the wrong hands. one notable statistic, even though the u.s. offered $100 billion in total aid including humanitarian assistance, the amount of military assistance in terms of gdp pales to a nato ally like estonia donated equivalent of 1% of its gdp to weapons for ukraine. neil? that. >> is interesting way to look at it. probably more accurate gauge. thank you, jennifer. wonder what chris miller thinks of this former acting defense secretary under donald trump. chris i would be remiss, seizing what is good money going potentially after bad money, to switch roles of republicans and democrats, democrats say continue to fight the good fight by and large, some, not all republicans are saying let's cost this out and think about it. what do you think about it? >> neil, thank you for having me on. don't tell sean and tucker i said that i'm just talking to

you, my friend. thanks for having me on. that was a really good piece. i'm glad to see congress is actually trying to do their job now of oversight. i thought chairman rogers was pretty spot on, you will pay now or pay later. just a matter of how much. i'm personally want to get the thing over with. provide the ukrainians with as much material they need. the right material is the key thing. i don't think we're doing the right thing. let's get the europeans involved. we can't want this more than they do. neil: let me ask you, secretary, this other big bugaboo. that is china. it is giving mixed messages right now and a lot of it has to do with ukraine, how much they might help the russians in ukraine with weapons. is that a game-changer for you if they go that route and then what do we do if they do? >> neil, that is a great question. it is worrisome but here's my point. i think president trump hit it perfectly. let's compete against them economically. they're not worried about our military. actually that strengthens

chairman xi and chinese communist party we look like we're really aggressive. let's compete economically. we can clean their house with that one. militarily if they decide to get involved in this thing that is a game-changer but i think we can compete against them on the peripheries in latin america and africa. our free market system will win this thing. let's use those tools rather than continuing to be aggressive with all our military rhetoric. neil: you know, chris, it is, probably know that your old boss commented on china overnight saying a lot of their activity and what they have been doing means that if he got his white house job back within four years he would phase out all imports from china. what do you think of that? >> i'll tell you, fundamentally i thought he had the right approach which i said earlier is compete economically. diplomatic information, military economic, let's compete economically. that is our greatest weapon system. it fundamentally goes back to the american workers and our

economic system. so he is spot on. i think he has got their attention. i think probably this administration should take it a little more seriously as well. neil: your over all assessment how bad things get between us and china. of course they are still angry at us for sanctioning six of their top big technology names. as you know they went after lockheed martin and a host of other key players. so this is going to build. i'm just wondering how far it goes? i mean are we already at economic war? >> neil, i talk in my book about a regular warfare which is competing in a way they don't expect. what they want us to do is keep bashing our heads against their military forces across the taiwan strait. what i want to do is i want to compete smarter. militarily instead of threadenning them, that is what they want. that allows them to get the population riled up against it. let go ahead use information operations, psychological warfare, cyber efforts, economic tools and information is the key thing.

that's what they're more afraid of than militarily. they have a restive population that believe in what the chinese communist party is putting down. so i think that is an easy way to get their attention and work indirectly against them. neil: all right. chris miller, former acting u.s. defense secretary, author of, soldier secretary. much, much more. good seeing you again, my friend. thank you. >> i appreciate it. neil: all right, let's go to kenny polcari on all of this because when it comes to the impact of this financially, marketwise, we're separately learning a number of apple suppliers, kenny, are pulling out, trying to pull out of china sasp they see something coming. are they worried should we be worried? >> i think we should be worried. i'm surprised this didn't happen sooner with covid with all the problems, people didn't full out fast, some did. neil: right. >> now seems they're pulling out

faster as the tension is rising. it's smart move. you never know what will happen. the world is a volatile place at the moment. it makes sense they're pulling out to look alternative places to set up manufacturing. it is not surprising at all. i'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. neil: these are some of the crosscurrents on the last trading day of the month, kenny. we try to fit these in neat packages, february, not as great of a month as january was. all the major market averages were flat, to down a lot, case of dow jones industrials going into today close to 4%. we have made up for a lot of that from what we were doing the month before but we're still flat on the year with this. the only exception is the nasdaq, up about 9 1/2%. so what do you make of where we are two months in? >> so listen i think the nasdaq is ahead of itself. i've been saying this for a while. more volatility is ahead.

