bill o'reilly, they raised $667,000 and they were there in d.c. last week. >> my video didn't make it because he's in charge of it. >> you don't have one? >> i do. "happening now" starts right no now. >> jenna: a fox news alert, president trump is set to sign an executive order on moving the keystone and dakota access pipeline forward, that is some brand-new headline today but hello, and welcome to "happening now" everybody. >> jon: senate committees also approving the nominations of dr. ben carson to be hud secretary, elaine chao of transportation, and wilbur ross of comer secretary, moving him closer to confirmation. more hearings are underway for tom price, the president's nominee to be health and human services secretary. congressman mick mulvaney for budget director, and linda mcmahon to lead the small business administration. president trump will sit on this afternoon with his brand-new cia director, mike pompeo, who was

sworn in last night. after a busy morning meeting with auto industry executives on one of mr. trump's biggest priorities, creating more jobs in america, we have live fox team coverage with john roberts at the white house, but we begin with peter doocy on capitol hill. peter. >> the big complaint by republicans here on capitol hill in the senate today is that the vetting process will be if tom price is suitable to be confirmed at as the next hhs secretary has taken twice as long as the last two vetting processes for the last two hhs cretary's combined. >> i raised a of this today so that people could no i'm serious when i say that i'm worried about what my colleagues on the minority side are doing to the senate as an institution. while the overriding sense of comity and courtesy among senators has admittedly been in decline during recent years, i have never seen this level of

partisan rancor. >> today is set to be the main confirmation hearing for congressman price, he is testifying before the senate finance committee and facing some difficult questions from democrats trying to protect the last president's signature law, obamacare, from a new president who wants to repeal and replace it with something else. prices confirmation not excited to be voted on by the full senate until sometime in february. the senate minority leader chuck schumer is continuing to do what he said he was going to do, delay actual confirmations of eight trump cabinet nominees for weeks or months, and price is one of them. although democrats apparently do plan to talk today over lunch about which nominees they are okay with confirming next. some of the ones on that list reportedly could include elaine chao to be transportation second and nikki nikki haley to be u.. ambassador. the confirmation vote for rex tillerson is apparently going to slide until sometime next week, even though some of the republicans who were tough on tillerson like john mccain and marco rubio are starting to come

around. whatever action we see on the hill today is likely to be it for the week because tomorrow morning, republicans from the senate and republicans from the house are going to head on up to philadelphia for a three-day long retreat. >> jon: all right, peter doocy in washington, thank you. >> jenna: next on capitol hill, back to the white house, president trump expected to sign new executive orders advancing the keystone xl and dakota access pipeline this hour. canadian leaders applauding the move, saying this morning that they are very hopeful the keystone project will go forwar forward. john roberts has more with this. >> good morning to you, the press pool has just gone into the oval office with the president is expected to sign, i'm not sure if it's going to be to ask separate executive orders are one combining the two, it kind of takes them out of mothballs more than anything, keystone xl and the dakota access pipeline, both were put into mothballs by president obama last year. this can't green light the process because trans canada, which would buildaining environmental and safety

standards. here's what he said this morning. >> we are going to make the process much more simple for the auto companies and of her but he also wants to do business in the united states. i think you're going to find this to be very inhospitable to extremely hospitable. >> later on this afternoon, 1:00, he will meet with his incoming cia director mike pompeo, he wanted to have him confirmed on the first day, but charles schumer said, you know what, we're not going to have the vote. which prompted an interesting exchange between chuck schumer and senator tom cotton, schumer saying where review eight years ago when we are approving nominees for president obama and cotton shooting back that he was getting his rhymes with "grass" shot at in afghanistan, that's where i was so don't talk to me about that. we understand also this afternoon mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer and dianne feinstein, the president will be talking to them about his potential pick for supreme court nominee to replace justice antonin scalia-ness.

