support. cheryl: i think all of you are wrong. [laughter] i think -- i don't know about the drirly, i think the delivery services, the fact that he said that thing could operate in the snow, that surprised me. >> oh, and by the way, while we're on the robots, there's a tiktok account with a guy who, like, harasses these delivery robots. [laughter] i saw it on twitter, it's very, very, very funny. cheryl: well, we shall see. guys, thank you so much. rob, it was great to have you here. >> hey, thanks for having me. cheryl: no shortage of crazy things to the talk about. we've got the jobs report coming out tomorrow the, we're going to have that on the show, 8:30 a.m. eastern time i'm going to bring you that breaking news. stuart varney, good or bad, we've got a jobs report coming out tomorrow. stuart: okay, we got it. good morning, everyone. this afternoon the president releases his budget. we already know what's in it; tax the rich, tax big corporations, a tax on wealth, an oil profits tax, price controls on drugs, limits on

retirement benefits, on 401(k)s, attacks on crypto transactions. you got all that? this is a political document. this is biden's re-election program. we don't know how much of it gets through congress. that's a rather grim backdrop, isn't it, for the markets especially given that jay powell says he's going to the raise interest rates higher and longer. the dow will open with maybe a 60-point gain and the nasdaq up maybe 28. how we close, nod idea. the 10-year treasury, the yield right now shy of 4%, that may encourage the nasdaq the a little. and the 2-year was yielding 5% earlier, now it's back to 4.99. not much of a change. by the way, 30-year fixed rate mortgages above 7% because of the recent rise in treasury rates. politics, two debates going on, and we will engage on both. one, should we send our military into mexico to go after the cartels? two, should we ban tiktok outright? then there's the aftermath of

covid and the vaccine mandate. no advantage djokovic still not play in america, governor desantis says he'll send a boat to bring him in from the bahamas so he can play in the miami open. it's come to that. the perks disappearing fast from big ec the offices. -- big tech the offices. paid sabbaticals, free meals, going, going, gone. the box reasserts authority. hay don't want to entice workers these days, they want to lay them off. how can only 40% think to be the called woke is an insult, and who are the 32% who think it's a compliment? thursday, march 9th, 2023. non-woke "varney & company" is about to begin. [laughter] ♪ ♪ did you steal my money?

♪ stuart: well, we're playing the who first thing in the morning, and the song is did you steal my money. very appropriate, producers, well cone, indeed. s it is the big money story of the day, president biden set to unveil his budget during a stop in philadelphia this afternoon. good morning, lauren. lauren: morning. stuart: take us through what we know. lauren: i'm calling it a campaign speech because it's a statement of authorities. this has been called dead on arrival. nonetheless, biden is expected to propose cutting deficit by $3 billion over 10 years by raising taxes on the rich and companies, two groups he doesn't like very much. so here you have it, a proposed minimum ax on billionaires of -- tax the on billionaires of 25%, doubling capital gains taxes to 39.6% and raising the top tax rate from 37 to 40%. example, if you live in new york, you could pay taxes as

much as 59.4% when all is said and done. stuart: why work? lauren: he's also expected to hit companies with a tax rate of 28. so maybe dead on arrival, but this will provide the optimistic a path to compromise with republicans? stuart: that's a path to compromise? lauren: the upcoming debt limit negotiations, well, he's laying out his priorities whether he's going to negotiate or not, polar opposite of what republicans want. stuart: just listen to what white house press secretary karine jean-pierre had to say about the budget. roll it. >> building on that record of fiscal responsibility, the president's budget cuts the deficit, again, by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade. the budget achieved this while lowering costs for families, investing in america and protecting programs americans have paid into because it proposes tax reforms to insure the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share. stuart: joining us the thursday morning, brian brenberg, that would be professor brian

