cratered, maria, even over the last like couple of weeks, so now, we've got a new cnn poll released just about four days ago that shows two-thirds of the american people do not want joe biden to run and don't believe he deserves re-election, and that also includes about half, maybe more than half of democrats who want the democratic party to nominate someone else, so i think he's playing word games here. i agree with you. i do not think in the edema he's going to end up on the ticket. he's pushed this formal announcement to the fall, and i think if you're gavin newsom or mrs. clinton or michelle obama or anybody else who might be looking at it you need a decision sooner rather than later from him. maria: mike lee, markets at the lows of the day. we've got 30 minutes before the opening bell. final word? >> be careful. i think something bad is going to happen. maria: monica crowley, mike lee, great to have you have a good monday, "varney" & company

begins right now, ashley webster in for stu. ashley take it away. ashley: thank you very much, good morning, maria, good morning, everybody. yes, i'm ashley webster in for stuary varney on this monday but never fear, stuart will be back tomorrow, i promise. okay, so we're starting off this morning with a look at your money. futures as you can see edging lower. we have a big week ahead. it is the start of the first quarter earnings season, and we'll also get some key inflation data. the consumer price index on wednesday producer price index on thursday. that could dictate what the fed does next. let's take a look at the bond rates for you, the 10 year treasury yield downstately at 3.38% let's take a look at the two year yield if we can. that is flat at 3.98%. almost 4% on the two year treasury bond. taking a look at the price of oil, down slightly $0.77 just under $ $80 a barrel and the price is now $3.60, we've

also been following ohio where the price there is at average of $3.67 and by the way, both of those numbers on gas unchanged overnight. to politics. the judge overseeing the trial into former president judge juan mershawn donated to biden's campaign back in 2020. they were very small donations, $15 or less but one former prosecutor says the optics are " very troubling." and president biden confirming what we already know. he says he plans to run in 2024 but he is not ready to make an official announcement. the president, by the way, is enlisted hundreds of social media influencers to help with his re-election campaign in 2024 i wonder how many of those in flewers rely on tiktok and speaking of influencers, new records show alexander soros, the son of liberal billionaire

george soros has visited the white house more than a dozen times since biden took office and meanwhile china conducting a third day of military drills around taiwan in what is called a stern warning, following a meeting between its president and speaker mccarthy, and then there's this. over 100 classified intelligence documents about the war in ukraine were leaked online and appeared on various social media sites. the pentagon trying to hunt down the culprit of that leak. it is monday, april 10. the day after john ram sealed his very first master's win from money to sports and politics in between. "varney" & company is about to begin. ♪

ashley: all right, good morning, everyone. let's get to the masters. >> [applause] >> rahm wins the masters marathon. ashley: after all that rain on saturday what fun it was to watch the tournament on sunday, and john rahm just held his game there while others faded away winning his very first masters championship yesterday. i was glued. good morning, lauren simonetti. take us through the highlights, please. lauren: and you wore your green tie this morning i noticed, ashley. ashley: i did. lauren: it was a come from behind win from john rahm, he won 12 under par and brooks kepk a tied phil mickelson for second place so the masters had 88 players and 18 represent ing liv, rahm's win

keeps the green jacket away from a golfer, and at least for now and an update on tiger woods. he withdrew citing a foot injury and the cold and the rain of the weekend the lethal combination for the 47-year-old golfer still dealing with residual leg issues from a 2021 car crash and you can see images of him limping and you could tell his foot was in pain, ashley. ashley: it was, yeah, it was difficult to watch but how about phil mickelson tying for second, amazing. lauren: 54 years old i believe, pretty amazing. 52? ashley: yes it was and john rahm , he's a star no doubt. lauren, thank you, let's move on to politics. now this. donald trump's attorney expects his legal team to try and get the indictment against his client dismissed. watch this. >> the fundamental thing i would expect, and this is not from being in the huddle with them, but i think there's going to be some very well-placed motions to dismiss based on the

