pete: join us again tomorrow because dean cain and rachel will be here tomorrow. i can't believe i was a four hour show. dean: no it wasn't. it was a three hour show. pete: now we get to hand it over to new show, neil cavuto live. dean: get them, neil. neil: where were you last year at this time? well, we were here, exactly here last year at this time. welcome everybody i'm neil cavuto and thank you for joining us for a debut edition of cavuto live i named it myself anyway we're exploring things that we explored on our great business shows, whose prominent character s you'll be seeing every week here, to digest what's going on not only in that house behind us, but what he's been doing since and what it means to the economy and the markets and here we are one year later in the middle of a government shutdown. we're going to be exploring that and what is at stake not only

for your money but that famous intersection i talk about between wall street and main street and might i add, k street and the nation's capitol and we've got a whose who of players to explain that to you and what's at stake at the capitol right now where technically the government is not functioning. tim scott will be joining us, ronald mcdaniel the rnc, david s hulken and mark meadows of the freedom caucus. his concern also growing about whatever efforts they make to attach together a deal and that they want to talk about doing something as soon as monday, whether that will pass with democrats, with republicans remember he's the guy name us for holding his nose when the house approved a measure that ultimately the senate couldn't garner enough votes for. now we'll be raising that with tim scott very very shortly who says that everybody has got to get on the same page eventually, because shutting down the

government is not an option and by the way, there's a back and forth as to whether this is hurting republicans or democrats in the past, it has hurt republicans, maybe not this go around. we're also keeping track of the president of the united states. he's been commenting and supposed to go to florida. he canceled that and he's at the white house right now and he's been busy tweeting and we'll get to that in a second but in the meantime we want to go to peter doocey on capitol hill for what's in-store because the house i guess is already in session and the senate soon in session, right, peter? >> the house is officially in session, neil in about two hours but right now house republicans are coming in here is your guests in a couple hours mark meadows heading into this " meeting." they're talking about what the senate did last night which is failed to pass this month-long continuing resolution. instead now they're trying to pass one that goes through february 8 but because mitch mcconnell wasn't able to

introduce that until very very early this morning they can't even consider it until very very early on monday. so the government is going to stay shutdown until at least then. there was a big bipartisan group of lawmakers that got together on the senate floor late last night. it looked like they were negotiating something but ultimately, they did not get anything done and republicans say that it's all because of disingenuinous daca requests by democrats. >> we all been having private conversations here on the floor. almost everybody on both sides don't understand how we ended up here. because most of the stuff is real there's only one reason we ended up here. the shoe horning of illegal immigration and this debate. >> but the top democrat there chuck schumer claims that he made a concession democrats

hadn't even been considering so he doesn't think the shutdown is his fat. >> he walked away from two bipartisan deals including one today in which i even put the border wall on the table. >> but just because government is technically out of money relevant agencies are still going to send benefit checks to people on medicare medicaid or social security, the veterans administration hospital is still running and the mail gets delivered except on sundays and you'll still get a pat down from tsa agents at the airport because they're open too but most of the irs is shutting down which is good news if trying to avoid an audit but bad news if you have questions about the new tax code, the epa only has enough money to operate for a new more days and you can't come and get a tour of capitol hill non-essential federal workers are furloughed that means for example, that the capitol police had to show up but their paychecks majority be delayed. neil? neil: that's got to be tough if

you're deemed a non-essential government worker right? whatever. right and i was hearing from some folks over on the house side and house offices where people were very upsetesterday because their bosses, lawmake or chief of staff had to go around and say okay we need you on monday you're essential or you're not essential you can stay home until we figure this out. neil: that would hurt my feelings. all right, thank you very much. you're right about that but they're unpaid during that break so that could go both ways, peter thank you very very much. now the question eventually, the question is how long this lasts and i told you about an effort right now to make it as short as possible given the timing of this remember this went past midnight last night, so given all these rules that i can not comprehend in the united states senate, the soonest we could get something going to form early reopen the government or even to address it would be monday, i

think. but fortunately senator tim scott, rising star in the republican party in the leadership of the fine state of south carolina where they're dealing with snow so we knew you were paving the way for crazy stuff. >> it's cold but the schumer shutdown is even colder. neil: i notice you said on the republican side schumer shutdown , might surprise you he's been calling it the trump shutdown. whose shutdown is it? >> it's a schumer shutdown any questions. every facet of the deal the democrats want. the one thing they do not want is they don't want the president in a position to make progress on the daca issue on his timeline. so instead of dealing with the daca issue before march 5 which we've all committed to doing, he wants to make it a camign issue and make us the demons as related to dac neil: but you think he's over played his hand here? >> he knows it, the democrats know it and frankly the american people know it. we've got to solve the problems that are right before us, the chip.

the children's health insurance program has expired. we offered a six-year extension on children's health insurance program and they said no. neil: you know a lot of people and i understand where you're coming from on this and i know the administration has already indicated we're willing to re visit this, the daca immigration issue but first you've got to open up the government again so i understand where that's coming from. >> absolutely. neil: when would that be? this could conceivably end quickly or linger a long time. >> i assume that we'll start voting again today. we go back into session in just about an hour or so. neil: but voting on what? >> we'll be voting on different versions of this plan. lindsay graham and others have been flirting with an opportunity to have an extension to february 8 that would give us enough time. neil: he's your colleague and he's telegraphed that but were you surprised? >> he's said all week he's a no for the february 16 state and a no for this part of the process and he said to me last night

that february 8 date is something that was worth considering and gives both sides enough time to get every single thing back on the table and solve those issues. neil: senator, lindsay graham was critical of what he deemed to be i don't want to misquote him a perceived about-face on this daca issue by the president that in the famous tuesday meeting remember that was live and everyone was witnessing it. he seemed to say that you guys get together on daca measure and ll take the heat and then a couple of days later we're told after meeting with some conservatives that he changed his mind. do you know what the back story is on that because lindsay graham read into that that the president changed his mind and from this famous meeting where he seemed to be open to that on january 9 that he reversed course. >> i don't know i was not at that meeting. i do realize without any

question paramount in the president's priorities is making sure that border security is fused into whatever deal we macon daca. neil: and that wasn't in this? >> i don't think the numbers were high enough and frankly we'll get there between now and the end of february. neil: do you have any sense right now that this is i mentioned before senator that the markets have kind of dismissed this. i don't know whether that's because they're getting used to this it happened a little over four years ago i understand that with 16 days but they tend to do well during this, mark pen will be joining us shortly, and you know, markets went up especially afterwards, so do we over deal with this or what? i think what it is is a failure in leadership. the schumer shutdown reflects that the democrats are more engaged in campaigning and politics than they are in govern ing. neil: and you guys aren't? >> well almost every single republican voted to extend

funding for the government. neil: almost, four did not. >> out of 50, so we are absolutely in charge of the government to the extent that you can be wit only 50 votes. you actually need 60 votes to be in control of the senate. we don't have 60 votes. we need our democrats. neil: you're quite right senator but you guys have the run of the table. the white house behind me both branches of government that this shouldn't have gotten to this point. but neil you know as well as anyone because you're brilliant. neil: thank you very much you're coming back again. >> state the truth here is what you know. in the senate to run the senate you need 60 votes on the legislative items and without those 60 votes you're not in charge of legislation. we only have 51 votes at best. neil: but could this have been avoided just dealing with it earlier like a college thing where we do? certainly you could take a lot of grief. >> listen three months we've been negotiating on these principles that are part of the plan, the democrats signed off

on all those and now decided to do is hold hostage the american people and government or something that is not yet imminent. neil: senator great having you here on this new show. >> this is great. neil: great honor for you. >> great to be home in charleston. neil: senator thank you very very much. >> absolutely. neil: senator tim scott put it better than i could. right now the fact of the matter is to the senator's point that if you're looking for this the world as we know it still early but it has not happened. normally, shutdowns tend to be on the heat of the party that controls congress and in this case, it is the republican party , but that is not necessarily a given. one of the things we've discovered looking at this in the past is that when you look at where this goes, and how people are weighing this, they don't like a government shutdown but they're opposed to forcing one based on making daca the lynch pin for it.

in other words, as much as they dislike shutting down the government, they really dislike shutting it down based on a single issue and in this case, daca. mark pen joins us with that of course, you recognize him as the key clinton polster. i like to call him the clinton s vingali. very good to have you my friend. >> good morning. neil: one of the things we're looking at, were you surprised by that, that people don't like these government shutdowns but it didn't play out the way typically they have. >> well, i think that there's a little risk here the democrats are taking because let's face it they've been leading in all of the polls and in their election position and now, they do a shutdown over a single issue daca that if you go back to 95 we stood our ground on the basis of medicare medicaid, education and the environment really huge issues and here people are saying yes, we support daca 77% but i don't know that they would have shut the government down now and so there's some risk for

the democrats. neil: in other words it's important but not worth shutting down the government but is that registering? obviously people are looking at this, this is a separate washington post survey that says no, it's unrepublican and i think there's talks to your point maybe on both parties, but where do you see this going? >> well first there's no question the big loser is america. people of the military, the post office workers, people who then have to wait for their paychecks i think that the system is a loser because americans just dump on washington when they see this happe ey khesenow t are now political stunts when say well, wal strts sluffing it of because well it's a political stunt and they know they get the government back and restore all of the paychecks it's almost a dance but it's a dance probably they think shouldn't have happened and i think here the danger is that this spins out of control back to i think a break down of our government and that's more just as the economy is coming up and people are beginning to get confidence again.

