when i talk about the b.a.t. at other farmers and ranchers i talk about it when our beef leaves the united states, it's taxed, hits the border of japan, they add another tariff, to it which makes it unaffordable. and the b.a.t. could make it more affordable if we didn't do that. but a lot of the farmers and the ranchers are worried. they're concerned that with the b.a.t. that potentially they sell their commodity to adm. adm then sells to another country, keeps more of a profit margin, and doesn't necessarily let it flow down to those guys producing the actual crops, the actual commodities. how would you answer that concern? i face that quite often that yeah, maybe the big companies that actually market the grain overseas get a bigger profit, but how is that going to help my pocketbook? >> it's a very good question. in the u.s. the product is coming, we have this system, so -- but you have to understand adm does not thrive unless there is a thriving farmer. we don't own land. we don't farm, so we cannot export. i

or a b.a.t., then where? >> can i just answer? >> sure. >> we absolutely believe we need to generate revenue, we're very concerned about the debt. we will go through the math and show you this is clearly in the case of business taxes, there are many, many companies that pay much less than the 35% rate. and there's many companies that leave foreign profits offshore. this is all about broadening the base. and in regards to the b.a.t., we have said to chairman brady in its current format it doesn't work, although we'll look at something else if they want to present it. >> i'm overtime. i'd just like to make one final comment with the permission of the chairman. >> briefly. >> and i apologize. what concerns me is it seems to me that you're very sure about where you want to cut taxes and very vague about how you want to generate the revenue to make up for those tax cuts and that is a dangerous position to be in because all the things that you're sure you want to do -- >> you've been listening to treasury secretary steven mnuchin taking

the ceo of target is talking about why the b.a.t.aying a lot of middle income consumers shop at target. this would be what he called a budget breaker for some of those families. >> said it wasn't a shared sacrifice. >> after a long stretch when the white house was trying to be non-commitical about the specifics of the b.a.t. he said it does not level the playing field. it picks winners and losers. i wonder if the market is taking this all in, the process is bogged down. it's not going to be fast. goin to be fast. this document doesn't represent anything we're likely to see in the coming months so let's not bother pricing this in right now. >> one reason the market barely moved at all, as mnuchin spoke. >> we'll continue to watch the market. the s&p 500 is still eking out about a three-point gain. utilities, staples and health care in the lead. nasdaq lags behind. we'll be right back. >>> is the bond market sending a big warning sign about the economy? find on it why. tradingnation.cnbc.com. more "squawk on the street" coming up. >>>

there was a logical idea behind b.a.t. find in so many other on markets around the world. and of course being part of this overall tax reform. i mean, do you have suggestions for them as well as what might replace the revenue raising mechanism that they were relying on for tax reform? >> yeah, what i would say is we do have those conversations. and tax reform like any other big policy debate is about making choices. and the leadership practice a choice and they made a choice this is the direction they want to pursue. it's certainly not the only choice that could be made. if you go back over the last 30 years, there are numerous other proposals that have been put out there before that made other choices about how you lowered the rate, how you wrought about sen brought about sensible reform. so we suggest we go back to some of those other ideas.wrought ab brought about sensible reform. so we suggest we go back to some of those other ideas. we just think this is the wrong choice. >> i know you're focused in washington on the

>> we do not. 25% corporate tax, no b.a.t. >> i can't find a higher call than 2700. you're the guy. you're out there. >> and let's also be clear for our viewer, this is not an end of 2017 call. this is looking out 12 months from now where there's on the street haven't come out with their targets. >> if this were -- you can sense the skepticism here with these investors. you think you'd be getting a deal right now? >> got other deals. >> i'm skeptical. i love it. i look at energy, don't even agree with it. so i can see lot of ways we don't get there. >> sorry, i want to go back to the start. if we don't g get that, here's the question. look iing outside the u.s., is that enough to overcome the lack of an infrastructure bill and get pmis growing again? >> services have been red hot. we're seeing pricing power, leisure, whotel, restaurants. we're seeing that. the durable goods, that's where the cyclicality comes in for the economy. the recovery we've had if '15 and the that part of the economy is ongoing. we've had underspend ng a lot of parts of the world where china now is stimulatin

brady says b.a.t., border adjustment tax says the nonpartisan tax foundation says that the house blueprintr tax reform would actually increase paychecks on average $5,000 for middle class american families. >> someone's got a better solution, bring it. we eliminate every tax incentive to move jobs overseas. if someone's got a better solution, bring it. i think the end of the day, everyone has to be open to how we solve those two major problems. i'm actually confident as we work through this process it can be done. >> reporter: treasury secretary steve mnuchin says the administration is willing to listen to arguments in favor of a border adjustment tax. in private, nope. the secretary told politicians the trump administration opposes it. so congressman like tom rice who had questions about all this, they're keeping alive the possibility of a border adjustment tax. >> as a tax lawyer, i had doubts when i got into it, too the more i learn, the more i recognize this is a necessary component if we want to rebuild our middle class. >> reporter: so the administration and members of the white hous

vonnie: as long as there is no b.a.t. wayne: as long as there is no tariffs. vonnie: thank you.eo of international asset management. time to check in on the first word news. courtney: house speaker paul ryan says congress can deal with speculation and innuendo when it deals with that conversation between president trump and james comey. while he was fbi director, james comey wrote a memo about a conversation with the president, y tong he asked him tcome drop investigation into michael flynn. >> we have an obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party is in the white house, and that means before rushing to judgment, we get all of the information. the house oversight committee has requested as normal, and i'm sure we will hear from mr. comey about why if this happened allegedly as he describes, why did he not take action at the time? >> the contents of his memo have been confirmed by a number of news organizations. the memo itself has not been made public. russia's president vladimir putin is ready to come to the aid of president trump. he says russia will provid