diane sykes, i guess, would have an inside track on that, he will really wanted to get another woman in the cabinet, wasn't able to nominating a woman to the supreme court might help give him cover on that front, but he does have 19 or 20 other justices that he is considering, so we are not sure which way he will go on that. >> jenna: we appreciate the complete picture along with rhymes, as well. thank you very much, john roberts. in the briefing room, we will be back there later today. >> jon: that would have been an interesting exchange. president trump held a working breakfast this morning with executives from the country's top auto makers. after the meeting, those executives said they are extremely encouraged by the president's economic policy. let's talk about it with carol lee, "the wall street journal" white house correspondent. so it could be part photo up, it could be arm-twisting to bring jobs back to the united states, it could be a little bit of both. any indication whether this meeting is going to result in

more cars being made here, more jobs being established here? >> well, certainly that is what president trump hopes for. some of the ceos that he met with came out and touch the reporters and they said it they thought it was a very positive meeting, they were very happy with president trump's decision to withdraw the u.s. from the transpacific trade agreement. they said positive things about him, it has been a very interesting two days of meetings, and the overall goal for the white house they say is to convince these companies like these car companies to keep jobs president trump made a pretty lofty promise during the transition, during his campaign, that he would be the best job creator god ever created, i think is how he put it. and so he is trying to follow through on on the command you e seen that dude that in a number of ways, having meetings and getting face time with ceos of various companies, and he is

also, we saw during the transition, he put pressure publicly on companies and called them out when he thought that they were not doing what he would prefer, which is to keep jobs in the u.s. >> jon: he says he wants plants built here for cars that are sold here emma suggesting that he would slap tariffs on cars even from american carmakers out are built in places like mexico. does he have a chance of doing that? would congress go along with higher tariffs on imported automobiles? >> while that is one of the interesting things that you are seeing happening here. some of the things that president trump is putting forward in these ideas, particularly on trade, are just at odds with traditional republican views. and so it's going to be interesting to watch how all of this unfolds. also interesting to watch whether or not this pressure that he is putting on these different companies winds up actually being successful. a number of companies had efforts already in the works to keep jobs in the u., and yet

they are okay with donald trump taking credit for some of that. >> jon: i want to change topics and discuss something else the president said yesterday. he was in a meeting with congressional leadership and mr. trump once again claimed there was widespread voter fraud in the election. he argued that he only lost the popular vote because millions of illegals voted. now he made similar claims before the election, although no evidence of that was ever found. does he have any evidence to back up what he is saying now? >> no. this has been proven to be not true, it's false. this is something that he continues to repeat, and i think it just goes to this notion that we've seen in the last couple of days, he kind of bristles at anything that may question his legitimacy or the fact that he won fairly. and he seems to be clearly a little bit burned up about the fact that he did not win the popular vote, and so he talked about this, and this was at a

meeting with democratic and republican leaders, and so he privately repeated it again last night, and i think this is one of the things the white house will be asked again today at the press briefing. >> jon: why does that issue bother him? >> well, you heard sean spicer, the press secretary, talk yesterday about the president feeling that he is constantly being questioned and that people don't feel that he won and is totally legitimate. there'll these qstions are rising about him, and he is clearly bothered by that. and that keeps showing himself in whether he is saying things in private or would happen over the weekend, where he was really critical and pushing back on the notion that he had a smaller crowd at his then president obama did. >> jon: have you or anyone in the press corps explained to him that he is now the most powerful man in the world? >> i think you should know that, he is the one in the white house, but i would be happy to if they wanted to have

us have an interview, we could definitely sit down and talk about that. >> jon: carol lee from "the wall street journal," we will let you get inside and shield your ears from the siren sirens. >> jenna: back to capitol hill, where we are watching the questioning of congressman talk tom price, the nominee to lead health and human services, of course oversee that potentially the repeal and replace of obamacare, and he is being questioned by senator menendez of new jersey. >> can you commit to this committee and the american people today that should you be confirmed or you will swiftly and unequivocally debunk false claims to protect the public health? >> what i'll commit to doing is doing the due diligence at the department is known for and must do to make certain that the factual information is conveyed -- >> and that factual information will be dictated by science, i would hope. >> without a doubt. >> okay, so let me ask you about medicaid specifically. let me just say i'm a little taken aback about your answer on the question of immigrants and

