[whisper: rocket] >> melissa: fox news alert. the white house briefing set to begin any moment with special guest nick muvlaney. hello everyone i'm melissa francis. the big budget winners the department of defense, homeland security and veterans affairs. the budget release comes out today. chief white house correspondent john roberts is standing by as we wait for the briefing to begin. john, what can you tell us? >> reporter: good afternoon. this will be the second time we've seen the director here in the briefing room in the last couple of days. he was here yesterday giving us an advance briefing on the budget, in which he said this was going to be a hard power budget. the document we got this morning makes good oven that pledge.

52 billion being spent on the agency. also increases homeland security by $3 billion. makes good on the president's pledge to take care of veterans adding hrt $4 billion to the bug there. where it takes away though is in the department of state, particularly the foreign aid budget. that's going to be cut across the board. state department by 21%. that's a little more than $10 billion. the epa will also get cut by 31%. and there are plans to eliminate 3200 positions there. then the health and human services department will get cut by about 17.5% with a dramatic restructuring of the national institutes of health as part of that. it also proposes to eliminate some independent agencies including the national endowment for the arts and the corporation for public broadcasting. here's what the omb director said about those two agencies this morning. listen. >> i think the president finally got to the point where he said, do i really want to make the

coal miner in west, the autoworker in ohio trb single mom in detroit pay for the national endowment for the arts? the answer is no. >> reporter: this budget also proposes to eliminate the $3 billion in funding for the community block grant program and housing and urban development. that's dr. ben carson's new portfolio. part of that funding goes to meals on wheels. while a lot of people are saying this shows this administration is hearless, meals on wheels only gets a very small percentage of its funding from the federal government. nick mulvaney said they are approaching this budget the way you would a private corporation. does it make sense? do people want it? is it a good use of taxpayer money. it will go through the hill where it is expected to go through some substantial changes before it's voted on. melissa? >> melissa: thank you very much. meanwhile on capitol hill, all the buzz over big news on the health care front. the gop backed bill to replace obamacare narrowly advancing

through the house budget committee. two top lawmakers also sounding off about the health care plan. chief congressional correspond anne mike emanuel is live from capitol hill. tell us first about reaction to the budget. >> reporter: good afternoon. typically lawmakers say thanks mr. president, but congress has the power, the purse. but today house speaker paul ryan praised the president and his team for outlining their priorities. >> end of the fiscal year we are at the cap level. so i don't see a big issue there. we just got the president's budget submission just this morning. this is the beginning of that step. what i'm encouraged by is the notion that we're going to begin rebuilding our military. august 28th is where the funding lapses. i'm not concerned about that. i think we'll hit our bench marks. >> reporter: house democratic leader nancy pelosi said a budget should be a statement of our national val uss. she said judging from this document, it appears the president doesn't care about our children and working families. >> melissa: we'll hear a lot

more about that. what are the latest on the efforts to repeal and replace obamacare? >> it took a step going through third out of four committees in the house, passing the budget committee. house speaker paul ryan said he's essentially working on it, trying to get it just right, and says the president has been playing a constructive role. >> he is making it easier and better for us to pass health care. the president, his involvement and his engagement, his listening and negotiating skills are bringing people together so that we can pass a bill. so we have a bill that we can pass a consensus on and make good on our promises. >> reporter: nancy pelosi countered saying essentially she thinks speaker ryan may endaining r his republican members by forcing them to vote on this bill. >> this speaker has asked his members to walk the plank on a very bad bill that has damaging consequences across the country that might not even become law.

they walk the plank for nothing except to damage the well being of their constituents. >> reporter: ryan and his leadership team are trying to get just the right balance, make just the right adjustment, conservative and moderate republicans support to pass this bill out of the house. melissa? >> melissa: mike, thank you for that. as we await sean spicer to take the podium, let's bring in guy benson fox news contributor an political editor for town hall time and bernard whitman a former pollster for bill clinton. gentlemen, thank for joining me. we are already hearing the talking point. meals on wheels, cutting food to hungry people with this budget. what do you say? >> we hear this time and again from the left no matter what republicans propose, it's mean spirited, it's nasty, it hurts the poor, it kills our children. i thought that last sound bite we heard from nancy pelosi was pretty rich.

