the nhl network and the service men and women as well, thank you for your sacrifice. happy holidays. jedediah: thanks, everyone! jedediah: pete: you want to come for the solar plunge? ♪ >> a shutdown in washington, meltdown on wall street, what is ahead for your green? live from fox news channel headquarters in new york city, here is neil cavuto. >> sound so onerous -- ominous. keep in mind 75% of the government is open, 2 hours and we find out what lawmakers potentially could pool out of their have to deal with that and keep a 1-day shutdown. we've got you covered in

washington with what lawmakers can do to strike a deal, ellison barber at the white house on what donald trump is planning to do and christina in new york city. despite a market meltdown, christmas shoppers with last-minute deals. we begin with doug mikell way. >> reporter: we were number one powerful committee chairman leaders on both sides of the aisle were able to look at a situation like this, $1.3 billion the democrats want for border security, $5.7 billion the republicans ones for border wall and strike a deal. split the difference, shake hands, call it a day and go home for christmas and spare the country this unnecessary ordeal, but that is not where we are in the 21st century. we've seen it many times. both houses will convene at noon today but they have nothing to do. a skeleton crew.

many members of left for the holidays, to the frustration of many including this one republican senator. >> if we stay in session everyone has to stay here and debate, keep everyone in the room, they finish up the debate. as long as there are these shutdowns or continuing resolutions, everyone leaves and doesn't finish the fight it doesn't get resolve and it lingers on and on. >> reporter: we are left with a typical impasse. congressman debbie dingell speaking for many calling saying it is lack of leadership from donald trump and congressional leaders, the american people expect the government to work with them and listen. it is the holiday season, we should be showing our better selves about driving the nation into a pointless shutdown and publicans blaming the democrats. >> i'm not sure why schumer is changing his tone. by changing his tone he is setting the government down. the house is acted, the only people holding up the

government shutdown, 25% of them too, schumer. >> reporter: don't expect much to happen today. most members of gone home for the holidays. if something does happen over the weekends, look for some negotiations to happen into the night, perhaps early into the we hours of christmas eve, morning, keep in mind the shutdown is relatively minimal affecting 25% of the government, tsa agents will be manning the airports, social security checks will still go out and the mail will still be delivered, santa claus will go on his appointed rounds delivering lumps of coal on both ends of pennsylvania avenue. neil: merry christmas. to the meltdown on wall street and whether this is having a lasting impact on main street. christina is in new york city with more. >> reporter: no lumps of coal over here because most people i'm speaking to our happy to

visit all the stores in the storefronts. we are talking markets, look at the markets this week starting with the dow down 7%, moving on to the nasdaq entering bear market territory donate%, the s&p is down 7% as well and the rest -- the russell 2000 consisting of small caps, a barometer of confidence for american group. looking at these markets, all-time highs, we get to the definition of bear market when it drops 20%, you see the nasdaq fall 21.9%. the dow teetering very close, down almost 17% in the russell 2000 in bear market territory. what is causing this? bear market territory on the nasdaq, tech stocks. usually investors move out of it because they consider them high risk. some are saying overvalued. amazon down 14%. i want to focus on google, the

parent company being out of it, they hit bear market territory. we saw yesterday close 6% lower falling below $1000. what is happening on these markets. there is not one particular factor but several that contribute to market mayhem. the federal reserve increasing interest rates, quantitative tightening, reducing money supply in the market, all this talk about a possible global slowdown in 2019 worrying investors and on friday, a lot of position unwinding so a lot of selling and moving in a lot of portfolios, then you've got to talk about the government shutdown because that contributes to instability and algorithm trading, blame the computers but nonetheless oil falling below $50, concerns of a slowdown. here you have it.

a lot of investors worried but shoppers behind me seemed to be happy especially the one standing behind me. neil: maybe they were short of the market. we have the nasdaq in bear market down 20%. in excess of 22% following the russell 2000, very big with small-cap stock down 25%, the s&p mid-cap index by definition mid range company in bear market territory, dow transportation average in bear market territory. a lot of people pay attention to that because it could telegraph bigger problems, the stuff that moves the stuff and the stuff that underlies that. therein lies the rub with the s&p and the dow close to bear market territory. do we need to complete that? steve forbes, retail -- stephen

gillfoil, what do you think of this? are you bearish? >> i had to change the way i did business. i was on with you and stressed higher cash limits. i don't -- neil: is this overdoing it? >> know. there are so many negatives, chief among them a central bank intentionally slowing the economy while the economy was slowing itself and global growth like christina said in a synchronized state of slowdown. i want people to understand quantitative tightening is so much better than people know, $50 billion a month drained out of the economy, $600 billion a year. out of the economy. the wall is $5 billion, too much money, nobody can handle $5 billion. 10 times that every month is being trained from potential liquidity and everyone says

this wasn't in the banking system or the real economy, yes it was. when the treasury borrows money, that many goes out to contracts and does end up in the real economy. neil: the trends took place over the last decade, buying out every treasury notes to keep interest rates near 0%. it is not being taken. >> the markets have known this has happened from months, the increase in interest rates we had a few days ago, the fed indicated in a roundabout way that it will be easier next year. trump has won the war with the fed even though they are trying to stand up for independence. trump has won. the fed will be careful. heather: if this is what victory looks like -- >> they will do a december increase to show they are independent. that factored into the market. they are talking about interest rate increases next year, talk

about two, now knocking that down. it is a face-saving way of backing off. in terms of unwinding the portfolio, that was a depression on the economy. moving money left by banks to the real economy which weighing the economy or two big things, one is this trade thing even if you get a trade deal to get through congress, the other big thing worrying the markets is what will happen overseas. are things going to spin out of control? those uncertainties get an agreement through congress on top of foreign-policy and we have that uncertainty, investors invest less and that will have an effect next year. it neil: the irony would be we get a trade deal but china is too weak. let me get your sense of the mood of shoppers and consumers because i am sure they are aware of the noise around them but they look like they will

spend record amounts this christmas holiday, super saturday, whatever that means, superpanic, people scrambling, records across the board. explain the disconnect. >> 34 million people will be shopping today, most of them doing this online, paypal came out with started at that 40% of americans are shopping the a their mobile devices. this is not having an effect on the american consumer. what is having an effect on are the retail stocks. 95% of retail stocks in the s&p 500 have been underperforming, the worst-performing since 2008. when you talk about macroeconomic factors, the china economic slowdown, the trade deal people are worried about. this is scaring the retailers was the consumer has pent-up demand. for the past 10 years we have worried what is going to happen with the economy. we had several gains for the last several quarters.