brenberg. what do you make of this claim of fiscal responsibility, brian? >> i would say borrow a phrase from the who, don't get fooled again. there is no fiscal responsibility in this plan. this is a president who has seen projections for deficits go up, stuart, by $6 trillion over a decade from when he took office. so he's talking about cutting deficits by 3 trillion? that's like gaining 100 pounds and losing 50. you don't get credit for that, stuart. i don't care how big the pants are that you want to buy, you don't get credit for that. stuart: now, "the new york times"es says this is a dead on arrival budget, so not all of these tax increases are going to hit us, right in. >> no, none of this is going to hit us. lauren: none? >> none of these tax increases. and by the way, when we talk about a corporate tax increase, that doesn't hit businesses. that hits, it hits workers, and it hits shareholders, retirees. let's be honest about the conversation here. this is not going to happen. it's dead on arrival, and he

knows it, which is why he's doing it. stuart: david bahnsen with us this morning. none of these tax increases get through? none at all? >> not a single one. the house, obviously, isn't going to vote for any of it, but even the senate -- even sinema and manchin -- stuart: are you sure about this? >> ooh i'm 100 sure. they have a democrat majority in the house, and they couldn't pass build back better. now the republicans have a majority in the house, they would be taking people out on stretchers if they voted for this. none of it's going to happen, it's a campaign speech. and it's an important one because it set ises his priority. and i'm worried about this medicare side because now the republicans are abe the, oh, we can't touch medicare, we do anything to reform medicare. president trump's trying to hit governor desantis the over that. president biden's looking to make an issue about medicare. stuart: fact that these kind of tax increases have been proposed, okay, you're saying none of them go through, but if some of them go through, what happens to the market9some. >> again, if it were to go

through, it'd be a problem. by the way, that captain gain increase for billionaires -- capital gain increases for billionaires is on unrealized gains. stuart: taking your money before you've made the profit. >>st the not serious at all, it's a campaign speech, and i'm not exaggerating, one of it it will go through. lauren: there's also talk ofst the on rich people of wealth of $100 million or more which is quite a step away from billionaires. >> this is not a tax the rich plan, this is a tax the everybody plan. >> that's right. >> and let's be clear, biden thinks we have a revenue problem in this country. we don't. we have a spending problem, and that's why his budget doesn't work, it will never get us sustain the about, and it will never pass. stuart: let me go back to this marginal tax rate. if you live and work in new york city, you'll pay new york city tax, state tax the, federal tax, and it'll all go up, and your marginal rate will be 59%? why on earth would be anybody work and live in new york city? lauren: 58 in california.

>> can you imagine somebody living in the new york and californiasome if how dumb must they be? [laughter] stuart: there's room in my house in new jersey, but it won't do you much good. that's a fact. okay, thanks very much for being here, gentlemen, we appreciate it. now this, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, he's been hospitalized. lauren: he fell at a private dinner at a washington, d.c. hotel. he's in the hospital, he is receiving treatment. he's had a number of medical issues going back, polio at 2. yeah, 2 years old. twenty years ago he had triple bypass surgery, four years ago he fractured his shoulder. we have no word on the extent of the current injuries right now. meanwhile, senator dianne feinstein, 89, he's back at her home in san francisco. she was hospitalized for shingles, and is john fetterman, right, he remains at walter reed being treated for depression. he checked himself in almost one month ago, february 16th. reportedly, or he's been getting

briefings almost every day, they last about an hour, and he expects to be back soon, but we're talking almost a month now. stuart: you can't vote in the senate unless you're in the senate which upsets the balance of power if you've got hospitalization for either democrats or republicans. all right. white house press secretary karine jean-pierre had to explain the president's lack of public events. very interesting. roll tape the, please. >> this is the second day in a row where the president hasn't had any public events on his schedule. what's he up to concern. [laughter] >> what's he up to, what is the president up to -- >> before his speech tomorrow? >> so yesterday i think we ran out to heads of -- two heads of state calls that he had, i believe with oman and also with president macron. we read those two calls out, and so the president is always working, always making sure tha, he does have the american people at the top of mind every day. stuart: all right, brian -- [laughter] is this the basement strategy that's going to be the renewed?