some uncertainty we saw inflation is starting. you and i discussed this. inflation is starting to kind of pick up again, feels like it is. ppi, cpi, pce up more than expected. actually the four-months prior of the cpi has also been revised upwards. that is sending a little bit after cautious note to the fed saying, it is not, inflation is not cooperating. in fact it might be turning up which would be reminiscent, neil, i hate to say it, 1979, 1980, when the same thing happened. so i fed will maintain the course. i do think there will be three more hikes. it takes us till june. i don't think, i think march will be 25. i know they have been floating the 50 idea but i think it is too soon to float the 50 idea. they have to wait to see what the data looks like in march. in figure the 50 idea would come in may. if they stun the markets now, go from 25 to 50, after telling everyone we have it under control, it would be admission they lost control. the markets would sell off hard

i think. maybe that is what needs to happen because ultimately we'll have to get there one way or the other but i think that we're going to see nasdaq pull back, maybe not, i'm not saying it will go negative like it did last year but i think well ahead of itself considering where we are the market wants clarity. right now it is not getting a lot of that. we have anxiousness in the market. neil: neil: not every company seems to be that anxious. not every company chevron announcing a stock buy-back to the tune of 17 1/2 billion for the just the second quarter i believe, kenny. >> right. neil: you know the political tripe against that that is selfish it only helps fat cats. no less than warren buffett said that is and ignore rant statement. where are you in the buy backs?

>> i'm in the warren buffett camp. many more people invested have exposure to the names whether they know it or not through the 401(k)s, through the pension plans they are benefiting from that. i think it's good at the moment when companies announce big buybacks because they can't find better places to invest some of that capital. they want to return it to shareholders. i think that is a good thing. i'm in the warren buffett camp. i think bernie sanders and the like are way too far left on this idea. every time this happens bernie sanders is benefiting too. who is kidding who. he is making hike he is only one left out of the party when he is not. i think it's statement about the, about certainly the health of some of these companies and the fact they're going to return this money to shareholders and everyone benefits. i'm absolutely in that camp. i think it is great. neil: it is the company's money, the shareholders money. >> that's right. neil: they can do what they please, whether you like it or not. we'll see what happens. always good seeing you, my friend, kenny polcari on all of that, with the dow down 150, 160

points for now. it looks like it will have a off month, kind of holding its own year-to-date. essentially flat year-to-date. more on that. what is happening at the supreme court now where the nine justices are considering the plan to forgive the some time. loans that could cost up to $20,000 each, for thousands, millions of borrowers. do we have the dough for that? after this. ♪.

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♪. >> i keep on thinking about all the people who paid their loan back and then all of sudden there is this gift to some other people. >> for myself, you know, who had student loans before, i would, some kind of way, damn, i wish i would had it at my time. >> i will probably have the debt until the day i die. i haven't been putting in 401(k) aggressively paying off student loans. >> i will probably pay it my whole life. >> how will it help anybody in the foot to go to school? how do you bring the cost down? that is really the main thing. neil: all right, a lot of very good observations average folks

wondering what to make of the president's plan to forgive millions of american student loans up to $20,000. the supreme court is hearing that right now. less's go to david spunt with more. >> reporter: hi, neil, arguments began two hours ago. i never met someone without a opinion. almost everyone has an opinion if you ask them about this. dozens of people actually stayed here overnight into this morning to try to get seats inside of to actually see this process unfold behind me. two cases going on right now today but they both deal with the same overarching theme here. millions of people could have up to $20,000 of student loan debt just completely wiped out. >> ask for nothing we do not deserve. we're asking for nothing but what is deserving. we too are america and the burden of student debt is being lifted by president biden.

