week. obviously, there's a lot of optimism, i do think there's going to be some opportunities in january for companies that haven't participated just yet. maria: animal spirits back. >> i'm watching this confirmation if process, and i'm so dismaced at how they're -- dismayed at how they're the treating these nominees. i just hope we can fix so good people go into with politics. maria: good point. >> what's going on with daniel penny in new york right now is at the top of the list. if my kids or my wife were on a subway, i want daniel penny if is in that car -- maria: who's going to help anybody again? >> the person helping becomes a criminal, it's a true shame. maria: really. shame on top of shame. great show, everybody. mark tepper, lee carter, jonathan fahey, thank you so much for being with us. "varney & company" picks it up. stu, take it away. stuart: good morning, everyone. it crossed the milestone overnight call it the trump

bitcoin rally it's now at $102,000 per coin, 102,8, to be precise. the latest move up came after the president-elect nominated paul atkins to the sec. he's crypto-friendly. bitcoin is in record territory. meanwhile, the trump rally in stocks continues. the major averages all hitting record levels this week. a little bit of red ink this morning, but not that much, dow off maybe 40, fractional losses in the s&p and nasdaq. politics. doge goes to capitol hill today selling the war on government waste. elon musk and vivek ramaswamy will be meeting senate and house republicans. they will outline their cost-cutting plans. at the moment the republicans like what they see. if how will they feel their pet projects get the axe? on the show today, president biden in africa, he appears to rest his eyes for a minute, holding his head in his hand. it's not a good look. reporters shouted questions

about hunter's pardon, hay got no response. this weekend biden will not be in paris for the reopening of notre dame. president-elect trump will attended. it seems like he's already taking over. and we will address the trump effect. in my opinion, there's a new, positive mood in america. it is the result of trump's election. my p. thursday, can december 255th -- december 5th, 2024, "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ stuart: this is a christmas song, lauren. [laughter] count sound very christmasy. lauren: no, not yet. stuart: the tighten until, oh, santa. if let's move on. let's get on with it. president-elect donald trump is

finalizing his administration, filling key positions with trusted allies. he nominated paul atkins to chair the securities and exchange commission. atkins led the sec from '02-'08 and a considered very crypto-friendly. bill mcginley, his initial pick for white house counsel, will instead take on a ole in the new county of government efficiency -- department of government efficiency. replacing mcginley, david warrington, a member of trump's campaign team. the additional nominations include monica crowley, a senior position at the state department, billy long to the head the irs and kelly loeffler for the small business administration. this is interesting, biden is reportedly considering preemptive pardons for those he believes may be argument thed by trump. some of -- targeted. some of those include liz cheney, adam schiff and annie fauci. marc thiessen's with me the

morning. why would these people need preemptive pardons if they didn't break the law? >> exactly. i mean, what crime is he pardoning them for? just blanket for anything they might have done? stuart: exactly. >> they could have gone shoplifting, had a traffic violation. when you pardon someone, usually there's a specific crime that you're pardoning someone for. or in the case of hunter biden, he just said all crimes committed between these dates, so i guess he could give them the hunter biden treatment, which i'm sure they would appreciate. stuart: you don't think it's a good idea, do you? >> no, it's -- stuart: it's a terrible idea. >> it's a terrible idea. but you know what? it's interesting because when, if you look bat back at the statement that joe biden gave when he pardoned his son hunter, he said, i have watched my son being selectively, unfairly prosecuted. no reasonable person who looks at the facts can reach any other conclusion than hunter was singled out because he's my son.

raw politics has infected this process. he's talking about his own justice department. he's accuse merrick garland of allowing i raw politics the infect the justice system. and second, he's validating trump's critique. he's saying that the justice department has been politicized and weaponized, except in his case it's against him. so there is a problem in the justice department. there is -- even joe biden, there's bipartisan consensus that the justice department has been pretty politicized, and donald trump is going to go into it with a hammer and take it out root and branch. stuart: how about that? if next case. biden's back at the white house after his trip to the africa. there's a new video, and it shows him resting his eyes at a summit in angola. [laughter] on this trip we saw our president led around, stumble, he called ab goal la a city the -- angola a city. i've been calling this a sad ending to a failed presidency. it seems to me trump's already taken over. what say you? >> well, i just want people to look at that picture and

remember that they told us he was capable of serving four more years. if that man right there who couldn't sit through, is falling asleep with world leaders around a table was capable of serving concern. [audio difficulty] it is because of that the lie that donald trump is president today. if they had not lied to the american people and acknowledged he was a transitional figure early on, they could is have had a competitive primary, and they could have selected a candidate who wasn't as cognitively impaired as he was without excuse of age. they could have selected somebody who might have competed. so they did this to themselves, and that picture you were showing is exactly why donald trump is president of the united states. stuart: this weekend president-elect trump will be in paris. the president will not. this is the reopening of notre dame. i think he's taken over already.