>> i love that definition of always working. i'm going to use that in my life, wherever i am, i'm always working. politicians are suppose to be public figures. they're supposed to be out in front when we have problems. that's why when a train derails, you go there. this administration does not get the president needs to be out front. that's why everybody questions his leadership, stuart. they don't see him enough. stuart: but it you put him out and about, he goes off prompter. >> that's right. stuart: that is a problem, right, david? >> it is. it's interesting seeing these politicians who are injured and elderly and in the hospital, and we're about to nominate two 80-year-olds to run for president. perhaps that may be some of the issue, that president biden would be better off being in walter reed hanging out hand what he's doing, just sort of -- hanging out hand what he's doing, just sort of hiding. we can't find candidates that have the health and stamina to get out and lead from the front, to do their job as brian's talking about. president biden should be out on site at these locations.

stuart: but if it's desantis the versuses newsom, that changes the equation. >> that's a lot of youth. >> that may be a little too much energy, i get nervous if about newsom leading california. stay right there, sir. stuart: you know he went to baja, mexico. you know what happened when he came back? tested positive for covid. all right. brian, thank you very much, indeed. we'll be watching "the big money show." congratulations on your new show, doing well. 1 p.m. eastern time right here on fox business. here we go, check futures. you're up 80-odd points for the dow trillions, pre-opening -- dow industrials, pre-opening bell. coming up, the intelligence community is warning of the complex threats from china. roll it. >> in brief, the ccp represents both the leading and most consequential threat to the u.s. national security and leadership globally. stuart: okay. are we prepared to take on china and russia together?

and there's this, some senate democrats vote with republicans to overturn the d.c. crime bill. missouri senator eric schmitt, he's here on the democrat split. that is next. ♪ ♪ you'll always remember buying your first car. but the things that last a lifetime like happiness, love and confidence... you can't buy those. but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price, our strategic investing approach can help you build the future you imagine. with a majority of my patience with sensitivity, i see irritated gums and weak enamel. sensodyne sensitivity gum & enamel relieves sensitivity, helps restore gum health, and rehardens enamel. i'm a big advocate of recommending things that i know work.

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lauren: well, there's fighting in the senate over the d.c. crime bill. stuart: that's a thin read. you're looking at a shot of rehoboth beach in delaware where it's currently 40 degrees, that is where the president spends most of his weekends. the futures show a very modest gain, we've had a lot of selling recently. at the opening bell, there may be a little buying. dow up maybe 80, nasdaq up maybe 27. and there's this, a vote to block washington, d.c.'s controversial crime law received overwhelming support in the senate including from some democrats. give me the numbers. lauren: the senate voted 81-14 to block the bill, let's show you the 14 democrats who voted against the republican resolution. they wanted to respect d.c. statehood but also lower most maximum sentences. here they are, you can see senator booker, carden, kick theworth on that -- stuart: that's the deft.. -- duck john worth. duck canworth.

duckworth. stuart: it is a democrat split. lauren: at top, correct. stuart: mostly leftist, but you're right, dick dick durbin is right there -- >> i think cory booker is a surprise. he was tough on crime -- stuart: he's a senator now. senator eric schmitt, republican from missouri, joins me now. senator, this is a real split among democrats. can you use that split to your advantage, maybe blocking other issues that come up like the border, like taxes? can you use it? >> well, i hope some of the democrats will come to the their senses. this radical agenda they've been pursuing the last few years has wreak whered havoc across -- wreaked havoc across the country. but certainly, violent crime is plaguing our big cities across the country, and washington, d.c.'s no different. i think this sent a powerful message that we're going to reject these kinds of policies. you know, eliminating minimums, reducing maximums for car

carjackings and robberies, it's the wrong way to go. i think the vote sent a strong message. stuart stawrt senator, my colleague sitting next to me, david bahnsen, he suggests none of these tax increases that are in the president's budget this afternoon, none of them will get through the senate, none of them will be enacted. what do you say to that? >>ing ill hope not. i'm not going to sport them. we're hearing up to $2 trillion worth of new taxes. washington doesn't have a revenue problem, washington has a spending problem. we have $5 trillion worth of revenue coming in because we expanded the economy with tax the i cuts under the previous administration, and the administration wants to go backwards. so we're all waiting to see what's in this budget, but i'm not holding out a lot of hope that this is a fiscally conservative budget. stuart: congressman, this budget is all about taxing the rich i think, frankly, there's a lot of votes for that. that is popular given inequality and what the left is saying. are you sure you can just roll it back? >> well, look, anytime you've

