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tv   Cavuto on Business  FOX News  November 20, 2010 10:30am-11:00am EST

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>> gary, do you like discovery? >> i think it's too early to buy discovery, the stocks will go down and get it as a discounts. >> lizzie next friday is black friday and people are already camped out and they're waiting from last wednesday, best buy. >> tobin, like it. >> you've never been in a best buy my friend, nice knowing you. >> thank you for joining us, the cost of freedom the number one business block in tv continues with neil cavuto right now. >> bait and switch or more tax and spend? yet another commission. this one opened to cutting income taxes if, if, we start this. >> clothes, food, movie tickets, tv, vacations, toothpaste, stamp book. you name it, they want to slap a 6 1/2% sales tax on it. this is the same commission
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calling for freeze on discretionary spending, not a cut, a freeze which has some of my guys this morning more than a little hot. hi, glad to have you, i'm neil cavuto. to ben stein, charles payne, adam lashinsky. >> it's just more. and doing this reweighting and taking two out of the left and putting two in the right. this is all the commissions are doing. i thought they were going to come up with tough decisions, a really tough choices for us to make. they're commissions, they're expoliticians, nothing to worry about. they're not running for office anymore and the idea with the election, and what america's ready for, let's go ahead and cut some spending. let's make the tough choices now, so that they don't have to be made the hard way down the road, plain and simple. >> tagdagen without getting int the details. what do you make of the idea, well, but neil, wait a minute. what we're going to do is lower the income rates and top rate 27, could be as low as 23% and then we get the sales
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tax. >> the danger is, it will not stay that way, period. those rates will go up. whether it's a higher sales tax rate. particularly a higher income tax rate because you can leave it to congress after the reagan tax reform in the 80's, they will foul up something that is simpler. >> and i'm sorry, we're showing how, the tax, where they started where they are now. most of them have gone up. >> and that's-- >> i'm very disappointed in italy, by the way. >> you know. >> and that's surely where we would be headed if you put on any kind of consumption. >> ben stein, i'm worried about it, i'm worried about it? >> i'm worried about it, too, and that means that a sales tax on state and local taxes those are regressive. those bear on the poor and middle income much more than upon the rich. i can't understand the fairness of the taxes rich people like neil cavuto and
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raising taxes on ordinary consumers. that doesn't make sense to me. >> and that former one, ben. continue. >> and alex riffland is one of the most row inspected economists in the world and must be more to it than we're seeing and must be a deep significance we're not seeing. >> all right, and the former budget director. adam la shshinsklashinsky. one of this new commission speaking to the other commission, i guess, by starting a sales tax or value added tax and cutting income tax, you will, regressive or no, start raising a serious chunk of dough. is that the lesson we've learned from europe? do you raise a serious chunk of dough that more than offsets what you might lose from a cut in the income rate? >> well, the short answer is no. and we shouldn't be looking to europe for a model of how to do taxation, but i think, neil. that we're not being completely fair in focusing on this one aspect of this one
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bipartisan, nongovernmental report. the important to point out. there's differences between the two commissions, one is empowered by the president, the other is empowered by nobody. they're just offering their ideas, which is fine. we need ideas. the sales tax is just one of them. you didn't even mention one that i'm sure you would love, neil. which is a payroll tax holiday. >> for one year, for one year. >> they reckon. they say show would create two and a half million jobs, that's a good idea, too, it's in their report. >> and by the way, she's on both commissions, sort of like a player and a coach. and charles, my issue with all of these commissions and, is that they're more inclined to find creative ways to raise revenue first than to cut spending. now, i know you have to mix both, but i see former creativity, even on riffland's group of the former senate
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budget committee chief, to find creative ways to tax than to cut. >> well, i mean, that's what i think everyone watching understands, that if-- let's say that all of these schemes work and more revenue to the government, they would spend the money. they're not going to tighten their belts. in other words, listen, we got in this predicament because we pushed the envelope and if we make it bigger and wider no way we have the resolve to pull back, especially if there's extra cash in the till and the idea would be first and foremost some discipline, pull back the spending and then things like the sales tax holiday i think would be fantastic. >> but to be fair, the wall street journal had a poll 70% of people were uncomfortable making cuts to social security, medicare or defense. there were 57 response uncomfortable with raising the retirement age to 69, over 60 years. so, people they want to both ways. they don't want their taxes to go up. >> and invariably they talk about that.