in terms of feeling better about where the jobs are and where the economy is going, when you see consumer spending it is almost a delayed reaction. in the next quarter or the quarter after -- heather: i was wondering if the fed does slow down a little bit, the president expressed frustration with the federal reserve talking to people can i fire this guy? kenny, if he were, and tried to do that, would that create more panic? >> that we create more panic, something he can't do. it is clear that jay powell does not understand monetary policy. i will say that until the cows come home. i wrote it this week. neil: certainly not effective at what he wants to do. >> they have to approach practitioners who understand these things. >> isn't it mostly volatility?

the stock market is going to react to these potential government shutdowns but we have seen this in the past. just a question of volatility. it will not have a lasting impact. the last shutdown in 2013 was 16 days but they gained 3.1%. >> on top of quantitative tightening we have a fed that raised the funds rate 25 basis points when the stand between the two and ten year was 14 basis points and by signaling two more increases, it is not data dependent because that is looking at the past. we will use our heads, look the american people in the eye and say this is a big deal. we are close to forcing an inversion. a recession in the economy. neil: was shorter-term rates that always leads to a recession. that is a fear, a justified fear? >> we are in new territory where things in the past don't work. the massive increase in money supply the last we 10 years,

like hyperinflation worse than the 1970s. it didn't happen because regulation major the money did not get to the economy, loans, small and new businesses. that is to pick up again. the fed reducing the portfolio help the economy. what hurts is the economy picks up speed next year and they try to slow it down. neil: updating you on this, the government is in shutdown, lawmakers are indicating they will try to cobble together something that could be a herculean task and this could go on a while. steny hoyer coming coming majority leader of the new house of representatives under democratic control on how long after this. colitis, are you okay? even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts.

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neil: we are told an hour and 45 minutes, trying to find a way to avoid a shutdown that is going into its 11th hour, the incoming majority leader steny

hoyer with us right now. good to have you, thank you for coming, congratulations on your appointment. let me get a sense of how long you see this going? >> difficult to tell because we thought we had this resolved when donald trump, the vice president said he would sign a bill passed by the senate and wednesday a bill we would have voted for and would have kept the government running until february 8th but the president changed his mind so it is difficult to tell. however, it ought to be clear to the president that he doesn't have the votes for a wall. he does have votes for strengthening border security through technological means, personnel means and the number of other ways and that is not going to change between now and whenever. so it would be in the best interests of the country and of the president and congress if we would come to agreement in the next 24 or 48 hours.

>> the president has been redefining it, are we really stuck on semantics or what? >> we are stuck on what he is talking about but he modified his rhetoric and perhaps negotiators which include both his incoming chief of staff and jared kushner and mike pence, perhaps they will come up with a solution that senator schumer and the democrats and nancy pelosi feel is consistent. >> is that position modified as well? democrats change their minds, but at the beginning, the very things you're repudiating now? >> i don't know that i agree that we are repudiating, we've

always been against the wall. we always thought the wall was an ineffective way. neil: that was part of the package that were summarily voted on and approved and ultimately now rejected so it is sending people mixed messages. >> i don't want to quibble but what was passed by the senate last wednesday was a result of discussions and was a bill we would have supported. when you say ultimately that was the bill mcconnell thought the president agreed to and he sent it to the house, but for the president changing his mind saying i won't sign that bill, that bill would have passed with overwhelming support, perhaps unanimous support on our side and whether the republicans would have had a majority, you opened up the government before under john o boehnwr when he had only 240

republicans to vote for it and frankly mccarthy and ryan and mick mulvaney voted to keep the government shutdown. neil: enough went along with him to avoid that so that is what people are waiting to see now. >> democrats overwhelmingly went along not because without choice but was a compromise. all of these bills we are considering a republican bills. some things we like and some things we didn't like but they were compromises and we are prepared to vote for them but they are all republican bills and we support a lot that is in there. neil: there's a lot of common ground, less common ground for a way to keep the government lights on in the first week of february, the president did table that at the last minute and a lot of people were

surprised but having said that, is there a way to revisit something like that and get closer to the $5 billion he's talking about whereas the last speaker mentioned $1.6 billion as high as democrats go. >> we all want to get to compromise. people are at the table, senator alexander, flake and corker said they were pleased with that. there is agreement on process, not substance. all of us hope we can reach some agreement because we all agree we want the border secure. we don't want people coming into the united states, we don't know who is coming in, we want to make sure there's an orderly handling of commerce. we are all for that. it is a question, there is a significant, substantive disagreement how you do that but the president modified his rhetoric and if he can get to a place we can agree on strengthening security, technical means, personnel means or whatever other means,

hopefully we can get to an agreement. neil: hope you have a merry christmas and hope you are not working there. thank you very much. liz cheney on what she makes of all of this.

neil: congress isn't going anywhere, neither is the president of the united states awaiting a hail mary pass on the part of the lawmakers, and starting in 90 minutes to keep the parcel shutdown longer. allison barber is at the white house right now. >> reporter: the white house is not budging on wanting funding for border wall, whatever you want to call it.

the deck a -- deputy press secretary believe donald trump is in a position of power. >> the president will go as far as it takes to protect the american people. negotiations are ongoing. he sent top negotiator securing the vice president to the hill all day long to have a conversation. >> reporter: the white house is democrats are going back on plans, there was reneging on deals that were made, democrats disagree with that. donald trump began his fight by telling democrat senator chuck schumer he would take the blame of a shutdown were to occur. he changed his tune on who is the one responsible for the shutdown. >> i will take the mantle. i will be the one to shut it down. i won't way before. last time you shut it down it didn't work. i will take the mantle of shutting it down and i will shut it down for border -- call it a democrat shutdown, call it whatever you want. but we need help to get this approved. >> reporter: the white house is

the wall is something the president campaigned on and why people voted for him and it is necessary to protect the country. in a quinnipiac poll, 54% of american voters oppose building a wall on the mexico border and 54% said the wall is not necessary to improve border security but 86% of republicans said they support the wall and 59% said they support shutting down the government over the wall. democrat strongly oppose the wall. voters were divided. the president was scheduled to be in florida by now. instead he is here tweeting a photo yesterday from the oval office, the white house telling us the earliest donald trump could leave for florida is tomorrow. neil: thank you very much. holding firm on border wall funding in lieu of the government shutdown but not on all matters. congresswoman liz cheney talking about how she the parts

on taking troops out of syria. >> with respect to syria i don't want to see us pull out. it would be a mistake. securit the nation first. my view is we should not be withdrawing from syria. we need to make sure we stay there and create a land bridge, we don't with isis to be resurgence. neil: almost unanimous, the events brought down in afghanistan, lieutenant general, very good to have you, thanks for coming. >> good to be here. neil: is now the time to be doing this first in syria? >> the short answer is no. a little longer explanation.