seen broad-based expansion in our economy, it's because -- and, by the way, jfk did it, ronald reagan did it, donald trump did it. that's when our economy has grown. these policies don't work. it's sort of like groundhog day with the democrats, they keep going back to this familiar refrain of tax increases and tax increases. what they're really doing is spending way more money than we have every single year. it's got to stop. this is not what the american people expect. it's not how they do their budgets. they should expect more from washington, d.c., and i think this is our opportunity to plant that flag in the ground to be the party of, you know, fiscal conservatives. stuart: okay. that would be nice. many senator, thank you very much for joining us this morning, we always appreciate it. >> the great to be with you guys. stuart: you got it. the rollback of the keyes crime bill, that that's really a -- of the d.c. crime bill, that's really a legislative win for the republicans. do they feel emboldened? lauren: yeah, i think so. the refrain palin strategy is to find a way to make democrats

take tough votes. they plan to the force a vote on a water bill that would federally regulate certain streams and wetlands. it's a big issue for farmers, right? they could force a vote there. they could do so with esg in retirement accounts, right? stuart: okay. but the republicans have a majority of, what, is it two in the house? >> no, it's bigger than that, but it isn't huge -- stuart: they've got to keep absolute discipline if they want to roll back what's in this budget. >> they do. and i think even on the senate side there are two democrats -- well, now kyrsten sinema registered independent, but the house is really where you're holding the line and and you have to wait until the next 'em. stuart: i think you're delivering very good news to our viewers in the economy and the markets, because if you can roll back all of these tax increases, if you can really stop all of that, that's a huge plus, in my opinion, for the entire country. >> and i just want to point out, i'm saying this now with the gift of a republican majority in

the house. but i said this about build back better. when they had a majority, i never believed that manchin and sinema were onboard. the idea the biden administration's trying to take credit for deficits going down, they wanted to increase them by $5 trillion, and they wouldn't. they couldn't pass the bill. that's how big those tax increases were. it didn't happen. stuart: david, stay there, you're blessed being with me for the hour. >> yes, i am. [laughter] stuart: i'm going to change the subject to something that truly outrages us. a group of teens ransacked a chinese restaurant in new york city. go through it, lauren. lauren: it's on the third floor of a mall in queens, new york. about a cousin teens in hoodies -- a dozen teens in hoodies and masks got off that elevator, went into that restaurant about 8:30 on saturday night, flipped the tables and chairs. here's the owner of fish village speaking out through a translator. >> translator: it was actually very scared and happened within

less than a minute, so they didn't really have any time to react until after the fact when they left. he's worried that it would affect future business. lauren: i mean, they actually got in the elevator together and got off, and the cost of that damage is $20,000. and that's a small business that that has to foot that bill. stuart: it was a planned attack? lauren: are it seemed planned. stuart: seems planned by a group of teenagers on a chinese restaurant. how we ever get businesses to come back to this city? >> that's why the cost is more than $20,000,because it doesn't price in the new insurance pricing, the fear factor. wen can't be a society that stands for barbarism. for that kind of behavior, there needs to be the full extent of the law. i hope every one of those people faces jail. lauren: where are the parents? >> i hope the parents face jail time. stuart: i want to know is there a racial background to this. a chinese restaurant owner. there have been attacks on chinese folks, asian folks in

new york city for a long time. is this another one? looks like it. it has to be the said. we have to openly discuss what went on. >> no matter what caused it, it's unacceptable. stuart: yes, absolutely. well said, david. look at futures, please. six minutes to go until the opening bell. up for the dow, 80 points maybe. up for the nasdaq, 27 points maybe. we'll take you to the opening bell next. ♪ there's a hole in the bottle, drinking all this wine. ♪ it's already empty, and it ain't even supper time ♪ get refunds.com powered by innovation refunds can help your business get a payroll tax refund, even if you got ppp and it only takes eight minutes to qualify. i went on their website, uploaded everything,