>> reporter: neil, individuals earning less than $125,000 a year in 2020, 2021, married couples making less than a quarter of million dollars a year could get up to $10,000 canceled. those getting pell grants could see up the $20,000 wiped clean. it is expected to cost taxpayers, half a trillion, $400 billion with a "b." six states are suing to end thee biden plan. this plan began with president donald trump during the pandemic because he wanted to pause the student payments at height of covid-19 but current president relied on the pandemic to justify expanding this forgiveness program. one of the states sue something iowa. >> it hurts iowans who went straight to work after high school, who joined the military, started a family, start their own business. they're now on the hook to pay off someone else's student loan

debt. >> reporter: in addition to the merits of the case whether or not this is actually legal for the president to do, there is an issue of standing. can states actually bring forward something like this to the supreme court? once the justices decide that, they can move on to the actual merits of the case, a decision expected by the end of the term which is typically the end of june, early july. neil? neil: thank you for all of that, david spunt. want to go to vance gin, a budget economist during the trump administration. vance, one of the things i was looking into when it was first offered how it would be paid for and i think i heard it correctly it was said it would be added to our debt in other words no additional taxes on the american people to pay for that. i'm thinking to myself, i'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, if you add it to the debt we're all indeed paying for it, aren't we? >> we are. nothing is free and this isn't

free either. this is simply redistribution scheme of student loan forgiveness, you're redistributing some of those who went to college, racked up debt, maybe some didn't go to college or already paid off their debt. this admin talks about what is fair. how is that fair? this is not clearly a fair situation. it would increase education spending education costs over time. it does nothing to help people out today. neil: i'm also wondering, vance, about the unintended consequences helping one group when others say you did for them, you should do for me? those behind on mortgages or behind on bank loans, you name it. it is a spillover effect because people will say help us too? >> i think that's right. we call it moral hazard in economics this creates a moral hazard, you take on more risk because you think that will come in other ways of bailouts and everything else. these were decisions that were

made years ago racked up into the debt we have today that could cost $400 billion for taxpayers either through the form of higher taxes in the future or inflation, right? we've seen a lot of that. people are already having a tough time buying food, putting food on the table, gas everything else. we don't need pressures on inflation for the fed to print money to increase the national debt which is 31.4 plus trillion dollars. neil: vance, you feel for a lot of these kids too, because the rate of school, college tuition, room and board inflation has quadrupled the national average year in, year out, to the point this gets to be a huge burden. i do notice with any type of loan relief we looked at in the past it only builds the tuition bill higher. the school says you're covered for this, so we can zoom you more. where does this end up? >> well, that's right. whenever you subsidize something you ever higher prices and higher costs overall that is what we're doing a long time for

higher education, really devaluing benefit from higher education with a lot of woke nonsense, other things going on there this will contribute to more problems with that. this is not a situation that will help americans, young americans and others get an education, get a career path this is something that is really i think just looking at unconstitutional measure that really should be done by congress if it should be done at all. i really think it shouldn't be done this. is unconstitutional. we need personal responsibility in america. that is what makes america great at the end of the day. we don't need inflationary pressures of so-called bailout of redistribution scheme with this student loan forgiveness program. neil: it is an issue galvanizing the country, vance. thank a lot. we've been asking a lot of you whether you think of all of this the whether you think it's good idea for a sweeping loan forgiveness a lot of you shared your thoughts including judy who writes, it is totally unfair to

those who a, paid off their loans, b, millions of taxpayers, didn't go to college, and c are not in schools for useless masters degrees. jim writes, if they want to forgive student debt, take it from university endowments. circle of life, i'm fine we bailed out big businesses in the past. tony writes, it doesn't solve the real problem, tuition is too high. they are high because of the loan programs. it does feed this sort of circular beast where whatever you give only prompts an institution to raise its own costs on you. finally marie writes, i would rather than them help americans instead of ukraine if they're going to give money away, at least keep it here. but the money matters, doesn't it? and elections, particularly big primaries they matter too. a big one a huge one happening as we speak in chicago today. what's at stake after this?

♪.