marc thiessen, always a pleasure. sew you again soon. thanks a lot -- see you again soon. let's get to bitcoin. it finally hit the $100,000 mile milestone, happened overnight. it's going even higher. lauren: it's finding support at that 100 level. it's psychological, it's a milestone, but it's a pivotal move in crypto's trying to finally enter the financial mainstream. this is a legitimacy moment. hours after the president-elect nominated the pro-crypto paul atkins as sec chair. trump writing, congratulations, bitcoiners, you're welcome. together ors we will make america great again. so the owner of new york's bitcoin car was in bed when this happened, saw 100, literally jumped out of bed, ran to the bar. crowds came in, and he started popping open the champagne bottles. they were so excited. and i was excited about learning this, bitcoin is one of just seven assets like gold or

companies like nvidia and apple that has a $2 trillion plus market cap. stuart: there's a bitcoin bar? lauren: yes, pub key, downtown new york. stuart: i think we've talked about this. lauren: yeah, i've been there. absolutely. they have two live tickers in the bar, so they see this all in alaska. stuart: i've got to get down there. kyle wool joins me now. how much longer does the bitcoinally last, kyle? >> i think it's got some legs, stuart. you've got an sec chair that's going to be very positive towards crypto, donald trump who became the crypto president over the last six months, and i think you've got a federal reserve bank that's probably going to be the pretty dovish coming up, so t got some wind behind it. i would not be shorting it. if i owned it, i'd hold it. i've never really been a bitcoin person, but i thinks this is going higher, and i think this is a legitimacy moment for

bitcoin right now. it's become a currency. stuart: good lord. what's the best opportunity to mississippi -- invest in a.i. and big tech? is it data centers? what's the best opportunity? >> yeah, there's three legs. you have the chips, we've talked about that. we watch nvidia continue to go up. i think the data centers are a great place to be. to look at crdo yesterday, it was up 50%, vrt breaking new highs all the time. we've talked about the nuclear, especially the small modular reactors, especially new corp., and you're seeing google and meta the putting more money into these, so i think it's a from chips to data centers to the nuclear that's actually going to power these data centers. i think it's going higher still, stu. i wouldn't be selling my a.i. stocks. stuart: so many of the people who appear on this program watching and analyzing the market, they say, look, this is a bull run, and it's not over. are you in that camp?

>> absolutely. i think even the ipos that are coming around the corner with xai just went from 24 billion to 50 billion, spacex adjusted from 200 to 350 billion, i think you've got serene russ going public, a lot of wind behind the backs of these a.i. stocks. stuart: okay, we got it. kyle, see you again soon. now then, jeff bezos says he is very optimistic about trump's second term. he's even volunteering to help cut regulations. question, is this the start of a new relationship between big tech and the incoming administration? if i'm going to ask that question and put it to to kevin o'leary. he's on the show. to today elon musk and vivek ramaswamy will pitch their plans for doge on capitol hill. speaker mike johnson is already onboard. >> government is too big, it does almost nothing well, and we need to scale it back down. we want to take a blow torch. to the regulatory state.

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stuart: all right, 15 minutes til the opening bell. just a tiny bit of red ink on the left-hand side of your screen. bitcoin moved above $100,000 overnight, and it's now at 102,8. how about that? check, the price of oil. the opec alliance has postponed plans to increase production as they deal with weaker demand. $68 a barrel.

now today musk and ramaswamy will go to capitol hill to speak with lawmakers about doge. hillary vaughn on capitol hill. all right, hillary, who will musk and ramaswamy meet with? >> reporter: stuart, they're meeting with republican senators that are a part of the doge caucus. then this afternoon they're meeting with more republican lawmakers at an event hosted by speaker mike johnson. but elon musk and vivek ramaswamy have big plans and big goals for doge but, ultimately, to achieve some of these they're going to have need congress' help because, ultimately, they're trying to put the federal government on a crash diet over the next year and a half, downsizing the federal work force, cutting spending by sucking out waste, fraud and abuse and supercharging efficiency by ripping up thousands of pages of regulations. but today the is where they get down to the mittty gritty. musk and ramaswamy will come to capitol hill for a brainstorming session with lawmakers.