leprosy, i think the science is pretty well dictated on that regard as well. one of the most beneficial components of the affordable care act was the expansion of the medicaid program that resulted in 11 million people nationwide and over half a million in new jersey gaining coverage, many for the first time. it's one of the biggest programs on the republican chopping block. with proposals to not only repeal the affordable care medicaid expansion, but going further and gutting billions in federal funding to the states. there is no doubt that this would result in catastrophic loss of coverage for tens of millions of low-income families and lead to tens of billions in losses to safety net and other health care providers. do you recognize medicaid to be a valuable program and consider the coverage it provides 74 million americans to be comprehensive? >> medicaid is a vital program for health care for many individuals in this country, but one that has significant challenges. there is 1 out of every three

physicians who should be seeing medicaid patients who are not taking any medicaid patients. there is a reason for that. if we are honest with ourselves we would be asking the question, why? >> if that's the case that one in three don't treat medicaid, you have to ask yourself, is because medicaid reimbursements are so low? and since provider reimbursements are set at a state level, won't cutting federal funding and hitting states with higher costs only lead to lower provider rates? and how many doctors would actually treat former medicaid beneficiaries when they no longer have any coverage or ability to pay? so even if there is only 1 of 3, there are still 2 of 3 that are providing the services, imagine if you don't have coverage, which goes to my next question. you have advocated to in essence block grant medicaid. the essence of medicaid is entitlement, which of the law means if i meet these criteria my have the right to have that

coverage under the law. when you move to a block grant, you remove the right and you make it a possibility subject to whatever funding there is going to be. do you recognize that in doing so you risk the potential of millions of americans who presently enjoy health care coverage through medicaid no longer having that right? >> i think that it's important to appreciate that no system that the president has supported or that i have supported would leave anybody without the opportunity to gain coverage. >> that's not my question, so let me reiterate my question. medicaid, under the law as it exists today, is a right, is that not the case? >> it is an entitlement program. >> as an entitlement, doesn't that mean you have the right if you meet the criteria that you are entitled to the services question might >> that is correct. >> when you move to a block grant do you still have the

right? >> no. i think it would be determined by how that was set up, if, in fact, that was what congress did. again, the role of the department of health and human services is to administer the laws that you pass. >> i would just simply say to you, i know in our private conversation, i appreciate you coming by to visit me, you suggested that your role as that of his an administrator of a large department. will that is not even with the vice president said when you were nominated. he said he expected your experience both medically and legislatively to help drive policy. and even beyond the expectations of the vice president in that regard, when we have regulatory abilities of the secretary to dictate regulation, that is policy. so please don't say to me that i am here just to do what congress has prayed i respect that you will follow the law and do whatever congress says, but you will have an enormous impact, and based upon your previous opinions as a relates to medicaid, ultimately block

granting means a loss of a right, and that is a question of funding, and then we will have a bigger problem with the number of providers. i hope we can get to a better understanding of your commitment to medicaid as an entitlement as a right. >> senator, your time is up, . >> congressman price, welcome to you into your wife there is a script were you mentioned earlier that you are active in your church, in the new testament in 1925 which speaks to the least of these, when i was hungry did you feed me, when i was naked did you clothed me, when i was thirsty did you give me a drink, when i was sick and presented you visit me, when i was a stranger in your land did you take me, and it says nothing about when my only access to health care