neil: you know you mentioned confidence. a lot of the president talks about optimism over these tax cuts and everything else. normally they come to fruition and people start seeing them later it's something i'm going to be raising to mothers here but is it your sense the democrats might regret unanimous ly rejecting those? >> well i was surprised that democratic senators in republican states didn't go for the tax cuts. we've seen opinion move. we saw only about a third a month ago favoring the tax cut. it's now up to 47%. that is a huge change in only a month and i think when you're actually tell people what's in the tax cut, most people wind up favoring it so i think the tax cut is going to wind up likely to be more popular than not and so i'm surprised that some of these democratic senators didn't go the other way. neil: you know, we talk about shutdowns and who benefits and who doesn't. you could make the point that in

bill clinton's case some say that he followed a parade but than ran in front of it to lead it. be that as it may,he shutdown brought us, you know, welfare to work, brought us a lot of first entitlement program changes and it took newt gingrich and bill clinton to do that. do you think something as consequential could come of this however long it lasts? >> well i hope that a deal is made. i think that will be consequential. if a real deal is made between border security dealing with chain migration, the lottery, and giving a path to citizenship to dreamers that will be something america will say a-ha, finally they did something and i think if they get there in the next few days everyone can be winners when today everybody is losers. neil: do you know what i wonder you follow this much more closely than i but each side gets into the extreme position so it's almost like professional wrestling that we cannot budge from our pre-crafted extremes

and so there in creasingly is no middle ground. >> well particularly in political negotiations. people don't realize that in political negotiations, people dig their heels in absolutely the most in public while in private they post rescuer iting to make a deal and end this thing because they know it's really unpredictable if they stay in this position for much longer, so and in fact everyone plays their hand out with the public to the maximum. think of it like these labor contract negotiations. they've got to stop the clock at 12:01. they know they shut the government down during the weekend and if they can get it back by monday this thing is a blip. if it starts to go into next week the political dynamics will then change. neil: midterms real quick take how do they look? >> midterms there's no question that democrats if you look at the national congressional vote last time, it was 49-48 republicans if you add up all of the votes in congress. i think the democrats now had about a three or four point edge going into this and i think

they've taken some unnecessary risks both on tax, and here; however there's no question they're in a stronger position than the republicans. neil: take the house? >> take the house. i think the senate would the table is unfavorable to the democrats but i do think right now and typically in the midterm of the first election almost any president we've had that is what happens. neil: we shall see mark thank you very much for coming good seeing you. >> thank you. neil: mark penn. to mark's point a lot could hinge on how people feel about the tax cuts. in the middle of a government shutdown the president has been crawling about them and we have seen unexpected benefits of the tax cuts before average folks start seeing their paychecks maybe as soon as next month and that is all these corporations that are giving out bonuses better than three and a half million americans have benefited from everything to 2000, $2500 bonus toss even utility customer s getting 5% tax breaks and that is surprised a whole

bunch of folks here. one of the things that you don't see in the mainstream media or the media in general is getting into the weeds on tax cuts but i do remember a time when we had something as similar going back to ronald reagan's days and the first wave of tax cuts then and there was sort of a sentiment expressed in the media even the wall street journal reporting they were too big, too revolutionary, too costly, and that they would not be greeted favorably. then, something happened along the way. people were getting their paychecks with those taxes taken out or a good chunk of it taken out and they like what they saw. i can remember from my dad at the time even me at the time, you look at the paycheck and see the net and you are saying do you know what? eve heard people talking about this but i've got more money. that single handedly startled the media and that because well ronald reagan was being ripped for that and the slow response to tax cuts that at least the media is doing too little too

late throughout the economy and remember back then he was deemed to be a guaranteed one-term eras things got worse or got better until as i said, people saw those checks. pat buchanan remembers it well and he was but a kid himself then and joins us on multiple best-selling author very powerful conservative voice pat buchanan good to see you. good to see you can you cut down the air conditioning here? neil: a little bit. you know it's interesting because i was looking back at some of the research here and the headlines for weeks, months after the tax cuts the reagan tax cuts were too much, too soon wouldn't do any good. they were kind of like these ones have been. you know what happens. >> well what happened was reagan lost 26 seats in the house in 82 he was in real trouble there in 83 but when they really cut in the tax cuts, the economy started to boom and he had 6% growth in 1984, well timed.

neil: but i think it was something simpler though. i think people they were hearing how awful these tax cuts were back then and then they looked at their paychecks and saidy net just went up. >> that's going to happen of course this year but at the same time, you can't keep running and saying the tax cuts were awful. people are going to turnaround and say are you going to raise the corporate rate back up to 35 , if you guys get inlet me know that real quick so i think also you can't keep repeating that same message. people okay we know you didn't like him. let's see how they do now. neil: mark penn was saying there's democrats especially in the seats who might regret their no votes on this thing. what do you think? >> i don't know about that. i don't know if people are going to go to the polls and say you know how did he vote on this or that including this shutdown or whatever it is going on right now. neil: shutdowns rarely move poll s. >> do you know what's

interesting is for an economy african american, hispanic, unemployment, white unemployment lower than its ever been, the market is booming which is a lead indicator. it looks like the republicans may get wiped out in the house and maybe in the senate. i think the reason is when the economy is good something else is the issue and when the economy is bad the economy is the issue. neil: a lot of people typically say donald trump is the issue for whatever good he's been for the markets and economy, we would certainly blame our president if it wasn't good. but do you think that he gets in the way of his message? >> i think there's no question about it, that part of the reason for the problem of the republicans is the tremendous hostility to trump t hostility through the media, i mean i live out there in virgin and it was a real wipe out in that election and he's 38, 35% or something like that but the republican party is down. i think it's because of that,

but he's still in the first term with the opposition he had. as i say i'm getting tired of winning. neil: yeah, you know, i had the feeling that we're under appreciating as i said the depth and the magnitude of what corporations are getting out of this. you could say that the company this was way too generous if you were of the view that they would just throw it back which feel free to do but the fact that maybe it is a curse to them they have a lot to share with their workers in terms of bonus checks and utilities. you know 5% rebate for customers >> exactly. neil: i don't think that was factored in. >> well neil it helps the 401 (k) and all of the retirement plans but my bet is this. i'm a populous conservative. neil: are you really? >> very much so, [laughter] but i voted for cutting the corporate tax rate to 15% not for the benefit so much of the corporation because this is the way to bring corporations and

jobs and all these things back home to the united states. i know folks might not like it but in from 1865 to 1914, the corporations were hiring all these americans giving them better pay and better benefits. the american workers and the corporations were doing well together and now the first guys at the table are the corporations right now but i think if they deliver this and the stock market says they will i think trump's mad a good net for the whole party. neil: he freely and openly, you can't blame him sometimes because he doesn't get a lot of fair shakes from the media here but he talks up the markets. ronald reagan was loathed to do that and maybe it served him well with the 87 stock market crash even though markets were still up when he left office and when he came in. is that a risk, what do you think of a president constantly touting the market? >> i tend to agree with reagan, [laughter] look this market has not been

good. its been unbelievable and i often ask the mrs. do you think we should dump some of this stuff? i've gone through a number of these things, 87 you know? neil: right. >> just in there and i remember saying the market went down 25% at one session and i used to say the good news this can only happen three more times. neil: what did reagan say stocks go up stocks go down. >> i can only hear. neil: but these milestones that we've been seeing in the dow and everything else, you can make the argument that a lot of this money coming back home that there's a lot of room to run right? >> it's not money coming back. i think a lot of foreign companies are going to say look let's get in the united states. i mean let's put our money in there and not repatriate it keep it in the united states. neil: all right, good seeing you >> good seeing you. neil: we'll complain about the cold weather. i notice you've got a jacket on.

neil: you're a tough guy. will you calm down, okay good seeing you thank you for being here for our debut day. all right, we these markets they really never looked back the dow 31% second best performance we've seen on the part of a first-year president. that's not too shabby. the comparison was fdr back in 33 and of course pat was there for that one but i'm joking. >> started at a fairly low level neil: exactly but do you know what's wrong about that back then we were off well depressed levels and already coming in on pretty high levels and look at where we've gone. the markets this week up across-the-board in that record territory, certainly the nasdac and a lot of people equate that with what's going on here in washington not only in that house behind me but in the other end of pennsylvania avenue now that they've successfully brought together tax cuts the likes of which and the benefits of which average folks presumably will start seeing 90%

of us we're told in our paycheck s next month. all right in the meantime, the read on all of that from some of our pros john layfield, we've got adrian elrod and gary b. smith. i promised you we would be harkening back to the great shows that brought us here including bulls & bears, cashing in so many more, so we're going to continue to mix and marry our historic winners here to put in perspective the stuff that matters to you so john layfield, looking at that, and what you're seeing, you always wonder about an uninterrupted run. we've had an uninterrupted run here in a market that is yet to see so much as a 5% cstruction does that part worry you? it does. look, and people starting to look for negatives it's hard to find negatives right now and that's one of the scary things about a long market this is the second longest bull market the 90s being the longest bull market in history and i think right now people are starting to worry just to worry. there's not any event on the

horizon unless there's a geo-political event in north korea or pakistan, there's not a geo-political event anything on the horizon or event horizon that looks to derail this economy. the only thing that worries me is china exported deflation for so many years and starting now to export inflation and i think six to 18 months we could see that we're seeing all prices up 50% in a year copper is up 31% starting to see some commodity inflation but that looks to be six to 18 months off and looks like according to the last interview it looks like smooth selling for the next one to three years for the foreseeable future. neil: you know, gary b., you look at the markets and they look kind of bullet proof right now. there's always an outside of that that undo these things whether in 87 if they are given over portfolio insurance or whether you could protect your investment through a short course that was a foolish notion then and it's deemed that now but is there anything on the horizon that you think could disrupt this? let's say a government shutdown.