i guess she is an expert on forcing members to walk a plank for a harmful health care bill. she has some experience in that realm. some of this is typical partisan fighting. we should be used to that in washington, d.c. but i think that between the budget and the health care bill, i wouldn't be surprised to see some significant changes before we get to final passage on either of those. >> melissa: yeah. bernard, you look at some of the winners in the president's budget. the pentagon, the va, dhs, among others. he's all allocating money to fight opiod addiction. what do you think of the budget? >> i think it's an unmit nated disaster. if you are a working class mother or father that relies on after school programs to send your kids so they have somewhere to go, those programs are gone. programs for summer care, gone. >> melissa: are they gone or have they just lost the federal funding which is a small portion. >> they are being absolutely decimated. if you are someone 55 and oler who needs to find a job, the program that found 1 million

people job, that program is gone. if you care about the environment, that is gone. if you are in the working class in america -- >> the environment is gone? >> if you happen to be at risk for cancer, funding for the nih to find cures for cancer, that funding is gone. this bill is a massive multipwpl dollar give away to defense industry that is being balanced on the backs op working men and women and seniors. >> melissa: guy, one of the interesting things to remember about the math is. i went back and pulled some numbers from how much president obama expanded these departments tpp you look at health and human services which is losing 17%. look at the math from president obama's era. it had expanded by 38.5%. so to cut it by 17% now, it was already expanded by 38. you're not gutting these things. they're not even going back to where they were before. what do you think of that? >> i think that's an important piece of context to keep in mind. the other thing to keep in mind. two points.

this is not a bill. this is not a legislation. this is a proposal from the president. it comes to congress and it will undergo significant renovations, i think, in both houses of congress. and so that's also, i think, something to keep in mind. this is exactly, sounds like bernard is a little surprised by this. this is exactly what the president campaigned on. to put more money into defense torque the va, the opiod crisis. he is keeping a lot of the promises he made on the campaign trail, trying to find money, to balance that out. ultimately a sustainable budget needs to include entitlement reforms. there's some of that in the health care bill. i'd like to see more on medicare and elsewhere. but for now, i don't think a single person in washington should be caught off guard by what the president has proposed, 'cause he told us he was going to propose basically exactly this. >> melissa: bernard, isn't there way waste to be found anywhere. the community development block grants is something that will catch ire for cutting.

you look what's in that program. out in l.a. they handed out $24 million to a dairy that went bust about a year later. all that money was gone. it's not all being spent well or wisely. >> this is taking an ax to something that needs a surgery knife. i will agree with guy on this. we should not be surprised. donald trump ran as an unqualified liar. he has proved to be exactly that. his first few months have been a complete disaster. his health care bill is on life support. his budget is dead on arrival from republicans. his muslim travel ban has faced rejection from courts time after time after time. >> speaker ryan called him out for lying about the wire tapping. this man is a dangerous head of state and his budget reflects that. all the working class people who voted for him are gonna really be in a pickle when they find out they've got no place to send their kids and no cure for disease. >> melissa: guy, i'll let you

respond. >> it's not like the working class people of america are stupid and have no idea what's coming. they needed someone to shake up washington, d.c. you know i have been critical of donald trump. but this is what the american people voted for. if you think he's this horrible dangerous unhinged liar, what does that say about your party, who lost to him, bernard? >> it says we did not have a good message for what working class people and we better find one in 2018 and 2020 and save the republic for this guy. to be honest that's exactly how i feel. >> melissa: let's end on that note. thank you, gentlemen. enjoyed being with both of you. the white house briefing set to start at any moment with an appearance from the omb director who will talk about the president's america first budget. plus house speaker paul ryan talking about the ambitious gop agenda and why he thinks republicans will be successful in getting what they want. >> every day we talk, we compare notes. our teams are fused and working together. i'm very excited ab that.

