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>> happy weekend to all. welcome to the program that analyzes the week it was and position you for the week ahead. i am maria bartiromo. unleashing doge on the irs to investigate fraud and waste. the federal agency on thursday. beginning scrutinizing operations. democrats fume over the spending cuts. scott besson told me in an exclusive it is all about stability. >> this caricature that is being painted, created in doge is by the people who they don't want accountability. waste, fraud and abuse that is going on, a lot of complaining now. i did not see anyone complaining when the budget deficit was flying out the door. flying out the door just before the election, right after the election. there will have to be some accountability. >> the president says that the pentagon is next in line.

>> let's cut our military budget in half. we can do it. >> defense secretary says the watch dogs are welcome at the department of defense with some parts of the military already compiling wish lists of pricey weapon programs that they have long wanted to scrap. joining me now was texas congressman fallon. you are on the house oversight, doge subcommittee and on the armed services and named on the intelligence committees. we have a lot to get teal. i want to get to the doge cuts and where specifically you see the most waste and fraud. >> thank you for having me. the last 20 years, and this is according to the federal government themselves, about 2.7 trillion and waste. 764 billion just under joe biden

$250 billion paid to folks that were not eligible for : benefits there is a massive amount of savings all over the federal government. specifically to your question, medicaid about 20% of that is fraud, waste and abuse. we spend into the trillions of dollars. there are massive savings and the american taxpayer will finally get a bang for their buck because for decades people are talking about this, but now finally we have a president doing something about it. >> let me ask you about defense spending. you are on the armed services committee. percy said he want to increase 125 billion for the reconciliation package and then the president said he is going to be talking to russia and china about denuclearization in he want to cut defense spending in half. which is it? >> i think what the president is saying is what are the needs for the united states and security.

we will spend what we need to in that regard. he can also reduce the budget in two ways. one with deficiencies because there are some weapons programs, certainly some inefficiencies at the pentagon. that will not jeopardize security. in our military quite frankly will go stronger. to really do self auditing quite honestly. what he is also talking about is if china and if russia will work with us and reduce their nuclear stockpiles and also maybe some of their weapon systems, we have some kind of unilateral agreement amongst the three of us then we can see some savings as well. i think that is what he is talking about. >> still plans for potential iron dome around america and the potential for spawning even more spending on modernization of the military, is that right? >> well, yeah. you take one step, you invest in

the new weapons programs so you may see a spike in the short term but overall, you will not cut the budget in half. i think that is what he is saying is maybe down the line. russia, our competitors russia and china would have to agree. >> look, we are talking about these cuts at the same time you and your colleagues are coming up with a budget reconciliation bill. singular one gop bill now out of committee headed to the full house for a vote. this proposal would allow for these four and a half trillion dollars in tax cuts. cut spending by one and half trillion over 10 years. 300 billion a new border in defense spending and raising the debt limit by $4 trillion. are you expecting to vote for it in this passage the house and senate? >> we will certainly find out. harder for any bill to pass the house. maybe more challenging than it

is in the senate. different dynamics in a lot of different personalities. in the house, we are like a family. sometimes a dysfunctional family but still a family. i know what is important to most of us. we need to curtail, we need to reduce the jet -- debt to gdp ratio. grow the economy and reduce spending. that is what we are on up at ford. this budget would be one step towards our goal but certainly we are still far away from it. >> the president is trying to do this deal to stop this war on ukraine. i know you just recently met as part of your intelligence committee with people from ukraine officials there. does this deal include ukraine giving up territory and do they also acknowledge that they are not going to be able to have the land that they had going into this? >> we did meet with them in an

unclassified setting. they understand. first of all, most americans do not realize that ukraine has a four most natural resources of any nationstate in the world. four. a little over north of 200 countries. a lot of resources. i love the president's viewpoint on that. look we have a lot. i want to do a little bit for us as to your point on them not keeping all the territory that russia stole, they acknowledged they will not win it back momentarily. the only other alternative is diplomatically. how best can they position ukraine to get the territory back. it is likely gone. parts of the east will become part of russia. that is how we work towards peace. they are fighting an enemy that has four times the population and twice the size of the military. it is very difficult. the natural gas and is oil.