legal frailties of this kind of mental gymnastics indictment that alvin bragg is trying to piece together. ashley: charlie hurt is with us. he likes to do a lot of mental gymnastics. charlie, good morning. what is the likelihood that the judge, no matter how weak this case may be would actually dismiss the case? >> you know, it's hard to say, you know, obviously there are all sorts of questions as to how this thing got this far in the first place, largely because i think people who don't particularly like donald trump would argue that it's a very weak case as the legal frailties of it make it pretty unprosecutable. i do think though it's probably more likely that the judge will side with trump lawyers on the legal frailties of the case

itself as opposed to some argument about venue. the problem with the argument about venue is you're talking about a former president of the united states, somebody who is about 100% known everywhere. it's going to be very hard to get , you know, to get , to find a venue that doesn't have a very strong opinions about donald trump and know a lot about donald trump, and it does kind of remind us that the real problem is that it's not that you have a district in this country that voted 80% against donald trump. in manhattan the problem is, you have a district that voted for somebody like alvin bragg whose willing to trump up charges and prosecute a case entirely on politics. ashley: very good point. let's move on to this one, charles. president biden seemed to confirm what we already know about his plans for 2024. watch this. i'll get your comment. >> help a brother out. make some news for me. >> i plan on running, but we're

not prepared to announce it yet. ashley: all right, so, we're planning on running but we're not prepared to announce it yet. not an announcement, i guess, charlie but do you think we'll get one soon? >> no, i don't think so. you know, that huge non-answer answer there, but i do think that what is most interesting to me about this is the tremendous lack of enthusiasm, even with the candidate himself, so you know, we know how unenthusiastic most americans are and democrats are about the idea of another biden candidacy but that the lack of enthusiasm seems to spread even into the candidate himself. ashley: all right next one for you. president biden, we're told, is turning to hundreds of social media influencers to help his re-election campaign, if there is one, in 2024. the white house says, "we're trying to reach young people but also moms who use different

platforms to get information and climate activists and people whose main way of getting information is digital", so will 80-year-old joe biden reach the young people, what do you think of the strategy, charlie? >> [laughter] see i think this goes back to the whole enthusiasm thing. one thing you'll never hear the trump campaign talk about, or donald trump talk about, is social media influencers. he doesn't need social media influencers. they're there. they are already enthusiastic. they are already interested in helping, and you have this whole long strategy of trying to whip up support among people who wouldn't ordinarily be very supportive of you. it's all so fake, and at the end of the day, i get it. there are a lot of problems. a lot of people don't like donald trump. even a lot of people in the republican side are weary of trying to go another race with donald trump, but the authenticity is actually real and that, you know, that

comparison between the authenticity and enthusiasm for donald trump versus the in authenticity and lack of enthusiasm for joe biden is a terrible thing for joe biden. probably a good thing for america though. ashley: yeah, well we'll leave it there on that very profound thought. charlie hurt as always, charles, thank you so much for joining us on this monday morning. >> great to see you. happy easter. ashley: same to you too, sir, thank you. let's take a look at the futures , where we are edging slightly lower ahead of the opening in about what, 20 minutes from now. the dow off 120 points, down anywhere from one-third to close to 1% on the nasdaq. well, got person to bring in at this point is jeff sica joins us this morning. jeff? we used to call you the perma bear. i don't know whether that's fair but you do see more problems on the horizon. perhaps a credit crisis of some sort, would you think? >> yeah, and ashley, i'm not a perma bear but i understand that

i tend to look at some of the negatives but one thing i could say is last night, i couldn't sleep, and i think it had a lot to do with all of the italian pastries i ate, but i think it also had to do with -- ashley: [laughter] >> -- with this big person that i have about the banks, so if you look at the economy, ashley, 70% of the growth of the economy is directly related to credit- funded spending, so you have essentially what that means is companies borrowing money and spending to grow, and they've been borrowing money at very low interest rates. credit has been somewhat loose, and now, you have the banks which in the last two weeks, the dallas fed put out a report to show the health of the banking industry. that number has collapsed, so in the last two weeks, loans have dried up. credit standards have increased,