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♪. >> chicago is probably one of the worst cities with crime. i fear for my life every day i get on the train. >> it's horrible. it is not safe. look at all these shootings. this is way too much. >> i was already beat up on the train. gave me six stitches in my head and nobody did anything about it neil: all right, it is going to be put to the test, that angst over crime right now. lori lightfoot facing the race of her life. eight other democratic candidates opposing her in a big primary ultimately decide very likely who is the next mayor in chicago, overwhelmingly democratic city. usually nominee for democrats goes on to be the mayor of all in chicago. called call following all of this, fox news political analyst, out loud with galled galled podcast host, but this is

not just politics for gianno it is personal. how do you see this race sorting out? >> well, thankfully it appears mayor lori lightfoot will lose if we're just relying on polling. not only that historical interest in this race the first time in a decade, numbers, early vote totals have been wow for a lot of people. it is amazing i think. it shows me that folks are really tired of the mayor. when you saw me interviewing people in chicago they fear for their lives on a daily basis and i if were to give a message to the voters in chicago, mayor lori lightfoot's policies have been a cancer that infected every block within the city of chicago. this is a great opportunity to provide the cure which is the ballot and vote her out. it is time to fire lori lightfoot. chicago wants already have the message. i believe that with all my heart. my hope other families will be

able to live another day because her policies won't be issue at the forefront which is what we've been seeing since she has been mayor. neil: gianno, curious, the other eight democratic candidates will they be much tougher on crime? have they promised any remedies they say lightfoot is not offering? >> so there is one particular candidate who is actual polling number one, paul valas. ceo of chicago public schools when i was actually in school. he talked about how we need to support the police. insure that those who may be nefarious actors are held accountable but also support the victims. i think that is something that has been missing from the conversation when it comes to mayor lori lightfoot, who said to chicago citizens that they are safe. not to believe their own eyes. she has gaslighted them. she blamed other people for the violence in chicago. she weaponized her own incompetence against everyone

else. to have this person in office to be the one leading chicago it is a disgrace, neil. it is a disgrace how she treated people. it is a disgrace how she has run the city, impact of mine, my baby brother christian was hurted january 24th last year. other countless families with the same experience. what do you do now, even though he is democrat i understand you, i hear you, i want to do something about it. there were other candidates in the race voted to defund the race which are left of her. that is scary. how can you go further left to mayor lori lightfoot? it is possible. this is the one guy in the race i can tell right now who would be the best candidate. he is not a republican. get it, i get it but at least he wants to support the police and support victims that is the most important part here. neil: you know though in new york city, gianno, you and i chatted about this, eric adams, a 20 year long member of the police force, influential player he would be very, very tough on

crime and some incidents come up. he sometimes said the right things i don't want to take anything away from him. he is a disappointment on that front. crime is still out of control in the big apple. is there cynicism among chicago friends, others you talk to, it will be a different mayor but the same type of treatment? >> no. that's what makes this interesting, neil, for the first time in 20 years crime is front and center in the chicago mayors race. people of all different political affiliations, all different ideologies and demographics who are fed up what they're seeing. we're talking when crime i was growing up, it was mostly on the south and west sides of chicago. now it is downtown chicago. businesses like citadel leaving, taking employees with them, other businesses about mcdonald's this is a state of emergency in the city of chicago. it is not something people can wipe off, just say, you know that happens on the south and west side in the black neighborhoods and hispanic

neighborhoods. no, every neighborhood has been plagued with crime. that is why so many chicago juans are interested in this race. it is historical vote count. we saw thousands of people just vote yesterday in early vote. we'll see thousands more vote today. i think people are fed up with it. they want somebody who will support the police and hopefully support victims as well. neil: i think you have a lot to do with that, gianno. let's see how it all pans out. always good seeing you, my friend. >> great being with you, my friend. thank you. neil: meantime news today that home prices fell for the sixth consecutive month. that has a lot of folks worried including you would think some builders. what about ara hovnanian, the biggest of them all? he is next. ♪.