thank god for president trump. it would have been the same grime and more america treasure being thrown the next several years. >> meeting with you crane -- ukraine president zelinski. democrats are irate over this idea of any perceived concessions given to putin. watch this. >> literally. to be negotiating on behalf of putin. they are trying to sell us of the things the kremlin wants. >> he wants to abandon, apparently, ukraine be that the pressures should be put on russia to not take territory. >> giving away all the concessions first and then we will negotiate in that we will see what other concessions to 1e what the ukrainians want. that is a low chance of actually succeeding. >> congressman, what do you want to say to your democrat

colleagues? >> not true. they are spitting and not telling the truth. the fact of the matter is if we want to end this war, you know what that is called, that is called compromise. any one particular person, it will not make them happy. what is there a solution? grinding on a giving $50 million to ukraine for the next five, 10 years? that is not a solution. if that happens, putin may get his ultimate goal which is to dominate ukraine been a great talking to you. thank you so much. appreciate your time be back happy valentine's day. >> happy valentines weekend. leveling the playing field country by country. adam johnson president trumps plan on reciprocal terrorist. where he is investing ...to free birds. now vanguard. we got this. fifty years of helping you invest for every chapter.

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i had no idea what i was doing. but godaddy airo does. using ai to build a logo, website and social content. so i can let the world know, if your goggles ain't goggins, they don't belong on your noggins! i'm thinking of updating my kitchen... —yeah? —yes! ...this year, we are finally updating our kitchen... ...doing subway tile in an ivory, or eggshell... —cream?... —maybe bone?... don't get me started on quartz. a big big island... you ever heard of a waterfall counter?... for everyone who talks about doing that thing, and, over there. but never does that thing... a sweet little breakfast nook. chase has financial guidance. let's see how you can start saving to make this happen. —really? —really? really. at home or in-person. you could also check out a chase money skills workshop. that's guidance from chase. make more of what's yours. welcome back. a look at where markets ended the week after two key inflation reports. the last ones under the biden

administration showing inflation on the rise. president trump announces plans for reciprocal tariffs i could start april 2. >> this applies to everybody across the board. a much simpler way of doing it. bringing pharmaceuticals back to our country. bringing chips back to our country. it will bring automobile, we will do a lot more automobile manufacturing in our country. the reciprocal makes matters really fair. >> joining me now is manager adam johnson. good to see you. thank you so much for being here the president comes out on thursday and signs an executive order to have federal agencies explore the tariff reciprocal tariffs and the markets closed higher after trump announce those tariffs. >> it is a work in progress, number one.

i think what he is really getting at is something that you and i have actually discussed as well. tariffs are a lever. they are a bargaining tool. i can say that because look at what is happened in the first couple of weeks. venezuela was not going to take a legals that we sent home and they were threatened with tariffs and all of a sudden 12 hours later they took the illegals home. the threat of terrace was so compelling to them. mexico, same story and now they have reinstituted their own remain in mexico policy. canada a work in progress. i think that we have to view tariffs as a tool that the trump administration uses an bargaining to get what it wants to buy what it wants i really mean what we want as americans which is strength for our country, respect abroad and the ability to make our own decisions and not be subjected to the opinions and whims of other nations. >> so maybe it is leverage. he said, listen, president trump will do what he said he will do.

talking about the eurozone charging us a vent tax, charging fees to our companies, digital fees on technology companies, suing some of our social media companies, he wants reciprocity, how does that change the way you allocate capital. >> is a changing, no. we do not yet have a roadmap. will there be across the board tariffs? what is the rate going to be? is it 10%, 50, 100 on certain items. what is interesting, getting to my point about leveling the playing field. every american car that gets sent to europe is slap by the europeans by 10% terrace. we put a two and a half% tariff on european cars coming into this country, well, just the threat of higher tariffs to europe because the europeans in one day to lower their import to the same two and a half% that matches ours.

when we hear mr. trump tell us about countries not treating us fairly, that is what he is talking about. as a proud american, i want us to not only be treated fairly but respected abroad. i think that these terrorists. i am focused on the people companies and technologies here in this country that will be changing the world. i am very comfortable with how i allocate capital. no, tariffs are not changing the way that i do that. >> the cpi was hotter than expected. the ppi was hotter than expected , retail sales below expectations. what does that tell us about the story and what are your catalysts in the weeks ahead of the weeks to come. >> to be clear i did not like any of those data points. in fact, that is now the fourth out of the past five months that we have seen stronger than expected reports on inflation. i am not crazy about that, obviously.