coverage was going into the emergency room of a hospital did you do anything about it. what we sought to do with acas to do something about it. and we didn't in this room invent the affordable care act. the genesis of the affordable care act goes back to 1993, when hillary clinton, the first lady commodes working on what was called hillary care, and a group of senators led by senator john chafee, a republican from rhode island, developed legislation cosponsored by i think 23 senators, including, as i recall, senator orrin hatch and senator chuck grassley. and what he did in his legislation, what he proposed in his legislation, was to use really five major concepts. one, to create large purchasing pools for folks who otherwise might not have access to health care coverage. they call them exchanges or marketplaces. he also proposed that there be a sliding scale tax credit that brought down the cost of people

getting coverage in those exchanges. third thing he proposed was the notion that there should be an individual mandate, they wanted to make sure people got covered and he realized if they didn't mandate coverage, then you would end up with insurance pools that helped insurance companies health insurance companies could not begin to cover, it would just be unworkable. he proposed as well employer mandates, and he proposed, as well, the notion that people shouldn't lose their coverage because of pre-existing conditions. those are not democrat ideas, those were proposed by republican leadership, actually. in the congress at the time. and when governor romney developed his own plan in massachusetts, a decade or so later, he borrowed literally from those ideas. when he instituted, as you may

recall, when they instituted romneycare, they found they did a pretty good job on covering people, but not such a good job on affordability. and what took place over time as you found out they had insurance pools where a lot of the people were not young, they were not very healthy, and they were older and they needed more health care. and as a result the insurance companies, in order to be able to stay in business, had to raise the premiums. i don't know if any of this sounds familiar to you,ut it we've seen in the last six years or so with the affordable care act. through the ideas of senator chafee and governor romney, we have added some things. we have encourage states to increase the number of people they cover under medicaid by raising about 135% the level at which people can receive health care. we have encouraged a focus on prevention and wellness.

not just treating people and they are sick, but also trying to make sure that people stay healthy in the first place. we provide funding for contraception, we provide funding for programs that are intended to reduce obesity. we have programs that are intended to reduce smoking, the use of tobacco. this is not a "yes" or no question. what was wrong with that approach? what is wrong with that approach? in the last thing i will is, the health insurance companies found it difficult to stay in business in the state group exchanges across the country. one of the reasons why they were unable to is because, i think, as we learn from massachusetts, we didn't raise or raise the incentive high enough to get young healthy people like my sons into the exchanges across the country.

s&p, i'm told just put out about a month ago an update looking at the financial health of the health insurance companies in this country. as they have tried to figure out how to price this product, and it seems like, according to s&p believe it or not, they seem to have sort of figured it out, because the financial health of insurance commies has begun to stabilize. your reaction to this please. >> as i mentioned either in my opening or response to question, the principles of health care that all of us hold dear, affordability and accessibility and quality and choices for patients, i think are the things that we all embrace. the next step, how we get to accomplish and meet those goals and those principles, is where it takes work together to do so. the program that you outlined has much merit, whether it's making certain that individuals with pre-existing illness and disease are able to access coverage. whether it's the pulling

mechanisms, which i have actively and aggressively supported for years. there is a lot of merit there. again, when i'm hopeful that we are able to do is to, in a collegial, bipartisan way, work together to solve the remarkable challenges that we have. one of my physician colleagues used to tell me that he never operated on doug democrat patient or a republican patient, he operated on a patient. and that is a way that i view the system, it is not a republican system, it is not a democrat system, it is a system that hopefully we are focusing on the patients to again make certain that they have access to the highest quality care. >> let me just conclude, mr. chairman, by saying, i will use an analogy. there's a large building and there are people in the large building, and there was a fire in the large building, but for some reason they could not use the stairways or they could not use the elevators. and they looked out the windows

