do own it. >> tracy. >> everyone says obamacare is the new way to hook up. are you kidding? it's a turn off not a turn on. >> putting labels on soda, good for the soda, up 30% in the 84. >> neil. go! . >> no clowning around, this clown could be the new marlboro man, hi, everyone, i'm neil cavuto. and the food police are launching a supersize big mac attack, lawyers making new food into the big tobacco. their pitch, go after big food because it's making people fat. go after some fat greens to pay for obesity-related health care costs. we are talking potentially hundreds of billions served, not fries, dollars. they say this is a little too much to stomach. we are joined, glad to have you back, ben stein david pittsburgh

dual, charles payne. >> what i make of, you have so many things at work here. the main thing i make of it is what has been clear over the last five years. redistribution of accountability. nothing is 94 fault. nothing is the person's fault in the marriage. you lost your job lou no fall of your own. everything is no fault of your own including eating yourself into a diabetic coma. that's what i make of. accountability, redistribution of wealth because the bottom line is we will have a welfare country. a welfare nation, you got to fund it. and this particular government is digging deep into the pockets of corporate america. >> you seem upset. >> i am upset. this is ridiculous. >> this is nothing but a money grab. it will not keep people in the future from eating at these restaurants, getting fat and incuring higher raelted health care costs. how do you differentiate between the company? you will go after mcdonald's,

buffalo wild wings and cold stone creamery, you literally have to go after almost every company that manufactures food or serves food in this nation. where do we draw the line? people will get fat on tris kets, i can do that if i eat enough boxes of them. >> i do see your point. >> i had a protein shake with fruit for breakfast today. i wanted you to know as i comment on this. >> absolutely horrible. >> i feel good, energized. >> the kale. >> people should eat like that. here's the bottom line. >> i'm happy i'm sitting next to you. >> you might have to leave. anyways, before the tobacco settlement, who didn't know cigarettes are bad for them? there is a degree of this that's

so ab sumpltd i wasn't in favor of them hitting tobacco companies up. i knew when i was a kid in the 1970s, cigarettes are bad for you, after 1960 knew it was bad for you. that settlement was wrong, this settlement is more insane. >> ben stein, we know one thing with the tobacco industry going to the fast food industry is they did knowingly lie about the addictive effect he put into the cigarettes. the jury is out whether fast foods have done the same. unless they have been filling it with freon, this case goes nowhere or does it? >> first of all, back up, i don't think they have been lying about tobacco for a very long time. what got them to this was, well, that was a long time before the settlement. but nobody makes a whopper.

this is aan attack on freedom. this has little to do with a health issue. it's a way one for lawyers to make money and pure money grabbing. why not? that's what people do in america and everywhere. it takes away more freedom. by the way, why stop with food? why not say big cars are dangerous? why not say cell phones are dangerous. they give you brain cancer. there is no end, once you start down this road. for the trial lawyer's money the government control. >> i think this whole freedom conversation you all are having is a dangerous one. the reason you knew smoking was dangerous was the surgeon general told you so. >> i'm not finished. >> what year? >> this is not something. >> deal with it. >> talk about it in history. >> this was not something. it was before you were a child. >> of course. >> nobody nigh smoking was bad

for them? >> my other point, neil, charles says this has been going on the last five years. he wants to equate that with the obamaed a men straegs i get that. these things have been going on long before the obama administration. number two, this is a bunch of lawyers. i think it's a bad idea. >> ben stein is a lawyer. so you are lumping. i have been in practice for a very long time. >> i think charles payne hit on the big picture issue going on here, first, responsible. it's not a political statement. it's not an anti-obama statement. it's just now if you have a problem, it's not your fault. >> we keep hearing more and more, every week, we talk about the news the common thread is that somehow a person is a

victim. >> right. >> people with the minimum wage debate. how does someone get into a position to be an adult and have skills to have minimum wage. what do they do to hurt themselves? >> bravo, bravo. >> this is a political -- >> wait a sec, adam. >> he continues to say stuff li like. this is a political story. the trial bar, these are not like regular old lawyers. these are one of the biggest activist groups in the democratic party. they have been doing this in the securities area. >> they are hitting up the states that have these great big deficits courtesy of escalating medicare costs saying we have found the solution. >> there is, right, this is money for the pockets of the state because of the higher health care costs and the health care costs are going up because

of a history of related diseases and heart disease and the like. however, it gets back to the individual. do you have to pay higher health care premiums because you are obese, because you could be a risk? the answer is no. this is not -- this is the problem. >> you are wrong about that. >> i am wrong about that, adam? >> you are wrong. >> a lot of people know. >> who doesn't know that? >> he raises a very good point. >> i want to address that, though, adam you do know, because if you eat in some of these restaurants and consume this amount of calories and that kwiend of food, you feel lousy, so how do you know feemp you aren't fat yet. >> i don't disagree that we should be advocating for personal responsibility. i don't disagree the plaintiffs lawyers are taking a personal approach. i want you to act knowledge the