when you have higher inflation that keeps rates up and when rates are up, future earnings are worth less. that is why higher rates way on the stock market. i am not thrilled with that, but you know me, i am an optimist. as i look out to march and april , i think that the comps, the comparisons year-over-year it easier, especially for housing. that is important because housing is one third of the cpi calculation. if we can get a little relief on those comps come march or april, i think we get cpi and i would expect ppi to come back down. with the whole drill baby drill plan over here in the u.s. where we are opening up federal land for some of the cheapest toilets , that should bring more production online. it is not like flipping a switch it does take time, march or april we should see an uptick in u.s. production. that should bring the price of oil down. especially also if you get some sort of negotiated peace plan in russia and ukraine.

i think that that would take a $10 word program out of the oil. that would do a lot for inflation. i'm hoping that they correct. retail sales that is just a voluble toll number. spending record numbers in december because of the holidays >> drill baby drill, is that one of the reasons you like ge stock natural gas powered turbines to be a good call. i love this company, maria. spun out from the old ge. they took the technology from their jet engines and instead of mounting it on a wing they mounted it on a giant steel bracket. instead of running jet through they run natural gas and then the thrust turns a gas turbine that ultimately produces electricity. you can power data centers, wow, what a concept. you can power them on site. you do not need to stress the existing infrastructure. >> we will be watching. certainly great to talk to you

this weekend. thank you so much. adam johnson joining us. coming up, scrambling to cover the high price of eggs. owners of the beloved new york deli and texas eating the surging cost has become unsustainable. what they are considering now. next. stay with us.

mario: welcome back. egg prices continue to move higher slamming both customers and restaurants fueled by the ongoing bird flu average egg prices have jumped more than 107 % just in the last few months houston texas they are currently losing due to these high prices.

co-owners join me right now. michael and rihanna, thank you for being here. how would you assess the price of eggs right now? >> right before coal that we were paying on average 30, $35 a case. right now we are paying upwards of $130 a case which is not sustainable. the restaurant business, the inventory will go up but it will go right back down. we are only seeing it go up week over week. >> is the majority of your money being spent on eggs? >> it really is. a lot of establishments and restaurants have been increasing the prices of eggs. we are a 50-year-old establishment in houston.

we have a lot of multigenerational customers. this is not sustainable. if that is a case we may have to reassess. >> you cannot be sensitive to the clientele. what are you going to do? >> so, we are staying tight right now. we are not planning on raising prices. we are a small business. a lot of our clientele are loyal coming to us for generations. we got through covid. now we are dealing with egg inflation. also known as the bird flu. we don't know what will happen

with tariffs. we are being told they could get up to the 150s. we will not have any relief this year is what i'm being told. we buy hundreds of cases a week. the difference of a dollar to dollars up and down just going up $5 a week or $6 a week, it hurts. you said it. it just does not work. when chicken prices tripled during inflation, chicken is not in everything. eggs as a bakery is the main ingredient in every recipe that we have. >> losing money on all meals. >> the new york deli. the top-selling item is our special. our omelettes and our egg sandwiches. everything has eggs and then we

have two full, fully stocked bakeries which i would say 90% of the products have eggs in them. >> sure. of course. make sense. >> we are losing on that end. our other operations are luckily covering the fall which is why we are fortunate to not have to raise our prices just yet. maria: all right. we will be watching as you are right now eating the higher costs. good to see you both. thank you very much. >> you, too. thank you so much. maria: have a great weekend. i have one important thing you need to know about ahead of next week. that is next. you get the sauce i like? of course! you're the man! i wish. the future isn't scary. not investing in it is. nasdaq-100 innovators. one etf. before investing, carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses

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from artificial intelligence from paintings to sculptures these ai generated masterpieces are up for sale prices ranging from $10,000 to 250,000 but not everyone is on board. artists are against the auction writing a letter claiming the technology behind the works committed mass theft. nearly 6000 signatures on the letter. we will be following all of the latest ai news on mornings with maria six-nine eastern here on foxbusiness. i hope you will join me. i will see you on the fox news channel. "sunday morning futures" live it this weekend with exclusive interviews with special envoy to the middle east house gop congress chairwoman lisa maclean and the founder and ceo of animal industries. that will do it for us here on foxbusiness. thank you so much for joining us have a great rest of your weekend and i will see you next time. >> barron's round table sponsored by global x ets. ♪