the haystack. >> i am with ben on >> you don't want to -- >> i can't find that needle. >> forbes on fox is up now. >> primary season is heating up the heat is on. presidential candidate rick santorum. he is under fire for pushing pork projects while in office. if earmark spending is an election year issue is that the best news for taxpayers? i am stewart in for david. welcome to forbes on fox. we'll go to vick quotoria and elizabeth mcdonald and rich and rick and morgan bren an. steve you first. >> stewart, this is an outrage. 30 billion of earmarks should be ignored? this is greasing the skids for big government.

they give you congressman barney 10 million and you vote for hundreds of billions in spending. it leads to lack of transparency and leads to mammoth government. getting rid of earmarks is good for taxpayers. >> what do you say rick? >> steve is right that earmarks are a touchy thig. they are never going away so long as congressman and senators have to go home and politic in their district. they want to show people they brought home the bacon. none of the candidates in the republican primary will be challenged on this because their leaders have the worst records. at least president obama promises in the 2011 union speech he will veto anything with earmarks and that is a promise he kept. >> at least, is the debate good to have this election year? >> it is a great debate to have and rick you are too

cynical. why can't congressman and congresswoman come home and say i made great choices for the country. why is it about building the bridge to no where in our state and district. earmarks are at the center of it and that is why it is a debate in the election. >> all right. >> it doesn't have to be that way, but it is. >> morgan. earmarkings, good or bad. yes or no. >> i love to debate anything that involves cutting our spending. i truthfully think that earmarks are a drop in the bucket with the spend we have a moratorium on them right now. and compared to a 15 trillion deficit. what we should debate is entitlements. social security and medicare and did defense spending which we are doing. >> elizabeth what are you saying? >> gate way to bigger government and 90 thousand

earmarks and the corn husker kick back was a pork bill, you know, basically nod to get senator nelson's vote for health care and loaded for pork and earmarkings. founding fathers said it was unconstitutional. never in congress were they allowed to have pork spending. we lived for two hundred years without. q. thomas jefferson said the meanest people in government get the most pork and would waste it. >> liz just did it, and what do you say? >> that is a perfect description and i made notes to say the same thing. liz, you and i are one on and 30 billion is very symbolically important and engages the american people about a proper discussion on the role of government. i would point out that we should be talking about economic growth.

every one percent increase in gdp is 140 billion. don't get so obsessed on the spending side we forget the growth side. >> steve, back to you a second. has any political party in history banned earmarks successfully and done it and imposed the ban? >> the worry is no. it is a matter of scale. ronald reagan veted a highway bill because he was shocked by the 150 earmarks and 20 years later, george w. bush signs a highway bill with thousand earmarks in it. it is a matter of the scale and remember this is as lizzie said. this is like the broken window theory. allow the window to be broke yen don't fix it and lose the neighborhood to crime. they use earmark to grease the way to big government . they bribe you with them. >> how are we going to start cutting spending if it doesn't

start with earmarkings? >> it is not the earmarks. but the truth is, it is shifting the budget around. no matter what you do to put an end to it, which supposedly they have done. congress will go around and appeal to the agencies and getting the agencies to earmark the money that they would have done on their own . that's what they are doing now. it is not something to expect to see changed. >> here is the deal. wed two hundred years without earmarks and when you appropriate money for bike pass to no wear that sucks money out of the transportation department. that's why our bridges and roads are in disappear. >> i am not sure we existed two hundred years without it >> yes, we did. >> it is not bad to go through the agency and earmarks go through with no one looking at them.

it is a ripe invitation to corruption. >> for every bridge to no where. there are good earmarks that are not to be thrown in the pile with corrupt ones. hoo eyeer education and infrastructure projects. >> but if they are good, why do they have to be sneaky. earmarks are sneaky. and they are issues working into a larger bill. if they are good things morgan. why are they in a sneaky way? >> i agree. i think they should be looked at and reformed. >> what is also irritating. the u.s. tax code is already the 21st century pork barrel. that's where we are spending money to lose money because of the tax code. >> isn't it just part of america and american politics and all part of what we have become. >> slice of apple pie is good

but hundred apple pies not good. >> primary race. >> yes, it is on and fox business is on it. will earmarks raise it if mitch runs away with it in new hampshire. neal cavuto will have live reaction from asia to europe . he's got it coming and this tuesday starting at seven:25. a power packed night full of players and on saturday, neal is back with a showdown in south carolina and first here on fox news and then on fox business. watch it and profit from it. >> tons of back lash over the president's reappointment to head up a new production anings. why they are saying it is time to scrap one new job to favor million. forget pizza and french fries. trial lawyers are making these?

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>> hi, everyone. live from america's news headquarters. i am jamie colby. and it shows front runner mitt romney holding on to his lead. 31 percent of the likely voters backing the massachusetts gov and congressman ron ball 17. then it is newt gingrich and rick santorum and jon hunts man. and american teenager is back on u.s. soil. turner was reunited with her family last night in the dallas-fort worth airport. she was arrested for theft and lide about her name. the department of the homeland security is investigating the case. i am jamie colby. i will send you back on forbes on fox. i will be kelly wright. keep it on fox.