>> government is too big, it does too many things, and it does almost nothing well, and we need to scale it back down. i think what elon and vivek have in mind can help us. so i invited them to come to the hill because we want everybody together that has that same mindset, a big sort of brainstorming session because we need to do that early in the process so we can form late what the actual plans are -- formulate. >> reporter: there is a lot of downsizing they can get done without congress. trump can cancel out regulations through executive order, direct. -- chopping down the work force voluntarily. but some things like permanent spending reductions and limited budgets they need congress to get done. and it seems like they have some allies across the aisle willing to hear them out. senator bernie sanders saying elon musk is right that some things need to be cut. ore democrats are also chiming in. >> ultimately, i just think that there's not a single american who thinks government's perfect.

you know, there's not anything that can't be changed, so i think democrats should embrace government efficiency. >> i don't know why it's controversial to eliminate waste. i think anybody could support make our government more efficient and saving whatever money that we can. >> reporter: now, spearheading this meeting on the senate side is senator joni ernst. she is actually unveiling a report that she will reveal to the musk and ramaswamy on telework. we obtained the details of that report, and there are some shocking numbers many this. according to the report, 90% of federal employees telework. pre-covid that number was just 3%, and only 6 of federal -- 6% of federal workers report in person on a full-time basis. stuart? stuart: you're right, those are shocking numbers. good heavens. all right: we'll move on. hillary, that was great stuff. thank you very much, indeed. look when's here now, house ways and means committee chair jason smith. congressman, did you just hear

that? 90% of federal workers work from home? you've got to stop that, right? >> stuart, it's an absolute disaster. let me just talk about the social security administration. finish something that we've been pushing back at. the employees at the social security administration, they can work at home 40% of their time. 40% of their time. we are way over covid. people need to to show up to work. but guess what? if you look at the social security administration, they're behind more than a million cases backlogged for the american people. they need to show up to work, get those cases caught up. and i am so excited about meeting with elon and vivek today the because i have a list of ideas. i think we need to reform thish s rs. the irs is completely out of control, and there's a lot of employees we can remove there. stuart: where do you start. is that your first priority? >> within my focus and jurisdiction, i believe one of the most feared agencies is the ricks -- irs, and they've gotten too big. they need to be put under control.

technology and efficiency needs to be put in place so that they actually serve the american people instead of the american people serving the irs. stuart: you have some democrats supporting the idea of efficiency in government. do you think they'd go along with slimming down the irs? they rather like taxation. >> well, unfortunately, every democrat voted to give the irs an additional $800 billion in the in-- $80 billion in the inflation expansion act as i refer to it to the hire 80,000 new irs agents. unfortunately, it appears by the voting card the democrats love a much larger and greater ir are s so they can have more command and control over the lives of every single american. stuart: you have a very small majority in the house, the republicans have a very, very small majority. can you push through significant spending cuts with a majority of, what, one, two, three or four, that's it? >> i absolutely believe that we can if we do it strategically right. that is why, stuart, you have

seen me be very soakal in the last couple -- vocal in the last couple days talking about the first reconciliation bill must include spending cut, it must include border policy, and it must include energy policy. we need to go big or go home. we have a mandate from the, mandate from 77 million americans who sent washington -- who sent donald trump to washington, d.c. to reform government, to deliver an mix if package -- economic package and to cut spending, and i'm going to be pushing that. i am one who is adamantly to opposed to kicking the can down the road in the projects we need to deliver for the american people. stuart: powell at the federal reserve says the u.s. federal budget is an on unsustainable path. the debt is not at an unsustainable level, but the path is, and we know that will have to change. what are you going to do to get

the debt down so it doesn't reach that unsustainable level? >> let's look at history. over the last 25 the yours, if you compare -- years, if you compare government revenues to gdp, it's been around 17, 18%, however, if you compare government spending over last 25 years, it'd be roughly 20% of gdp. but guess what? under the last four years of the biden administration, the percent of spending to gdp is 26%. they added more than $10 trillion of new spending that led to an inflation crisis of 20.5%. so, absolutely. joe biden, as it sands right now, has added -- stands right now, has added more debt in his presidency than donald trump ever thought about. stuart: the irs is phasing in new tax requirements for gig work e. they're just going to bury them in paperwork. can you sop that? >> we've been trying.