>> well it's interesting, neil you bring up and by the way congratulations on your new show you're just not on tv enough so it's nice seeing you occasionally. neil: that was my complaint, you know? >> yeah, exactly. as far as the government shutdown, it's interesting. forbes did a study of this during the 2013 shutdown. the average return for the market in non-shutdown times is .3% per day. do you know what the average return during a shutdown and there's been a number of them since 1976? .3% so it's exactly identical the market shrugs off a shutdown and tends to do what its been doing and second answer to your question is there anything on the horizon? i'm with john. it's always what you don't see. look, even the fed missed the beginning of the housing crisis when other people saw it, so you've got very smart people that can't see what in hindsight always looks obvious i don't know what it is.

i'm worried about quite frankly the only thing trump economic ally that concerns me is what he might do with trade and get into a trade war. that could trigger some pretty disastrous consequences. everything else though he's done pretty darn well. neil: when you look at things, one of the things that people worry about is interest rates backing up. now they're still very very low but a 10-year note we gauge rate direction based on that. it's the highest its been in over a year and some say when it hits 3% it's not all that far. maybe people will look at that as, you know, that's a safer guaranteed rate of return than risking it in these markets. what do you think? >> yeah, look maybe but i think ultimately this tax bill that we're talking about here gave corporations the permanent tax cut, did not give middle classeo while corporations have a long term permanent tax cut you're

not seeing that with working families who only got a 10 year tax cut before this has to be re negotiated again, so to me it's the instability it's the fact that we don't have aures light plan for middle class families and that is -- neil: i'm surprised some of those and it's early on here but some of those middle class families are surprising beneficiaries of that corporate taxes. some of whom are sharing the wealth some companies like handing it out a case of apples, $2500 bonuses what have you. what do you make of that? >> well look first of all i'm happy to see corporations do that. you are seeing wal-mart and apple and some major fortune 500 companies that are coming forward and passing some of these along to their employees but there's no guarantee and that's the problem. if you have middle class tax cuts permanent for middle class families there is that guarantee there's no guarantee, no government mandate that a corporation has to pass these taxes along to their employees and i think that is where you see just the instability and the

fact that yeah, maybe these families are getting these bonuses now or seeing wage increases now, but there's no guarantee that's going to be the case in the long term. neil: so you're still a missouri here, show me. >> yes! neil: we are showing a lot of the companies that are sharing the loop. is it your sense, gary b., that they will continue to do so, that list will grow? >> i do. i think primarily good or bad from a public relations standpoint it's certainly the right thing to do but m importantly as companies see greater wealth in return to the tax cuts they're going to grow and expand so the real winners are going to be these companies that grow and have to start to compete for workers, so it's not just this money they're giving back. it's the fact that i eventually see their wealth creating a demand for more workers and then wages and salaries goes up. that's the real benefit, neil.

neil: guys i want to thank you all in the middle of this as the numbers come in and these companies could see you to make these announcements many of whom they make on weekends so we get more we'll pass them along. meanwhile the government is shut down. what is that doing for veterans? their benefits, their care we've got the va secretary here david shulken, coming up.

neil: all right welcome back to our debut show and i know some of you are saying neil did you time the government shutdown for this new show's debut? that would be ridiculous, but it is probably helping a little bit because we've got some drama to link one year into the presidency of one donald j. trump whose been busy tweeting at the house behind me. we'll get to that in a second, but the senate and the house will be scrambling back into order today, not necessarily talking to each other but

talking among the respective caucuses today. lindsay graham was among the republican senators there were four of them including rand paul , mike lee, et cetera, who were not keen on busting numbers and this tentative measure that was taken last night just to keep the government doors open. anyway, lindsay graham is saying that leader mitch mcconnell mentioned last night he's willing to make a proposal for a continuing resolution and see resolution on immigration. i would support such a proposal. i also agreeit senator mccoelwe are close to a resolution on these issues. my next guest probably hopes that is the case the va secretary of the united states dr. david shulkin. secretary very good to have you. nice to be here, neil. neil: how does this affect veteran's care so far do you know? >> first of all this is not a good thing for veterans. we need the government open and servicing our veterans it's very important. it's our responsibility as a

country to do that. about 16,000 of our workers will be immediately furloughed and another 28,000 will come to work but won't receive paychecks. neil: va workers? >> va workers but fortunately the essential services, healthcare services getting our veterans our checks will continue uninterrupted because the last time we had the shutdown, congress has authorized us in a advanced appropriation money ahead of time so that we don't disrupt the essential services to our veterans. neil: all right now mick mulvaney had been saying the budget director that they were preparing for this for his own agency to have requests for additional funds. i don't know whether you pre- requested but you did not? >> well since we have an advanced appropriation for our essential services we have money for two years so we're not impacted the way some of the other agencies. neil: would it affect those 16,000? >> it does and we need every one of those servicing our veterans making such good progress right now it's a set back and we need to get everybody back to work

and get government open. neil: you know people forget that you unanimously confirm think that happens any more, so i wanted to get your thoughts not only because you're respected for what you do but as a doctor, so harkening back to that skillset, i wanted you to react to the media fixation over the past week over the president 's health, his physical and then the type of questions that his doctor and others were getting at the white house. this is from this week at the white house over the president's physical results. take a look. >> can you assess the president 's mental fitness for office? are you ruling out things like early onset alzheimers? are you looking at dementia-like symptoms? that's not the same thing as a psychiatric exam or psychological exam. >> is that con clues every rule out any further psychological exam? because of his age and

continuing his physicals in the future will you also continue the cognitive testing? >> do you believe he's fit for duty? >> i found no reason whatsoever to think the president has any issues whatsoever with this thought process. neil: do you know what i don't think i've ever seen that, secretary. i mean questioning a president's mental capability? or a white house physician tak ing so long to answer any and all questions. what did you think? >> well i think it's really a reflection on what's going on in washington. it's really a shame. everything is becoming political and when it comes to being a doctor and evaluating a person's health or taking care of veterans these shouldn't be political issues. neil: you meet with the president. what do you think? >> of course yeah i know dr. jackson i'm with the president all the time. president is sharp. these issues rea are not about substan issues right now. these are tning into political gains and it's a shame to see that. we have a country to run. we have serious business to do.

we should be focusing on those issues. we have to get government open. we have to focus on getting better care for veterans. we have to focus on strengthening our military all of the things that are important about making this country run the way that it should and to be spending our time on these issues that really are just in my mind peripheral to what we need to be doing doesn't make a lot of sense. neil: it was interesting that the president himself or dr. jackson, go ahead to look into these cognitive issues what can you do as much to alay these concerns, but what did you think of just that? >> well listen, the purpose of the exam is an important piece of information about how they keep the president of the country going and healthy and look, you know the president wanted a full evaluation. i think that's the purpose of the exam and so i was glad to see that everything was done in the right way to make sure that we had all of the information that we needed to keep the president healthy. neil: the media seemed

completely obsessed with whether he's potentially off his rocker. i've never remembered that. >> yeah, you know, i think that we're seeing things that we never seen before and i think that frankly the country's growing tired of it. we have to start focusing on things that matter. governments here to serve people and we really have to start focusing on doing that job and making sure that the discussions are about the issues that matter right now, we have to focus on getting the government back open none of us can do our jobs without the people that serve in the government being able to come to work and that's the most important thing we have to focus on. neil: in the meantime, i took very inspiring that 71 year old guy who eats a lot of fast food things that aren't great for him is in pretty good health he's in did you? >> yeah, listen i'm around the president. i've no doubt he has more energy than any of us, always wants to go, keep on pushing to do more.

he is driven and certainly he is very young in spirit. neil: all right secretary very good seeing you. nice weather you brought nice weather with you. >> it's beautiful here today. neil: and by the way it's perfect weather for protesting and they're planning a women's march again. i don't know if it will be in the numbers they were a year ago but they're back and not just outside the lincoln memorial. other locations around this city , but around at least a half a dozen other cities across the country including new york, chicago, i think boston, philadelphia. we'll keep you posted on that. we are live in our nation's capitol more after this. here? we've been helping you prepare and invest for retirement since day one. why would we leave now? because i'm retired now. so? we're voya. we stay with you to and through retirement... ...with solutions to help provide income throughout. so, you'll still be here to help me make smart choices? well, with your finances that is.

we had nothing to do with that, uh, tie. or the suit. or the shirt. voya. helping you to and through retirement.