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what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. >> melissa: fox news alert for you as we await white house press secretary sean spicer to take the podium with additional details ability the budget. one of the topics likely to come up will be the president's immigration proposal from a border wall to a travel ban, which has just suffered a new legal set back. two federal judges blocking the revised version just hours before it was supposed to take effect. vincente gonzalez joins us. he represents the district along the u.s./mexico border. sir, thank you very much for joining us. i was reading about a town in your district called mcgowan

texas that gets retail sales from folks coming from mexico to shop there. how do you think a wall would impact that town? >> certainly would have a negative diplomatic effect. it sends a wrong message to our friends and neighbors across the board. people that support our economy and the economy of our country. certainly it's a negative impact. the biggest issue is that it won't work. i'm for law and order. i am a conservative democrat that is for law and order on the border but i think there are other ways that will keep our area safer, such as arrow staff, more sensors r boots on the ground. right now between my district and the adjoining district we have six aero stats that have a 40 mile vision. it's a virtual wall. it can microscope a butterfly flying across the border. we can look 40 miles into mexico, see what's coming, gather intel. they're very effective. we have six in our region.

there are 27 of them in storage now that have come home from afghanistan that i think should be on the border. when we talk about a border wall, we should be talking about a virtual border wall. >> melissa: do you know who is talking about that? ron johnson. he was saying that he never thought we needed a 2,000 mile wall. that he thinks it would be boots on the ground and technology and a mick of things just like you're describing. why not become part of the process and the example you're talking arbgt get more of that in other places along the border? >> i agree completely. i think that is the way of having real border security. not something with a simplistic antiquated idea of a border wall which can be tunnelled under, crossed over and which really has a negative diplomatic impact on our region and our country. >> melissa: but isn't what you're talking about semantics? the president's own homeland security chairman is saying, of course we're not talking about 2,000 miles of a solid mile.

we're talking about a solid border of some type that includes the type of things that you're talking about. >> the president talked about a big beautiful wall across the country, across the region. he didn't fund it. if you see, we have a $600 billion deficit proposal goes over 6 # $0 billion. there's only $1.5 billion pr pro-poedz for a real border wall. >> melissa: with respect, every time he says that he also describes a big beautiful door in the middle. do you think he means there will be a giant door with a comical knocker on it or something? these are not literal things. >> it's good to have a door. he didn't say virtual wall. he didn't use the word aero stat. we're hearing this recently. very recently from homeland security. i welcome those ideas. those are real ideas that can have a positive impact on our southern border. >> melissa: one of the issues

you're trying to draw attention to is the idea of veterans who have fought for our country and then have been deported. >> it's as awful as i can imagine. we've deported veterans who were here legally, who entered our military service, who served hopb raably, many of them highly decorated veterans who come home with higher post traumatic stress than many others and get into a little trouble, get into a bar fight. start drinking. get caught drinking or have an accident. and they get deported. these are american heroes who we are deporting. we should stop it. >> melissa: there are some people advocated the idea that if you fight for the country you automatically become a citizen. what do you think about that? >> if you are honorably discharged you deserve it. >> melissa: talk to me a little about your reaction to the budget. obviously it's just a blue print and there will be a lot of work ahead. what would you like to see

changed? >> this doesn't curtail our debt we have. we have a $20 trillion debt. this budget is about a $60 billion increase. we're cutting agriculture. these are the folks who helped elect donald trump. we're talking about cutting the coast guard. the coast guard is part of our border security. when we talk about national security, the coast guard is on the front line. in my region, in the gulf coast, they blocked illegal fishing from foreign countries. they stop illegal migration. they stop lot of drugs that come in from the cartels and mexico and central and south america. they are our front line. they should not be under the cutting block of this particular budget. or any budget for that matter. >> melissa: let me get your reaction to the travel ban and the latest action taken on that front, putting pause on the second travel ban. what are your thoughts on that? >> obviously our federal judges

continue to see the unconstitutionality of the language that has been used in this travel ban. i believe we should do some strong vetting in koupbs hrar offices around the world. people should have good folks on the ground gathering intel. we should do the vetting there. get to know their families. i think we could do our work there without completely blocking countries, allowing them to enter into our great country. >> melissa: when you talk about the language, the judges rereacting to things that were said on the campaign trail. would you like to be held in front of a judge for things you said on the campaign trail? >> if i said it on the campaign trail, i mean it. i read part of one decision from the federal judge in hawaii. what he was talking about is how it it would impact the local university. they recruit faculty members from some of these countries. they have students who are studying there. family members of these professors and students who come

visit. i think that's, you know, the portion that i read that stood out to me as why it was unconstitutional and we needed to revisit it. >> melissa: congressman gonzalez, i can hear how busy it is around you. we appreciate you taking the time away to talk to us. thank you very much, sir. >> thank you. it's a real pleasure. >> melissa: right now, we are waiting for the white house briefing, set to start any moment with the president's budget plan likely to be front and center. we're gonna take you there live as soon as it starts. plus, part of the president's budget proposal is a major function of the faa and places it under the control of a private company. so what does the airline industry think about that? you don't let anything keep you sidelined. that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you.