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people talk about cutting spending and we have to do that and waste, fraud and abuse, something i know you bemoan on this show and thought about and never do. but not when it comes to something near and dear to them. so, a very kind of a dichomous read on that. >> and all of the guys agonizing going over the budget to find things to cut. almost impossible not to find things to cut. it's hard to find something that's not going to upset someone or cause hardship. government spending is like heroin, you get addicted to it and withdrawal is painful. >> neil: charles, here is where i'm worried. we end up debating who should pay more for what we know is a crappy product. we would never do that going to a store. let's say macy's had a one-day, 20% premium sale. pick out any item go to the register and pay 20% more. this is effectively what this
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argument has come down to. we're debating who pays more for what everyone concedes is a lousy product. can never get away from it. >> well, i hope we can move away from using the word never. we can't use it forever, okay, you're right. at some point soon i think the message is clear we're going to have to make the tough choice, we have no choice one way or the other. >> we shall see. >> no need to wait for washington. go to our cost of freedom website and go to the latest polls and should we have a national sales tax to reduce the deficit. up next, car of the year or scam of the century, everything riding on gm's $41,000 chevy volt. someone here says that's exactly why they're deriving a new plan to force you into one. yellowbook has always been crucial to your business,
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>> hi everyone, live from nerc america's news headquarters, i'm jamie colby. president obama in a bilateral meeting with hamid karzai and n.a.t.o. voting to back president obama's plan to phase out of combat, heading out of afghanistan in 2014. afghan president karzai called for stepped up pullout with greater afghan control. a dramatic rescue in chile. these three children, take a look, pulled out alive out of a nearly 50 foot deep hold. 8-year-old, 10-year-old, 11-year-old looking for firewood when they fell inside and took 50 firefighters and paramedics to get them out. they suffered cuts and bruises, otherwise in good shape. i'm jamie colby. join me at noon eastern for the latest on these stories and more, now back to cavuto
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on business. >> cash on wall street. general motors ready for a fresh round of cash from washington. senate majority leader harry reid pushing for a vote next month on a 4 billion dollar boost to natural gas and electric cars, like the $41,000 chevy volt. which was just named the motor trend car of the year. the car you plug in. look at this. >> $41,000, but the $7500 tax credit you get paid by the american taxpayer because the vehicle doesn't make economic sense for people to buy it and run it. this is the administration, this is washington telling you, not just to conserve fuel, but this is the kind of car we want you to drive because we know better than you do. and this is the direction they want to take the country, with taxpayer dollars and they're driving us into a hole and making us actually more dependent on china. >> neil: charles, they've got to make 10, 20,000 and i'm
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looking at the top selling gm ca cars, and they're all gas guzzlers. >> and people love those-- >> it's not working. >> they love the trucks. to dagen's point what is really bothersome about this, not only has this administration decided to pick corporate america winners and losers, but with the products they're going to pick for us, what products should be winners and what should be losers? and they're doing this across the country and they're subsidizing eco friendly lawn mowers and trade yours in for a nice lawn mowers for $20 normally goes for $400 because it's eco friendly. >> neil: and we're steps away from being able to write off a goat. >> a good idea. >> neil: adam, where is it going, can the government more incentivize us to do something we would normally not do or buy something we normally would not. >> of course not, but the
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government can make it easy-- easier for us to do things that the government, which is us, remember, thinks are good policy goals. >> neil: i don't think it's a good policy, i'm not part of that. >> well, and i don't-- well, you're in a democracy and sometimes the decides that you agree with wins and sometimes the sides that you agree with loses, but. >> neil: yeah, but usually it's us, me, we, the majority of us agree. i dare say most would not. >> not by polls though, neil, but we get to agree when we go to the-- >> we'd be making a hell of a lot more of 10,000 volts. 10,000 americans are going to get the volts with $7500, and last time i checked we had 300 million plus americans. >> which proves the point that the future of general motors is hardly resting on the lull as people said. this is an experimental car and the electric cars are going to be the wave of the future. rightly or wrongly, the government is trying to-- >> they're going to be the
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waft future because the government mandates it with 65 mile per gallon fuel economy standard and only so many cars would run on those standards. >> general motors is not the only company trying to make one of these and may not be the best one to make one. nissan may win this game in the shorter medium term, but it's boon a bipartisan goal to try to reduce the reliance on foreign oil and this is a step in that direction and not that expensive a step compared to other subsidies we've had for other-- >> you have to plug this car in adam. it's going to lead to divorce because people are going to be at the house and look and-- >> i thought you were plugging it. i thought you plugged it in. it's going to be messy. whatever we save in fuel we're going to be dealing in legal cost in broken up marriages. ben stein, in all seriousness, is this the kind of stuff that government should be doing. >> i want to take issue with
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something that adam said and dagen hit, init's incredibly important. in this particular case, government is know the us. if government were us, if the obama administration were us, there would not have been the tea party movement, would not have been the republican landslide in the congressional election. this is a small elite group of bureaucrats forcing something down our throat because we happen to like it. >> where is it that the energy comes from to four the fuel from the power plants that sends the electricity to the volt? that comes from burning colt. it doesn't come out of the air. >> and what goes into the batteries congress control the majority. >> neil: the what. >> and actually korea-- >> the what. >> and china controls the vast majority of the rare earth minerals in the world. >> neil: you've got a 1600 on the sat and showing big time on the show. and i guess i want to know, we do disincentivize certain
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purchases, a gas guzzlers tax and last time i looked at it it doesn't disincentivize those with a big old s.u.v. or truck that takes a lot of gas. >> but i think the incentives at some points would work, if you gave everybody $100,000 to buy a volt or people would buy them for sure. why do we want to make some cars better than others, why not everybody buy a cadillac because it the coolest car and coolest people in high school, they get $200,000 to buy a v-series cadillac like i have. the cool cars, cool people get these. >> neil: charles. >> i agree with ben 100%, buy the cadillac. >> neil: game over. the dustup over the patdown. when did the tsa become cna. and maybe even a cheaper way,
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all about 14 minutes away. and black thursday, wal-mart opening doors on thanksgiving. and critics see it as an attack on american families. and someone here wants to show these turkeys where to stuff it.