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♪. neil: all right. could be a reminder things will continue to slow down in the housing arena. we get some numbers. some conflict with one another. when they closely examine home prices they were falling for the sixth consecutive month. the rate of increase falling a little bit from where we were. the fact of the matter some are saying in an environment where higher interest rates are likely, will likely see more of them, spread out potentially more quickly, wonder what ara hovnanian thinks of all of this? he is the brains behind hovnanian, the homebuilder. president, ceo, board chairman. very good to have you. how are things looking from where you can see it on the housing front? >> well, we just had our earnings conference call this morning and as i explained that it is surprisingly strong and surprisingly rebounding right now, right up through last week

sales were up significantly in, in february compared to what we saw in the fall. it has been going up steadily every month. neil: interesting. is there a price point where that is happening or region of the country where it is happening more? >> generally, yes. the east coast is doing better than the west coast but i would say both coasts have been improving over recent months. it's important to note, neil, i heard your comment about the case-shiller prices and they have declined sequentially but they're still up about 5% over last year. sometimes people lose perspective of that. interestingly over the last month we've raised prices in about a third of our communities across the country. neil: interesting. you know what i noticed, it could be more an neck debt tall than anything that is actual or substantive, but just looking

around, when i drive around sometimes i'm seeing a lot of communities going up and a lot of spec homes going up. i want to couch that not like you would see in the last housing boom but obviously that is a risk for builder to do that. it must be built on some optimism. what's going on? >> interestingly given the volatility of mortgage rates consumers have been more interested in spec homes if you will, we call them quick, move-in homes, than build to order because they can have some certainty about what the rates are going to be. they're more confident, can lock in rates for the next 60 days. that is driving more interest in qmis and there are alternatives with existing homes are just more limited. existing homes supply is 870,000 homes across the whole country. normal, 40 year average is 2.1, 2.2. so we're way below a normal

supply of existing homes for people to pick from. neil: how are you affected, air remarks when a lot of people in those existing homes are refusing to sell or put them on the market? maybe they're hoping for, you know, better valuations and they will limit the supply by doing so but how do you see that sorting out? >> well that is certainly very possible that supply of existing homes may remain low. part of it is also that, they might be locked into a lower rate and are hesitant to lose that. neil: right. >> the good news there are a lot of new buyers including millenials that are coming into the market. they're switching out of a rental and they don't have that problem. so net-net, we're seeing some good results right now. neil: you know, i'm sure you're always asked, housing meltdown, you know, in 2000, afterwards, this notion could it happen again, do you see something like

that happening again, especially the big one, the 2007, 8, 9 experience, do you see that? >> well anything is possible but the fundamentals are dramatically different than that time. at that time we had false demand reads. there were speculative investors buying and of course the whole subprime debacle, there were buyers that never should have been buying. we don't have that situation today. our primary buyers are living in the home. they're not investors. they're more qualified than they were at that time but anything is possible. if you go back to the '80s when mortgage rates rose to 18% things were definitely slower but consumers adjusted their expectations, as i think they may have to if rates keep trending up right now. if they were going to buy a

3,000 single square foot family home maybe they have to temper the expectations to 2500 square foot home or maybe even a townhouse. but basic demand is driven by demographics. that doesn't go away with mortgage rates. neil: i think it is also defined, air remarks of age. i'm of an age people complain about a five or 6% mortgage, saying i paid a lot more when my wife and i got our first house. i will not bore you with that. that adjustment is real for a lot of people. i'm wondering where you see rates going? is this about it? maybe another half-point higher but we're kind of in almost a sweet spot, it doesn't get much worse, your thoughts? >> you know, i'm not an economist, neil, so i don't know that i have a forecast per se. i can tell you that right now with about 7%, 30-year fixed rate money, buyers have adjusted to that number and were feeling

relatively good about it. our costs are coming down, so our guess is inflation is going to start tempering and that should hope, help get some stabilization in mortgage rates. that is critical right now. neil: adjustable rates are not like they used to be too. you can get a low adjustable rate, have it locked in up to 10 years, so that complexion has changed, hasn't it? >> yes it has. a popular adjustable rate is seven years and then adjusting. so it is fixed for seven years. that is a lot more affordable. another thing that is popular, three, two, one, buydown. if the rate is 7% today, it actually starts at 4% for one year, then goes to five, then goes to six an at seven. so there are many different ways to approach it. interestingly a reasonably large portion of our business is the 55 plus buyers.