most people understand the united states action in syria, to terminate the islamic state's ability to have a sanctuary from which they could export terror in the united states and around the world and while that mission has been largely accomplished it hasn't been completed but in addition to that, geopolitics in the region continue particularly with actions taken by russia and iraqi. it appears the president has been influenced by his discussion with president erdogan concerning a potential upcoming turkish offensive to be launched against the kurds and that is very significant and concerning also because they have in fact helped us in currently occupying territory the we pushed the islamic state

out of. neil: the president argued that one justification for the movie crisis is defeated, time to move on. do you agree that isis is defeated? >> depends on your definition of defeat. you can significantly, as has been accomplished, ostensibly there is only, the current islamic state forces only occupy 1% of the territory they previously occupied but one has to look beyond simply the occupation of territory, the consequences of what might happen afterwards in terms of reconstitution. i would suggest, here's what is going to happen if the united states or when the united states withdraws. first the islamic state will declare victory. that victory statement will allow for greater recruitment

of more islamic radicals. second, they are going to now move into the territory that was previously occupied by the islamic state. third, the kurds who had been helping us, the syrian democratic forces are not going to have the kind of support that allows them to maintain a territory. neil: every thing jim mattis said and was overruled. >> that is why secretary mattis resigned. neil: thank you so much, have a merry christmas. in the meantime, democrats blaming republicans, republicans blaming democrats, others pointing the finger at the president, the bottom line is the government is partially shut down but it is not affecting your move, most americans are unaware shutdown is going on at all. whether that is a sign of the times, they are used to this, or the fact that americans have more important things to think

about is anyone's guess. shoppers in record numbers expected today. from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. what's in your wallet?

john boehner

neil: this is rice outside our offices in midtown manhattan. a lot of people lining up on the streets. they call this super saturday. others call it panic saturday, the busiest shopping day of the year. how do they do this? i don't know. 134 million people will take to the streets to do their thing. that is the expectation. these are signs of people getting nervous about a government shutdown, concerns about interest rates, they have a funny way of showing it, and think about it next year and get depressed. the fallout here. the underlying fundamentals, this is the stuff that is good.

and worries be worrisome? manhattan republican party ceo and catalina, republican pollster lee carter. no matter the party affiliation, they are upbeat. >> consumer confidence, the markets are going crazy and a lot of people blame the markets and it will be a long-term issue, checking 401(k) balances, they feel good about jobs numbers, the economy and feeling good about christmas. neil: you feel good about christmas? >> i do. neil: you shake your head no, yes i do. >> no one seems to know it is going on.

we are distracted by christmas and trump is banking on that, people are not concerned with the shutdown so that is why he is taking responsible before, democrats know people don't like a shutdown. neil: taking responded for now. >> it is my shutdown, it is your shutdown. neil: to your point, not too crazy about it. how long does that last and does it prove the president's point that this is all crazy, the fact of the matter is companies are doing well, underlying fundamentals are strong. >> it does, gdi growth is at 4.3% this quarter. neil: talking gdp in the latest quarter. >> it is up 3.4% gross to mystic income is up 4.3%. neil: you are looking, people were concerned about affording all the shopping. it is there. >> it is there and gdp growth is on record, on track to be a

record number since 2005. people have confidence knowing they can spend the money knowing they have more money in their pockets and the economy is doing well so shoppers, main st. america is doing well and that is what they are feeling because they have more money. neil: you mentioned the 401(k) is doing well. a lot of people don't have 401(k)s. a lot of the mindset that this is all just noise. if i have a job, my spouse has a job, job prospects are strong, getting decent raises, all this is noise. >> a lot of it seems to be noise. we are little bit the boy who cried wolf situation where every time something happens, a cataclysmic event will make the

economy go sideways, donald trump is the worst thing that ever happened. we heard that for three years. from he announced he was going to run until today. a lot of people say it won't be this time. it will be fine. it has been fine in the past and will be fine again. this is a serious situation we are in. we are at a place, not just a friendly game of chicken. we are talking about a government shutdown, months of maybe this going on. there isn't any hope right now. neil: i don't think the shutdown is because it is, i'm not minimizing it, that it doesn't have the same effect it used to. we have gotten used to it. i do believe this market route is a little different. it does pile on. we have four different averages in bear market territory. if you include the nasdaq and the russell 2000, it is down in bear market territory, a signal for the economy in bear market territory, the s&p and dow are the ones we are waiting for they are couple percentage points and doesn't mean they reverse their get into bear market territory. that is fairly significant.

>> it is a game of chicken. shutdowns are games of chicken. we want to see which car will swerve first. neil: my argument is this is not movement of the microeconomic means. >> they say the longer shutdowns go the more upset people get. that is the problem. the short shutdown we heard earlier this year was not much but the longer it goes, polls do show -- neil: you can help me with this as well. it has -- hasn't affected social security checks, hasn't affected medicare payments from being processed but none of that is happening. not to minimize for the 800,000 federal workers who are getting furloughed or paychecks are delayed, it is a big deal but not like prior shutdowns. >> they did pass -- they will get back pay. you are absolutely right.

it is a pile on. we have been in a bull market for a long time. the market has been going down reasonably. neil: do you think it is a bear market and that is a big deal? >> i don't know. neil: i admire that. i never say i don't know. i do know. i have no idea what i know. do you get a sense that a bear market is the telegraphing of that? those who subscribe to that like the 70s oriole sustained bear market and others dismiss it, we got close to an earlier this year and -- >> we have to see if this is, seems to be more systemic than other corrections we have had in recent times. the other indices we are looking at, looking at the trade tensions we have overseas, not just china and other places. and if you look at the uk, the eu.

neil: those worries have always been there. >> we have been able to shrug them off because people were thinking we will fix it. we are going to be able to get through it. this is the time it will be okay. we are seeing this worry is something every time, markets are reacting and that is not what is happening. for me i believe this is an indicator this is something bigger and i do believe a lot of economists say we are looking at going into, don't like the word recession, late next year or early in 2020 but there's going to the a lot of concern and we are looking at financial instability. heather: you got your shopping done. >> no, none. >> none. neil: you are not one of those -- >> the government will do it for me.

neil: you are optimistic you will get it done. >> yes i am. neil: a few people -- you are not competing with many. thank you very much. we are keeping track of the shutdown. is a partial shutdown not affecting the more obvious services you expect but when you get to the airport you might notice something. it could be big things. ♪ guess what day it is ♪ >> holy smokes. >> are you watching the best of geico? with classics like... hump day. caveman airport. and even... celebrating squirrels. this crudité is great, but those geico ads are even better. but that's not all. vote today and you can enter for a chance to appear in an upcoming geico commercial. just visit geico.com/bestof. oh, geico.

