$81 a barrel and i look for 25%. >> yes or no, jos. >> i say no, i'm short oil. >> he's short oil. thanks so much for joining us, the cost of freedom, the number one business block on tv continues with neil cavuto, right now. >> if this is the direction they're going, it's good enough for me. >> president's chief of the staff, the economic theme jumping ship, and on stimulus doing jumping jack. not wowing this jack, jack welch, the continuing mess he sees in washington. glad to have you, i'm neil cavuto on fox on top of the big white house shake-up not only the man who knows a thing or two about shaking things up by my fox allstars, pretty good at shaking things out. jack welch first over at general electric, they were

widely regarded even among those who can't stand it and i think that's probably an understatement. rupert murdoch over you, but by and large, that's a call. really, what do you make of what is going on now? shaking up the team, some leaving voluntarily and some being pushed. >> the president came into the office without any economic background at all. he hadn't seen ms. romer, larry summers, and they either let congress and miss pelosi or they themselves came up with a policy that turned out to be a bummer and in the end, when you have a bummer policy and you rely on people to do it, you have to shoot it and that's what he's done. now, i don't count emanuel in this at all. >> rahm emanuel. >> yeah, he was a staff guy

hated to be a staff guy and now he's going to run his own show. >> he says he wants to run for chicago mayor. >> that's a different deal, but the other guys just didn't-- obama has no idea about economics or business policy and he's delegated it like you would delegate something you don't know a lot about. >> yeah, but when you delegate, the idea is that you delegate to people who you're can of the to get the job done. now, they might have been pushed, but i think they were like rats leaving the "titanic." you know, i don't think they were pushed. i think they just said, you know what? this is not good. >> but it's convenient for the white house because president obama needs to find somebody else to to blame for this bad economy, other than president bush. i mean, come on, we're going on two years here. s' got to find somebody else to throw under the bus. and the real telling thing, the real telling thing will be if he throws any of these people under the bus, who he

starts pointing fingers at and how left he goes in terms of new policy measures and telling who is cooking up the idea, whether it's the economic team or the president himself coming up with ideas in his head. >> charles payne, any of these shakeups, we don't know who is going to be shaking in here with this, make a difference to say, the pieces have to come together after the november elections? >> well, as the team is-- it doesn't make a difference because the president had an agenda, period. i don't know if you listen to these people or not. it did not matter. he had an agenda and he pushed it forward and he got done what he wanted to get done. the economy was secondary, he was looking to get it and make the playing field level. he better take a page from an eisenhower and get business people. he doesn't have to have eight millionaires and a plumber, but he has to have academics who have theories that would. >> i don't know, the plumber,

that guy is getting it done. >> where you live-- >> i know, adam. these kinds of things are not uncommon in administrations, especially at this point in the administration. what is uncommon, and some are telling me it's how many of at the same time. what do you make of it. >> it's not uncommon at all. sometimes they have been around events like mid term elections and sometimes as jack pointed out, they have because another job opens up, in the case of a rahm emanuel, wanting to be the mayor of chicago and happens in every administration and by the way jack, it happens in business. you had executives who wanted let go they wanted to be ceo's somewhere else because they wouldn't get a shot at your job or jeff immelt's job and neil, bringing the gist of the business world-- >> well, adam you can argue how some went and how effective and bottom line they became very successful titans

in their own rights under jack's and some of these other, opening up a 4. had club. >> they're distinguished in their fields. >> they're academics, they're academics. >> and in a couple of cases they're going back to academia where they came from. we're not saying for certain the obama economic team hasn't done good. that doesn't mean they necessarily could have done get better and make a comparison to the business world. your successor, jeff immelt had a rough go in general electric, i don't think it's necessarily because he did a bad job. >> well, he's a-- well, but i will ask you this, when you shake things up, and when you did at ge, and in other words, address the slowdowns that occurred and you talked about a mess when you came in, and you had to

send a clear, distinct vision right awayment you were on top of things and rarely did i see you doing 20 things at once. i saw this president do 20 things at once. so if you had to advise him as he shakes up again, a strategy, what would it be? >> focus on the economy and jobs. i mean, this has been the case for a long time. i think charles' point he came in with an agenda that didn't have much to do with the economy and jobs and left nancy pelosi and others to put together a package he focused on health care, cap and trade and other things. >> he said that those would be beneficial for jobs. >> oh, that, come on. he basically was carrying out a-- he felt he wanted to do. >> well, i'm just going to devil's advocate here, but that they have slowed the bleeding in jobs and though unemployment is still high,

we're off our lows, what do you make of that. in other words, the trend is-- >> well, there clearly is a bottoming out of things, if you will, but we're getting none of the pickup that we want or need because we don't have policies in place to support that pickup. there are no policies to support growth and we'll talk about that lightly. >> like knowing what the tax rates are going to be on small businesses by the end of the year because the democrats punted that. in terms of job creation, president obama's economic advisors said with the stimulus unemployment would stay below 8%. without the stimulus it would be 9%, we're still north of 9, but what they've been telling the american people for the last year and a half, hadn't come true. >> bret: so much to debate and. >> so little time to debate. the republicans say, well, not too much about it and that's why of' had enough and some of it--

and social security and cavuto's campaign platform. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi plce around the corner. well, in that case, i better get bk to these invoices... whh i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. since our beginning, we've been there for clients through good times and bad, when our clients' needs changed we changed to meet them. through the years, when some lost their way, we led the way with new ideas for the financi challenges we knew would lie ahead. this rock has never stood still.