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stuart: three and a half minutes to go to the opening bell, futures point a little green on the side, 80 points up for the dow. gary kaltbaum with us this morning. tell me, gary, do you agree this is the perfect time to the buy treasuries and/or bonds? >> for income investors, heck yeah. we were getting 0% a year and a half ago. you get 5% on treasuries, and corporate bonds i'm finding a decent amount giving out 6, 7, 8% right now going out 5, 6, 7 years. so, yeah, if you can't stand the whip sawing of the markets,

great place to go, and it's about time. stuart: is there any stock that you'll be buying odd? -- today? >> i've been real careful here on individual names. i can tell you this, i'm bearish on financial, i'm bearish on energy, i'm bearish on a lot of areas, but i really do like the way semiconductors and tech, real good reaction to something like broadcom. i'm not sure if i'm going to buy it right here, but something like a broadcom's acting well. facebook, met that, actually acting -- meta, actually acting well even off bad numbers because i think that at official intelligence thing is maybe going on, nvidia also. there are things in the my sight, i just have not bought 'em yet because most things -- i'm just taking my time. stuart: it really is a difficult stock market because you've got, what is it, you've got the jobs report tomorrow. that could move the market. you've got the cpi next week, that is correct move the market. and you -- that could move the

market. very risky time to be putting your foot into stocks rights -- right now. >> yeah, look, you've got higher rates, liquidity coming i out. but just remember i'm really a big believer, you really can't sop the ingenuity and the hard work of the american people to the create new companies, new businesses. just remember in the '80 we didn't know what the internet was. maybe artificial intelligence is the next big thing, i don't know. what i can tell you no matter what the market because in the next 10 years, there'll be stocks that that go up 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10-fold, and the job for me is to find them, and they're all going to be companies with great earning, sales growth and big industries. stuart: gary, when you find 'em, tell us about 'em real fast. >> you got it. stuart: the market is now open this thursday morning. it is march the 9th. and is we've opened on the upside to the tune of 130 points, 140 points for the dow industrials. that, what is it, a .3 gain, .3,

.4 on the upside. show me the dow 30, please, get a sense of where we are buying and selling. they're not all open, obviously, but look at that. now they've opened, and there's plenty of green. two, three on the downside, 27 on the upsite. -- upside, very interesting. the s&p 500 to the upside, the nasdaq composite kid flat to ever -- dead flat to the ever so slightly higher. let's have a look at big tech with that in mind. meta, up again 1.4%. microsoft up again, .8%. apple's up 153. alphabet, amazon on the downside but not by much. silver gate bank shutting down. i've got to bring susan into this. look, i don't understand. this is a significant hit to the crypto business. this is my opinion. why is bitcoin holding above $20,000, 21,22,000? susan: you have to understand this was pre-announced last week. you heard silver gate saying that viability is in doubt, so

you're sub-22,000 which, by the way, is a psychologically important level, and it's the down on the week, so there has been, i guess, an impact of some sort when it comes to contagion fears. silver gate, you know, at its peak this stock was worth over $200. it was one of two main crypto banks out there, signature bank here in new york city is the other one. but this is all part of the ftx contagion, right? one of the main bankers for sbf and ftx, and there was a run on the bank when ftx collapsed. customers drew out $4 billion in just a matter of weeks, and silvergate whether it was selling debt, emergency loans just, by the way, to stay alive. and it was really interesting to me how this business model works. silvergate capital didn't pay any interest on customer deposits, so they had all these free cash flow that they could have used to hedge, and i'm surprised for this type of collapse. stuart: let me bring david into. why hasn't bitcoin, for example,

sunk way below $20,000 with all this pressure on it? >> let's put it in perspective. at 21, 2 2,000 right now it's down 70% from its high. it is right now down 12 the % from where it was -- 12% fro whe announcement came out. southern susan correct. >> even though it's up from the height of the whole ftx implosion, crypto has been utterly decimated. and most of these banks and exchanges that are connected to it are bankrupt, and they are on their last breath. they're over. this is totally are revealing what was pushing crypto up before. it was all of the hedging, leveraging, speculating, all the nonsense that was going on. that whole game is over. so whatever is going to move this big ponzi scheme higher going forward is going to have to be people actually believing it and paying cash for it. susan: now specifically for bitcoin, the reason why it's still holding at 21,000, if you look at the actual crypto wallet movement, there hasn't been much. 70% of those who hold bitcoin