neil: we are entering a partial government shutdown, people are wondering what that means. a quarter of the government is not. the 3-quarter is the maddest you is open. the pain affects wouldn't be there. what is happening with the military, homeland security, federal courts, business as usual. taking a look at the post office, federal benefits, the tsa, all cases where it is business as usual might have trouble getting a passport or

getting into some federal national parks and the rest but by and large you will probably not notice this. not to say 800,000 federal workers who are going to be furloughed and or see a delay getting paid won't feel that impact. so far the impact will be relatively minimal. all this at a time when people are going home to grandma's to get home for the holidays, competing with mother nature and a lot of other people who had the same idea. jeff paul at a very busy ax. >> reporter: the government having a partial government shutdown but many travelers here even realize it. they technically aren't being paid today, tsa agents and air traffic control showing up in airports like this across the country to make sure these travelers not only get to their destinations on time but in a safe manner and that is huge because this is shaping up to

be a record travel season, aaa estimates 6.7 million people will travel by air this year, the highest in 15 years, 3.7 million will travel by train, buses or cruise ships and highways are going to be packed. 102 million are expected to hit the road at some point for the holiday. we are not seeing many delays across the country. the only flight delay is at lax. because of the volume, other than that the weather is not affecting many departures or arrivals from coast-to-coast. >> i just moved away from my family. my first time going back to see them. if they weren't there there was no reason to go back. it is all about family. >> reporter: in the past congress approved back pay for tsa agents and air traffic controllers. that is not guaranteed. they are showing up to work. as we look around here it is

fairly calm but that could change at any moment. neil: thank you very much. as if we didn't have the shutdown thing to worry about, competing with 135 million americans if you were in the last minute hunt for a crowd, now there is political infighting over making this man, attorney general of the united states, what democrats are saying republicans are ignoring, the fight that could becoming. i found my tresiba® reason. now i'm doing more to lower my a1c. once daily tresiba® controls blood sugar for 24 hours for powerful a1c reduction. tresiba® is a long-acting insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache.

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neil: you think the government shutdown is a problem for the president with democrats closing in. they are going after the next attorney general, william barr,

over a memo he wrote criticizing the mueller probe some time ago. fox news contributor andrew mccarthy with us right now. they argue there is a conflict because he was reportedly dismissing the probe itself but maybe you can educate me. is there such a conflict? >> it is a very narrow and well done argument which homes in on a single aspect of the mueller investigation which is his extravagant use as we understand publicly based on the reporting what the investigation looks like, his extravagant understanding of the obstruction statute. for people criticizing the memo, people understand, barr was the head of the legal counsel in the bush 41

administration. he is a lawyer's lawyer. he has great sense and perception of the justice department traditions and ways of doing things and statutory construction. this

here we have a situation where the guy running the

investigation. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein is in fact under investigation, he's the one that the administration wrote to rely on to fire comey. it's disqualification law. and the lawyer can't be an actor in the facts it is like automatic disqualification law. a lawyer cannot be actor in effect the transaction in which he helped and act as a lawyer. if rosenstein doesn't have to get out.

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>> all right. we are-- it's about 11 hours, and avoid it. someone e-mailed me and said his federal home administration mortgage was held up, it's an fha loan and that's now waiting out this sorting out on capitol hill. part of the court of economic activity that's stymied. chad joins us with what's at stake later on today. whether anything will come of that meeting. and what do you have? >> the house and senate at noon eastern, that's pretty much window dressing. we're expecting no action on the

floors of either body. our negotiations are off stage, in fact, many lawmakers aren't in washington, they rushed home last night with the understanding they will have 24 hours notice to return to vote on any prospective deal. the fact that there are a few people on capitol hill means they are not close to agreement. there will just be a skeleton crew on hand at the capitol. and the optimistic would be forging a deal today and returning late tomorrow. the senior house member says a more likely vote on the 27th or 28th. the biggest crowd are journalists. fox is told they're trying to forge on the overall spending bills and these would not be stop gap measures, but full bills for the cabinet departments and agencies for the fiscal year. the biggest problem is the wall funding. and democrats remain in opposition, and the thought from the administration is they would

like about 2.5 billion. and now conservatives, especially in the house, they want $5 billion since the house okayed that plan on thursday. and neil, unless something changes soon, we could be in for a long shutdown over the holiday. >> so the president's come down on his request, and some republicans on the 5 billion to bring it down to two and a half billion and steny hoyer sticking to the much lower figure. so there's quite an impasse, no middle ground it seems even on the middle ground. >> right, one source told me last night they thought they might be able to get 900 million, million with a "m" for a wall or border security. democrats remain opposed to that. 900 million is nothing in washington dollars, that's pocket, neil. and surprising that that might be what they're fighting over. fha, you mentioned, it's those issues and not getting federal workers paid and maybe the optics of them negotiating this

and members have got to go home for the holidays. like i said, there's not going to be many people on capitol hill until they say, okay, we've got something for everybody to vote on and everybody comes rushing back to washington. the optics of that could be bad. i was also told that, you know the president would like to go to mar-a-lago and spend the holiday there with his families. some speculation on capitol hill is that that might step things up a little bit because he might get tired of sitting in washington and wants a deal and might be willing to deal and come down. but if they come off that $5 billion that's going to inflame conservatives and the freedom caucus, especially since they voted on that bill the other night and the house of representatives passed it. you could see a scenario where the freedom caucus, why did we back off that position, and we got a vote and why are we backing off, and that could inflame the base and the president, and no, no that happened twice, that happened

after mitch mcconnell, what we call is a clean spending bill on the floor wednesday, it was approved by a voice vote and we thought this was going to be concluded in the house of representatives thursday, friday, and then everything went poof once the president veto again. >> thank you, chad, with us on the phone right now. it looks like it's going on. it might be the nuisance factor for a lot of folks with a lot of state department and related funding stops. that means if you're trying to get a passport or in the middle of renewing the one you have. that could be stymied and if you have an fha backed loan, for example, as i was telling you a friend of mine had conveyed to me, that, too, is held up. if you had locked in a loan rate and this drags on much longer, and rates go higher, no guarantee that it will be gain guaranteed at the rate you signed on for for that fha loan