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>> live from america's news headquarters, jobs and the economy must focus weekly lawmaker addresses and president obama promoting the

plan and criticizing what they called stimulus spending, including to green energy, listen. >> the republican leadership is promising to scrap the incentives for clean energy incentives, it doesn't make sentence for our economy or make sense for americans who are looking for jobs. >> senate majority leaders blasting the democrats not extending the bush era tax cuts. now it won't be extended until after the mid trm elections. >> the best way to help small businesses and economy to give them the certainty that taxes won't go up at the end of the year. >> minority leader by the way. i'm juliet huddy, now, back to cavuto on business. >> neil: the president won't file the report until december, but congress already attacking any cuts to social security and warning i quote, do not send congress a plan that will cut social security,

raise the retirement age or private size this life and death program for some of the most vulnerable in our society. republicans they don't see any comment or any plan of their own for that matter. >> to protect the voters, i'm going to cut something? >> we have to be adult, we have to be adult for our grandchildren's sake. >> neil: i know that, tell them you're going to raise the retirement age and cut your berths. >> no, no. >> neil: i won't hear a lot of republicans-- among them raising the retirement age, maybe more means testing social security, are you open to any of the above? >> listen, what i want to do is talk about all the options that are out there, privatization. >> neil: i just gave you two. >> and well, no, neil, listen. >> neil: that's why i had no choice, but to cut through the bull and take the bull by the horns myself.

cavuto campaign plan for the economy one of the reasons the market was spectacular, fixes for social security, raising the retirement age, means testing, allowing young workers to invest in the market. rewarding all italian anchors and no tax increases for anyone. i just want to see if you're paying attention. charles, i think i got most of this right. >> i think you did, too. and there weren't exactly brave heart for sure. somebody might say means testing one alternative raising the cap. 102,000 raise it to 150,000 or something like that. >> neil: the cap level on income that's subject it that. >> right, right now it's just a juggernaut. it's going to be broken. you know, bernie sanders talks about the people who are vulnerable and there will be nothing there to give those vulnerable people if we don't fix it right now. >> i'm just wondering, it's one thing to talk about in

general, but when you have to get down to the bras tacks. when you talk about tough steps you have to take and smell them out, that did not go down well for the last group, eventually a lot of shareholders, but then saw the advantages of what you were doing. but coming out the gate like that without any specifics is pretty dangerous, isn't it? >> i wouldn't have liked to have run for reelection two years after i did some of those things, right. but in the end-- >> after that it perfected very worthwhile. >> people do buy into something once they feel that you're consistent and you're sticking with it and there's a rational for the kucountry being better off, but you've got to stick with it. you can't be jumping like a hot potato from one to the other end to the other end. people have to see where you're going, a clear vision,

the rational for doing it and what's in it for me. >> neil: it's interesting, the response we got, it's kind of funny, given the week we've had here-- >> let's get back to the campaign. >> neil: pretty much, back to me, jack. and clearly many in the country are craving president cavuto not only the first italian american president, but they were saying, well, we're open to specifics, we're open to taking our lumps, but when the republicans in this case sort of run up the clock, to get in there, and don't offer specifics about what they're going to do when they get in there, then it just sort of fuels the argument that the tea parties had all along, you're owl smoke and mirrors. >> they absolutely have it step up and it's a shame that they don't back your plan. by the way you would be elected the hair and the great ties as well. >> well. >> one thing your plan left off and that's changing how the initial benefits are indexed away from wages, just

to inflation. >> neil: exactly. >> and that would be another fix. >> neil: dagen, only so much room. >> and warren hatch came out with a very similar idea to yours about it's similar to the means testing idea. but it never went anywhere, president bush had a commission on fixing social security and i've said this before. if we can't fix social security then shame on us, 'cause that's easy compared to medicare, that's just money. >> neil: but, focusing on president bush he was hurt by his own party after he was elected in 2004 he said i want to get hopping on social security and they burned it and obviously, fair game for democrats to burn it. so, in this proverbial third world what i'm telling is this go round things might be different, what do you say? >> well, first of all, neil, i agree with almost every plank in your platform. the one i don't. >> neil: all right, then-- (laughter) >> the one i don't agree with which got president bush in