neil: all right we're getting an update from capitol hill where things are going in this government shutdown now about what is it about ten and a half hours old right now. the house gop appears to be holding firm this is coming from our monitor of this stuff

very well he says that paul ryan the speaker really doesn't want to tangle with daca amid the shutdown. that does echo the sentiment of that fellow behind me in the white house, donald trump has said and the administration sai by a we'll address daca but open the government first and that does seem to be with that and speaking of the white house garrett tenney is there. hi, garrett. hi, neil. good morning to you. president trump and his staff are at the white house working the phones and holding meetings to see if they can reach a deal to end the government shutdown before monday when the real brunt of that shutdown will be felt and they're continuing to blame the democrats squarely for this government shutdown though and they're using strong language to do that. last night sarah sanders press secretary here referred to democrats as obstructionist losers not legislators and so far this morning the president has been tweeting about the shutdown almost hourly including a couple that i want to share with you where he said democrats are far more concerned with illegal immigrants than they are with

our great military our safety and our dangerous seth earn border and they could have easily made a deal but decided to play shutdown politics instead and later continues this is the one year anniversary of my presidency and the democrats wanted to give me a nice present , democrat shutdown and neil white house sources tell us the main negotiating point now appears to be the length of the spending bill or cr as it's called. yesterday in a meeting with the president, senator minority leader chuck schumer wanted a five day extension. the white house was standing firm by the 30 day and now there appears to be agreement in capitol hill for something along the lines of a three week extension and we're told that the white house may be open to that getting done. neil? neil: may be all right garrett we might get a sense from mark short white house legislative director i believe he's on capitol hill. let's lisn. >> let's let the house and the congress work its will and alter

the graham proposal. >> we are anxious for congress to work that's why we put forward our proposals months ago so we're continuing to push forward on that. the president campaigned on it. why not bring everybody over to the white house today and cut a deal? what's stopping that? >> the president has put forward proposals to help us get to a resolution. we put forward proposals on daca the reality is what democrats have forced is to say there's nothing in this bill. yes, we support children's health insurance. yes we support keeping the government open but we'll shut it down over something tangential. it doesn't make any sense. we've put forward our proposals and the president has been anxious to get a resolution and talking to congressional leaders and what doesn't make sense is to say we're going to deny funding to our troops and border agents and in essence going to shutdown government to help solve an issue for unlawful residents. we want daca solved. this is not the way to do it. >> do you think that daca path forward is still the number two talk, congressional leaders going in and mccarthy and durbin >> when we met at the white

house so to your question, asking about bringing members over keep in mind the president did that just last week. we had 20 members of the white house the president led the conversation with bipartisan group and he's after that as that meeting concluded kevin mccarthy said how about we pull together the two, so kevin mccarthy, steny hoyer, dick durbin helped with that process. we're continuing to meet but yesterday as we were making progress the democrats didn't show up to the meeting, so we're still anxious to do that. yes, that is the process that was put in place out of that bipartisan conversation. we want to resume talks. >> you're saying yesterday the white house and mccarthy got together to talk and the democrats didn't show up? that is correct. secretary nielsen was here on time for the meeting, kevin mccarthy and they met and unfortunately the democrats didn't show. >> they were uninvited from that meeting? >> we were there. i don't believe they were uninvited. the invitations came from kevin mccarthy's office he said they were no way uninvited.

>> the reality is that toeopen the government they need to get support from theocra dem so when is the president really start to try to make a deal? yesterday things completely fell apart so what's the president's idea? >> well i question senate democrats are really united in this keep in mind there are five senate democrats who voted to keep the government open and we commend them for that decision and we think there will be more today and hopefully that they will continue to see that it's not wise to hold our troops hostage. >> is the president calling members of the party in the senate who didn't vote for the c r? >> the president has spoken to plenty of members and met are senator schumer. >> he he talking to members in his own party who didn't vote for the cr? the president has had conversations with those members too yes i'm going to have to run guys, thank you. >> thank you mark. >> thanks a lot. thank you very much. neil: okay you've been listening to mark short he's the white house legislative director up on capitol hill. they've not given up hope of bringing together some sort of a deal but the way this process

works given the timing of mitch mcconnell's announcement last night that we were obviously getting into this shutdown what have you that the soonest they could do something given the rules of that body is on monday. what they could talk about what they're going to talk about potentially try to vote on monday and that seems to be what they're doing right now, but the two parties themselves are not talking to each other. the respective caucuses are talking to themselves, so the democratic caucus and its reps talking to themselves in the house, the republicans doing the same in the house, and then the senate when they gather in a battle in a little over an hour we'll be doing much of the same but again they're talking about trying to make this a short lived affair. how that goes out is anyone's guess and right now, given the fact that this is starting over the weekend, the impact isn't being felt they want to avoid this lingering into the new week , no word yet from mr. short as to how the administration feels about the four republican

senators who voted against this measure yesterday. all right let's go on the read on all of this from our lizzie brilliant macdonald we've god adam lashinsky, charles payne a few of our old cost of freedom stars we're going to continue do ing this. they're not going away as much as i've tried to push them away. >> [laughter] neil: fact of the matter is, i'm kidding they're all great brains and i want the best of that with the best of the latest news developments so you get it all in one delicious thought so adam let me begin with you on your take here, i've had a number of people who were saying you know it doesn't matter where this falls on republicans or democrat s. it's just not good. i was reading thet weend edition this morning a read from abroad the sort of questions how reliable a country we can be is this kind of thing keeps happening what do you think? adam: i mean i agree with that 100%.

the finger pointing is disgusting. the american people don't like it, but the fact of the matter neil it's been going on for years now, donald trump was elected president because he said, you know, i'm going to go drain the swamp and stop this nonsense that you dislike. he's more or less completely failed at that and that's where we stand. neil: charles payne i'm looking at this and i'm thinking if i'm an investor and this is still dragging out monday, should this be a reason for me to take some profits off the table what do you tell people? charles: i would say absolutely not. 18 shutdowns over 13 years, gdp was only down one of those years in fact the last three shutdowns that we had the markets were up 37%, 23% and 33% for that year. i would say, however, that confidence is scary and one of the reasons the market is up is counter to what adam just said president trump had a remarkable first year. wall street is excited about it

corporate america is excited about it and we don't want to see that interrupted i think the best thing they would be able to do in this country is to get rid of continuing resolutions and make washington do their job. neil: became paraphrasing from a presidential tweet but the president is saying you know democrats are doing this on the anniversary of his year in office, that this is all alabama essentially politico lit beingly motivated what do you think? liz: it's an interesting angle that the tax cuts have been so successful that he's saying that thiss just his retribution, just bare knuckle hard ball politics and i don't kw about that. i'm not sure about that. you know what's striking, neil, is the last time remember in s & p downgraded the u.s. debt over the problems with the shutdown years ago but s & p has been really -- neil: remember though that was before the shutdowns. liz: but they're not doing it now. neil: right, right. liz: so that's interesting and that's remarkable and they've been pretty quiet the credit

rating agencies aren't talking about down grading the u.s. debt and what's really interesting to charles and to adam's point is that what we see in company's reaction to the tax cuts, bank of america just out now, neil saying you're going to see record number of m & a deals, right? because of the cash coming back into the u.s.. they're talking 350 m & a deals this year. the other thing that's really interesting too about what's going on is the u.s. consumer sentiment is down three straight months. why? because the fear of that salt deduction is going away. so to car el's point, it's a buy on the dip opportunity if stocks go down because wall street is saying stocks are going to continue to go up. neil: well you know, adam, apple is among those adam. i did want to get your quick check on tim cook. he did mention the tax cut is a reason why he's taking so much money, 350 billion over 10 years what did you think of that because a lot of people look at that and say there's a guy who might not be a personal fan of

the president but he's a personal fan of making money and he's a personal fan of getting a lot of stuff, right? adam: absolutely. i wrote about this last week, neil and i said you know to be perfectly honest i hadn't noticed that he hadn' mentioned the president's name i probably wouldn't have either but there was no doubt that this move was in result, it was a result of president trump's bully pulpit of badgering these companies and passing tax legislation to bring the money home to announce initiatives to benefit american workers. it had the president's fingerprints all over it. neil: you know charles millions of people are getting some bonuses here and that has nothing to do with the individual tax rates what do you think of that? charles: it's absolutely remarkable. yesterday the michigan sentiment number came out and what i was struck by most is they have three parts one is what we think about the future called expectations. that number has not been able to get over the hump since 2014. they said 34% just spontaneously mentioned the tax cuts and 70%

of them said it in a positive way. neil: thank you, i'm jumping on you there because we're there. and cavuto live honors hard breaks when we feel like it. they really appreciate the military family, and it really shows. we've got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. usaa was there hands-on very quick very prompt. i feel like we're being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. usaa, get your insurance quote today.