or house or condo. and social security checks not going out or medicare checks not going out. but it's a reminder for these people directly affected, it's a pain for 800,000 federal workers, whatever you think, they are looking at being furloughed, and/or getting a delay in pay them searchselveth so it has that effect, it sort of metastasizes as it goes on. congressman, good to have you. >> thank you, neil. >> we're told that your caucus would not entertain a lower figure than the $5 billion already desired for the wall that the president wants, presumably you want and two and a half billion that was ventured is not going to fly with you, with your caucus. is that fair to say? >> well, i can't speak for the whole caucus, but i can speak for me. we're just really not getting too much. if you lower it by two and a half billion dollars, remember, there's 1.6 already there and

you start talking is this real new money? and my guess is that they'll find a way to smooth over this so you're not even getting new real new money. neil: when chuck schumer says they haven't even-- referring to republicans and the president, already spent the money we already allocated to them and money they haven't gotten when they haven't spent the money they have. >> most federal programs kind of operate that way, where it takes a while to rev up and get going and spend the money and then it gets flowing and starts going. we know some of the money is spent, it's not spent on new wall yet, it's being spent on the repairs to the old walls that have been there that worked so well, actually. neil: congressman, was it you and your colleagues off the deal that he reportedly signed i don't know to keep the government going and the members of the freedom caucus said, no,

don't blink on this? >> i don't know if we get all the credit. president trump demonstrated that he's got a mind and will of his own. neil: and he was of a mind before to sign onto that idea, this temporary, continuing resolution and then something changed, right? . well, don't forget that he also said that he was-- before that he said he wanted border wall funding for like two and a half years. neil: very true. >> and we get to this point and he's saying, i'll own the shutdown, but he was only going to own the shutdown if the house would have approved the clean cr which we didn't do. and i think the house freedom caucus, i think the american people made their voice loud and clear said we want border wall funding, it's a national security issue and i think the president understands how important it is to secure the border regardless what the democrats say right now. neil: well, i've heard both sides and you're right, there's been a lot of rejiggering here, but the president did say he would own the shutdown proudly

so and pointing the fingers at the democrats. now, is he the one shifting? >> no, i think the fact is, if you look at the context, he's saying at the time it locked like we were going to get clean cr's from both houses and it would have been in his hand. a veto on his part would have shut it down. right now that's not the case. he doesn't have a bill to sign or veto. right now, it's basically the democrats' hands in the senate. so that's chuck schumer's deal right now. so he owns the shutdown. neil: all right, well, it just seems odd, i think in the context of what the president was saying, making it very clear that he felt very involved in doing this and now it's happening, and yet the fortunate thing for now it seems, congressman, is that the damage is relatively minor, only a quarter of the government that is shut down, if it drags on, it could be problematic. is it your sense it's going to drag on, whatever they meet about in another hour might not solve anything, this could go to

the holidays, through january and longer. >> well, i don't know that it goes well into january, but to say that it's not going to go past-- or going to be solved before christmas is not accurate. i think it's sometimes the end of next week if you want my opinion on it, but it's above my pay grade, neil. neil: i think that's right in your pay grade. thank you, congressman, merry christmas just the same. >> merry christmas, sir. neil: you've heard the republican side, fair and balanced, the democratic said. a congressman who says it's unnecessary if we do one thing, just one thing right now. ive s cookie cutter portfolios. fisher investments tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. some only call when they have something to sell. fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. and while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management.

>> first it was jim mattis and now we're learning that fighting the global coalition group. and he's resigned after president trump removing troops from syria.

mcguirk called it reckless to consider isis defeated and unwise to bring american forces home. he's now apparently resigning over that, speeding up his intention to leave. right now, saying that it was the right and proper thing to do and submitting a letter to say as much to the secretaries of state, mike pompeo. in the middle of this. we have the ongoing now, 11:13 government shutdown going on. and three quarters remains open. you heard a member of the freedom caucus saying the president should stand his ground. i have a feeling this next fellow has a slightly different point of view. texas democratic congressman al green. thank you for coming. >> thank you, mr. cavuto. neil: what if the president wants to stick to the $5 billion figure and democrats not

entertaining above 1.3 to 1.6 and there's a middle ground being mentioned. is that a fair assessment? >> it seems that parties are still trying to negotiate, but i don't hear about a lot of movement and i can only say to you that it can end on january the 3rd at about noon when the new congress is sworn in, but i can't tell you that it will end before then. my hope is that it will end today. we don't want government workers, persons who have salaries will be delivered to them timely, we don't want them to have a lot of timely. >> when you say january 3rd, with democrats included. taking control of the house, that that should stop it, it wouldn't automatically, right? and you still need to get approval in the house and senate and dicey and the president signing off-- >> you would, but the legislation in this congress

expires on that date and that would then cause us to have to take additional action. of course, we're not going to allow the government to remain inoperable. that doesn't make sense. it's time for us to negotiate and reach a reasonable conclusion. neil: do you think-- there's talk that nancy pelosi is taking a tougher staff that is her senate counterpart chuck schumer. is that true? >> well, i have not heard that. i believe that everybody on my side is negotiating in good faith and that would of course include speaker pelosi. once a speaker and always a speaker. i found her to be a person to negotiate in good faith. and they reached what was thought to be a bipartisan agreement, and the senate agreed to it. rather than that, a partisan agreement has been placed on the table. i think the bipartisan effort was a good one and we ought to

honor it. >> we would go beyond the 1.3 to 1.6 that the democrats played with on this? the president indicated or at least the people around him, indicated, congressman that he's come down from the five billion, as the next payment on that. where do you stand, first of all? >> i never say never. but i think this may be a good opportunity for me, mr. cavuto, if i may to explain to you in part why i have voted against this. i was at the border this week. i had an opportunity to go to the place where the young lady, the baby, seven years old, six years old when she started her journey, and she lost her life there. i was at the station where she was when they were examining her. and mr. have a cavuto, i saw something that we should not happen in our country. babies stacked on top of each other, literally, mr. cavuto, in

a small room on a floor, a concrete floor and had silver-like blankets over them and an open toilet in the room and this is something i can't condone. there's a humanitarian crisis' border, i don't see how a wall is going to solve a humanitarian crisis. i think there's much more to be done and i look forward to engaging in the process, but we can do better mr. cavuto. neil: first of all, it's neil. flatter you call me my by last name. the argument for a wall, fencing, steel beams, whatever the president is looking at, it would prevent this sort of thing and make it less likely that parents would bring, or risk their children to try to get here in the way they have been. that this would be a way to deter that. you don't buy that? >> no, sir. i think that is when one argument, but mr. cavuto, people

are fleeing harm's way. we are the country that has a statute, give me your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, for extending the hand of friendship. neil: don't we do that, one and a quarter million people from all over the world have become legal citizens in this country so it's not as if they're not welcomed. but there's a process, right? >> there is a process and a part of the process is something called asylum. that's a lawful part of the process. there is no reason why we would try to by executive order circumvent what the law prescribes. mr. cavuto, we sent over a billion dollars to jordan to help with the refugees that are fleeing harm's way in syria. we can do more to help people coming across our border. i believe that, mr. cavuto, and i will stand by that. neil: congressman, al green, thank you, sir. i hope you have a merry christmas and hope you're not working completely through it one way or the other. >> thank you.

neil: the congressman and i were chatting here. i want to draw your attention to an event halfway across the world. protests continuing in paris, i believe these are protests that are now the 7th strayed -- straight weekend, sixth, i'm told. and they're not doing enough to ease cost pressures on citizens. emmanuel macron, the gas tax, among the highest taxes in the world, just a little higher and they're not satisfied and saying that the government is moving too slowly to ease their pain as the government is trying to ease up on cradle to grave benefits that have been pretty much the rule in france, and these people don't like that rule being broken. we will have more after this.