so what that shows is theres a very serious credit crisis on the horizon. now, keep in mind, the market has been rallying on this bail- out bonanza when the fed injected a half a trillion dollars to sure up the liquidity which does, in fact, help sentiment, but if the banks, a lot of these being the smaller banks, 250 billion or less, if the banks cut down on lending, we have some serious concerns with that. ashley: that was quite an answer i'm concerned you're not sleeping well. we should all worry about that. very quickly, i've got 10 seconds. is it too late to buy gold, jeff >> no. i think it's not too late to buy gold. i mean, gold is a protest against government inadequacies. people are concerned about the banks. they're concerned about inflation, and they're concerned about the potential of the u.s. losing reserve currency

status, so gold is still buyable right now. ashley: jeff sica, we will leave it there. we have heard your message. as always great stuff. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. ashley: coming up vp harris defending the expelled democrats from tennessee state legislature roll the tape. >> and is that not what a democracy allowed? >> yeah! >> [applause] >> a democracy says you don't silence the people. you do not stifle the people. ashley: whoa! if only the democrats practiced what they preached. yes, free speech. think about it. now this , like father like son, turns out george soros's son visited the white house more than a dozen times since joe biden took the office. we've got the details on that, what's going on. leaked pentagon documents are circulating on social media and the u.s. scrambling to find the source. how serious are the implications on the war in ukraine?

kt mcfarland will be here on that, right after this. you can't buy great conversations, or excuses to unplug. you can't buy possibilities, and you can't buy moments that matter. but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price we believe your investments should work harder for the future you imagine. and that's where our strategic investing approach can help. t. rowe price, invest with confidence. your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel- nothing beats it. new pronamel active shield actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a gamechanger for my patients- it really works. >> woman: why did we choose safelite? we were loading our suv when... crack! safelite came right to us,

and we could see exactly when they'd arrive with a replacement we could trust. that's service the way we want it. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

ashley: now this. more than 100 classified intelligence documents about the war in ukraine were leaked online, and appeared on various social media sites. now, of course, the pentagon is trying to find out who is responsible for that. this morning, mike tobin is in k yiv. mike, good morning to you. what is the latest? reporter: well, a glaring point coming out of these leaked documents, ashley, is the fact that ukrainians could start running out of air defense in

april or may, except for the early days of the war. russian fighter jets have avoided the air space over ukraine because they don't want to risk losing one of their jets now, if the air defenses are used up russia quickly gains air superiority with freedom to move over the battlefield and ukrainian critical infrastructure. that would leave ukrainian troops vulnerable to air attacks , change the dynamic of the ground war and impact the anticipated spring offensive colonel ignat declined to speak about the leak but says ukraine needs more air defense. >> the number of means that arrived from the west is not sufficient and the number of rockets is certainly not sufficient. that is why we emphasize today that we need the missiles and air defense systems themselves. after all, the systems are destroyed and failed we do not have spare parts because all this equipment is produced in russia, just like missiles. >> now the pentagon says

multiple agencies are trying to assess the impact of the leak. the department of justice has been tasked for criminal probe. some of the documents have clearly been manipulated before appearing on social media. people on both sides of the war now expressing skepticism about the leaked documents suggesting that they are deliberate misinformation campaign. ashley, back to you. ashley: all right, mike tobin, mike, thank you very much. good time to bring in kt mcfarland who joins us this morning. kt, how dangerous is this document, or to mike's point there they have been manipulated just misinformation campaign? >> yeah, it could be any one of a dozen things. it could be people inside the u.s. government that are unhappy with the war in ukraine, could be people inside the u.s. government that are unhappy that we're not doing enough to help the ukrainians. it could be disinformation. the problem is you just don't know, but the ramifications of it, you do know, which is that it's going to make a war in ukraine more difficult for the ukrainians to fight, and prevail if that's our goal, but