government has had a positive impact on many of these debates. we demonize smoking. that's a good thing. >> the president apparently loves marijuana. >> we demonize tobacco smoking. we are not demonizing marijuana usage. >> we have lowered the incidence of lung cancer. >> there is a cycle right there. the more hungry you are. >> go to mcdonald's. >> ben stein, where do you think this is going? let say the fast food guys are afraid to cough up and do something, set him in one way, shape or form, much as the tobacco industry did. and i'm wondering what would happen then? >> what's going to happen then is an ever growing erosion of human individual freedom and ever growing erosion of individual responsibility,

exactly as charles has said. there is something extremely insidious about this, once you say government is responsible for everybody's welfare, then government is responsible for everything and freedom of choice just disappears. >> very true. adam, final point on that? >> i didn't say the government is responsible for everyone's health care. i said the government can play a role. >> on the cigarettes for example, there is no quantity of cigarettes that has a health benefit. they are not a necessity in your life. that is not the case with food. that's why this different. >> big tobacco is different. >> i didn't say they were good for you. i said they taste good. >> eat as many as you want. kill yourselves. >> you guys foe that 2,000 calories a day, not a meal. all right. five years after this, we are still at a spending, now congress agreed to add more to

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plus, drivers who switched saved an average of $498 a year. just a few more ways allstate is changing car iurance for good. [ female announcer ] call an allstate agent and get a quote now. >> good morning, great to have you with us. i'm jamie colby. there is a frontic search under way right now in hawaii for a missing pregnant woman. she's 27-year-old carly scott. she was last seen nearly a week ago by her ex-boyfriend. that's the father of her unborn child. then police found her suv torched in a rural part of maui wednesday. she is five months pregnant. police haven't named any suspects. forget the snow and ice. 911 centers were flooded overnight with frantic calls after an earthquake. that's right, grounded parts of the southeast. it was a 4.1 magnitude quake and it could be felt as far away as

atlanta. as far north as hickory, north carolina. no reports of injuries or major damage. keep it right here on the fox news channel. i'm jamie colby sending you back to neil cavuto on business. >> all right. five years after going for broke, we are still broken. for the one is fixing it. congress give yourself another blank check this week, nearly five years after president obama signed the $787 stimulus bill. we got a trillion dollar food bill that became law this week. we capped with with a billion dollar climate change with money we don't have any week. >> we have a debt ceiling, listen, benefit they came out with the news, i don't get when do the republicans make an you a

thentic stand? when do they say, forget what the media tells you, we are driving down an irreversible path. here's the thing. we jump off a one story building or we will take pain, we will take a stand and be honest about it. >> ben stein, obviously the speaker took the risk and the position. i will annoy a lot of peoplely keep my eye on the prize, which is presumably the elections the end of this year and rom the dice thinking that itself the strategy to not upset the government cart and keep the victory front and center. >> we have a president who refuses to compromise. we are headed towards another shut down that will hurt the republican party t. question is one step beyond this, sir, which is what are they willing to do with congress and the next elections. >> it's a very good point.

i'll tell you, the last time they were running things, they were not great fiscal stew wards. when you have the reigns or the potential of reigns and you are giving up your soul to win an election you hope will go your way. you've past performance has got to come up. that's not too enkaurnlging at all. >> the political calculation here is that they know that this debt ceiling fight is not a vote getter because the average american, because the economy is growing so slowly isn't feeling the higher interest rates from the debt they're running. they're not feeling run away inflation. can you get a mortgage, 30 year fixed rate mortgage for a third and a quarter in this country. people are not peeling it. they feel instead they are touching on the health care law. their health care is changing. that they see. >> brenda, you are running on the health care. god forbid in the republican's eyes things should start stabilizing not look sock disastrous. then they will hang their hat on

everything. >> with all due respect, the ted cruz way of fighting this thing, making eight big battle. the debt ceiling lost stuff because of. that i will say this, if we have any chance of doing, we, the republican party. i say we, i will be honest here, i favor the policies of the constraint at this point. with respending too much. you favor. that. >> wait a minute. you don't like president obama? >> i wanted to be clear here. >> if you favor those policies, which you, do which i do, the only way you will do it is doing it boehner's way you have zero chance of shutting down the government until you control the government, which even if you take the senate, you don't control the government. >> i don't know, adam, discipline delay i think ultimately is discipline denied. that's where i'm going with this. >> well, i disagree. first of all, i'm a fan of the political system. i think it's good when politics works. >> what is working here? enlighten me as to what is working here.