still have the same bitcoin they did around six months ago. stuart: all right, tesla down again this morning. what's this, it's heading for its fourth straight daily loss? susan: yeah. most traded stock in the premarket. fourth straight day of losses in the stock market. the stock is down double digits so far this month, lowest, by the way, in a month's time. morgan stanley, you heard from analyst adam jonas, highly respected electric car analyst, saying that the cyber truck will just be a cult car and not a major seller. stuart: uber, thinking of spinning something off? susan: well, they're trying to preserve cash like everybody is in this year of efficiency, so they're thinking of spinning off the freight business to those who need trucking for! s across the country. -- for supplies across the country. stuart: and it's made it to $34 a share, case closed. susan: went up $45 from its ipo. stuart: peloton can't import its

streaming systems from outside of america, what's the problem? susan: yeah. well, the reason is because they, apparently, they infringe on some dish network patents. we're talking about the ifits here from what i see and some these streaming devices. but do you see the theme we're building in the stock market today? those that have done well during the pandemic and the covid hockdowns no longer the preferred -- lockdowns, no longer the preferred stocks now, and that trend does not continue in 2023. you remember peloton, how much was it worth at its peak? $100 plus, and now it's trading at $13. if they can't import some of these live streaming devices, that might if impact demand. stuart: general electric the, my father's stock. it's up 5%. susan: yeah. they reaffirmed their guidance. aerospace has been broken up into three separate companies here, and i just want to get back to tesla because i did want to bring up the fact that cathie wood do did buy in, she bought

about 12.5 million shares yesterday. so if there's one person that continues to believe in this stock, that would be cathie wood. stuart: $12 million? that's quite a purchase. susan, thanks very much, indeed. i need dividend news, and david bahnsen is the man to give it to the me. he likes gilead sciences and metlife. gill with idea, what do they -- gilead, what do they pay? >> all in the talk about peloton and crypto crashing really makes you appreciate dividend growth. stuart: it does. make your pitch. [laughter] >> gilead is paying 3.75%. more importantly, they've grown the dividend 7% per year for five years, and they're now way past that covid treatment drug they had. they have a very diversified portfolio of wonderful treatments, especially in oncology they're doing very well. stuart: okay. metlife, what do they pay in. >> they pay % -- 3%, they've grown it 10% per year for a decade. and and metlife, i think,

ultimately benefits from higher interest rates. it's a life insurance company, they've done a very good job managing. stuart: i'm worried about the safe i the of the dividends going forward. >> you should. stuart: gilead and metlife, you're safe with those dividends. >> less than half of their cash flow is used for the dividend. they have more than double cover coverage to protect that dividend. stuart: okay. we've within in business for all of six minutes, and we're on the upside. a gain of 150 points. a lot of selling recently. this morning in the early going, some buying. dow winners, what have we got? top of the list is american express. it's the up 2.7%. microsoft is up 1 percent. -- 1%. nike, merck, yeah, that's merck, and chevron all on the upside. s&p 500 winners, look at that, general electric up nearly 6%. paypal, 3%. phillips 66, american express, marathon petroleum. if you've got 'em, you're in business. paypal up 3%. meta, astrazeneca, microsoft, they're all the nasdaq winners. there are some winners this

morning after a week of losses. coming up, a marine sniper moved to tears recounting how leaders ignored his warnings minutes before the kabul airport blahsst -- blast. roll it. >> plain is and simple, we were ignored. our expertise was disregarded, no one was held accountable for our safety. the withdrawal was a catastrophe, in my opinion, and there was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence. stuart: the afghan rout investigation. we'll get into his emotional testimony later. the white house says terror groups would have a minimalling benefit. i'll ask tom homan if we should go after the cartels with our military, and if we did, what would be the consequences? right after this. ♪