the other thing is to me, and i've been at this for 45 years. when you start seeing leaks like this , big time leaks, throughout from probably several departments and agencies in the u.s. government, that's usually an indication that all is not well in those services, whether it's military services, intelligence services and i think that they are the outward and visible sign that our intelligence services and our military services are not happy, whether they're not happy with the political direction of their senior leadership, whether they're not happy with the abilities that they are given. the capabilities they are given. whether they think that we're not achieving the right mission, focused again somewhere other than asia which is what the main phone us of our intention should be at so it's a lot of unanswered questions but any investigation on what happened, what happened? oh, come on. the horses are already out of the barn. the important thing is what is the damage assessment, how do we fix it. not what happened, who did it, and why. ashley: right. next one for you, and i know you

have something to say on this. senator lindsey graham is rip ping into the biden administration for its report on the withdrawal from afghanistan. listen to this , kt, i'll get your comments. >> this report is a political whitewash by the biden administration to shift blame. when the biden administration tells you there are no terrorists in afghanistan, they are lying. there's a lethal cocktail forming. rise of terrorism, afghanistan, a broken border here in the united states. it's only a matter of time so there's another 9/11, if we don't change policies. my view of what happened in afghanistan by biden was he paid the way for another 9/11. ashley: do you agree with the senator analysis, kt? >> yeah, sure, but the important point is an even bigger one which is what the heck has happened to the united states military and the integrity of the united states military. you know, historically, 20, 30, 100 years, the u.s. military and the intelligence services, they were independent.

they didn't serve political masters. they told it straight. their job was to fight and win wars, or to analyze what the enemy was up to and take, help us to take steps to counter those capabilities of our adversaries. what's the purpose of the military now? i don't think that i've ever seen it and this is including in the heights of the post-vietnam period, where they have now turned into political hacks, right? everybody knows that the afghanistan withdrawal was a disaster. i mean, the military equipment we left behind, we could have been, you know, been supporting ukraine 10 times over with what we just left behind in the battlefield. ashley: right. >> so the military senior leadership and the political senior leadership, they have now , i think, they have abragate d the constitution and become political hacks and doing cover jobs for political leaders. why? because they all want to stay in office. they all want to get the perks but what's happening is that the united states military is not capable of doing the job they are supposed to be doing, right? defending the united states,

keeping the southern border closed. looking ahead at the weapons systems of the future. developing technologies like hypersonic weapons that we don't have and the chinese and the russians have. what are we doing? we're so focused on wokism reports that we're not doing what we're asking these people when they raise their right hand , and they take their oath of office, we're not allowing them or they're not allowing themselves to fulfill their oath of office. ashley: couldn't have put it better. what a sad state of affairs but kt mcfarland, calling it as it is. kt, thank you so much. let's take a look at the futures heading slightly lower. guess what? the opening bell is next. ♪ thinkorswim® by td ameritrade is more than a trading platform.

it's an entire trading experience. with innovation that lets you customize interfaces, charts and orders to your style of trading. personalized education to expand your perspective. and a dedicated trade desk of expert-level support. that will push you to be even better. and just might change how you trade—forever. because once you experience thinkorswim® by td ameritrade ♪ there's no going back. this small thing, is the next big thing in dia this s woah.hing, it shows your glucose, and predicts where it's headed, just like that. it's not magic, it just feels that way. i wanna make you go wow, make you go wow, make you go wow. ♪ the all-new chevy colorado is made for more.

bring more. ♪ do more. ♪ see more. ♪ and be more. ♪ the all-new chevy colorado. made for more. ♪ we really don't want people to think of feeding food like ours is spoiling their dogs. good, real food is simple. it looks like food, it smells like food, it's what dogs are supposed to be eating. no living being should ever eat processed food for every single meal of their life. it's amazing to me how many people write in about their dogs changing for the better. the farmer's dog is just our way to help people take care of them. ♪

ashley: take a look at these futures, edging lower. the dow off 131 points just before the open. keith fitz-gerald joins us this morning, good morning to you, keith. now, you see two bright spots and perhaps two risks to the market. let's begin with the bright spots. >> oh, that's always a good idea, especially on a day liked to. i think the bank earnings are going to be interesting. my first bright spot is jpmorgan because it's going to be strong. i think the earnings are going to come in less, gosh, revenue