trouble was this privatization account. i think it's just, it just confuses matters. young people can invest in the stock market, that's after they've satisfied their obligation to the social safety net, but now i'm quibbling because everything else you've said is absolutely right. where i disagree with charles is that unfortunately, we all think this is a crisis, but in fact, it's a crisis that we can handle next year or five years from now or ten years from now. >> no, no, no. >> it's a question of how much pain we want to have when we solve it. the most important things that you have in there are raising the retirement age and carefully cutting the benefits. we're going to have to do that at some point and everybody knows that. >> adam, adam. we can't quick this can down the road. right now, we have the political will, probably won't get better than it is at this very moment. americans seem ready, they've jumped on the tea party wagon and understand self-sacrifice and-- >> they're so ready they would actually seriously consider moving these, from working in

this building, and working in the white house, that's how ready they are. we'll take a quick break, forget the denial. they say the health care law will force mcdonald's and others to disrupt their coverage and that was the white house plan all along and the new report shows the ceo's are not hiring and one of the all time great ceo's knows exactly why. ♪ for he's a jolly good fellow ♪ the meeting's tomorro in dals ♪ ♪ we need to finish tho projections ♪ ♪ then output the final presentations ♪ ♪ sally, i'm gonna need 40 copies, obviously collated ♪ wht's going on? when we're crunched for time, brad combines office celebrations with official business. it's about efficiency. [ courier ] we can help. wh you ship with fedex, you can work rht up until the lastinute. it gives you re time to get stuff done. that's a great idea. ♪ i need tspeak with you privately ♪ ♪ i found your resume on the printer ♪ everyone! ♪ i found your resume on the printer ♪ [ male announcer ] we understand.® you need a partner who gives you more time. fedex.

>> coming up. nothing gets jack welch jacked up more something that says this white house made i

>> well, you know, even after the best september for stocks

they're worried about the economy and skittish over hiring new workers and why they're hanging on to all of that cash. jack welch says he thinks he knows why and starts and ends with the white house. >> look, neil, the answer to this problem of jobs and which is the key to the whole economy recovery is growth. we've got to have growth and right now, we have habits changing because of the recession, people are getting their office cleaned twice a week, instead of five days a week. retail stores polishing the floors twice a week, not daily. all of these little things and we have technology coming in like crazy. and exponentially in the last three to five years, so that's productivity is off the charts. and unless we get real growth, we're not going to have it and we have a white house or an administration i should say, i shouldn't say white house, we have an administration that doesn't have pro growth

policies. they have at least four elements that are the front burner of killing the country's economy. . >> when you took over in the early reagan years. >> yes. >> there we had a pro growth president and slashing taxes and a lot didn't realize until years later, ge's-- did they make a difference to you or would you have done the same thing regardless? >> look, i think you've got to look at-- let's take a couple of these things. intimidation, celebrating american business. celebrating growth, that this white house, the first month bashing vegas, travel-- the rhythm of business where people go on sales contests and other things, bashes the insurance companies, he hasn't missed one.

he bashes the supreme court over a decision they made regarding campaign finance. his corporate bashing is tough on business, business should be celebrated for its growth and its jobs. why are they so reticent publicly to come out and say what you just said? >> i'm not sure they believe it. i'm not sure they believe it, but you've got-- >> well, i don't know, i've talked to a lot on the record and on fox business, if you don't get, should demand, jack. and to a man and a woman they say, they're afraid of it. >> well, talking about businessmen? absolutely. i think there's an intimidation factor that's real and that's why i called it intimidation. there's no question intimidation is real here, these guys, look what they do in taxes, they talk on one hand they want to support business and yet they come up

with this cockamamie foreign tax credit they want to take away and then there was a guy running the democratic commission on-- for the congress. >> right. nancy pelosi's right-hand man. >> and he was out there yesterday screaming and yelling about the tax loopholes. look, having foreign subsidiaries, that enable you to grow your whole pile what really works and the idea of double taxes is not-- foreign governments don't tax in the same way and this guy saying, these are what create jobs. >> neil: what do you think the market came off the best september? >> i don't know what markets do, they go down and-- >> i understand, but some have interpreted it as a sign things are getting better and others have said it's a sign there are optimistic about it, republican takeever, grid will beinged government.

>> i don't know, i honestly don't know, i'm sorry. the markets befuddles me, i'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, i know look at the pro union stance on all things. we know what one take a look at the education system in the company you know what unions do, multiply and all we're doing is pro union methods, we're not supporting entrepreneurs, not celebrating entrepreneurs, we need growth in this country. >> neil: jack welch, thank you very much. one of those brilliant in the company, hired me, one little asterisk on an impeccable career. the mid term elections going to take you money, no matter which party. s the promise that compels us to make the journey from wonder to discovery. the science of chemistry, our guide. the human element, our conscience.

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>> neil: stocks that win no matter who wins. >> they make billboards and street signs. everyone is using these billboards. >> neil: adam? >> i think it is risk this is a tough market. >> neil: what are you doing? >> total stock market index, no less a person than jack welch just told us how difficult it is to understand the market. look at the people who didn't expect us to have a good september.