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>> melissa: okay.

we are waiting for sean spicer co-come out for his briefing. he is going to be bringing the omb director and is going to be talking about this budget. we'll bring it to you live. in the meantime, the president, as we said, releasing his budget blue print today. part of it calls for privatizing air traffic control operation, an idea the airline industry is fully embracing. trace gallagher is live with more on this one. trace, interesting idea. >> reporter: it is, melissa. delta is the only airline that so far doesn't fully back the plan to privatize the air traffic control system because it believes privatizing will lead to an increase in cost. the plan would take air traffic control out from under the umbrella of the federal aviation administration and make it an independent organization. but it's not truly being privatized. in fact, it would still be a qasi government entity because it's funded by federal airlines fees. if it fails or needs more

funding, taxpayers would still be on the hook. kind of like amtrak, right? those who support the idea think it will help speed upl up the implementation of up grading ground based radar to an air traffic control system using satellite. next gen would allow airplanes to fly closer together and fly more direct routes, which means airlines could put more planes in the air and save on fuel. they would also speed up arrivals and departure. here is the ceo of southwest airlines talking to the president last month. listen. >> we've spent billionses of dollars on air traffic control modernization, but it's not making any meaningful progress. >> i hear that. i hear we have the wrong system. >> reporter: critic of privatizing it are concerned about upsetting the apple cart when it comes to safely. they correctly point out the united states has the best safety record in the world when it comes to air traffic. and they don't believe next gen

is the answer. watch. >> it's problem after problem. it's not money. it's focus and management. and if any more money is thrown at this by the trump administration, it's going to be a waste. >> reporter: critics also say letting a private corporation run atc will not be a free market solution. instead, it will heavily benefit organized labor and be run by the union. melissa. >> melissa: dicey. trace gallagher, thank you for that one. one of the few winners in the plt's budget proposal is the u.s. military. how the pentagon plans to allocate the funding boost president trump is trying to push their way. plus secretary of state rex tillerson trying to shore up relations with our asian allies right now. the trip coming just after north korea's repeated missile launches. so how is the u.s. planning to deal with the rogue nation? umbrellas!! you need one of these. you wouldn't put up with an umbrella

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>> melissa: okay. we are awaiting press briefing right now from sean spicer. he is going to have the director of office of management of budget out there with him as well, to talk about the president's most recent budget. we're gonna take you there live just as soon as it happens. in the meantime, those budget cuts are offsetting major boost in funding for the military to the tune of $54 billion. national security correspondent jennifer griffin joins us live from the pentagon with more.

and, jennifer, the defense department looks like the big winner this budget. >> reporter: welsh it does, melissa. before we get to the budget, i want to give you something that just happened here at the pentagon. the saudi deputy crown prince just said on camera remarks that he would be willing to put saudi troops on the ground in syria to fight against isis. the question was shouted by pentagon producer lucas tomlinson just moments ago. we'll turn that tape when we get it. now, in terms of the budget, the republican heads of the house and senate armed services committee don't think the white house budget goes far enough. congressman max thornberry and senator john mccain say the pentagon need $640 billion, quote, the fiscal year 2018 defense top line proposed today of $603 million will not be sufficient to rebuild the military. such a budget does not represent a 10% increase as previously described by the white house, but amounts to a mere 3% over

president obama's defense plans which has left our military under funded, under sized and unready to meet the threats of today and tomorrow. some examples provided by senator mccain, two thirds of the navy's f-18 campaign fly, marine corps pilots are flying fewer than their russian and chinese counter parts. and just two of the army's 58 brigade combat teams are ready to, quote, fight tonight. that according to the army's vice chief. president trump likes to compare his proposed defense spending increase to the reagan era buildup in the '80s, but under reagan the defense budget grew by 36%. >> melissa: is the pentagon concerned about other budget cuts being suggested for other agencys? >> reporter: yes, there's a great deal of discomfort in the pentagon about the proposed cuts to the state department's budget which is slated to be slashed by 29%, gutting foreign aid and