plus 15, earnings plus 30% if i've done my math right and i'm in the neighborhood. second price spot is going to be something with tesla, prices have pulled back. i think people misunderstand the company. ashley: very good. all right, let's go on the other side of the equation. what are the risks you see? >> these are more exoginous risks and things we can't control so it's important we keep this in perspective. the first one i think is the chinese taiwan situation. that is very very dangerous and to your earlier guests' point i think the u.s. military has really got its hands full because the political problems not because of the military but the second one is admittedly terrifying and very disturbing and i think the cdc just sent out a virus importation case memo, which means that they potentially are expecting it here. if that happens psychologically, our country is not ready for that. ashley: yeah, that's an ebola- like virus, very frightening indeed. >> exactly. ashley: cpi and ppi out this

week, keith. what do you expect, and what does the fed do, which is always the big question. >> [laughter] well, i've got my opinions as so what the fed should do, use i'm not on the chairman's speed dial list, so i think we're going to see a little bit of numbers backing off, but not enough to change the course of action. i continue to maintain they are as wrong about rates and labor as they were about transitory so what they should do and what they could do and what they ought to do are completely different discussions ashley. ashley: so you think maybe a 25 basis point hike but you'd like to see them basically do nothing >> well, i would, because, you know, look i think 25 is baked into the cake because they can't admit they are wrong and they don't know any better. their models are busted. a realistic business person who say what's my number, this isn't working at at what point do i get fresh ideas and change up my models. >> [opening bell ringing] ashley: exactly. jay powell give keith fitz-gerald a call. he's waiting for you. keith, thank you so much we do

appreciate it as always. great to chat with you this morning. all right, here we are, they are shouting, waving, and we are off and running on this monday, after the holiday short week last week. let's take a look at the big board as we start the new week, and yes. more red than green in the very early going. the dow off about 80 points thereabout, down about a quarter of a percent, i can see maybe amgen, and up at the top apple was at the bottom. s&p 500 down just six-tenths of a percent down 25 points at 4,079 and let's take a look at the nasdaq down 115 points down about 1% for the nasdaq, and talking which taking a look at the big tech names all in the red. apple, the laggard among them down one and three-quarters percent but meta, microsoft, amazon and alphabet all down 1% or more. let's take a look at tesla, they are opening a mega factory in

shanghai, so the question is what's this plan going to be for it's a battery, maybe? >> it's called a mega pack factory being open in shanghai, so what mega packs are are these very large batteries that stores energy and also helps stabilize the power grid to prevent outages. now musk tweeting this new mega pack battery factory in china will supplement the mega pack battery pack factory in california. now these batteries are not used in cars so these are batteries that are individual energy storage units that can also be connected together to say power a charging station or a home or a business, and they are usually used as a backup system. now the mega pack business is growing at an astonishing i read there's 152% growth rate last quarter. that's growing even faster than their sales growth of cars, which is doing pretty well. you're growing at 40% for electric cars, not bad, and

musk also reportedly in china this weekend but you didn't see him at the signing ceremony for this new mega pack battery, or really anywhere else in china. now the shanghai mega pack factory will start construction in the summertime and also augment that shanghai tesla factory which a lot of people say is a main reason that tesla stock price has recovered 50% this year and why the stock and car company hit a trillion dollars in market cap. we were working on friday, right , ashley? so it looks like tesla is final ly reacting to that news on friday when they cut prices for the fifth time this year here in the u.s.. second for all u.s. car models, but you have also wells fargo and other analysts stepping in this morning saying if you're going to cut prices to drive demand, that's concerning for profit margins and how much they make on each car they actually sell. ashley: that is very true. all right, for mega pack to a mega deal, exxon looking at striking a deal with pioneer. is that right, susan? >> mega deal, you're right, happening in the oil patch. so exxon-mobile according to