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>> all right, welcome back, everybody. coming to you live from washington d.c., our nation's capital, and that's pretty much to a halt, not a total halt, but the government has shut down, the first time ins happened since back in 2013. remember, that one lasted for about 16 days. republicans were doing everything they could to sort of cook up to stop the affordable care act or at least slow its progress. didn't work, but the bottom line was they did exact some concessions on other issues that the market liked. d they advanced later on. th tends to be the rule of thumb with these shutdowns or disruptions, whatever want you

to call them, as much as we're willing to look at these things and shake our head and say, my gosh, it's like dealing with our kids. the fact of the matter is good things can happen afterwardsment i'm trying to look at the half full glass for you right here. in keeping with that theme and the fact that people aren't talking or trying to make some progress behind the scenes, we're getting indications of it. mitch mcconnell, the senate leader has spoken to the president, trying to iron out a game plan about where they go from here. they're going to sort of work behind the scenes on a deal that they really can't cobble together this weekend. and vote on this weekend. more likely monday, that would call for an extension of anywhere from a few days, maybe to a few weeks. way, way too early to start handicapping that. congressman mark meadows joins us right now. he's a crucial player in this, the chair of the freedom caucus, and women strong, largely conservative, largely concerned about government getting bigger

and spending getting out of control, having said all that, the good congressman did vote for the measure when it was in the house to advance the bill, a. >> nice to be with you. stepped out of a meeting to make sure your viewers got the most up-to-date information on what's happening here in the capital right now, but obviously, it's a serious situation, a shutdown because of 43 democrats deciding not to keep the government open, just for four weeks. you know, it was a tough row to hoe over here in the house, but we managed to get it with republican-only votes and so, now we're calling upon the senate to open back up the government. let's go ahead and make sure that we address our fiscal concerns and that's what this is all about. you know, there's a number of people who have said, well, this is all about immigration. this is about other things that

are unrelated to spending. well, i can tell you, this is related to spending and indeed, it is up to the democrats to decide whether they want to open the government up or not. neil: these meetings that have been going on, and you talk about the spending and the concern about spending. well, you voted for something that still has a lot of spending. so-- >> it does. neil: that doesn't quite jibe. >> in the freedom caucus, we're more conservative than perhaps some of our colleagues. we believe we should not hold our military hostage and allow those increase in spending levels to increase for our military, and not grow the size of government and everywhere else, and yet, our democratic colleagues are saying that the government needs a 13% pay increase, grow the size of government by 13%. your viewers and most of my constituents did not get a 13% pay increase last year, so why

should we give it to the government. and so, a number of us believe that we have put forth a measure to continue the negotiations, keep the government open, and ultimately, hopefully, make a good decision not only for the markets that you refer to earlier, but for moms and dads on main street and i can tell you that we're extremely disappointed that our democrat senate colleagues are playing politics once again and on issues that really, they have no objection to what was in the bill. i mean, we've-- >> no, you're right about that, the irony there, but, chairman, i just want to be very clear what could be kicked around right now. we're told that another continuing resolution, maybe a few days up to a few weeks, there's a lot in between and then a vote on that on monday to reopen the government. can you update us on any of that? >> i can. you know, there could be a vote

as early as later today. i can tell you in the house, we're going to reconvene at 3:45 to vote on what we call a same-day rule. which means that if the senate acts, we can act immediately. we don't have to wait and keep the government shutdown for any length of time. so at 3:45 today we'll reconvene to vote on that rule to give us same day authority. neil: what is same day authority? what does same day authority mean? >> in the house we have rules where actually you're supposed to wait three days to be able to look at any particular piece of legislation. neil: okay. >> we don't want to keep the government shut down for three days for a procedural hurdle so we're preemptively getting ready on theouse side for something that may change on t senate that being said, there are procedures in the senate right now that they could have a vote as early as this afternoon, if the democrats were to yield back their debate time or as you've

already reported, if the democrats want to continue to play politics, it could last into monday before an actual vote takes place. all of that gives a context. you talk in context, a short-term four or five day extension does nothing for us at this point. it's been rejected and it was rejected yesterday. it's been rejected by the house. i mean, if you can't have four-week extension, if the democrats have to have some kind of a win, is there some flexibility there? perhaps. i know i have communicated with our leadership what conservatives are willing to do, but i see how-- i don't see how four or five days actually advances the cause. we'll just be back here on tuesday or wednesday if we do that, so let's get serious about it today. i can tell you the mood within our g.o.p. conference that i just stepped out of is one of just unbelievable seriousness.

it is looking at this issue and saying, we've got to -- we've got to make sure that we do it. but you know, you're reporting from here in washington d.c. and in a few moments after we have our quorum call, i'm going to be going to the world war ii memorial. if you remember, in 2013, you were talking about that, f political messaging purposes, president obama shuts itdown. they had barricades and tape. neil: i remember that well. >> we're going to go there and show how it's different under this president, but it's really incumbent upon the democrat senators to act and act today. neil: all right. sir, if you could just stay there, kevin mccarthy is talking to the press and may be addressing and outlining some of the things you're outlining. >> our children's health care program is shut down by schumer and other items. this is irresponsible for what they're doing. we didn't put anything in the continuing funding of government where democrats would disagree

with. there's nothing in that bill that they disagree, the only thing they disagree almost like a tantrum, i have to take over government, you have to do serving i want every one has to be hurt. the issue they're dealing with, we're in the room right troo i go to negotiate it, they shut down negotiations to solve the problem that they want to work on. >> and what's the result in your congress, and what, everything is in line with your thinking here, it's not worth it to come up with some sort of daca fix. >> we have the idea that it's wrong to shut the government down and hurt children and veterans. we are aligned to keep government funded for another month and continue negotiations to solve the problem that the president, yes, who brought everybody together, who got the ball rolling, we're in the process of getting it done, but for some reason, schumer thought that wasn't fast enough? this is a complex issue. we were met every single day. they walked out of the room the

day before sayg thi was the best progress they' had yet, but for some reason, they wanted to shut it down? that's irresponsible. >> and with the date change to february 8th, can the house pass that. >> i believe they would accept if we went to february 8th. why wouldn't they do that last night? why would they put the government through this? i think if they look back in history they'll realize they were on the wrong side. >> thank you, leader mccarthy okay. mack to mark meadows, the freedom caucus. echoing a lot of what you said. this is on democrats, but i don't see anyone talking to the other side right now. >> well, we've had conversations with the other side. i can tell you, i spoke to the president yesterday at length on a number of issues. he obviously had a one-on-one meeting with senator schumer and the president has been

consistent. he told me that he didn't want a shutdown. he told me that he wanted to make sure that we did right by our military men and women and our veterans. and, also, on the chip issue, he said we need to make sure that we fund that and authorize that and make sure that we help these children and have the resources there to do it. so, there is nothing that was in this bill, and leader mccarthy is right, nothing this this bill that should have caused democrats to vote against it and i can tell you, i asked for a lot this that i wanted in that bill that democrats would have refused, but, yet, at the same time, hearing the leadership of our president and certainly understanding the serious nature of this, we decided to look and continue to negotiate. now, leader mccarthy made another point. if immigration and the way that many of the democrats look at it, amnesty, is the most serious function and the reason why they're shutting this down, then

they have just stopped the negotiations. we were making very good progression on a number of fronts, still major differences, but if they want to get to a de deal, they need to open back up the government. neil: and horrible things about you, by the way. i'm kidding. >> i don't think bad things about you, neil, and good to be with you. neil: thank you, sir, very, very much for taking time on a crazy day. this is the one-year anniversary of donald trump's inauguration as president of the united states. some of the same groups that were protesting on that day are back for a return engagement. maybe not in the same numbers, but figure numbers expected in this city and in cities across the country. carolyn shively is joining us to talk about that. a lot of people, right? >> thank you, keep marching. >> hi there, neil, this is one

of about 250 events and marches and rallies happening across the u.s. today. on yearfter the women's march that brought out millions of people to the streets. we're not in the millions in d.c., but certainly in the thousands. my photographer jason can take a pan around and show you what the crowd is like here today. they are very excited. the speakers just got underway. we're told they will two hours of talking and new names, new members of congress in d.c. for the weekend unexpectedly trying to deal with the federal government shutdown and find a solution there. now, last year, the focus was on protests. and the election of president trump, and how they were angry over that. much of the focus today though is on power to the polls. they're trying to get women elected, women running and women registered and the numbers are proving that out. a record number of women are registered. a record number of women are running for congress and also on the local level. they'll speak here for about two hours and then folks will put on walking shoes here between the

lincoln memorial and through, behind us, walking all the way down to the white house and delivering their message to president trump. back to you, neil. neil: all right. caroline. thank you very much. and talking about this similar issue here, judy, it's interesting, there are big numbers, but a lot of the same protesters from last year. maybe now sit back and say we don't like what you're doing. >> last year was an emotional outpouring, neil, the president just being swo in the day before. this year, the questio is, has the sck value worn off of president trump being in office. is the passion still there? the folks we see on the screen here look certainly passionate, but has that faded over the course of the year? and you know, where do they go from here? to the ballot box is the real question. neil: well, a lot of the things we're galvanizing ourselves, not

only in protests about you to sign up, vote, put ourselves on the ballot. have there been significant numbers of that. they're very confident they can tip congress this year. >> yes, they're certainly very confident about that and the focus of this year's mark is getting women registered to vote. and organizers of the march to their credit realize they have to transform this expression of anger to last year's march against the president into real action and so, the notion now is, you know, quit waving the pink hats and start waving voter registration forms. neil: are they doing the pink hats? >> i didn't see pink hats, maybe they're out of vogue. neil: it's not monolithic, but we talk about the female voter and overwhelming they they rejected the president last year