we've passed it out of our committee two different times. this is, unfortunately, a proposal that was passed by the democrats in their first reconciliation plan, the american rescue plan, and it goes after gig workers. it goes afteruber drivers, it goes after students, college students who are paying their rent. it's, it's, it's impossible for the irs to implement this program, and he was been unconstitutionally, unconstitutionally delaying it because they've the not been following the haw of the land which the democrats push. but, unfortunately, the democrats should push our legislation to restore it back to normal policy. stuart: congressman jason smith, have at it. with we will see you -- we will see you later. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: the prime minister of france has been ousted in a no confidence vote. this is political chaos in france right before trump arrives this weekend. hour lauren the government

collapsed after the far-right and far-left parties came together to oust him after just three month miss on the yard. he pushed through a budget without a budget including 60 billion euros in tax hikes and spending cuts that voters did not want, thrusting france into a period of extreme political and economic volatility. france is the motor of the e.u., its second biggest economy now with no government and no budget. paris looks weakened as donald trump is not only set to take office next month, but also visit the the reopening of notre dame this weekend. the the french. president, macron, is expected to address the nation at 2 p.m. open our time. reports say he wants to replace the prime minister asap, and french stocks and bonds both rallying. i think the fallout was expected but, no doubt, there is a fiscal cans cost to this political mess. investors will demand a premium the hold france's debt rather than germany's, in fact, just a

few days ago that spread a was at a12- year high. stuart: thanks, lauren. check futures, please. a little bit of red ink. of not much. we'll be back with the opening el bell. ♪ take my hand and hold on. ♪ tell me everything that you need to say. ♪ 'cuz i know how it feels to b- investment opportunities are everywhere you turn. but at t. rowe price, we're letting curiosity light the way. asking smart questions about opportunities like advances in healthcare. and how these innovations will create a healthier world tomorrow. better questions. better outcomes.

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stuart: the market opens in less than two the minutes, virtually unchanged for the s&p and the nasdaq. d.r. barton with me now. just about every analyst who appearses on this program says this is a bull market, and it's going to keep on running. what say you? >> i have to put my hat in that same ring, stuart. we're seeing a lot of things in our analysis that is pointing that correction, especially here over the next few months. you know, if we look back to the times where we've had markets up 0 20% heading into december, december's a positive month nine out of the last ten times. another thing that i really like right here is that rents continue to come down. november made the the 18th straight month of year-over-year national rent drops. so more money in people's pockets, put money to work, buy sufficient in the economy. all -- stuff in the economy.

all good for the market. stuart: i'm interested in this united states gasoline fund? is that -- what's it called again? >> yes, exactly. uga, united states gas fund. it's an exchange-traded fund. a group of things that trade like gasoline. and one of the things that we see in our cycles analysis, stuart, is that this time of year, right at the beginning of december from now through april, we have about an 84% chance historically for gas prices to go up. i really like that uga stock. i like v.a. aler row, vlo -- valero. several gas stocks we can look at for the spring to bring some nearer-term profits in. stuart: all right, we shall see. d.r. barton, thanks for joining us. we'll see you again soon. they're about to press that button to open the market on this thursday morning, and here we go. press it, please. the dow has opened with a very, very small loss. you're looking a at down 34

points, that's it. slightly higher, slightly lower. not much change. there's about as much green on the board as there is red. dow down 17 points. that's nothing. the s&p 500, i presume that's also virtually unchanged. actually, that's up just a point, that's the s&p. and the nasdaq, i believe, has opened at another all-time high. it's up 19 points. 19,75 a 4. that's the new high. just keeps on setting records. how about big tech? if where are they this morning? we have meta, alphabet, apple, microsoft up. amazon the only loser of big tech, it's down a mere 54 points. back to the other markets, which is to say bitcoin, we've got to start there. good morning, taylor. >> morning. stuart: finally hit $100,000. >> i'll get the confetti, you bring the champagne. none of this matters except it's a good round number.