money to the united nations. the defense secretary mattis outlined the danger of cutting the state department budget a few years back. >> if you don't fund the state department i need to buy more ammunition, ultimately. so i think it's a cost benefit ratio. the more that we put into the state department's diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to put into a military budget. >> reporter: president trump suggested increasing active duty army by 90,000 soldiers and increasing the number of navy ships from 273 to 350. expect a lot of debate in the coming days and weeks about this defense budget, melissa. >> melissa: no doubt. jennifer, thank you very much for that. for more on this joining us is scott brown former massachusetts senator and fox news contributor. sir, thank you for joining us. so you heard what they were just saying there about the state department being -- or the pentagon being distressed about the state department's budget being cut by 28%.

if you look at the obama administration, the state department had been expanded by better than 37% during that time. so i don't know. it seem likes in some of these spots we're not even back to where we were before the last expansion even with the cuts. what are your thoughts? >> i served in the military for 35 years. the last four were at the pentagon. and while it's deeply appreciating they're getting $54 billion, it's very important to note that i believe they should be audited. you need to do that top to bottom review of the pentagon. there's a tremendous amount of overlap and waste. you have more contractors than soldiers working there. there are things that can be done to maximize those dollars. they also need to be given the various army, air force, marines, cost guard and national guard, you need to have transfer authority. the ability to transfer funds within the budget you. president obama didn't allow that. he allowed the faa to do it. but he didn't allow the military. there's monies available, but

they need to be able to do it appropriately. so i think that needs to be done before we continue to throw more money at the military. listen, i want them to have every tool and resource. i want them to prioritize. i want them to use the money that's within the system. you get to the state department, we have been giving, there's been a huge discussion on whether we should continue to give money to countries that want to kill us and want to change our way of life. we're giving money to countries that do not agree with us in anything. i don't know if i agree with that. lot of senators and house members feel the same way. >> melissa: about the second issue that you raised about the transfer of money and some of the ideas. have you presented those? what's the response been like? are those things people are thinking about right now? >> yes, absolutely. i have certainly conveyed my thoughts to anybody who will listen. there are a fair amount of people who get it. why are we gonna put good money after bad?

there are plenty of tunes to stream line, eliminate all the duplication, allow for transfer authority. use the accounts that have been overfunded and haven't been used. we don't need any more cold weather sleeping bags. we don't need certain types of equipment. let's prioritize what those needs are. maximize and use the taxpayer dollars to the best ability thaf we have. i think the amount that the president is proposing is a nice number. if we couple that with the things that i just referenced, that could go up twice that. then we're kind of getting pwerlt. then you build on the next budget. it can be done overnight because we near a $20 trillion national debt. >> melissa: you mentioned not spending money to people that are our enemies. i'm gonna throw a curveball at you and ask you to respond to the report that came ahead of you where we heard the saudi arabian prince who was on visit here saying he's willing to put boots on the ground. saudi boots on the ground. what do you think about that? >> i think it's about time. it's great. the fact that we do a tremendous

amount for saudi arabia. they need to do more. they should be taking a lot of those syrian refugees. they should be taking people who are in turmoil in that part of world. instead of coming here and creating quite frankly unrest in syr syria's immigration problems. i hope they see in president trump someone who is strong, who is a man of his words. he wants to get rid of isis. isis wants to go after the saudi princes just as much as they want to go after us. that's a good thing, that they're stepping up. >> melissa: sir, thank you for joining us. u.s. department, state department facing a major reduction under president trump's new budget proposal. secretary of state rex tillerson traveling overseas, now defending the president's cuts, calling the current level of spending unsustainable. rich edson is live in seoul, south korea. rich, the state department could lose almost one-third of its budget. where are all the cuts coming