that means trial district . that means sitting more. and educators are blaming the dropping recess and the kids will get it is sue. and trial lawyers are indeed the culprits in all of this. best way for kids to lose weight is having recess and sports program. but the schools know they are inviting a lawsuit. we had a recess. machine broke my arm big deal. part of grow up. >> rick what do you say should >> listen, why don't we blame the trial lawyers for world

war ii and prickly heat and poison ivy. i know what bringing a trial lawyer is like. it is expensive to bring the litigation. >> and profitable. >> you imagine lawyers are hanging around the playground waiting for johnnie to fall off the teeter to the are and get a boo-boo. it is ridiculous. cut the sugar. >> it is not my opinion that counts. you know what my opinion is. rich, you -- what do you say? >> fourth of july parade and the list goes on. and i will agree with rick that there are numerous causes of childhood obesity and i would add agriculture subsidies that make junk food

cheap and near obsession and trying to test kids in the earliest level so they can get in the ivy league and so programs are destroyed so they can be a genius at age six which turns out to be a lopsided way of raising a kid. >> victoria. >> my two year old is computer programming for the record. i have been touring preschools all month and i don't see evidence of this at all. all of the programs try to prove play based programs. you have kids counting leaves instead of counting numbers . so i don't buy this at all. i don't think it is happening and the obesity is rooted in parenting and also in the fact that junk food is cheap.

trial lawyers to blame for obesity in children? >> i am glad california is not a hot bed of this activity. it is happening in virginia where they are removing swing seats . why do you need a court moratorium. and why can't the schools do it himself. why is a tort getting in there and get fat on lawsuits aimed at schools and the kids are getting fat. i am for keeping the swing sets and monkey bars. >> i think it is the fault of the parents. they are turning children over to government and schools are part of that and turn it over to administrators in terps of exercise and food. s have to get involve down to

the school and involved with the administration and say johnnie play electronic video games and your exercise and turn over to the school is the wrong way to go. >> vict toria. it is not the actuality of the lawsuit. it is it the threat of a lawsuit. that's what limits activity in the school urely? i agree with that. generally it is one big system approach. we have rules coming from top down and that's when lawyers get their little hands involved instead of trusting the educators on the ground to say you know what, kids fall. and i don't see it in san francisco. >> and parents who want to make their children geniuses to make them sit all day is not the way to do it. they need a break. it is all part of america. it is earmarks and they sue.

then you can see kids exercising more apart from school. i am not suggesting that i like this. it is part of life in america. go ahead. they made a national call for the fitness of kids. this is not the first time we worked the issue through. i think that obama, a lawyer himself needs to take a leadership role on that's what the first lady is doing. the bottom line you can see the schools do more if it was not for the lawsuits. tort reform is the way to go and kids exercise and get hurt and better kids in the future.

what rick perry is doing in texas. >> you support perry. >> i do. >> it is over, steve, it is it over. >> and up next, iran is not just threatening to disrupt the oil and gas supply. it is threatening america's economic recovery. this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people wanted to visit us... in louisiana. they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome gn out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year wagreat but next year's a be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf knows that winter is primetime fun time. the sun's out and you can go deep sea fishing for amberjack, grouper and mackerel.

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could this slam the breaks on our economic recovery and the real election winners. it is

five dollar gas. a new warning. that's what we will see in the u.s. if iran follows through on the threat to block the

busy supply routes and dennis, you say that would block a recovery here at home. >> it would. one reason that the economy is sputtering is because gasoline prices are higher than a year ago. i understand for every one dollar at the gas bump that is 100 billion and three million jobs and also how we feel. gas is a touch point is affects how you feel about the rest of the economy . if you sit there worry being this all of the time you end up in trouble. in iran, if they block the strait we have to attack and cannot allow them to do it. >> how about you and mike. iran takes action in the gulf and up is the oil and down coming our economy. >> i am against that scenario. and oil futures, oil has fallen from $114 to $101.

and swaps with insurance and future contrast oil is heading down. i don't think it is going to happen. >> but gas went up in the last new year week. liz, what do you say? >> it would suck hundred billion out of purchasing power. the mideast is not this untable since the iranian development. uae is building its own pipe line to prevent the strait of hormuz being blocked. that is a positive development and speaks of the lack ability to keep the pipe lines. >> possibility of a conflict in the middle east will not send it up much today. iranians will not block the hormuz straits, for simple reasons they need the money to survive. you could get five or 10

dollars a gallon is if the israeli attack iran. i put it one in three. prospect of it may not happen. >> i disagree with my former boss. mere anticipation of bad activity makes prices go up. >> but instability. and oil went up but didn't reach $100. >> victoria come into this. >> that instability is priced in. it is not like the middle east went from a peace keeping wonderful place. this has been the case for a while. iran will not do this. it will not happen. it would be military suicide. they know that. this is political posturing and they are trying to get countries not to import the sanctions has enforced against iran. this will not happen. >> as long as the threat exists and the threat is there

whether it happens or not. doesn't oil stay above $100 a barrel and gas prices go up. >> it could and that affects our recovery. but what also impacts oil is growth everywhere else. and not europe. you look at asian companies and they are larger consumers of oil. >> and wait a second. i wouldn't underestimate iran because they have done land mine gulf and things over there. they are rattling about this since 1988. 80 percent of the revenue comes from oil. but still, this is a serious threat. >> that's the last word and thank you very much everybody. >> coming up. we see it election season. stocks getting a vote of confidence as americans vote for the candidates . names rated to win this time around. robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. r science teacher helped us build it. ♪

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>> the final votes are in not for the political candidates

but for our stock candidates. exxon will be a big winner. >> i do. >> and dennis? >> exxon is oil. and that is last season and nat gas is the future. and it is a u.s. thriller. >> and you like inner gin. >> i like it. it is a dividend champ and a fast growing company. >> i am like blue-chip growth fun. it is a way to play on apple and google. and has solid growth even in the crack up 2008. >> what do you say to that. >> all right. let's not forget. that is thank you very much. one and all. that's it for forbes on fox.