how is kicking the can down the road enlightning us here? >> guys, kicking the can down the road is the american -- >> i don't disagree with you. the cup half full. it may be a legislative process t. government isn't shutting down t. parties are talking to each other. they have the opportunity. >> they pass legislation. this is the way it's soesed to work. >> democrats and republicans, they are scared stiff for being blamed for anything approaching a shutdown. they know republicans will run in the corner and not do squat. it's the democrats. >> here's the thing is there they can't do anything. >> the bottom line is they have so much infighting anyway, they may squander any opportunity so why not take a principle thing. here's your problem. >> they don't know how to sell it. >> i know.

but you don't know how to sell this. that's the problem. >> but people are paying for a government that they want to be functioning. >> they don't have the tools necessary to sell it because of the lower interest rates, because of the fact that there isn't that much inflation. they need that in order to get america off their butts is there what she said. >> all right. you think it's hard to heat your home? forget mother nature, is the real threat about to come from uncle sam? it has the gang charged up. it's about as charged up as they can get. let be honest. that's coming up next. did the man they call the corporate raider just go after the d.c. raiders? tony stewart: time teaches you things. .

coming up, he doesn't talk that much, but when he does, people pay attention.

what carl icahn told me about making money, which should

do you think this gap is real, and i think the rich to do more? >> it's not so much they should do more. i really believe in ameritocracy. >> what does that mean? >> if somebody takes risks, puts in money, he should reap the fruits of it. >> a billionaire named carl icahn. risk it, earn it, keep it? >> absolutely. absolutely. let me tell you something. one thing i think we should all embrace is the idea of booms and budgets. a lot of people don't understand. without a boom and bust system we don't become the greatest country in the world, but you can't get that sort of cycle going when we discourage everyone from taking risks, from taking chances. jobs, entrepreneurship is down

dramatically. take the chances, when people win they win big, have coattails and the world benefits d. it on his own, worth $20 billion. he's not going in and saving banks like buffett does when e he knows the bunks will ultimately get bailed out. risks his own money and he wins. he's a guy that came from nothing. made that on his own. someone people shop admire. carl and i have done a couple rounds here and there. we're friends now. i will say this, though, when you look at him in his totality, done great stuff. >> his central premise, though, if you've taken the risks you deserve the glory. this rich envy is not fair or right. >> rich -- it's really rich anger at this point. a lot of anger directed at people who have been great successes. i still think, it's troubling, adam can speak to this. you're starting to see the turn against the silicon valley entrepreneurs in california.

>> they deserve it. >> great success stories in this country. steve jobs, may he rest in peace, also google, facebook, twitter, all of the kind of unsung companies. >> they deserve it. >> deserve anger, but the people in the city of san francisco have turned against these guys, particularly in google. that's -- >> one thing he also told me, carl icahn, he is open to paying more taxes but draws the line at billionaires who can afford to pay more taxes than the guy at $250,000, $300,000 cannot? >> completely correct. hard for me to see what good carl icahn has done. some wom have called him a green mail perp not starting a company. not providing. he'd not providing huge amounts of jobs or new products or new innovations. he's incredibly successful speculator and some say a green mail perp i don't see what great stuff he's done at all, frankly. he's a tough guy, a starker, as we jews would say, but i don't see what greg sees he's done and should be heavily taxed. >> his point is that he has made

shareholders much more active and companies much more accountable. what do you think of that? >> i agree. i've got nothing against people, successful people succeeding. the issue, what do we do for the rest of society? >> okay. you're ultimately always about society. i want to thank charlie and dagen. a short footnote on carl icahn, when he was here, everybody was saying what is carl doing here? >> did the stock go up? >> what's going on? when we come back, 401(k) retirement plans doubles in value over the last five years. how you can do even better than that. i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach.

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retirement winners, charles? >> a construction boom this year, and the years beyond. i like it a lot. >> adam? >> humana, health insurance play, neil. >> ben? >> vgi. big, big, big broad index. >> okay.

that happened more quickly than i thought. >> i'll also say, looking very, very beautiful, honored to have her on the show every time she's o. exactly. not exactly how i wanted to show, but -- >> i think everybody agrees. >> right now. see you later. cooking the books on obamacare and insurance executives telling fox news the white house enrollment numbers have been enflated. the white house is describing them as this -- >> with the benefit of a full month of january data, we're able to paint a more holistic picture to date and it's very, very encouraging news. >> encouraginencouraging? do the math and let you decide. inflated or not, the white house says 3.3 million americans enrolled in the private part of obamacare. it said nothing about the 6.2 million getting cancellation notices from their private insurance. a net loss of 2.9 million. so is that encouraging, or will