and there are firefighters down in the streets and go ahead and jump, we will save you. but they don't have any safety nets. my fear is that if we repeal what i have described, the systems that i've described that we put in place, the affordable care act, largely founded on republican ideas, which i think were good ideas, and we don't have something at least as good in place to catch those people as they fall from the building, we will have done a disservice to them into our country. >> thank you, senator . >> thank you, mr. chairn, and a quick reminder that the affordable care act was not passed with one republican vote in the house or the senate. so, dr. price, a couple of questions just to cut to the chase. are all of your assets currently disclose publicly? it's because they are and they always have been. >> okay, are you covered by the stock act legislation passed by congress that requires you and every other member to publicly disclose all sales and purchases

of assets within 30 days? >> yes, sir, . >> now, you've been accused of not providing the committee of information related to your tax and financial records that were required of you. are there any records you have been asked to provide that you have refused to provide? >> none whatsoever. >> so all your records are in question work >> absolutely. >> i've got to ask you, does it trouble you at all that as a nominee to serve in this administration that someone would hold you to a different standard than you as a member of congress? and i might say, the same standard that they currently buy and sell and trade assets on, doesn't burn you that they want to hold you to a different standard none that you are a nominee than they are as a member?

>> well, we know what's going on here. >> we do. we do. >> and i understand. as my wife tells me, i volunteered for this. >> so let's go to substance. do you and have a lot in common. we both spoke out in opposition to obamacare early. we predicted massive premium increases. when the president promised if you like your doctors you can keep them, if you like your plan you could keep it, we both said that these promises would be broken, and, in fact, they were. over the last seven years you and i, senator hatch, congressman upton and others, have actually written our own health care plans because we were i think brave enough to say that if you're going to be critical of something then put your ideas on the table. in your opinion, it clear to the american people that repeal of obamacare was a promise that donald trump made before he was elected president? >> i have no doubt that it

played a very prominent role in this past election and that the president is committed till fulfilling that promise. >> and as the nominee and hopefully, and i think you will become of the secretary of hhs, one of the main goals of an obamacare replacement plan? >> the main goals, as i mentioned, are outlining those principles. that it's imperative that we have a system that is accessible for every single american. that's affordable for every single american. that's incentivizes and provides the highest quality health care that the world knows and provides choices to patients so that they are the one selecting who is treating them, when, where, and the like. it's complicated to do, but it's pretty simple stuff. >> i want to thank you for not only testifying here, but testifying in from of the health committee where we had do over there. you are brave to go through

this, but the country will be much better off with your guidance and your knowledge in this slot. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. price, again, thank you for your willingness to serve in this command we also think your family for being willing to put up with your voluntary choices. i want to talk about a few issues in the time that i have. one, yesterday the president, by executive order, reinstituted the global gag rule, but he also did it in a way that is more comprehensive than the previous, the new policy would prohibit any federal aid to foreign organizations that provide or promote abortion. in the past, the policy only applied to organizations to got family planning, now it applies to organizations to get global health funding. potentially including maternal health programs, anti-zika efforts, and an expansion to stop hiv/aids. my question to you is this, if

confirmed, how would you make sure that the u.s. -- >> jenna: another busy day down in washington, d.c., we are just looking at capitol hill where we are watching nomination hearings for congressman tom price to be the next secretary of health and human services, so we are watching for any headlines as we do expect him to be confirmed eventually down the road, but this is part of the process prayed over at the white house, though, the new president is busy again with the executive orders today. we have some tape of that and some new headlines coming to us from the white house and we will take a short break and be right back with those in just a momen moment.

>> jon: a fox news alert, as you know president trump has been busy his first couple of days in the oval office, and busy again this morning. we understand he has signed five new executive orders relating to oil pipelines. we are about to get some video play out and some remarks from the president on that, but here's what we know. he has signed an order related to the keystone xl pipeline, that was the one you know that was so controversial during the obama administration. the dakota access pipeline, also an executiverder signed regarding that. we don't know the specifics on that. we know that he has signed an executive order to expedite the permitting process for infrastructure projects related to the pipelines. he has directed the commerce department to streamline the manufacturing permitting process. and here's a big one, he is giving congress commerce