from? >> reporter: well, that's billions of dollars, melissa. almost 30% of the budget. much would come from foreign assistance what the united states pays to the united nations in peace keeping missions. in tokyo, japan, rex tillerson was asked about those cuts and defended them. he said the current state department budget is historically high and that eventually down the line the united states will be less directly involved in military conflicts around the world and that other nations will step up and provide more when it comes to foreign assistance. you heard folks like general mattis who are saying when the united states spends on foreign aid, it makes the world a more peaceful, a better place and negates the lead down the future for the u.s. to have to come in with military involvement. mitch mcconnell was asked about this last month, if congress would accept the nearly 37% cut to the state department budget. mcconnell responded probably not. melissa? >> melissa: what is secretary tillerson saying about keeping

north korea in check? >> reporter: well, the secretary of state and the primary focus here on this trip to asia really is addressing north korean aggression, its nuclear program, ballistic missile program. secretary of state says north korea has to give that up, and to do so, the world needs a new approach to nor korea. >> the diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bring north korea to a point of denuclearization have failed. so we have 20 years of failed approach. and that includes a period in which the united states provided $1.35 billion in assistance to north korea as an encouragement to take a different path way. >> reporter: in a few hour, tillerson arrives near seoul south korea. he will tour the demilitaryized

zone. he is all pressuring china to do more to persuade its ally, tphorlt korea, to curb its aggressive behavior. seoul korea will be the second stop on tillerson's asian trip. the third, beijing, china, where they will also discuss north korea. melissa, back to you. >> melissa: rich, thank you very much. we are awaiting the white house briefing with sean spicer to discuss the budget. they are obviously running behind a bit. we'll bring it to you just as soon as they come out, we promise. plus the stock market going down after the fed raised interest rates yesterday. we're gonna check in on that. and beautiful clean coal, as the president calls it, set to make a come back. we're live in coal country to see how that industry may be turning around.

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and bring that to you live as soon as it happens. we have a lot of news for you. signs of life from the crippled coal industry, mining companies are hiring again after the president's roll back of epa restrictions. but the golden age of coal is long gone. senior correspondent mike tobin joins us live from a mine in hazard, kentucky, to explain why. mike? >> reporter: this is the e-41 mine. it was shut down during the obama years. you hear that racket. this mine is up and running, mining coal again. people in coal country say what you've got is a new president, a new attitude toward coal and that means new jobs. carlos sterdl is a career kentucky coal miner. he's doing something he hasn't done in three years. mining coal. >> i'm glad i'm working. thankful that i got a job again. >> reporter: a bounce in the economy created a demand for steel. you need coal to make it.

an adversary to coal moved out of the white house and a president moved in who started rolling back regulations that crippled mining. it's not a story book ending for the coal miners. here at this mine, since 2012 they've laid off 460 guys. in the last two months they've hire back 90. as technology advances, equipment becomes more efficient, requiring less man power. in the obama years some plants either shut down or built infrastructure to burn natural gas. that put coal in competition with fracking and keep fossil fuel. >> even though that coal is coming back and there will be employment in the future, but whether it will not unlikely go back to the way it was ten, 15 years ago. >> reporter: retail business people in little coal towns like hazard, kentucky, are happy for any comeback but know they'll never come all the way back. >> when they started doing all the layoffs my business went down tremendously.

>> reporter: so, the question is, are the new jobs related to something tangible the president has done, like roll back in regulation, or just a sense of optimism because they have a proponent in the white house as opposed to an adversary? the people out here in coal country from university experts to miners to people in the center of town say it's all about the optimism. melissa. >> melissa: interesting. mike tobin, thank you. stocks trending down today. you can see there, the dow down about 37 points, as hel companies react to the cuts in medical research president trump has proposed on the budget. dow right now is still above 20,000 at 20,913. fox business lori rothman is live at the new york stock exchange. lori? >> don't forget markets rallied after the fed rose interest rates yesterday and said we have two more. that was one great hike fewer than what wall street was afraid of so it was a rally yesterday. it's coming in a little bit today.

markets aren't moving a whole lot. let's look under the hood. there is a lot investors are digesting especially with the trump budget. health care stocks are taking it on the chin today. you basically got calls for cuts in funding for research, swell calls for higher regulatory themes among many of the pharmaceutical companies, the biotech companies, medical device companies. basically all of the subgroups within the health care industry. familiar names, johnson and johnson, phizer, merck. real controversial, trump has not held back, the president has not held back, saying they are just getting away with murder what they're charging folks for prescriptions and other treatments. back to you. >> melissa: he has said that. lori rothman, thank you for economy, let's bring back scott brown former massachusetts senator and a fox news contributor. i'm glad you could stick around.