"wall street journal" might be paying up at least $49 billion plus from pioneer natural resources. these are preliminary talks so far, and the deal would give exxon really a dominant position in the texas permian basin and you know, energy, huge performer the last few years. opec surprised million plus barrel per day cut to start last week, likely also boosting oil prices again this year into at least the $80 plus range according to a lot of wall street analysts, but you know in oil you have to get bigger consolidation. think of occidental buying anada rko a few years ago. ashley: that's right. let's talk about apple susan struggling with pc sales. >> yes, so mac shipments down significantly, 40% in the first few months of this year, so market share also dropped for apple to around 7% to 8% of the global pc market but look, everybody is facing the same headwinds. pc makers all seeing sales

decline from the covid lockdown boom where workers needed to build up their home offices pretty quickly to work-from-home so dell, hp, lenovo also double-digit declines and drops for the first quarter, but apple saw the biggest drop of all and pc demand also the reason why memory chipmakers have been also in decline so boise, idaho-based after samsung in south korea said they would cut the memory chip production and micron are past the worst of it cutting 7,000 jobs so 15% of their workforce but here is another chipmaker that might tell us what apple might report. tsmc which is the taiwan semiconductor facility, they reported their first monthly sales drop in nearly four years so that softness might translate and extrapolate might mean that apple devices might also be experiencing a slowdown and hence why the stock is down today. ashley: very interesting. all right, let's get into those

regional banks. why is first republic cutting its dividend? >> well it's not a good sign when you need to suspend your dividend on your preferred stock in order to preserve cash. so we know the first republic the stock is down 90%, so the beginning of march, especially after that svb bank collapse, $70 billion in deposit s have been pulled from first republic according to the journal and remember that jpmorgan,citi, other big banks had to step into deposit $30 billion into first republic to sure up their balance sheet. meantime, speaking of silicon valley bank you also have aoc and other democratic members sending a letter to silicon valley bank and their 15 largest depositors looking for information, asking what their relationship was with svb. so, this foreshadows and probably tells the market more regulation on banks and investigations are in the pipeline. ashley: oh, yeah, they are coming. okay, let's switch gears, susan. talk about movies.

>> you have to. ashley: super mario brothers movie came out this weekend. how did mario do? >> very well. despite the fact that reviews weren't great, $146 million opening weekend for super mario and luigi there. $204 million over five days so that is the biggest box office weekend opening this year, but if you add it to john wick iv, which had $74 million in its first weekend, this tells us that the people are willing to go back to the theaters, go back to watch their movies on the big screen and that's why you have these movie chains, actually, increasing today, rallying on the back of this news. i didn't watch super mario. i don't know if you did, but looks pretty cute. ashley: no. >> i would love to see elon musk step in as mario at some point. ashley: [laughter] knowing musk, he probably would do it. susan li great stuff as always, thank you very much. coming up, former attorney general bill barr is criticizing

donald trump's 2024 candidacy. roll tape. >> i think ultimately, the savvy democratic strategists know this is going to help trump and they want him to be the nominee because he is the weakest of the republican candidates, most likely to lose again to biden. ashley: wow. does donald trump's indictment help or hurt his 2024 chances? we're going to get into that. then there's this. the international money fund of world bank are kicking offspring meetings today. on the docket? a mounting economic crisis and climate change. going to have that report next. ♪ don't bring me down, no, no, no, no ♪

what if there was a community of like minded people ready to support you when you need it most? christian healthcare ministries is an organization with over 40 years of trusted care who understands the importance of family. a group that sees you for who you are regardless of your health history. offering affordable healthcare cost solutions that could save you up to 40% on your healthcare costs. learn more today at your chm dot org about healthcare that puts you in control. sfx: [alarm] every day you get to choose. do i want more? can i grow stronger? can i get better? bodyarmor lyte. more than a sports drink.

say goodbye to daily insulin injections with omnipod 5... a tubeless system that automatically adjusts insulin to help protect against highs and lows.

try it today. go to omnipod.com for risk information and instructions for use. consult your doctor before starting on omnipod. asking the right question can greatly impact your future. - are, are you qualified to do this? - what? - especially when it comes to your finances. - are you a certified financial planner™? - i'm a cfp® professional. - cfp® professionals are committed to acting in your best interest. that's why it's gotta be a cfp®.