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>> coming up giving thanks from wal-mart? more like greed. some are accusing them of commercial greed ope
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>> midnight at the wal-mart opening its doors at midnight on thanksgiving and it didn't take long for critics to open fire, accusing the store of commercial greed. ben stein, what do you make of that. >> i believe i'm the only person on the panel who
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regularly shops at wal-mart and go in and ponder which i love a lot. and i leave wal-mart unmixed goods for the american consumer. any consumer lives within a shopping distance of a wal-mart gets about a 20% pay increase because things there are so inexpensive. i love them and i think that some of the stuff they carry is not to my taste, but they're a wonderful store and i don't like people criticizing them. >> ben, quick, i don't want to digress too much. you're by yourself when you shop at wal-mart? >> yeah, my wife won't go. >> all right. so you're by yourself. you're a pretty recognizable famous face. >> i know. i-- i'm a little miffed off, i like it, i like it. >> amen, amen. charles. >> and you know, destroying families, listen. people line up at midnight to go into wal-mart because it's an incredible value. for the left leaning economists and politicians, this is called trickle up economics.
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people love to spend their money and want the best value. i may not shop there as often as ben, but i buy my son's underwear, t-shirt, bb guns there. >> and actually buy the real guns. >> real guns there, too. >> and especially if your son is annoying you. >> incredible place for a family to go, the typical american family. i don't know why a critic would-- >> why start so soon. >> why the football games are on thanksgiving. >> why not, why not? >> why pick on wal-mart? because it's wal-mart. sears is opening thanksgiving day at 7 a.m. in case you really hate your family. k-mart's open all day. >> neil: wait, wait, wait. 7 a.m.? >> 7 to noon, i think. and toys "r" us are opening that night, so, and by the way, i was at wal-mart, two days ago buying socks and canned air. >> neil: did you pump into charles with the bb gun? you know, ben having pictures snapped with him in the
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produce aisle. that's your best joke you've ever made on this show. that's really funny, neil. >> neil: that's one, ben. that's one. and adam, what do you make of it. another frequent wal-mart shopper, any big deal. >> if there were a wal-mart in san francisco i would shop there all the time i assure you and waiting to hear if ben goes to the one in beverly hills, but i guess that's not where the wal-mart is. >> is there a wal-mart in san francisco? >> i don't care when they open, they could open anyteam they please, it's fine with me. they could open for 24 hours the day before thanksgiving, so, i've got no problem with that, if that's when people want to shop and that's when they want to sell them sings, bully for them. >> neil: i'm not going to worry about it and price that midnight sale and everyone comes in at the same time. >> you don't want to be the security guard. >> more doors, more doors. >> all right, guys. remember this? what did you say when he
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mentioned that one? >> why don't you mention by argue either and a few dollars and-- >> all right, everybody, everybody, all right. ben stein looking for some love on one of his picks when we come back, he's going to get his chance, he's going to get his chance. 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.
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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.
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you can't switch carnsurance until your policy expires. the truth: you can switch to allstate today. extra incentive: you can get allstate's early signing discount. dollar for dollar, nobody prects you like allstate. >> neil: this is more like a mutual fun. rqi. hammered, hammered. >> neil: there you go ben then. of january. now he's picking up three more money-making names, for you. ben what you got? >> i recommend rqi really high we lost money on that. i was recommending it when it was low. stock picker. simple rules. diversify. [ unintelligible ]
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buy and be patient. berkshire hathaway sometimes the market cuts the price in half. that stock is up over 100 times since i first bought it. i love it a lot. mr. buffet does a good job with my money. if stocks go often rails and looks like it is really cheap, buy it. that's been a good one to buy. >> here's the thing about ben, when he makes his picks he can do whatever he wants. he just mentions all three, that's fine. charles, what do you any? >> i love ben, bti, lumbering old giants, they don't have the growth that gets you the big bang for your buck. who can argue with warren buffet. >> neil: adam? >> total stock market is an im