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and why it's important is masterful. join the hundreds of thousands of americans who are enriching their lives through this exclusive online course from hillsdale college and gain access to this premium content today. what i hope you'll get from studying genesis in this course is a deeper appreciation of the biblical insights with regards to the human person, psychology, our predilection towards rivalry, but also reconciliation. sign up for the genesis story free of charge at learnfromhillsdale.org today. stuart: 1 the minutes into the trading session the thursday morning, dow is up 132 points. we're learning about a fifth

person who was traveling with those four americans kidnapped in the mexico. what do you have for us? lauren: the person hasn't been identified, but reports say a fifth person was traveling with this group that was shot at and kidnapped by cartel the members. this fifth person was turned away at the border because they couldn't produce a photo id to cross and go with the group. meanwhile, the bodies of the two people who were killed are being prepared to be returned to the united states. so far only one man has been arrested in connection to the attack. the state department has travel warnings many place for most of the country of mexico including a do not travel to the area where the kidnapping occurred. the last thing to note here is, and i think this is an obvious one, mexican authorities are rejecting calls to have the u.s. military become involved to take on the cartels because the cartels are very much infiltrated in the mexican government. stuart: why am i not surprised? lauren: very tricky, tricky -- stuart: is the. lauren lynn -- scenario.

stuart: the white house has ruled out labeling the cartels a terrorist organization. watch this. >> it would not grant us any additional authorities that we don't really have at this time. so the united states has powerful sanctions, authorities specifically designated to combat narcotics trafficking organizations and the individuals and entities that enable them. so we have not been afraid to use them. stuart: all right. tom homan with me this thursday morning. all right, tom, number one, should we label them a terrorist group? number two, if we did label them a terrorist group, should we go after them militarily inside mexico? two questions, what's your answers? >> yes, they should be labeled terrorist groups. look, these cartels have killed more americans than isis or any other terror organization, over 100,000 deaths. absolutely. and we should force mexico to allow special forces, our intelligence divisions and our law enforcement to go down there and dismantle these cartels.

president trump forced mexico to do the remain in mexico program, he forced them to put military on the southern and northern border. this administration hasn't forced mexico to do anything in the midst of the most historic immigration crisis we've ever seen, the most historic drug flow we've ever seen. this administration needs to hold mexico accountable and say if you don't take care of this problem, then we need to take care of it because hundreds of thousands of americans will die. stuart: what do you think the consequences would be if seal team six suddenly appeared in the headquarters of some cartel and shot them up? i mean, just think this through. what would the reaction be to america's military shooting up the cartels in the mexico? >> well, you know, we just -- first, with we need to get mexico to agree to this, woe -- we would partner with mexico. certain segments that are vetted by u.s -- [inaudible] we work with mexico, we've got to make sure the people from

mexico military, people from mexico law enforcement have been vetted because many of hem are corrupt, and we don't even know what we're going to do. look, we attack the money. u.s. agencies are very good at this, varney. if you take their money away, you take their power away because they can't buy themselves military. they can't buy themselves federal law enforcement, they can't buy themselves mexican government protection. so we attack the money. then we go after the cartels from the top down the to the bottom. we've been very successful at taking down organized crime in certain terrorist organizations in the trump administration, and that's the way we did it. we need to do the same thing now. hold mexico accountable. you come to the able the, you'll help us do this or we'll do it on our own. but the mexican mill taxer as i said, the mexican military's accept thing back. the cartels control the country of mexico. they control our southern border. we cannot allow that. stuart: fbi director christopher wray finally comes clean and says, yeah, the government cannot keep tabs on who's coming across the border.