they're about 20 plus percent of our customers. they are largely buying for cash and are unaffected by mortgage rates. they still have to sell their homes to buy ours. so not as if they're not affected at all but they have the ability to buy cash and mortgage rates that are prevailing have less of an effect. neil: you're very big in that population, especially with some of your communities for the 55 and over, but way beyond that, just the customer base for your homes. we'll watch it very closely. air remarks great seeing you again. >> thanks. great to be on. neil: ara hovnanian on all of that. go to taylor riggs, what she has coming up about 14 minutes from now on "the big money show." >> neil, with target, consumer confidence data we're cued in on if the consumer starting to show signs of cracking. plus a yankee tax, neil, if you want to go to south carolina, they want to charge you coming from north to south. we have a south carolina state

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♪. >> joe biden's been to ukraine. now he is coming to virginia. he has yet to go to ohio. this is a moment for leaders to lead and joe biden needs to lead here and i just think it's

really, really unbelievable that he has yet to go to ohio and support these people that need the help. neil: all right, governor youngkin might not like it. the president is actually attending a health care event in virginia. many people say there is a big health care crisis going on in ohio. might be a good idea for to you stop by, yet to do so, might not do so. kelly white from "the washington examiner" is with us. does that send mixed messages, kelly, what do you think? >> seems like biden is at more interested in pushing his own agenda, potential re-election campaign than the crises that occurred under his administration's watch. this whole thing, the whole response from his administration to the east palestine train derailment, after the fact. after the fact retroactive damage control response. transportation secretary pete buttigieg took 10 days to

acknowledge the derailment. only went to the derailment after he received push back from the media. from on mix perspective, we'll see if they recover it at all. neil: there is an old line you never give a second chance to give a first impression. pete buttigieg showed up there. epa seg tear michael regan visit the number of times. he is visiting there today. not so the president. key ages involved in this, should be involved in so he doesn't have to. what do you think of that? >> he should. as governor youngkin said this is an opportunity for him to lead, especially if he hopes to run again for president in 2024. this would be an excellent opportunity to visit people who are really suffering, who need encouragement from the president right now. it is important to keep in mind when discussing this, the residents of east palestine are largely low income. they are completely dependent on the biden's administration

response to this crisis. they can't afford to leave their jobs, move out for a long period of time until the health concerns are relieved. they are dependent on biden in this. a little bit of support from him personally would go a long way. neil: kelly, thank you. good catching up with you kaylee mcgee white. "washington examiner." when we come back looking at all the money spent on covid tracking it now way after the fact. hard to do. hard to fathom. after. ♪

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neil: took 945 days, after the today the masked mandate is over in hong kong. no other major country has had such a long requirement that folks wear masks, indoors, even outdoors in some places than hong kong. effectively ended today. longer still than it was in china. you think about it, owns and some of the money provided

to deal with covid. grady trimble, all that cash found the darndest things. >> federal government getting creative to justify big spending but states and cities spent a lot of covid aid, maybe not connected to covid at all. one hundred $40 billion in covid funds went toward a delay in student loan payments under the biden administration. in washington dc the city set aside $2.5 million for parking enforcement officers, new jersey governor phil murphy approved $12 million to build a state how of fame and another half-million on new suvs for his administration.

in iowa state allocated 23. $5 million to build a permanent field of dreams ballpark, governor reynolds arguing it would help the hospitality industry that was hit hard by the pandemic. other cities spend money on walking trails and even pickle ball courts. >> congress didn't have basic accounting controls in the federal agencies and state governments to ensure these dollars were expressed to people who had real needs. >> we should add that none of these projects were illegal. it was perfectly allowed within rules various pandemic spending packages that were passed which is why critics say we need more controls in case there's another emergency, we need to get money out quickly so it goes to the because it is supposed to be supporting. neil: that was the argument in the beginning especially the

loans that were out located to help businesses quickly but a good many of them came into the wrong hands, right? >> yes. all those spending programs, to say nothing about the fraud in the millions, tens of millions in some cases, some people have been arrested, some may never be found out to have gotten the use loan through the government illegally thanks to the covid aid that went out. it got confusing to keep track of. neil: as we wrap things up, we want to direct your attention to the averages on this final trading day of the month, and it has been not a great month, you saw the dow fall 3. 5 points, the s&p 2.3 percentage points, the nasdaq more than a point. here is taylor riggs