department, 180 days, six months, to maximize the use of u.s. steel, u.s.-made steel in the construction of those pipelines. so five big orders related to the pipelines. one of the issues is the trans-canada, the organization i was trying to push the keystone xl pipeline through, had withdrawn its application during the obama administration. you might remember that. and as yet, they have not, it is our understanding, resubmitted an application for that pipeline, so that is one of the things to be dealt with. in the meantime, here is the president and the oval office. >> this is, with regard to the construction of the keystone pipeline, something that has been in dispute, and is subject to a renegotiation of terms by us. we are going to renegotiate some of the terms, and if they'd like we'll see if we can get that

pipeline built. a lot of jobs. 28,000 jobs. great construction jobs. [camera shutters] okay, keystone pipele. this is with respect to the construction of the dakota access pipeline. dakota access pipeline. again, subject to terms and conditions to be negotiated by us. [camera shutters]

okay. this is construction of pipelines in this country. we are, and i am, very insistent that if we're going to build pipelines in the united states, the pipes should be made in the united states. so, unless there is difficulty with that, because companies are going to have to ensure that much pipeline that is bought from other countries, from now on we are going to start making pipeline in the united states. we build it in the united states, we build the pipelines, we want to build the pipe. we are going to put a lot of workers, a lot of steelworkers, back to work. [camera shutters]

okay, we will build our own pipeline, we will build our own pipes, that is what it has to do with, like we used to in the old days. >> this is about streamlining the incredibly-cumbersome, long, horrible, permitting process and reducing regulatory burdens for domestic manufacturing. many of the people that we've been meeting with over the last long period of time, but yesterday and others, the process was so long and cumbersome that they give up before the end. sometimes it takes many, many years, and we don't want that to happen. and if it's a "no," we will give them a quick know. and if it's in "yes," then let's start building.

the regulatory process in this country has become a tangled up mass. very unfair to people. that's a big one. this is the expediting of environmental reviews and approvals for high-priority infrastructure projects. we intend to fix our country, our bridges, our roadways. we can't be in an environmental process for 15 years if a bridge is going to be falling down or if a highway is crumbling. so we are expediting environmental reviews and approvals.

okay. thank you very much. >> do you have any comment to the standing rock community, the protesters out there? >> we are good thank you. >> sometime next week i'll be making my decision. this week we'll be announcing, next week we have outstanding candidates, and we will pick a truly great supreme court justice. but i will be announcing it sometime next week. thank you all very much. >> jon: one of the big headlines are from what we call a pool spray, that is when the photo pool goes to the oval office and takes pictures of the president. there will ahead for

what's next for the administration. >> jon: interesting to see how things change from one administration to the next. barack obama fought the keystone xl pipeline tooth and nail, donald trump says bring it on. >> jenna: more headlines from the white house has a come, in the meantime, president trump is due to meet with his brand-new cia director this afternoon. of the senate confirmed mike pompeo last night and he was sworn in at the white house. this comes after months of tension between mr. trump and the intelligence community as reports have suggested, although mr. trump says that's not the case. the president visits his cia headquarters to smooth over relations. join now by james kerr check, the fellow with foreign policy initiative, correspondent for the "daily beast" as well, and has a new book coming out in a few months, we look forward to that. mike morel was the deputy director of the ci said that mike pompeo really needs to make sure that his voice is heard in the white house. that is one of the challenges for the cia, to make sure that the executive branch here's what you have to say. what do you think is on the top

or should be on the top of that list question mike >> will is going to be very difficult, because we know that donald trump has had this sort of feud with the cia and the intelligence community more broadly over the past couple of months. he said that there were leaks against him during the campaign and after the campaign, he compared to germany. it's going to be difficult i think over the next couple of months to really solidify his relationship with them. let's not forget that there is an ongoing investigation going on by several intelligence agencies into suspicions that there may have been some sort of contact between the russian government and donald trump's campaign. so it's a very difficult job that mike pompeo has between balancing the people who are going to be working for him at the cia while also having to report up to president trump. >> jenna: i know you have a certain expertise in eastern europe as well, having spent some time working over there. when you look at the world over all and all the global concerns, do you place rush on the top of that list? do you look at china and what is