are the numbers like that? he got president of the united states, is the white house concerned? >> no doubt that men poll better with president trump than women do, but women did vote for president trump. you know, right now, the hot button issue, of course, is immigration. we have a shutdown going on. abortion doesn't really seem to be on the table. the questions what are they targeting here as far as women's issues. neil: judy kirtz of the hill, thank you very much. i thought i was going to have both simultaneously. we have the national committee chair joining us on the phone. ron, i'll ask you what i was just raising with judy, the possibility that whatever happens with these protests, this is where republicans have to do some better work to get women voters or female voters. and get them at least more of them on their side. do you agree? >> yeah, that's why the rnc is

holding training across the country today. we will have thousands of volunteers coming out and getting ready for the 2018 mid terms. i just attended one in florida. the enthusiasm is so high with our base, we have to reach the voter. there's a wonderful event where the president said, yeah, women are 50% of the electorate and we care about 100% of the issues. there was a broad forum we talked about national security, health care, and the opioid crisis. we don't push women to the side and say you only care about one thing. women care about everything. when we look what the president has done for the economy, the military, pushing forward and making our country better that's how we'll engage the women and get the votes. neil: are you surprised though that that hasn't resonated, at least theesidens poll numbers. it may bump around, you know, around 40% or so and a lot of people say given the way the market's been and the economy has been, it shouldn't be that.

what do you think? >> well, he does deal with 90% of the coverage is negative according to pew research. that's an impediment, but we're seeing the numbers pick up in the battle ground states. we're always monitoring those states that we're going to be engaged in in 2018 to keep the majorities and especially with tax reform going through and people benefitting so much from bonuses and wage increases and additional moneys into their 401(k)'s, and then you see these great announcements from companies like apple, which is going to bring 20,000 new jobs to this country. people are feeling good where our country is and we think next november when people take stock, am i better off than two years ago, has president trump delivered on the things he ran on? they're going to say yes and return the majorities to him. neil: are you worried about the number of established republicans though, who are leaving the house and/or senate and they seem to be recruiting big names to run for those, and

a former governor to run for senate or maybe your own uncle and the peek-a-boo came he's playing or seems to be playing in utah to run for senate, to campaign for orrin hatch's seat. what's going on? >> i'm energized by the recruitment class that we've seen across the country. i have to stay neutral as rnc chair, b we've got josh hawley against clare mccaskill in missouri. and great candidates in indiana, west virginia. if florida were going to have a marquee candidate, i feel good about the candidates and what they're doing to prepare for winning senate seats. it's hard when incumbents step down, it makes it harder, but the rnc with regard fund raising, raising more in 2017 more than any other political party. that translates for us putting resources on the ground and getting ready to build out the ground game to keep the majorities in 2018. in terms of where we are headed into a mid-term, more voter

contact, and training and recruited volunteers and in the right position to keep those majorities. neil: could you tell us whether your uncle, mitt romney, is indeed going to run for that utah seat? >> you know, neil, i purposely don't ask my dad or my uncle mitt because i don't want to know so i don't have to lie when i come on tv. so i don't know. neil: all right, all right. ronna, thank you very much. the rnc chair. again, we'll be keeping up on those developments. i want to go to michael dukakis the 1988 party standard bearer. we're told a miracle today would be republicans holding onto the house. consensus and predictions are always dangerous, so, governor, you can maybe remind us of that do you think you shall party is getting ahead of itself counting

its mid term winning chickens? >> you never count your chickens. opportunity to take over the house and hold make gains in the senate. it's a 50 state thing none of this red and blue stuff. and offices, so i think the prospects are good. as you know, i'm obsessive on the importance of grass roots campaigning and precinct-based organizations and we've got to do it in every one of the 50 states. >> as a former governor, maybe you can offer some perspective on this. phil murphy, former goldman sachs, spent 20 million governor of new jersey and he's coming after chris christie and he's talking a millionaire's surtax

and he has the run with both legislations and governor's mansion and a lot of residents can't write off as much as they used to. that could boomerang on him. >> he's a native of massachusetts. neil: can't be bad. >> he's very, very good and he's going to be an excellent governor. neil: so, the idea of still going through with an surtax on millionaires, would you do that? well, we're going to have it on the ballot in massachusetts shortly. i'm certainly going to support . i see no reason why-- >> by the way, we have an impressive number of successful business people and others who are millionaires who are supporting it because they see the importance of it. look, we have two principal needs in massachusetts, one is schools, the other is transportation and people know it and sense it, and i think

that the referendum is going to pass and i think we're going to be fine. massachusetts is to go doing extremely well economically and we feel good about it and we feel some regional economic issues that we've got to work on. but, i think it's going to pass in massachusetts and-- >> so you don't think that any of those people will be chased away from the state and-- . no, no. neil: all right. >> that's a myth. that's a myth, yeah. they're going to-- >> it wasn't a myth in illinois, right? it wasn't a myth there, right? it wasn't a myth in connecticut-- >> if you look at the numbers, it's really not significant. i mean, people want to stay where they are and i think most americans feel the sense of unfairness, i mean, we just passed a tax bill which i think is a piece of garbage, 83% of the benefits going to the wealthiest 1% of the population at a time when we're running a federal deficit of 600 billion dollars. i mean, i don't understand this

to tell you the truth. neil: governor, you've got to be surprised all of these companies, look at these companies that are now sharing the loot with workers and bonuses and extra stuff like that. would you-- >> let's wait and see. all i know we've got a$600 billion current federal deficit at time when we'relose to full employment. this is crazy. >> and those debts were piling up-- those deficits were piling up under barack obama. they seem to pile up no matter what. >> wait a second, he cut it significantly, proposed all kinds of revenue measures and they were rejected by the republicans. that's what happened. it isn't that he wasn't trying to balance that budget. now, it's open season. i mean, i don't understand this republicans used to be committed to fiscal responsibility. neil: you're not blaming the 10

trillion, governor, squarely on republicans the last go-round, right? >> wait a second, neil. you were around in bill clinton's last year, weren't you, you remember the state of the union address where he proposed, remember, he proposed a plan to reduce and eliminate the national debt to 10 to 12 years, remember that, it was real. at that time we had a quarter of a trillion dollar surplus, what happened? well, al gore won the election, but george bush took over with the crazy electoral college system of ours. immediately a tax cut mostly for the rich and the war in iraq, cost $3 trillion and another tax cut for the rich under bush and disaster economically. now, it took barack obama eight years to get us back to something close to a balanced budget. couldn't get the revenue that he was looking for from a republican congress, which just refused to approve them, and we're looking-- you know what we're paying now in debt service that is interest on the national debt every year, you know what that number is?

it's a half a trillion dollars. we're paying just on interest to the national debt. neil: but, governor, you do have to remember as well that barack obama had the run of the table in his first few years in office, a lot of that started happening then, right? >> well, he had to stimulate the economy, god we were in terrible shape. neil: all right. >> how do you think president trump-- how do you think president trump is doing right now? what do you think of him? >> well, i think he's a stas disaster, one day to the next. neil: don't sugar coat it, governor, what do you really think of him? >> just look at the last week. you never know where he is from day-to-day. i mean, you know, his chief of staff, another great product of massachusetts and boston, explains that this whole thing about the border is evolving, you know, that wall is the dumbest thing i've ever seen. i mean, doesn't he know that we have a shoreline that we share

with mexico for thousands of miles? what is going to happen if he builds this things. in any event so his chief of staff explains we're evolving on this thing and turns the next day and basically counter mands his chief of staff and this goes on every day, i don't know how you deal with him, but i know this, if we're going to straighten this out, the democrats are going to have to go out and win these mid-term elections and i hope and expect we're going to do so. neil: and they hope with the protests they're getting their marching orders and we'll see. governor dukakis, thank you for taking the time. >> good to be with you. neil: governor michael dukakis, the 1988 democratic party standard bearer. i want reaction to what a lot of what the governor was pointing out here. it sets up the left-right argument whether tax cuts are the answer or what the president in that building behind me is proposing.

and david asman is here, steve forbes in new york, and, what governor dukakis is not any different than what prominent democrats have been saying. these tax cuts, now is not the time. we don't have the money, never mind about the debt piled up under the prior administration, it was a lot of the republican's fault. having said that, it's kind of withstanding, i think these tax cuts are surprising people, how broad-based they could be, especially coming from the corporate side and how they're sharing that loot. what do you think? >> well, the way you get deficits cured, neil, over long-term is with a vibrant economy. and you get a vibrant economy when you get off the backs of the american people. not only allowing to keep more of what they earn, but also, lowering the price of productive work, risk taking and success. when you do that, not only do you keep more of what you earn, but your salary goes up, job opportunity goes up, investments

go up and you have new opportunities and standard of living. these guys think by crushing the american people they have have a good fiscal situation. fact of the matter is, debt goes up badly when you have a stagnant economy or when you're fighting a war. ronald reagan increased the defense budget, he won the cold war and they were able to cut the defense budget. so good things come when you have prosperity. kennedy recognized it, ronald reagan recognized it. donald trump recognizes it and governor dukakis and democrats are living in a time when crushing people with taxes, they think, is the way to prosperity. it doesn't work. neil: all right. our democratic strategy agrees with pretty much everything. [laughter] >> and look at the protests going on here, the women's march and other marches like it across the country, beyond here. but their feeling seems to be these tax cuts, these corporations don't know what they're doing, they're all benefitting fat cats. but a lot of the taxes at tax

cut relieve in terms of bonuses, they're not all going to fat cats. how does the party handle that. >> you raised interesting points. neil: i rose lots of them. >> sure do. and high profile announcements of companies announcing one-time bonuses for their workers or even in some cases raising wages. the problem is that this is not representative. they collectively represent a tiny, tiny portion of the work force and in fact, most of the wealth-- >> it's over 3 million now, it could be next week, 5 million. after that 10 million. it is growing. >> again, we'll see, because again, we're talking for the most part about one-time bonuses not permanent wage growth. neil: that's a lot of money though. >> yeah, it is, a lot of it's going back to shareholders and to-- and to, you know, corporate executives themselves and not necessarily to, let's say, you know, borrowers or-- >> what about utility customers getting 5% rebates?