watch this, please. >> we're not able to keep tabs on every single person who comes in, certainly. we have all sorts of investigations into certain people who get in, and we try to work very hard on both sides of the border to prevent them -- to suggest dhs' -- support dhs' efforts and to some extent our neighbors south of the border to keep them from coming in. stuart: tom, what is the answer to this? more agents? a wall? >> stop the catch and release. go back to detain thing. the law is clear, when you enter the country illegally, you're an arriving alien. whatever you're claiming, you are to be detown thed. that is -- detained. that is spelled out in statute. in the administration is releasing everybody. over 2 million are released in the united states, varney, and we're not even talking about the 1.2 million gotaways where no one knows where they're at. as far as tracking, they can't track them because they took the gps capability off the bracelets and phone. so even if we wanted to find

them, we couldn't. this administration doesn't want to find the them. stuart: what a mess. tom homan,s always good. thanks for being with us, tom. see you again soon. >> thanks for having me, varney. stuart: all right, lauren, come on in, please. here's a question, how much do taxpayers have to spend per year on illegals? lauren: do you want to mow? stuart: i do. lauren: $182 billion a year, that's what we are spending on the illegal immigrants. how many? 15 is.5 million, and there are about 5.5 million that are u.s. citizens, born here. it comes to $1,156 per taxpayer -- per tax paying american. why is this a problem? do the illegals pay taxes? very little, about $30 billion a year. the national department, $31 trillion -- debt, $31 trillion, and these sanctuary cities are money magnets for the benefits and the services that they have to, that we have to provide for the illegals. stuart: why is this not a bigger political issue?

i don't get it. lauren: because the values of america are to take in the depressed, take in the persecuted, to be that refuge. and that's -- stuart: yep, and that's a good thing. but 2 million in the last couple of years? it's out of hand, and everybody knows it, for hen take sake. do you want to comment on this, bahnsen? >> i think the problem was unlike ellis island immigration, there was patriotism. people learned the english language, and they really cared about our values. our problem and why people have soured on the whole subject is that they came so often there's people here for a welfare state, and we're not expecting people to assimilate and become part of the american culture, and i think that multiculturalism became a bigger problem than real immigration. stuart: got it. david, thank you. coming up, former cdc director dr. robert redfield says he was pushed out of internal debates about covid's origins. watch this. >> this was an ape yorely decision that there's one point of view that we're going to the put out there, and anyone who

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stuart: very soon congress will question more folk southern railway chief following the disaster in east palestine last month. mark meredith on capitol hill. what's the latest? >> reporter: norfolk southern's ceo is expected the tell lawmakers a that his company is sorry for all the pain and trouble the derailment has caused, but the company's expected to go into greater detail about what lies ahead. we got a copy of what the ceo, alan shaw, is expected to tell lawmakers. quote, we are committed to learning from this accident and working with public officials and the industry to make railroads even safer. in the meantime the, we've already launched a series of immediate steps to enhance safety based on the facts and

the ntsb's preliminary report. that report finding an overheated wheel bearing as a major factor in the derailment as well as the fire. those 11 tank cars were carrying vinyl chloride, and while there were no fatalities in the accident, they've got residents, clean-up workers and and lawmakers all worried about the thousands of people who may end up suffering long-term consequences. >> what are we going to do about the town? the residents don't feel safe. i think they have every reason not to feel safe, so what are we going to do moving forward to get their lives back on track? >> reporter: the hearings -- hearing's going to kick off in about six minutes including ohio's newly-elected senator, j.d. vance. we're also going to hear from the direct director of the ohio epa and local first responders who can detail some of the work and that i -- what they're up against. norfolk southern also expected to outline what they're going to do financially for this town,

the company says they've already provided financial assistance for 4200 families, but lawmakers are going to want to know what's the plan for the long term. stuart: mark, thank you very much, indeed. you know, time flies when you're having fun. and the last hour has really flown by. my thanks to david bahnsen for supplying the energy which made it fly by. thanks for being with us. all right, check those markets real fast. we're up 140 on dow now, 66 up for the nasdaq. still ahead, ben come 9/11, ken -- ben domenech, kennedy and and mayra flores. of. 10:00 hour of "varney & company," the non-woke edition, is next. ♪ muck how can we be lovers if we can't be friendsesome. ♪ how can we start over when the fighting never ends? ♪

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♪ stuart: okay. i was loving the music with the lovely sight of new york city empire state building. cold and clear. good morning, everyone. 10:00 eastern, straight to the money. the dow is now up 140 points, nasdaq up 73 points. ve