there was one more thing i wanted to ask you about. in the latest fox news poll one of the polls wasn't looked at quite as closely was that for your family, it feels like the economy is getting better, 48% said yes. getting worse, 29%. staying the same 19%. you compare that to last october. lot more optimism. that getting better number has moved up 11 points. the getting worse number has moved down 19 points. pretty clear that people, just since october, are feeling better about the economy. why do you think that is? >> well, i think because the president is establishing tax and regulatory certainty. as you just referenced in your previous report, the coal industry which employs, you know, potentially hundreds of thousands of people not only through the coal industry but the ancillary businesses is coming back. you have a regulatory scheme where you're not having unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats circumventing the role of congress and the

president and putting in rules that make business not want to hire, grow and expand. so i think part of it is just the fact that you're going to have a repatriation as part of the tax plan that brings back all of that money that's overseas, you're going to stream line and consolidate regulations. it's in vogue again to say i'm going to by golly create a business. that's a good thing. that's exciting. >> melissa: that sentiment is so important. so many on the left said the economy was booming under president obama and he just didn't get krecredit for it. you're laughing. >> it's laughable. you can tell by the starup starts. they were down. corporations were taking and putting their monies overseas. they were doing inversion. they were leaving this country because you can't compete on a global basis when you're paying the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. melissa, you know this better than anybody. when you create -- the government doesn't create jobs. they create an environment for

businesses and individuals to create jobs. >> melissa: entre presep presen tphaours do it. we'll be right back. we're waiting for press secretary right there. ( ♪ ) i moved upstate because i was interested in building a career. i came to ibm to manage global clients and big data. but i found so much more. ( ♪ ) it's really a melting pot of activities and people.

(applause, cheering) new york state is filled with bright minds like victoria's. to find the companies and talent of tomorrow, search for our page, jobsinnewyorkstate on linkedin.

>> melissa: national air travellers finding themselves caught in the middle of court battle over president trump's travel ban. jonathhnathan hunt is live at t international airport. >> reporter: armies of lawyers were on stand by to help those affected by the travel ban and potential army of protesters were on standby to come down here to lax as they have done the last time around. but now, no travel ban and a mixed reaction from travellers here today.

listen. >> vetting process is good. screening process is good. but putting the woman, children, family into separation, this is not what america is all about. >> it is not convenient to a lot of tourists and i would say america has been known as welcoming tourists from everywhere. >> i don't think travellers are going to be affected by this at all. they're just gonna keep doing their thing. now people can visit their families. >> reporter: now, what happens next is unclear. remember, the last time it went to the 9th circuit here out west, the three judge panel ruling in favor of the lower court and against the trump administration. that could happen again. it would be a different three-judge panel because the judges on the 9th circuit rotate every month, melissa. back to you. >> melissa: thank you for that. the white house briefing was scheduled for 2 p.m. not happened yet. we will be there, though, when it does. we'll be right back. for lower back pain sufferers,

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>> melissa: okay. we are waiting that 2:00 briefing from press secretary sean spicer. he's supposed to come out with the omb director. maybe they're watching basketball. bucknell and west virginia playing right now. just saying. tomorrow is st. patrick's day. paul ryan throwing back a pint of guinness. that was a moment before he introduced president trump at a lunch with the irish prime minister. new york city is home to the oldest and largest st. patrick's day parade in the world. they're still digging out from the winter storm that hit tuesday. some 150,000 people set to march in the parade. i'm hoping they'll stomp on some snow. march madness.

princeton losing to notre dame by two. oh! i really think that's what they're doing in the press secretary's room. they're watching the game. i'm melissa francis. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 on a very busy day in washington d.c. the white house unveiling the president's budget plan. while the pentagon is pleased, other departments will night to tighten their belts. after all, border walls are not free. winners and losers in the trillion dollar budget. two judges knocking down the president's travel ban. the president is said to be livid and not giving up. >> we're going to fight this terrible ruling, we're going to take our case as far as it needs to go including supreme court. >> ahead why the judges rejected his ban and how the president can fight back. surveillance at trump