ashley: president biden is preparing to head to northern ireland tomorrow, but here in the u.s. , the leaders of the world bank and the imf are set to begin their spring meeting. grady trimble at the white house this morning, and grady, there are a number of important economic issues to address but we understand a big focus of the meeting will also be climate change, right? reporter: it will, ash. the biden administration specifically treasury secretary janet yellen has been leading the charge to try to get the world bank to do more to tackle climate change, and it seems yellen might be getting her way. in an interview last week, she said that i expect there to be an update of the bank's mission to add building resilience against climate change, pandemic s, and conflict to the core goals of the world bank, but this week's meeting in d.c. also comes as the u.s. and the rest of the world face what some would call more pressing economic issues than climate change. persist entertainment inflation, bank failures, rising gop

political tensions between the west and china and russia as a result of all of these challenges the imf sees global growth below 3% in 2023. >> and what is more concerning, it would remain around 3% for the next five years. that does not give us high hope for making the aspirations of people, especially poor people around the world. reporter: so that kind of contradicts the white house's messaging on how strong the economy is. by the way, ashley, you might be able to hear the music from the easter egg roll going over on the south lawn today. i would say that the white house has been trying to portray the economy as sunny side up, optimistically, whereas the global leaders don't seem to see it that way. ash? ashley: [laughter] they would say it's a little more scrambled than that.

grady, thank you for all the pun s. we appreciate that. go grab yourself some easter egg s. all ready, now this. president biden's irs overhaul aims to increase audits on wealthy americans 10-fold. go after those high income, high worth people who are cheating everybody out of the system. stephen moore joins me now to talk about this. okay, $80 billion overhaul of the irs. what's your reaction to that, mr. moore? >> well, ashley, there's going to be a big clash between president biden and this new republican house of representatives on this $80 billion for the irs. kevin mccarthy has already said hell no, we're not going to hire 87,000 new irs agents, especially in the wake, ashley, of the fact that under obama, remember, the irs was weaponized and politicized to go after conservatives and republicans, and we know that is very likely to happen under joe biden as well, so i think you're going to see some major fights ahead

on the budget where republicans say hell no, we're not going to give you tens of billions of dollars more money. not only will conservatives be targeted but the other concern, ashley, as you know, as you all, at fox business have been reporting, they're not going to just go after the millionaires and billionaires, ashley. they go after the middle class, because of course that's where the money is. if you want to get more money out of people, you have to go to the tens of millions of americans who are in the middle class, and boy, having just gone through a four-year audit from the irs, it is like a root canal ashley: [laughter] that's one way of putting it's and pretty accurate. another one for you, steve, and talking of taxes. you have a new op-ed out. it's titled "biden's green war, created this billion dollar tax on all of us", so steve, how are the president's energy policies hitting my wallet? >> so, the way we kind of estimated this and this was

casey mulligan, a university of chicago economist and i were looking at the number s of what was happening during the trump energy policy versus the biden energy policy. as almost everyone knows biden has declared war on american oil & gas and as a result, we're about 2.5 million-barrels a day lower under biden than where we be if we stuck with trump energy policies, ashley, and so that, put that number 2.5 million- barrels a day in the context of what opec announced last week where they are saying they are going to cut production by 1.5 million-barrels. ashley, if we just stuck with the trump policies we wouldn't have to worry about opec, right? we would have plenty of oil & gas production here in the united states and these saudi oil and iranians and russia would not have control over the global price so that's the shame of this that not only is it costing us, you know, a lot of money and a lot of jobs in america that they are not doing the drilling we should be doing, but also it's a national security crisis as well, because

we're arming, of course our enemy. ashley: it's so frustrating. we have the answer to all of this right under our feet. steve moore, great stuff as always. thank you so much for stopping by today on this monday. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: the demographic makeup this is interesting, of people working from home, changed because of the pandemic. so, lauren simonetti, what did it change from and to? lauren: good questions. i'd say the remote crowd is younger, and more diverse, so in 2021, 23% of folks who worked from home were 25-34 years old. nearly 10% were black. nearly 10% asian. overall, the census bureau finds about 18% of the labor force was remote in 2021 versus look, 5.7% in 2019, and honestly, ashley, it's probably even more now, even though some companies say come back to the office. we know not everybody listens or

