>>neil: what happened? all the black friday sales have extended right through that four day weekend, was it that it woulden a lot of stores being open up on thanksgiving, do we know that was just weak or did we cannibalize sales? >>guest: it was a pull forward as opposed to incremental sales. we saw a big drop off the first two weeks of december and they had to panic and gem promotions leading into the rush. >>neil: when they do that they get the sales but the profits are an issue. >>guest: exactly. we think that margins are going to take a hit and unfortunately, earnings will suffer: >>neil: so, the ones who have been doing very versus the witch whose have not, early read? >>guest: we the high income, stores that indicator to high income consumer have been hanging on after long sales, with nordstrom up 6 percent, and it was a different story for kohl's down a few percent. >>neil: those who are careful to wait, the last minute shoppers, are they rewarded? >>guest: they will win. retailers have been discipli

>>neil: 40.40, and my nextject -- and my generation had the best and my son's generation --. >>neil: but i am saying if i am your son i don't care. >>guest: no, ben stein will sell every dime and more. >>neil: you not leaving anything? >>guest: i will try to leave something but ploy father left me something, i will ... he will have to shift for himself somewhat. i hope. i hope. i hope. i hope. i don't. >>neil: so good to see you, my friend. great guy. great writer. just in the commercial break he finished another book. man: my electric bill was breaking the bank. so to save some money, i trained this team of guinea pigs to row this tiny boat. guinea pig: row...row. they generate electricity, which lets me surf the web all day. guinea pig: row...row. took me 6 months to train each one, 8 months to get the guinea pig: row...row. little chubby one to yell row! guinea pig: row...row. that's kind of strange. . go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. . >>ne

>>neil: neil cavuto will know. have a nice day. a year ago today the debt commission report goes out and the president's promise, well, that ship goes down. >> when they finish their work i will make the tough choices for the next year to further reduce our deficit and lower our debt. >>neil: tonight, a year later, two words: what happened? welcome, everyone, a year after the president promised to make the tough choices, the message today, well, tough luck. $13.8 trillion in debt then $15.8 trillion in debt now, and promise of getting something under control then and a super committee abandoned everything, and the media is obsessed with romney and his flip-flops but ignoring the president's year old spending flip and now, far, far, far bigger flop. the cato institute is not surprised. this stands out because this is fairly recent i can almost memorize that speech. >>reporter: right after the super committee failed which i think was a success to get a sequester --. >>neil: they are already bickering about that. >>reporter: they may

and now we have neil coming up next. >>neil: maybe getting close, nine days to go before the payroll tax cut goes to the grand old pile on, right now. welcome, everyone, i'm neil cavuto. pressure, and i mean pressure, on republicans is building because at this point the president certainly is not budging. telling house speaker boehner no deal on one year deal. joining him, no less than senate minority leader mcconnell. today calling on house republicans to pass a short-term measure while working on a longer term solution. a conference call among house republicans is about to happen. and mike is at the center of it all. what does it mean? where do we stand? >>reporter: we have heard from sources on the hill the end is near and we are close do a deal and now the conference call if an hour where we understand the speaker boehner wants to make an announcement to the republican caucus. last saturday, that's when it fell apart when the speaker laid out the senate bill for his membership and they essentially revolted, so, we sa

>>neil: that is not what i asked., the former republican speaker, said the republican congress, it is not a republican congress, and she is not mentioning the three years without a budget. go ahead. >>guest: well, if you take a look at what has happened in the past you have to compare apples and apples and not apples and oranges, and go back to the time of a democratic congress and then you had a republican president, significant legislation was passed. >>neil: i'm tag about a democratic come woman with a democratic president that could not find a way, a will, or a means to provide a simple budget. that is when you had the complete hat truck, everything. >>guest: well, you win on that one. i give up. so, let's move on to what we need to talk about, which is how, what are we coping to do about the job things. we have one more tune, we just passed in the last two days, a major bill, the defense authorization bill, and, today, finishing up the appropriations for the remaining parts of the government. all good. we still h

>>neil: were any hires? >>guest: a lot of people gave resumes they are semi interviewed and it was tough and the occupy wall street, a small faction came down and surrounded us and starting throwing bird seed on our feed so it disrupted us. awith did interviews people were trying to take brochures and drove afternoon the resumes and they surrounded us and started throwing bird seed on us we were surrounded about 50 or 50. they brought pigeons in and one of the punks at the job fair, found a couple of candidates that he thought were very close to being hired and he had assured us that he had at least two candidates he found today that he was going to put on four or five direct interviews the next week and he would get back to us and, to me, on a day when they are closing down the ports and seizing capital im, and trying to shut down the we economy, we are out there trying to do something positive and not one occupier came over to us and handed in a resume, so, it kind of shows their argument is disingenuous t