those aren't the workers, those are customers. >> that's a great thing. neil: i want to ask you without jumping on you like a rude person, do you think democrats might regret their obstinate rejection of the tax cuts? mark penn was here earlier saying they could. >> i don't know that we're going to regret it. i think that overall, the country believed that these tax cuts are primarily benefitting the wealthy and not actually benefitting the middle class, so, i think that it's right now an argument that democrats in fact are winning. the frame that they're putting out there is that these are going to fat cats. so, no, i mean, look, i think that that could change if people are saying, wow, look at this, i actually am getting more, but for the most part right now, no. neil: david, what do you think about that? >> you know, i think what's interesting is the contrast of the general outlook on what business is, as opposed to what government is in the united states. democrats, as we've seen from michael dukakis and just now from christy, fat cats.

we had eight years of suspicion of businesses, eight years of growth lower than 3 about%. the lowest growth in an eight-year period for decades and decades not since the great depression have you had growth that low. now we have an administration run primarily by businessmen and women starting up at the top. you go through the cabinet and you see people like linda mcmahon, and you see people like steve mnuchin, and these are people who understand what blocks growth in the united states. what stops businesses from growing, and what stops individuals from starting a new business. and now you have rather than the academics in the obama administration, you have business people in the trump administration and that's affecting directly the actions that they take on taxes and regulations, and that's stimulating the economy. neil: so, steve forbes, if it's so great for republicans and donald trump, why are republicans thought to be in big trouble in the midterms and the

president's poll numbers looking so bad? >> well, a couple of things, one, the tax cuts are 20 days old. you're already seeing an impact. it usually takes months for these things to work through the economy. in 20 days that's quite a bit of progress. the republicans have been miserable in terms of communications. they called this thing for months tax reform which means nothing to people. call it to tax cuts, the pay trump understood it and now the republicans and white house have to work to show that there's a difference between style and substance. on substance, this president's got a lot done in the first year, more than most presidents in their first year and that's what they've got to emphasize to the american people. neil: all right. guys, i want to thank you all very much and your indulgence with breaking news. and in the meantime, the rest of the protest marches going around this city, looking at the one year anniversary of president trump and including at washington d.c., and new york, philadelphia, chicago, a host of other places, various protest

groups, not just women, will be gathering to let it be known, one year in they're not satisfied with the guy who has moved into the building behind me. we'll have more after this. over the years, paul and i have met regularly with our ameriprise advisor. we plan for everything from retirement to college savings. giving us the ability to add on for an important member of our family. welcome home mom. with the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant.

>> all right, welcome back, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. you're watching our debut show from washington d.c. and we didn't time this for a government shutdown, but be that as it may, that's what we've got for a debut day. the question is how many days this could drag on. a number of protesters across the country, especially those gathering in washington d.c. and north carolina. and virtually a lot of women's groups, not just women's marches, but those who say it's been a mistake the last year of the trump presidency and try to tell those who have been investing, male or female in the market and those enjoying a sudden surge of economic

activity and could have the full year growth of 3 plus percent, in the better part of a decade. speaking on the one-year anniversary, protesters are acknowledging it and so is the first lady. melania saying this has been a year filled with many wonderful moments and enjoyed people i've been able to meet throughout our great country and the president itself tweeting this morning he has been looking at this government shutdown and the democrats who contributed to it as a special present for him on his one-year anniversary. be that as a may, the read from texas governor greg abbott, republican there, from the great state of texas. i was looking at some. developments in a number of states that have welcomed either a democratic governor back in the case of virginia, there were one term limit, but taken over there and in new jersey where chris christie has been replaced

by a democrat, phil murphy who promises an surtax on millionaires. what do you think what's going on in new jersey and the fear expressed by even some democrats in new jersey that he's going to chase some people away? >> well, first, neil, congratulations on this fabulous show. neil: thank you. >> well-deserved a great way to communicate with america. this is a classic example because we see almost two different americas. some states, california, new jersey, new york, take more money from their own citizens their own taxpayers and we see states like texas, where, neil, this week, contrary to what you're seeing in some of the other states, this week, outlined ways in which texas is seeking to cut taxes even more. and what we're seeing as a result is, an influx of people coming in from these other states. the only thing i hear from my fellow texans is, governor,

please, make sure these people coming in from the other states understand there's a reason why they are fleeing these high-tax states and make sure they hold fast to the reason why they want to come to texas and that is for lower taxes, less government, less spending, very responsible government. neil: all right. well, i had michael dukakis on here and might not surprise you he doesn't quite buy that and murphy from new jersey doesn't quite buy that. look at protesters gathering in dallas, of all places, they don't buy it. are republicans in some trouble? what do you think? >> well, first, let's talk about women, for example, and that is that in texas, as an example, there are-- texas ranks number two in the nation with regard to women-owned business. our goal is to make texas number one in the nation for women-owned businesses. we have so many entrepreneurial women tremendously you can seeding in the state. unemployment for women is at an

all-time low or pretty darn close to it, so, women, african-americans, hispanics, everybody across the board is benefitting from the rising economic empowerment that we're seeing across both the entire nation as well as the state of texas. with regard to how are republicans doing? let me tell you. republicans are looking very strong in the state of texas and the reason for it is because in texas we're insisting for fiscal responsibility, for lower taxes, for less spending, for the empowerment of the individual and when you see that happen, that makes the electorate happen. what most of americans want and texans want. they want the ability to run their own lives without government dictating their life, that's the brand of government that republicans offer and why republicans will be very successful in this coming year. >> we shall see. we've been monitoring nancy pelosi and she's been speaking

about this shutdown. let's dip in if we can. >> he promised us infrastructure, he gave us a train wreck. he promised to love the dreamers from his heart and we had be able to work together in a bipartisan way and he always seemed to be pushed back from it so he said what this country needs a good shutdown. we don't agree. what he said president obama, when we didn't control the congress, and he controlled the white house, the senate, and the house, what he said of president obama who didn't control the congress, it starts at the top. well, exactly what he said. the problem starts from the top and had to get solved from the top. the president is a leader and he's got to get everyone in a room and he's got to lead. president trump. and now, one year anniversary. a big fat failure for that first year. it's no use having another cr, unless we have the terms of

engagement on how we go forward on the pay-fors on the parity on pay-fors, the pension, the daca and on the border security. >> isn't it better to have the government open while you negotiate these on the side and have a cr for a few weeks in order to negotiate. >> this is the fifth one, this is the fifth one, and the secretary of the navy has said, what was his comment? he said that-- well, secretary mattis said, it just creates unpredictability, and we know our enemies are not standing still. it's about as unwise as it can be. the exactly of the navy had similar words to say about this. this is no way to have a government. it's not only about defense, it's about transportation. neil: all right, continuing to monitor nancy pelosi. the fact that the shutdown hurts

defense, hurts the navy and that's exactly the argument the republicans have made and they've been blaming democrats for bringing us to this point, but regardless of your political points of view on this, ben stein, that's been a signature issue of his and a concern of his. he joins us right now. this is something that an ill-timed certainly now given security threats and everything else, right, ben? >> extremely ill-timed and it shocks me that the democrats would close the government down when government spending on defense is so urgently needed when we need to have a complete governor revamp and how we build up our defense and we need to stand back and say, look, we've got trouble from iran, from north korea, we've got trouble from russia, trouble from china. let's not worry about closing down the government over daca or about some other immigration reform. we can worry about immigration reform while we're worried about defense, but the idea that they would take government spending and make it a hostage to their

ideological, what should i say, obsessions when we need defense so badly, it shocks me. it shocks the conscience. neil: you know what's weird about it, they're talking past each other, mccarthy event, nancy pelosi event, and so far not to each other today. i guess a sign of the times and why these shutdowns happen with such alarming frequently. what do you make of all of this? >> what i make of it is, it's a very poor budgeting process, there has to be some kind of a multi-year budgeting process instead of having this hand to mouth, lips to tongue budgeting process. there has to be an ongoing process and a recognition by the congress, by the executive that we are in a defense crisis. we're in a potentially defense catastrophe. let's say daca is important,