maybe that now becomes the floor. this came after a 40% rally since the election, and of course, trump appointing paul atkins as the new sec chair which is clearly seen as more cryptoto-friendly than gary gensler. stuart: it's the trump crypto rally, i think. >> y. stuart: we had some earnings before the bell. start with dollar general. >> better sales, a miss on the bottom line, but they're talking about their real estate project. they want to open about 575 new stores in the next year and be thinking about instead of having an old store that needs a full remodel, they want to do a little uplift. really focus on the real estate footprint. stuart: kroger. >> look, sliding. just seven-tenths of 1%, a little bit of a miss on sales. the ceo says that the macro environment remains uncertain but really wants to make sure that the market knows the deal with albertson's is going to go through, and it will benefit consumers, tbd. stuart: it's going to go through. long, drawn-out process.

>> exactly. stuart: what's this about talks for a new chip plant in the united states constructed as an operation between taiwan semi and nvidia? >> yeah. so tsmc, we are hearing, is in talks to make the nvidia blackwell chip at that new plant in arizona. that would be a big deal because wight now -- can right now nvidia's making them in taiwan. really interesting if they could bring that onshore and do it in the arizona plant. stuart: here's my story of the day, prescriptions for we bon jovi and zepbound surging by how much -- wegovy -- >> have you decided which one you're using? stuart: i'm waiting for the pill. [laughter] >> you don't need either of them, to be clear, but wegovy is up 100%, zepbound is up 3000% this year. -- 300%. this is according to good rx, that prescription refill company that can really track this data. so despite if limited insurance coverage and a $1,000 price tag, it is surging, up doubly, 100%.

stuart: there are a lot of people prepared to spend $1,000 a month for a weight loss drug. >> they are. and they're doing it already are. stuart: how about that? let's turn to disney. i presume that stock is up because they have -- not much. they have raised the dividend. how much? >> by about 33%. instead of 75 cents per share, you're getting a a dollar dividend per share. they see person -- can earnings growth in the future and they see the streaming tv business has now posted two consecutive quarters of profitability. if streaming is profitable, they see growth for the company. they're rewarding shareholders. stuart: david bahnsen is going to look at this. >> i know, right? stuart: next case is amazon. they're testing a new kind of delivery service in italy using drones. tell me her. >> prime air drone delivery is what the service is being called, and it's actually the first many europe. they chose italy, and they learned yesterday it was successful. they've done it in two states

here, arizona and i think texas. they were also looking at britain but, cleary, doing it successly in italy. stuart: fantastic. and then we have chipotle. they have raised their menu prices again. i would have thought that would raise the price of the stock, but it's down just a fraction. >> let's see how the news is digested on the street a little bit. we got this announcement late yesterday. look, they're raising prices what they are saying by about 2%. the company saying it's only the first time they've done that in a year, but one analyst has tracked this in the last 4-5 years and said prices on average are now up about 20%. that sort of tracks in line with sort of overall prices, so they're certainly not gouging customers, but you wonder when customers start to say, okay, i'm done. they're saying they're just doing it to keep up. stuart: well, so far they've got pricing power. >> they do. stuart: what's costco saying about online sales? >> they're taking a little bit

of a hit in november because, remember, thanksgiving was a year later -- i'm sorry, a week later this year. and so a lot of those sort of black friday thanksgiving sales hurt in november because a lot of that was pushed out to december. and so year-over-year sales in november are down, again, because of how delayed the thanksgiving holiday was. stuart: this is the time of year where a lot of retailers look toward the christmas and holiday period and say here's the outlook, here's what we thi. american eagle, clothing store, what do they say? they don't look like they've got a good forecast. >> the ceo had an interesting comment. he said the holiday outlook is a little bit weak. back to school shopping was good, and he thinks maybe holiday will be good, but what he's finding with customers is that they are so price-conscious, they're not spending in between these big moments. so with back to school in october -- august and sent, and the holiday in september, customers are pulling back, they're not spending many