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>> all right. live for what is coming in in paris. the protests going into the sixth straight week here. they're upset about the changes the government is trying to make, to raise retirement ages there, to also look at ways to raise more money, to help with fighting climate change and the rest. and a key tenet of that was raising the gas tax in france where already i believe the equivalent of a gallon of gas goes for about $8, among the world's highest. that was resended by emmanuel macron, but a number of issues he has are still in place and a lot of the parisians are of the mindset, you're not negotiating with us, talking over us and accused him of being arrogant and dismissive of their concerns. they're protesting again.

and the latest polls, 22% approval rating, 22%, by comparison donald trump is double that. speaking of donald trump, he's tweeting saying i am in the white house working hard. news reports concerning the shutdown is mostly fake. we're negotiating with the democrats on desperately needed border security and gangs, drugs, human trafficking and more. it could be a long stay. on syria, we knew we would head down there and not have a confirm departure. what he seems to be saying or the press secretary tells john roberts, they were doing this way and should not be a big surprise. the bottom line, what's made up and fake. it's real to say that the government is shut down. maybe not all of it, maybe a quarter of it, but it's not fake tore me to convey we are in a

partial government shutdown and it's 11 hours. and that we're withdrawing from syria, i don't know what is fake. and andrea, we begin with you. this president is determined to get the five billion for the wall, it's very important for his base. we've just heard from republicans and democrats hopefully trying to find a middle ground. more democrats who won't budge on much, much lower figures. this looks like it's going to drag on for a while. >> i think you're right, but the president has to dig in on this issue, not only important for his 2020 campaign, but also, it's not just about illegal immigration, it's about national security. we need to know who is coming to our country through our borders. despite the fact that the government is shut down and that's not good, i think ultimately, it's for the benefit of the american people. neil: that's what you hope.

and you know, we should stress here, it's a quarter of the government that's shut down, but the quarter that refers to as well, that base of the president, it's a strong vocal base. he wants to keep him with it and they want this as well. i wonder in order to keep a quarter of the people behind you, do you risk losing three quarters of the people who might want something more pragmatic from you? >> you know, i think in president has often discarded everybody besides his base. he's run knowing exactly who he's talking to and if you read "the art of the deal", since the '80, i know who my market it and focus on and ignore everybody else. neil: that goes a long way. >> it does get beyond that. neil: you can't get beyond that. >> you can't necessarily get beyond that. you can see they're softening on the sides people giving him the benefit of the doubt. obviously he's not going to win back the democrats.

he's losing a lot of the suburban swing voters which are truly swing voters. and some are saying it's lost forever for the republicans. it's not. the split is 45-47 and it's a virtual tie. i think right now he's focused on the symbol. so important for him to keep his promise or he'll lose the base. >> and culture and-- >> for many years i've covered him. he's a very shrewd businessman, a pragmatic businessman and one thing that he probably realizes is that he sometimes has to be a little bit less pragmatic if he wants to keep that base. i'm wondering, he showed that by indicating a willingness to consider this extension, right? where he was going to keep the government lights on through the first week of february they'd revisit it. apparently the freedom caucus and others ripped him a new one and he dialed that back. i'm wondering, the democrats

risk as being just as vehement on the other side not budging on the 1.3 versus 1.6. >> that's base versus base, that's what the shutdown is about. base versus base. neither one wants to lose the chicken fight so they're playing for 2020. this is what it's about. shutdowns are about big things and immigration here. >> the democratic texas congressman i was talking to, green, saying that january 3rd is changes we take over we have a whole new budget deal all of that stuff. that it's a moot point. does that mean it ends january 3rd? it wouldn't end, it would be punted to another party to try to deal with, right? >> yeah, i think at that point they're going to need to compromise. neil: no one is compromising, right? >> well, they're going to have to figure something out because the government can't stay shut down forever. >> the best thing that jack said, there's no incentive to compromising and talking about the kavanaugh hearings, but the democrats are looking like this, i need to keep my base and

democrats in 2020, they're looking at running and saying, look, i need-- i have to win to my base, that's how you're going to win the, that's how you become the candidate so i don't think that anybody is going to, you know, benefit right now. i don't see anybody that says, you know what? let's really reach across the aisle because this is going to be a win-win for both of us. >> about 2020, it's all about 2020, it's all about the issue and immigration is the issue. neil: i've read this mistakenly as the president's first tweet about fake news, he gave a clarification, that the president when he's working in the white house, he's alone in the white house, his wife and son barren have left to are mar-a-lago where they are spending the holiday and he hopes to join her. he's tooling around the white house just angry. >> and he said he was going to stay around the white house and this is his promise. and when the president gets to stay at the white house and gets

to be angry, bad things can happen. -- >> obviously, it doesn't look good if you leave. you know, that might change, too, there's a limitation how long you can stay there if it doesn't look like the needle is moving. >> this might go for a long time. i'm not sure what he's doing, but this will going to affect federal workers and people aren't going to get paid and affect the rest of us. the longer it goes, it affects the irs, our taxes and start touching all of us and goes beyond. neil: this could go on quite a while, this might go on quite a while. >> he as an american i'm happy the president is still in the white house and working on my behalf and-- >> when you say working on your behalf, what are you talking? >> he's pleading. >> he's working on the border wall. neil: and told don't budge on the five billion thing. if he were to budge, would you

say you sold your soul to chuck schumer and nancy pelosi. >> i wouldn't say that if we still got the wall. maybe do it less expensive, maybe not for 1.6 billion. neil: two and a half? >> yeah, maybe exactly. neil: two and a half. >> if there's anything that could make a deal, i think president trump. >> and we're meant to-- we're designed to compromise. we're designed to be-- like we're better when we come together and i know that's totally idealistic and it's not the way we work. >> the shutdown shows a dysfunctional government. neil: and this is a preview of coming attractions. >> it doesn't look good. neil: thank god for processed meats and cheeses. they're coming up. >> what? >> processed meats for swiss colony. look, you didn't buy a single christmas gift. your ship has come in. there it is, you're welcome america. right after this. >> thank you! i'm ken jacobus and i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy.