>>neil: why get that.st are motivated to make sure we replace the current president in november. >>neil: but it seems that gingrich, it is personal and visceral with him. >>guest: there are republicans who have different people that they are behind and i obviously endorse mitt romney because i think he is the right person for time. if you are talking about fixing a bad economy you want someone with expense creating jobs and fixing things and he brings that as pat of his background to the job. ere are others looking for a different type of leader and we will see, it will be sorted out by republican voter across this country as the caucuses and primaries get underway but my view is we ought to nominate the most conservative electable candidate we possibly can and as i said before romney fits not only someone who can get the job done goal elected but someone who selectable. >>neil: we shall see. in the meantime, why voters could be leaving some in washington coal on christmas. >> is it any wonder congress' ap

neil. it's entirely possible because under the new republic rules, you can get in as late as early february and still qualify for enough primaries and caucuses to compete for delegates at the national convention. second, it's entirely possible to win the nomination getting in late assuming there is is a good candidate who gets in simply because if you win a bunch of the late big primaries like bobby kennedy did in 1968 or jerry brown did in 1976, you can make an argument to the delegates that you have the momentum and you should be nominated. >> neil: in the case of bobby kennedy, even allowing for his tragic assassination and winning the california primary that night, he was still well shy in the dell gatt count and far from guaranteed the nomination. so what -- is it just the momentum issue? >> well, you have to make an argument. you have to say i'm winning these primaries and kennedy one a slew of them at the end with the exception of oregon. he lost oregon to gene mccarthy. but he had a

tradition. >> neil: have you f

>>neil: that says it all. he talking about how millions is missing at mf global and he says he hasn't had an mfing -- not the best. >> literally, the first guy i called was jon corzine because we knew he knew about the economy, about world markets. >> well, maybe not, so is this going to come back to haunt the president and the vice president, and democrats in general? charles gasparino is still yapping, right? >>guest: i feel like a broken clock. i told you he would not take the 5th, i did on this show, he is doing a great job from a technical standpoint, not taking the 5th and sort of dancing around the issues. he is . >>neil: there are a lot of "i don't know," or other guys do that. is he damaged from this? >>guest: he is really damaged. and by extension it will come down do this, you thing of the people from the private sector that the president surrounds himself with, the guy that doesn't know anything. that is the problem the president has, this administration has, let's not minimize this, not only was h

>>neil: interesting.tioned just her saying it could be putting her in a legal problem. >>guest: she is threatening to do something that is on its face illegal, so you can't, and putting it in the voice of a threat, you can not expose private documentation that congress members have during a private meeting like that or committee meeting, that is against all rules, so the threat is one step less than doing it. if she did it she should be charged with something. i am not sure what, but now she has only threatened it. but, what is interesting, this is happening at the very same time that blagojevich is sentenced to 14 years which was the right sentence. the proper sentence. >>neil: they are putting off the beginning of the sentence until february. >>reporter: that is normal. >>neil: can he be out of prison while the appeal is going on. >>guest: he will ask that. but this judge will not allow that. >>neil: does this judge hate him? >>guest: after that trial, walking in this and saying i didn't do it, and slic

>>neil: thank you, mike. and republican congressman from maryland, congressman, it sounds like with all due respect to your party, republicans are trying to cover themselves on this? >>guest: no, look, we have made the point that as a long-term deal is what we have to get to. and it sounds like we are making progress toward that. >>neil: but whatever you agree to here is thought a long-term deal, it could be a citizen in that direction but not a long term deal. >>guest: it will society in motion, because we are afraid well have two month extensions every two months with no real serious move to go to that one year deal. and we have to get toward that one year zeal. >>neil: okay, excuse me for my simplicity here, but this was essentially what the senate offered originally. a two month deal with the understanding you would come back and hatch out something that is more longer term. that's what this is. >>guest: aned thatting in washington has different meanings to different people. but a conference committee is

neil cavuto now. >>neil: thank you, we indeed are five hours away from the big debate and i am happy to have one of the primary participants, and he will crisscross the state visiting 44 towns in report fashion, the go of the fine state of texas, rick perry, joining us. the debates and you, early going, not a great combination but you are feeling better now. >>guest: yeah, i say let's do a bunch more, i'll come early. >>neil: you made fun of yourself, are you more comfortable. >>guest: i am, look when you make mistakes no one is perfect and we have a great debater in the white house. that is not working real well for us, so i'm a doer, and i have an ad on here in iowa talking about i'm not a talker but a doer talking about a million jobs we created in the state of texas and keeping our taxes low and our regulatory climate fair and predictable and we the 13th largest economy in the world if we were stand alobby entity and the reason i called for. congress has to be up there all the time. no, they don't