you've cast the b.a.t. as unessential to tax reform. and that it's not workable in its current form. do you still feel the same way? >> i do. i testified at the house yesterday. i had several questions on that. we've been working closely with the house on this, and we've expressed concerns and suggested that they should go back and rework it. >> you also mentioned that there are plenty of other ways to raise that revenue. can you shine some light on what you mean by these other ways? >> i do. i think this is all about base broadening, and we are working hard to look at lots of different alternatives as to how to fill that gap. >> can you give us an example? >> we're looking at everything, senator, as you know. nothing is off the table as far as we're concerned. >> all right. let me ask you some questions dealing with debt. i saw a report recently said that the total u.s. consumer debt is approaching $13 trillion. when you talk of student debt, credit card debt, auto debt, we're looking at $13 trillion. do you think that will have any im

and b.a.t., then where. >> we need we believe to generate revenue.are very concerned about the debt and we will go through the math and show you. this is clearly in the case of business taxes, there are many, many companies that pay much less than the 35% rate. and there's many companies that leave foreign profits offshore. this is all about broading the base. and in regards to the b. a.t., we have said to chairman brady in its current format it doesn't work although we'll look at something else if they want to present it. >> i'd like to make one final comment with the permission of the chairman. >> briefly. >> i apologize. what concerns me is that it seems to me that you're very sure about where you want to cut taxes and you're very vague how you want to generate the revenue to make up for the tax cuts. that is a dangerous position to be in because all the things that you're sure you want to do mostly benefit the wealthiest among us and all the things very vague and may be done in secret and in private are the things that may be harming most of our

. >> the b.a.t., the border adj t adjustment tax.e advocated the system, and i think it's been sold in kind of a bad way. it's not really about trade. it's not really about imports and exports. it's about where revenue is taxed. and the idea is that ref flew should be taxed where it's earned. so that you could sell exports you don't get taxed on it because you're earning those revenues in another country and vice versa. so it has a lot of appeal in many ways, for example it eliminates the incentive for companies to move their headquarters for tax reasons. it eliminates some of this transfer pricing where you're fooling around trying to figure out where the profits were actually booked versus where they're actually earned. in many ways it's a good system. i think a couple of points. one that it is politically going to be a very tough sell. but transition problems are pretty serious. in example in order for the system to work the way it's anticipated you would have to see a very big appreciation in the dollar. some people say 25%. and

that needs to go in one way or another, and a b.a.t. can do that. >> fair enough, dan.at to see you, sir. >> my pleasure, andrew. >> thanks. >> as we head to break we just got earnings out from mastercard earnings of $1.01 a share six cents above estimates revenue also exceeding forecasts. if it opens up here this would be at least a new 52 week high for this stock. the fed kicking off its policy meeting today but first exclusive results from cnbc's fed survey. we'll tell you what the nation's top economists and money managers say about the next rate hike. plus the viral video that sparked global outrage is back in focus today. the united ceo oscar munoz and other executives are heading for the him for what is sure to be a heated laerg. we'll tell you what is at stake and later another shake-up at fox news media guru michael wolf says the real question is can the murdochs save themselves? he'll explain. you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc. kevin, meet your father. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom

like b.a.t., the u.s. income tax system has no offset for exports. this systemically disadvantages our own producers. the destination-based cash flow tax corrects this imbalance. the u.s. market share of global exports has fallen precip tusly in major commodities over the past five decades. the u.s. is no longer number one in soy beans and wheat. from 1965 to today, u.s. world share of soy beans exports has fallen from 90% to 39% with brazil taking the lead. over the same period, our world share of exports of wheat has fallen from 40% to 20% with russia taking the lead. the u.s. world share of corn has fallen from 65% to 34%. america's ante kuwaited tax system may not be the only reason for this dee klein, but it clearly contributed. we need to modernize our tax code to allow us to keep up with the rest of the world. this proposal creates the climate which will support reinvesting in america and will result in millions of american jobs. it will help stop the decline in our market share and enhance our ability to serve the world. other countries have

wrinkle that some executives are going to meet with the treasury secretary, try to go to bat against b.a.t. >> oh, my god. >> that's going to start to fire up here the next couple of days. >> i keep thinking about jcpenney. i know the quarter wasn't good, the balance sheet is challenged. you're talking about 100,000 people. there's an article today in the wall street journal saying that there's labor shortages. i have taylor morrison homes on which is good. they are talking about labor shortages. there's a mismatch. there are people who will be working retail and they cannot go build homes. there's a terrible mismatch developing of workers in this country, between people who work with their hands and white collar people and the white color people, they are the ones including a checker is a white coll collar, people who have jobs that are not able to go shift into a world where we need people who drill, we need people who drive -- there's a tremendous truck and bus driver shortage, but you don't have the ability to shift if you're a checker, and that's something that we're going to have to

. >> interestingly, jim, he did say the b.a.t. is interesting to him as a consent.f you created it from structure, it's smart policy, called corporate tax the low hanging fruit. did we learn anything today? >> well, i think that this is a former fed chair who really does not believe this economy is basically ever going to be able to return. i felt to some sort of incredible growth. what did he talk about? he talked about pretty full employment. he talked about the things are sanguine after the obama recovery. if this is all the economy can skr generate it's surprising. i don't think that 3% is not in the cards this year. next year, there's a dead on arrival notion and what congress will do. i think david referenced the one page sheet. there are a lot of people i spoke to this weekend that said one page sheet was kind of embarrassing. after all of the talk about repeal and replace, nothing. after all of the talk of taxation and how it will be reformed, one page, this makes you feel like nothing will happen this year. david, you had to feel and maybe the people out th