happening in east asia? how do you see the world overall is to wear priority should be? >> i'm particularly worried about central and eastern europe. i think, you know, in the years that we've been going on since the invasion of ukraine, there is still a war goingn in ukraine and people seem to forget that. there has been a massive russian military buildup over the past several years, and they're really intimidating the baltic states and poland, and certainly the comments that president trump made to last week in an interview with several european newspapers in which he continued his comments about nato being obsolete and basically attacked the european union, those are really worrying comments, and i don't think they really send the right message to russia at the moment. >> jenna: if we look at though the first few hours or as mr. trump as president of the united states, he is really focusing on jobs in manufacturing and affairs, one of them being tpp, the trade deal, was never a should say

officially approved by congress, which is part of the weakness of it, and that is why mr. trump was able to withdraw from it. what do you think is a message from that to the world? >> i don't really understand how this helps president trump's stated agenda when it comes to one, containing china, which he seems very serious about it and that i certainly agree with him on. but also creating jobs. tpp would have removed 18,000 different forms of taxes that various countries in asia had put on american goods. getting rid of those taxes would have opened up new markets to american companies and would have created american jobs. and it also would have involved countries as diverse as japan, chile, mexico, all throughout the pacific rim, excluding china. so this was a geopolitical agreement to increase american influence in the pacific region amongst our democratic allies, which i think would have done a very important job in containing

chinese influence and power. and now that we've scrapped this deal, it the chinese are basically going to fill the vacuum. >> jenna: we are going to have to leave it there, of course there was bipartisan opposition to it as well, thinking it would do the opposite in her workers, james, great to see you. we will be right back with more "happening now" ." watch stains disappear right before your eyes. remove 4 times more stains than detergent alone.

>> jon: a fox news alert, the senate finance committee is holding a hearing on president trump's nominee to be health and human services secretary, dr. tom price. it is a key position in the administration, as republicans push to repeal and replace the affordable care act. with us now to talk about this particular nominee in the process, leslie marshall, a progressive radio host and fox news contributor, and kevin mccullough, conservative radio host with the sale of media group. welcome to both of you. there have been allegations

brought forward that tom price has not been entirely honest or may be ethical in some of his stock dealings, kevin, what do you make of it? >> not a whole lot. if they had any actual evidence of any wrongdoing it would've come out long before now. and about the worst thing that they can say is that he didn't reveal that he was at one time technically under investigation for an ethics charge in which he said on his questionnaire to the senate committee that he had never been investigated for ethics, it was a charge that was eventually completely dismissed. they barely began any kind of investigation into it in the first place. and the purpose of filling out the questionnaire is to try to get the information out. he admitted that he had made a mistake, they went back and corrected it, and that is about the extent of what they actually got in terms of actual gotcha stuff. >> leslie, does any of this stuff sound monumental enough to you that the guy should be neither position for which she's been nominated? >> i'm actually not sure it's monumental enough for him to be denied the position, but i think it's something that has to be ferreted out, if you will, because this is a pattern of behavior, and we are talking about an individual who is going

to be responsible for the transition of the costs involved of replacing the affordable care act, which affects millions of individuals, and then with just medicare alone where over 130 million people are affected, many of which are elderly or are sick or are poor, and that is a growing segment of our population, the elderly segment of our population, due to the baby boomers. this is troubling. if you can't keep your own affairs and finances in ord, how are you going to ctrol something this size and the scale and have the trust of the american people, which quite frankly, he certainly needs in this position. >> that's an unfair characterization, though. because the hhs secretary is there to execute the will of the executive branch as congress defines it by law. there will not be a lot of individual discretion that he has to change spending priorities and so forth, those are going to be defined by legislation, and so it's unfair to say that this going to be a guy that comes in with a radical agenda that can wholesale rewrite things.