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>> all right. the president is tweeting from the white house right now. we have the full tweet. he began by saying i'm in the white house working hard. the reports of the shutdown are mostly fake, we're negotiating with the democrats on desperately needed border security, gangs, drugs, human trafficking and more, but it could be a long stay. on syria we were originally going to be there for three months and that was seven years ago, we never left. when i became president isis was going wild and now isis is largely defeated and other countries including turkey should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. we are coming home. of course, that flies in the face from the defense secretary of the united states who resigned over this matter, it wasn't exclusively, and another is quitting over this. hey, gillian. >> breaking just now from the associated press. bret mcguirk, the special envoy

for the global coalition to defeat isis, is resigning in protest over this, returning troops from syria. disagreement between president trump and his secretary jim mattis. the last straw for him, also, the decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria. it's a believe that mattis believed is betrayal of the kurds and syrian democratic forces. both allies who fought isis on the ground in iraq and syria for the past four years. u.s. military believes that they will be left for slaughter after the u.s. withdrawal. the president is ordering the defense department to plan to pull 7,000 soldiers half the troops currently serving in afghanistan against the collective counsel of his top

military advisors. the current contenders to replace general mattis at the pentagon, include general jack keane, fox news contributor, he's already intimated he won't takes job. and a captain who served in iraq and afghanistan and opposed to pulling u.s. troops out of syria. as well as patrick shanahan, he's currently general mattis's. and the general had 84% approval among the troops. neil: and most in the defense establishment are opposed to this move, but not everybody. retired lieutenant dan hampton joining us. you support the president on this, right? >> actually i do, neil and thanks for having me back. always good to be here. neil: thank you. >> i oppose a lot of things that this president and this administration has done, but

this is one that i think is a good idea. actually would have been a better idea not to get involved in the first place, in my opinion. neil: when the president is talking about, after all of these years, seven-plus years isis is largely defeated. do you agree with that, isis is largely defeated? >> i agree that in that particular area isis has been largely defeated, but i've made this analogy before. it's like that game whack-a-mole, you hit it and something pops up somewhere else and i've been to north africa and other places where isis is in no way weakened and they're just going to resurface somewhere else. until you remove the causes that allow them to grow and be what they are, they're going to continue to surface. neil: to be fair to the president, he campaigned on this and talked about our involved all over the world and friendly involvement where troops aretationed, germany, south korea, japan, and wonder why we do that to the degree it is. but it rankles some in the

defense establishment saying that anything that makes vladimir putin happy should make us concerned. you say what? >>ments well, it rankles the defense establishment because they have to justify enormous budgets, all right, and i think if the american people realized take syria, that war cost upwards of $250 billion since it started. that's what, 50,000 a year another five million police officers or school teachers that we could have paid for in this country. don't get me wrong, i'm not a passivist, when you have to fight you have to fight. you go in and do it nastily ruthlessly and get it over with and you win. if you don't have to fight and there's another way around it, you avoid it. neil: do you think that the president sees this as a way to negotiate with either the syrian government, even by extension, the afghan government, talking about eventually troop withdrawal there, that there's

something that we're missing here or that the jim mattises are missing that we're not covering. >> jim mattis, i have a friend closely associated with him and he always intended, i was told to retire at the midterm elections. i think it's a way for him to go out and leave a mark behind. you have to listen to what you're not being told and watch for what you're not shown. and in this case, i think it has less to do with the president fulfilling a campaign promise, which if he was going to do should have done a year ago, and more to do with something possibly involving turkey. the american troops are up except for a few assets, like where i was, they're up by raqqa and the kurdish zone. and when they pull out, leave the syria and turkey a freehand what they want in the guise of

continuing to stomp out isis. the way around that is to leave the bases we have in kurdistan, minimally staffed if you have to and there would be no move by turkey or iran into kurdistan and what they're after which is the mosul oil fields and everything else up there. neil: merry christmas to you and thank you to your service for the country as well. >> my pleasure, thanks neil. neil: be well. and if you think the process in this country is broken, that doesn't mean that processed meats and cheeses are. i'll explain. it's geico's all-time greatest hits back on tv for a limited time. and if you love the best of geico, you're gonna really love voting online for your favorite. you can even enter for a chance to appear in an upcoming geico commercial. this fire's toasty, linda but the best of geico collection sounds even hotter. to vote for your favorite geico ad and enter to win, visit geico.com/bestof.

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>> all right. not everyone is screaming and wrangling over government shutdowns and the like or rising interest rates. people are shopping and they're in the holiday mood and who knows better than christina who is out on shopper's way. christina. >> right, definitely increased

in terms of foot traffic here today. a lot of people are shopping. did you know, neil, that today is known as panic saturday in the retail world, which means that there are still some discounts. i went into all the shops around here from the last time we spoke and according to some of the researchers, target offering 50% off of toys and getting some tech gadget on sale at office depot. walmart is offering discounts on itunes stores. a lot of shoppers are paying attention to the federal reserve i think creasing interest rates and i spoke to some people about interest rates on credit cards going up. they're paying attention, but they're here to shop and get the christmas gifts going. we're talking online sales and this is important. we're seeing a major one for click and collect. you buy online and then pick up in the store. that's increased 47% this year

compared to last year. you're most likely going to buy more goods and last but not least, for every $6 that americans are spending, one doll dollar-- and people are wanting to get in the shot. neil: christina, , thank you very, very much. merry christmas. in guy is a rock star i think in the food, holiday kiosk community. he's thin and fit, i can't imagine he's eating too much of his store's product. right from wisconsin, how are you. >> merry christmas to you and thank you for the nice compliment. neil: what do i have here? this is your season? >> this is it, this is our super bowl. especially in the retail world and especially with our swiss colony brand. it's a very, very busy time of year and fortunately things are going well and we're excited. neil: we're showing some of the products here and i notice my

crew kept this a few feet from me. what is your biggest seller here? >> okay, this particular selection here, you've got the petite four's and these are sure fire winners in terms of gifts and probably our hottest telling gift, our 27 favorites. it's a lot of little selections of cheese and nuts, and pastries, people love it, it's just a wonderful little asortment that you can share at either while you're entertaining or perhaps if you want to give someone a gift where you know it will be appreciated. neil: yeah, i see a lot of your kiosks in mall and online and a good chunk is happening during this time of year. >> yes, especially in the food gift business, november and december your big months. and december better pay off because if you don't do well in december, it's going to be a very, very long january through august.