between. stuart: i got it. taylor, thank you very much, indeed. look at the big board. open for six minutes and we're down 88 points, 44,923. dow can winners topping that list, we have cisco systems, boeing, jpmorgan chase, chevron, 3m. the s&p 500, where are the winners there? there's quite a few, brown forminnesota, american -- forman, southwest airlines, united airlines, tesla. the airlines are up by several percentage points. and brown forman tops the nasdaq list. all right, that's what a we have for you. coming up, charlamagne tha god challenges "the view" for defending the hunter biden pardon. >> at some point you get to the place where you just go so i'm just gonna follow the straight and narrow always, because that's what's expected of democrats. >> why can't you say when democrats are wrong? stuart: okay. we'll see what kennedy has to

say about that. she's coming up in the 11:00 hour. bitcoin topping $100,000 for the first time ever. it's now at $103,000 a coin. kevin o'leary, we're going to ask if he's ready to sell or if he's buying even more. kevin is next. ♪ i'm looking for a partner, someone that gets things fixed -- ♪ ask yourself this question, do you want to be rich? ♪ i've got the brains, you've got the looks. ♪ let's make lots of money ♪

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stuart: trump has tapped crypto advocate paul atkins to head up the securities and exchange commission. mr. wonderful, otherwise known as kevin o'leary, joins me now. kevin, looks to me like this is the trump bitcoin rally. are you buying more or are you selling some? >> i'm in a dilemma, stuart. this move is almost unprecedented in how fast it's occurred, but it's the not just

bitcoin. you got some of the blockchain technologies that were just left aside for so long that have exploded to the upside. hbar, it went up 40, 50, 60% this week in anticipation of policy coming out of both the sec and the cfts -- cftc. institutions are talking about these technologies now in a way they never did because they never thought they'd come to fruition. so the whole crypto community is trying to figure out what's next. we think bitcoin is the granddaddy of allocation to sovereign wealth, and we're amendment thing some rules out on this right after -- anticipating some rules right after trump takes over. now, the challenge is most institutions have some regulatory boundaries. for example, no more than 5% in any one position or 21 or 20% in one sector. and we're breaching those left and right 24/7 because we're having massive move, massive moves. and so compliance departments

are squeezing managers' heads every day trying to figure this out. stuart: it's fascinating. by the sound of it, you think it's going higher still, up beyond $10 2,000. >> yeah. right now the charts have no resistance, so it's anybody's guess. i want to call out something that happened yesterday on your show regarding digital technologies that is a derivative of it, because i've been getting a ton of people sending me the link for that interview you did with danielle myth of alberta. she dropped that bomb when she said she had that 20 to 00 feet of natural gas, she's coming out blasting there, stuart. that was very interesting. stuart: we invited her on to the show when she comes to america for the inauguration, we've invited her to come on the show in new york city. you might come and meet her. >> she's my new special friend

if she's got that much energy, and she's going to be getting a lot of phone calls from people just like me. stuart south come on and sear. more o'leary, see you soon. >> take care. stuart: when trump won the election, stocks went up and they're still up at record levelings. we've seen -- levels. with we've seen the same thing with spending and bitcoin. things are looking up. call this trump effect. that the my -- that is my take at the so much the hour. the incoming administration could reduce the debt without killing nick growth. we're getting an exclusive, first look at that a analysis, and it's next. ♪ ♪ up down, up down, up down. ♪ we got what we got -- (♪) voltaren... for long lasting arthritis pain relief. (♪)

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stuart: the penn wharton budget model says the incoming trump administration could reduce the national debt without sacrificing economic growth. grady trimble at the white house for us. all right, grady, this sounds good to to me but tell me more. what's the plan? >> reporter: stu, there are lots of proposals in this plan, 13 of them in total. but to be honest with you, it's unlikely politicians on the left or the right will embrace many of them because, frankly, they're just politically unpopular. but here are some of them. the penn-wharton budget model calls for simplifying the tax

code by, for example, taxing capital gains and disallowing all itemized deductions except for charitable deductions. they also want to implement a carbon tax on coal, oil and natural gas, and they call for improving the long-term solvency of social security and medicare by raising the full benefit retirement age from 67 to to 70. the budget model says the plan would reduce the federal budge deficit by 38% over 30 years, increase gdp by 211% over -- 21% over the same 30 years. they also say it would reduce old age poverty and carbon emissions. lawmakers in d.c. aren't expressing support for these specific proposals, but they are saying as far as government spending goes something needs to change. >> we've had a 2% increase in our population in 5 years, a 53% increase in our spending. that can't last. 37% of our revenues are now going to interest expense. we with can can provide is