>> you know what, i disagree with you, kevin. if you just look, even finances aside, if you look at this guy is very conservative, to the right of most of the g.o.p. members in the house and senate, this is somebody that not only wants to defund all finance for planned parenthood, but this is somebody who also is not in favor of having any funding for contraception. when you look that impoverished segment of the conch population, of females in our country, what do you do? what do we do to reduce abortion, prevent the pregnancy, because we are not preventing them from having sex. and you're saying we are not going to finance contraception as well question mike these are issues, huge issues, and when you add the finances to that ethic it's more than fair. to >> but not an issue that the hhs second will be left to decide, that will be decided by legislation. >> jon: the issue that oren hatch, the republic and from utah, is complaining about, he says that the rancor in the senate is as bad as he's ever seen and out. he says all of this is about

partisanship, unfortunately we are going to have a to leave it there, leslie marshall, kevin mccullough, thank you both. >> jon: we will be right back with new details on another big nomination hearing on capitol hill. right for you. ibgard calms the angry gut. available in the digestive aisle at cvs, walgreens and riteaid.

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>> jenna: the congressional budget office has president trump is inheriting a stable economy and its annual report released short time ago, as mr. trump picks to lead the white house budget office, congressman mike mulvaney, gets questions about the deficit as hit senate confirmation hearing hearings. our chief national correspondent ed henry has more from washington. >> good to see you, that cbo report also says ten years from now the federal debt is on course to reach a whopping $24.9 trillion. that is trillion with a t. massive challenge, of course,

for the new president, donald trump, who has pledged to tackle the debt crisis yesterday immediately signing an executive order to freeze all federal hiring, icy tries to begin getting federal spending under control. but remember, he's also pledged to increase federal spending on some issues like infrastructure in order to create jobs. now this cbo report from the congressional budget office, if you look at the details, here is as they project that over the next decade, if current laws remain generally unchanged, budget deficits would eventually follow an upward trajectory. those accumulating deficits would drive debt held by the public from its already high-level up to its highest percentage of gross domestic product since shortly after world war ii. to be specific, debt held by the public would grow to 89% of gdp by 2027, largely because of entitlement programs, though the director of the cbo says frankly they don't know how those entitlement programs will be impacted by the president's push to repeal and replace obamacare.

>> i'm often asked about specifically about our projections for medicaid and federal subsidies for health insurance purchased through the marketplaces as established by the affordable care act. they were prepared before the new administration took office and do not incorporate any effects of executive orders or other actions taken by that administration. we have no clear basis for judging how the executive order issued lt friday will be implemented, so by itself, it will not affect cbo's cost estimates for aca related education. >> now you see the live pictures of congressman mulvaney to see that to head the office of management and budget. just a few moments ago, socialist senator bernie sanders was pressing him on the issue of entitlement, demanded to know if the nominee will promise to tell president trump to not cut social security, medicare, and medicaid. interesting, mulvaney said that frankly those programs need to face cuts if we're going to get the debt under control. >> jenna: thank you very much, a story to watch, and we will be

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>> jenna: day two and another busy day, capitol hill and the white house, a lot to watch. we will see you back here in an hour. >> jon: "outnumbered" starts right now. >> fox news alert, there is a new sheriff in the white house briefing room, as we await today's news conference, press secretary sean spicer is shaking up the way these briefings are normally done. and tearing into the media for what he calls their attempt to "undermine" the new president. this is "outnumbered," i'm meghan mccain. here today is harris faulkner, cohost of "after the bell, -- julie roginsky, and today's nazi, the former senior advisor to david cameron, steve hilton. >> steve: i know i'm in trouble, because they fool me. >> you look fabulous. >> on inauguration d