actually follows that order. ashley: yes. no, i feel like stu talks about this all the time, lauren, that there's going to be a segment of workers who are never returning to the office, right? lauren: yes, and the issue with the 25-34-year-old crowd, not going in, is detrimental to what they can learn in a career. whose going to be your role model if you're sitting behind your computer screen in your bedroom all day long, right? ashley: right. lauren: i think that is catastrophic actually. ashley: yeah, i agree with you, exactly. all right, lauren, thank you very much and by the way i just want to mention this. do not miss the special edition of "the big money show." it's going to be called the big money playbook, tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. eastern right here on fox business, and during this one hour special, taylor riggs, brian brenberg, and jackie deangelis will be joined by kevin o'leary and charles payne, two terrific guests. they are going to answer questions and successfully guide you through all of this economic

turmoil. so if you want to be joining the live in-studio audience, all you have to do is visit event bright.com and search big money show and if you want to ask a question by the way, e-mail us at investedinyou.fox. you can also message fox business on facebook or instagram. that should be very very interesting. full of information. that's tomorrow 1:00 p.m. eastern. all right, coming up, take a look at this op-ed. it says, i don't recommend fda's infinite vaccine booster strategy. dr. marty makary wrote that and he's going to be here to tell us why. also, florida's governor ron desantis is escalating his diplomat mute with this diplomat world. the happiest place on earth could be hit with more taxes and we'll take a look at what this could mean for park-goers. right after this. ♪

so... i know you and george were struggling with the possibility of having to move. how's that going? we found a way to make bathing safer with a kohler walk-in bath. a kohler walk-in bath provides a secure, spa-like bathing experience in the comfort of your own home. a kohler walk-in bath has one of the lowest step-ins of any walk-in bath for easy entry and exit. it features textured surfaces, convenient handrails for more stability, and a wide door for easier mobility. kohler® walk-in baths include two hydrotherapies— whirlpool jets and our patented bubblemassage™ to help soothe sore muscles in your feet, legs, and back. a kohler-certified installer will install everything quickly and conveniently in as little as a day. they made us feel completely comfortable in our home.

and, yes, it's affordable. i wish we would have looked into it sooner. think i might look into one myself. stay in the home and life you've built for years to come. call... to receive 50% off the installation of a kohler® walk-in bath. and take advantage of our no interest for 12 months financing. ashley: the feud between disney world and florida governor ron desantis is escalating.

desantis is now threatening disney with more taxes and tolls wow break it all down for us. lauren: you could say desantis is doubling down on his feud with the company. he spoke at hillsdale college in michigan, ashley, calling disney a joke and said he wants to do more than just void the latest deal that solidifies power with disney. listen. >> but now that disney has reopened this issue, we're not just going to avoid the development agreement they tried to do. we're going to look at things like taxes on the hotels. we're going to look at things like tolls on the road. we are going to win on every single issue involving disney. i can tell you that. >> [applause] lauren: and the crowd cheers, but the issue with adding and increasing fees and taxes is that it could be very anti- business and very anti- florida, because it be hard to do so in a way that just targets disney. it would target everybody one

would imagine. we spoke to one expert this morning, who says a very realistic way desantis can target disney only is through eminent domain. >> so if for some reason, the district probably be smart to take a disney property, to build a water plant they could certainly do that and they would do so with disney's money, because disney is paying all of the taxes to that board. lauren: and that would hurt. so, we're waiting to see if there's a bill filed on how desantis continues to go after disney, but, ashley, nothing yet ashley: no, but he certainly seems a man on a mission. all right, lauren thank you very much. fascinating. coming up, still ahead in the "varney" show, joe concha, dr. marty makary, steve forbes, and texas attorney general ken paxton. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney" & company is next. ♪

. . else nutrition is disrupting an 80-billion-dollar global industry with the world's first whole plant dairy and soy free baby formula range. highly anticipated by parents worldwide. supported by world-class pediatricians, now rapidly growing in north america. else nutrition.

♪