better service at lower prices. i mean, vivek said it, elon's did it, donald trump has done it, i did it. i'm excited. >> reporter: the penn-wharton budget model warns the country has about 20 years to fix the national debt or at least make a dent in it. of after that they say no amount of tax increases or spending cuts would really avoid the risk of default. but, stu, again, there's no guarantee that the trump administration or for that matter any administration after of the trump administration would adopt these proposals. stuart: yeah, i understand that one. grady trimble, thanks very much, indeed. i want to bring in penn-wharton budget model faculty correcter kent senators. welcome to the program. let me be clear here. your mold, if it was put into practice, all of it, would reduce the debt by 38% over 30 years. i think the i got that right. >> right. stuart: but what chance do you have 06 of any of these measures

actually going through? >> there's no question, any type of policy change is in some sense viewed as unrealistic. but what's even more unrealistic is staying on the current path. in particular we have an exploding debt to gdp ratio, and if we don't do something soon, the type of mortgage rates that we see today, they're going to continue into the future and they're actually going to get even to higher into the future. and so if people want to see lower interest rates, they want to come back to a world of sustainable economic growth, this is the -- one option for doing that. stuart: do you think america would accept raising the full retirement benefit age from 67 to 70? >> so the idea -- yeah. i mean, it's a great question. i mean, keep in mind, we are

continuing to live longer, and this is not a sudden increase. it's phased in slow wily over decades. -- slowly over decades. so the goal is to get some money now, today, to try to shore up some of the deficits and reduce some of those. but over time you also have to continue to grow the economy, encourage people to save more for retirement but also recognize that people are going to live longer. and so this phase-in happens over decades, and it doesn't hit might be over age 50 today. stuart: there's no question it makes sense. obviously, politicians are the problem. are you talking to the trump administration? have you talked to anybody on capitol hill about that? >> we're talking to everybody. can't name names, but they're all very much aware of this, and they're all sympathetic in the sense that understanding that there's a big problem here. they appreciate fact that we have proposed or come up with

another option for showing how you can actually substantially reduce debt while actually growing the economy and actually help lower income households. stuart: i recall i think it was back in the 1980s, i think it was the grace commission. they set out to tackle the ever-rising debt. hay came through with a -- they came through with a whole bunch. of proposals, nothing happened. are you a bit worried that that maybe the same fate will arise for your model? >> that could always happen, but the current path we're on is even more unrealistic. here's what i would say, is that the nation did come together once during the 1980s and that was for the 1986 tax reform act. we realized the system was broken. both sides, democrats and republicans, kind of jumped off the bridge together to get something to work. we need something like 1986 times two. we need -- our problems today

are so much bigger, and we need both sides to act like the grown-ups that we were during the 19800s to try and figure this out. stuart: i would predict hay will not act until they absolutely have to and the debt bomb hits us. >> that's right. stuart: i suspect that's what's going to happen. kent, it's a complicated sum, but you explained it remarkably well. come again soon. you got i. check that big board, please. in business for almost 24 and a half minutes and we're down a mere 13, 14 points on the dow, right at 45,000. dow winners on your screen headed by 3m, jpmorgan chase, chevron, goldman, travelers on the list. here are the s&p 500 winners, this is a chance to check out your stocks. american airlines, brown forman, tesla, 3m, united airlines. what's with the airlines today? lauren: jetblue and american raised holiday forecasts. stuart: nasdaq winners, pet 'em concern put 'em on the screen. tesla, gilead sciences,

diamondback energy and moderna on that list too. the 10-year treasury yield, we're moving up to 4.21%. the price of gold, $2, 669 an ounce. bitcoin, where are we at now? we crossed $100,000 overnight if, now it's 103,5. the price of oil, $68, 69 a barrel. $67908 -- 69.08. nat gas just above $3. the average price for a gallon of gasoline still at $if.03 -- 3.03 a gallon. not in california. it's $4.38 for regular. do we have a show for you. here's what's coming up. charles payne gives us the highlights from his exclusive interview with openai chief sam altman. a vitamin that could help people fighting pancreatic cancer. mary katharine ham will take on alexandria ocasio-cortez, aoc. she wants to be the ranking member of the house oversight committee. how about that? and chris rufo, he will outline

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