immigration is important, everything is important, but defense is the most important. let's stand book and give them multi-year authority to build up, to get a reagan style defense buildup. ronald reagan understood this and that's why we won the cold war. neil: digressing a little bit here, ben, futures looks like they're going to be continuing to soar and anything can happen between now and monday and that factors in the shutdown that came into effect early, early this morning. what do you make of wall street's ambivalence? >> wall street is not ambivalent. wall street loves this man. and wall street says at least we've got a president that has taken his foot off the oxygen tube of the economy and america's business is business. calvin coolidge said that, america business is america's business. when america business is doing well, home owning is doing well,

people starting businesses are doing well. us old people, old pathetic weak people who have savings for our retirement, we're doing well. everybody is doing well if the market is doing well, and if the economy is doing well. let's remember, when the market is doing well, it means your retirement plan is doing well, it means your children's college endowment is doing well, it means your pension fun is doing well and let's give donald trump credit for that. donald trump in terms of freeing the economy from the shackles of obama era excessive regulations has done a hero's job. neil: all right. ben stein, always a pleasure. thank you very much, my friend. >> always a pleasure and have a very nice time in washington. neil: thank you. i am having a nice time. and this being washington, there are still playoff games to set up the league championships in football tomorrow. i don't care because my washington redskins are not in them. i harken back to the days on the washington redskins, they were

routine playoff players when a fellow named joe theisman was in the headlines. i'm about to interview by idol, and i've guaranteed not one tough question after this. i do outrank my husband, not just being in the military, but at home. she thinks she's the boss. she only had me by one grade. we bought our first home together in 2010. his family had used another insurance product but i was like well i've had usaa for a while, why don't we call and check the rates? it was an instant savings and i should've changed a long time ago. there's no point in looking elsewhere really. we're the tenneys and we're usaa members for life. usaa. get your insurance quote today.

>> all right, welcome back, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. there's stunned silence not because that the government is shutdown, but i'm with joe theisman. hello! when i asked for cavuto live, anyone you want, joe theisman, boom, he appears. what this man could endure in terms of pain, showing players out six weeks with a hang nail.

>> congratulations. neil: you made it, thank you. i'm looking at this one-year anniversary of donald trump is in power and this process going on around the country here. what do you think of all of that? >> i think it's the ability of people to want to express their opinions. i think we've entered a stage in society through social media, people instantly can create marches, they can create situations where people want to be able to express their opinion. with the marches going on, not just the women's marches, but the protests in different cities, it's the american people saying, we want change, we want to see something different and i think we've never been more polarized in our life on either side of the aisle, which is the problem and which is why i think the government is shut down. neil: that's everywhere. >> it is. neil: the nfl, kneel, not kneel, ratings go down. does any of this get too crazy? >> for me, i looked at sports as an escape, both as a fan and as a player. you sort of put the real world

outside and get into the little world of athletics, as a fan, a place to go cheer and expend that energy. i think there are a lot of things going on in society that need attention. i've always felt that the world of football was somewhat safe from that, but we really found out that it's not. it's really a microcosm of-- >> what do you think of people who opt out, kneeling during the national anthem or-- >> i didn't agree with that. i think that flag represents something special in this country, the men and women that defend our freedom. the men and women that are the first responders, policemen, firemen and that's my personal opinion. neil: that's what the president says. it actually detracts from the game and our country. >> i do think it represents this, it represents the fact that you have the right to be able to be free to choose in this country. that's what the flag represents. now, some people choose to do some things one way, i don't agree necessarily with the guys that have been kneeling. i just think it's wrong. that's my personal opinion. like i said, i think it's

disrespectful to those that have sacrificed and given up so much. and then the families that sacrifice so much while our men and women are overseas or in the united states, or in any country, trying to make sure that we can protect the freedom here. i totally feel that-- >> is that why the nfl ratings are down? down 5, 8%? >> it's 18% in some places. you go into a sports bar in some places, the owners will tell you down we're down 15%, 16%. neil: i was shocked, looked at the redskins, amazing. >> i think the commissioner has a chore going forward, as well as the nfl owners they have to come up with a way to-- >> you can argue they punted on it. >> they haven't, but they have to. you can't keep hiding from this. you've got saturation, i believe, thursday night football, thursday night, friday, saturday, sunday. neil: it's not the protests though did $. >> it's not just one thing, it's not one ticklemeparticular thin

it's know the that we can nt get resolution of immigration, or resolution of health care. everybody wants to knock tax reform, they say the rich are going to get richer. we don't know what's going to happen, but a lot of companies are giving out bonuses they would not have gotten if tax reform hasn't happened. neil: and whether you agree or not. it's generous and bigger and the economy is better, but not very good poll numbers. >> first of all, i don't think it matters to him. i think what president trump wants to do. he made promises to the american people and attempting to fulfill those promises. now, because, you know, because you have a house, because you have a senate, because you have democrats, because you have republicans and remember one thing, he defeated both the republicans and the democrats. neil: you're right about that. >> it's not just one side of the aisle and all of a sudden, but he's managed to win over people, i think.

he's managed to upset a lot of people, but he is who he's going to be. i think everybody sort of keeps waiting for him to change. neil: he's not going to do that. >> don't do that. neil: could i ask you this, you and i talked during the break. i was a grad student in this town when you were a star on the redskins and one thing i marvelled you were paid a fraction of the stars today. >> it's funny the year we won the championship in 1982, i made $235,000. the next year i made 265. we went back to the super bowl, and i was the mvp of the league and put it in perspective. derrick carr for example oakland raiders, matthew stafford from the detroit lions and curt cousins, 1.6 million per game. neil: more than the rate of inflation. >> they'll be okay. neil: where is cousins going to go, by the way. >> i hope he stays here and-- >> he didn't end the year on a great note.

>> no, but he's played a lot of football. you lost a lot of key players. the redskins, if they had been healthy, i think could have competed with anyone but they weren't and i believe this football team will be stronger going forward. who is playing quarterback? that's up to kirk. neil: are you available? >> trust me not anymore. there's a list, i shouldn't be on the list. let me put it that way. i don't want to be considered for it i would i can liao to see kirk stay, but he's in a unique situation he has an opportunity to make a choice few athletes get to do. he gets to pick and choose where he wants to go. neil: the free agency. >> rolled the dice and see what happens. neil: a couple more wins would have helped in the end. >> a couple more wins. neil: i did not know that pay disparity then. probably had a lot of endorsements, right? >> not-- 6 million. neil: joe theisman, so great seeing you. >> thanks for having me. neil: and as soon as he shook my hand, he could break it and he said, no tough questions.

he did not say that. thank you very, very much. >> thank you. neil: another guy who could break your handshaking it is chad. oh, sure, looks unassuming, but the guy could kill you with one look and he's keeping track of what's happening on capitol hill. chad, it doesn't seem like a whole lot, but update me. >> we don't have any plan right now to reopen government and what i suspect is that this will take a few days at a minimum for this to play out and we probably don't get any update on what the path forward is until later today. the senate is going to come in in just a couple of minutes at noon eastern time, and mitch mcconnell has set up a procedural vote which might not be taken by rule until 1 a.m. monday, to end debate on a three-week interim spending bill to keep the government open until the 8th of february. so that's the next move that would require 60 votes and it's unclear if that could keep the government open. neil: so, are they talking-- i know each side is having its

press conference and each side talking to its own respective caucus. i don't see a lot of each side talking to the other side. but what's going on? >> that's the problem. that's the problem and this is where lindsey graham, who has been trying to broker something on immigration and daca. he says he feels like he's switzerland, his term, going between the sides with an army the size of the vatican. you need to get everybody kind of together on one page and when you have house speaker paul ryan and the republican leadership indicating they're not going to negotiate on daca until the government reopens, and you have nancy pelosi and her press conference, which was ending as we speak her, she slightly cracked the door open in being interested in a three-week cr, continuing resolution, so long as they got an agreement on nondefense spending, an increase there, and made some progress on the daca side. i suspect you'll see a lot this weekend, neil, grand standing, charades, press conferences and everybody kind of locking in.

nobody knows who is really going to get blamed for this and i should point out something else that's interesting, members of congress get paid during a government shutdown. why? it's in the constitution. in fact, neil, it's in the constitution two places. article one section 6. says that-- authorizes the treasury to pay members of congress, flat-out says they get paid and 27th amendment which was engineered by a back-betcher congressman little known fellow boehner, said you cannot vary a congress person's rate of pay until you have an election, they have to get paid. neil: so good for them. maybe not so good for a lot of other folks who probably will not be in a similar position. >> that's right. neil: thank you very much. that will wrap up our debut show, a government shutdown at the capitol. and the two sides are talking, but not to each other. the hope is that they can cobble together some sort of a grand talking point or measure to

reopen the government sometime monday, but that means they have to agree what that would be. it's nowhere near that. if you're interested in touring the capital capitol, you can't. if you're interested in visiting a national park, you can't. we'll see. leland: the government shutdown of 2018. you're looking live pictures of the united states senate as they gavel in and begin the work of reopening the government. republican senator cory gardner on if there is a deal in the works. this coming, of course, on the one year anniversary of president trump's inauguration. he calls it a gift from the democrats. we are going to ask the white house about that and look back at the year of the president's fir first. >> and rallies and marches in cities across the united states today, pushing for causes like protecting illegal immigr,