neil: yeah, if you're even working january through august. who are most of your shoppers? do they fit a profile? men, women, how does it break down. >> the shopper would typically be women. they're a little older, this is a traditional iconic brand. neil: you've been around since 1926. >> 1926 held by the came wonderful family and we've been able to withstand a lot of challenges and changes in our marketplace to this. it's going well for us. a lot of that is you have good product and 6500 employees who would do anything for the business, they're completely wonderful and a million plus customers for the business that's loyal. neil: what about the food police who come around, second guessers, don't eat this kind of stuff, it's bad for you. how do you answer them? i find them annoying, what do you think? >> certainly that's a challenge. but it's primarily a holiday business and a couple weeks out

of the year we can cheat a little. neil: right, exactly. not just a couple of weeks. you can add 50 weeks to it, if we wanted. >> that's right. neil: so i'm looking at chris when i was a kid my mother used to buy a lot of stuff from you. and it only occurred to me that chris mouse was a play on christmas. and chris mouse is iconic. >> chris is 56 years old this year. neil: wow. >> really the concept behind chris was that we needed a way to explain to people that shopping via catalog, food products by the mail was a safe and reliable way to do christmas shopping and chris was able to communicate that to our categories. neil: a government shutdown affect you or people have more time at home to order stuff. >> let's hope it's a short shutdown, it's probably not good for anyone, but certainly this time of year people are still telephoning in or going online

to place orders. neil: and when you're down, you've got to eat period, even when you're down. >> and a little bit of sweetness in your life perks up your day. neil: thank you very, very much. he's very, very fit. i don't know if he's eating this stuff. but his company is on fire and chris mouse is on fire. and tell them about the cavuto discount. there's actually no cavuto discount. so please don't do that. we'll have more after this. since my dvt blood clot i was thinking... could there be another around the corner? or could it turn out differently? i wanted to help protect myself. my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot... almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. ...and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis is fda approved and has both. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious

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>> you know, i'm offended by some texting or e-mailing me saying i would take something from the swiss colony ceo and

stick it in my pocket. it's in my coat pocket. and we've got forbes media editor in chief steve forbes and last but not least, retail watcher, ethan herzog. and it's interesting, this swiss colony ceo is something you touched on, the consumer that consumers are pent up, they're jazzed, they're buying, we could be seeing records. what's driving all that? >> pent up demand and frugal fatigue. they need to go out and shop and especially the last year, we've seen such improvements in the markets that people feel a lel more euphoric about it. granted there's a lot of volatility happening now, but over the last year, people are feeling for stable in their jobs and where the economy is going. neil: will that change in january? >> he think when they see their financial statements and quarterly retirement statements, a sticker shock, especially when

they get the bills for the holiday shopping. neil: you're always a debby downer. >> not always. but i think there was some frugal fatigue and the minutes they got a raise or part-time to full-time, they went out and spent. neil: and you think the tax cut was a big reason for that? >> absolutely. when you have the economy where investing wasn't opinion punished and you saw the startups. i'm going back in, they perk up and go back in and the economy perk and they perk as well. neil: i wonder what leads what. will the markets then lead to fundamental shift in the fundamentals? you know what i mean? >> the fundamentals certainly need to revolve because although i bashed the fed earlier in the show, i believe that they will not stay on the trajectory that jay powell laid out the other day. they'll have to react to the

realities of the market. we're not defending the market. we're defending the middle and lower classes, that's what's important to us, so we have to defend the world economy. with the rest of the world melting around awes, maybe contracting, knocking a little off the quantitative program that i was speaking of. maybe ceasing and desisting on raising interest rates and maybe the treasury department steve mnuchin to focus on the long end of the curve and this way repair the yield curve which is the most important thing in our universe. >> when you go out and talk to consumers, i find it to be apolitical. financial security, they're saying they're feeling the most security in a decade. how long does that last.

depends, the trade war or not. or an economic meltdown and that's when the consumer will start feeling uneasy again. if you think about the recession in 2008, we've been covering this for a very long time. what really made the consumer pull back were fears on a global level. so, this little volatility that's happened, a government shutdown, you know, federal reserve interest rates, raising. it's not really going to have an immediate impact. long-term though, if there's a major effect that happens, that's what's going to have the impact. >> there are those who worry i, steve forbes, if the democrats take over-- well, they are taking over in the house and that they would pick apart the tax cut. and middle class advantage, i don't know how much it extended it, but i don't see much progress there and that the president would support. so i kind of think two years of not much getting done. >> well, with the democrats in charge of house, that wouldn't get done, socializing medicine.

and taxes on investors and jobs coming in being. the good thing about the senate remaining in republican hands, they can keep the deregulation up and confirm those-- >> that's probably the single biggest catalyst to the economy and market. >> regulation cost the economy $2 trillion a year, bigger than most economies arounded the world. you start making changes in that, that's why confidence get up and not worried what washington is going to hit you in today. >> and i tell you what see that in april. and the blue states are going to say when they're hit over the head. >> limited on deductions. >> doesn't it cost more to shut down the government than keep it going. and we have extra, too many government workers. >> they get paid when they come

back, it's basically a vacation. neil: and you say sticker shock. >> and that's what drives the economy. neil: the democrats are blaming the republicans. >> and affected the election and that's why you got the wipe out in new jersey, wipe out in california losing seven republican representatives there. neil: are the republicans still going to be the grinches next year. >> take away the deductions, but you're supposed to cut the tax rates and they didn't do that part of the equation and they paid the price for it. neil: would we see as much pent up consumer demand without the tax cuts? >> i don't think so. i agree with you. i think that because of the tax cut and because that was announced so early, that that added to the euphoria and i think that people feel a lot better about it. if they're not actually, if there's no effect happening, then the consumers aren't going to spend any more as we move through the next couple of months. neil: merry christmas to all of you guys. >> you, too. neil: and your help over the years. hope springs efernl because --

eternal because they're going to meet to put the lights back on, or a quarter of them. they're not all out. it will be an uphill fight. we'll continue covering oon fox as we do, on the network and the news channel. leland: noon eastern and the house and senate are back in session. partially shut down. the senate floor on the left and house floor on the right as chad is reporting up on capitol hill. it's a skeleton crew of senators and congressmen, most at home awaiting to be called back as negotiations begin behind the scenes. the saturday before christmas, and america's news headquarters in washington begins. a lot of news in washington. normally it's quiet. molly down from boston. good to have you. >> we will not lack for things to talk about today.