>>neil: how much ahead? >>guest: it was made, the call was made on friday, and on monday is when our board got together, and when our board finally reached --. >>neil: last friday, what was that call about? >>guest: that friday that call was to the candidates saying, you know, everyone sees what is going on, we don't know if it is on your heart to seek a teaming with other candidates but it needs to happen quickly but that is a candidate to candidate discuss. >>neil: did it come out at that discussion that you endorsed rick santorum? >>guest: no, rick santorum found out yesterday that i endorsed rick santorum because we had another board meeting on monday, and as the caucus it is hard to coalesce around one candidate and i wanted to make sure our board could coalesce. our board came to the conclusion on members that rick santorum is the guy that most represents us, the family, brings everything back to the family, that is who we are, and coalesce around rick santorum and on tuesday we made that known. >>neil

>> neil: have you done that before.have done this stumbling along a couple of months at a time. >> that's something that i have not stood for and i have been against these countless continuing resolutions. i was proud of the fact that we finally do have a bipartisan pass appropriations bill that came out last week. we voted on something that was a one year extension of the payroll taxes, unemployment insurance with reforms and also two years for the is you you -- sustained growth rate for those doctors that provide medicare. for us to say we will extend this two months that is insane. it's fiscally irresponsible. >> neil: it must have shocked people, congressman. john boehner himself who was told you don't have any deal here and this is the deal we don't want. what was his reaction? >> well, i think that, you know, most of us on the house republic side when we crafted together that package to go forward, we felt that we had everything that met the requirements that the president talked about and extended these payroll t

. >> neil: no one can fire shepard smith. i'm neil cavuto reporting sioux city, iowa. news on a debate that had been slated for a couple weeks after that, we're getting indications from donald trump his participation in his special event is off, donald taking himself out of the debate that would have featured only rick santorum and newt gingrich. that's off. the donald will tell us why it is off. that sets the stage for what will be the last big debate, the one that fox is doing, on thursday, the last major gathering of all these candidates, before they vote three weeks from today. can you believe that? three weeks from today. tom bevin joins us now on a day that real clear politics expert is noticing things are -- >> what do you make of the polls? >> we've got a couple of polls that came out in iowa today showing really interesting movement. ron paul is only one point behind newt gingerich. gingrich seems to have -- his support seems to have peaked. he's down slightly. romney's losing altitude and the other candidates, like paul, michele bachmann, rick santorum moving

>>neil: did i take you up?uest: you didn't but we put it out for trump and i see him as a wedding of steve wynn from las vegas and he looks me in the head and says take your bet back i'm running, take it to the bank, frank, i'm running. and he did not run. i don't know why people kiss his ... posterior. >>neil: you argue that net of them are liable. >>guest: obama is the most likable, with 65 percent personal favorability, everyone likes him as a person, as a father, as a husband. >>neil: does that matter in a dire economy where it looks dicey? would you be more inclined to support the guy you may not like but you trust will get the job did? >>guest: at 6 percent unemployment rate i am voting for the person i want to see in my living room at 9 percent i vote for the person who can take that to 6 percent. >>neil: very interesting. even i understood that. so you are not interested in ever appearing on any future "arentice." >>guest: i would be the if inventories look at him and say, no, donald, you are fired. >>n

>>neil: what closes the deal for them? >>guest: for gingrich he has to demonstrate he is the best candidate to defeat president obama. in ron paul's case he has to prove that his foreign policy is acceptable to republican would like what he says economically but have a problem where where he stands on defense and national security. and for romney he has to demonstrate he is passionate, the fire in the belly, and he has the same kind of intensity that republican voters want running against president obama. >>neil: frank, you poll this like no other on the numbers do you ever remember where so many are undecided so soon before the voting begins? >>guest: we have had a fair number undecided. but what is different about this race you have five different frontrunners at some point during the campaign. donald trump way back when. michele bachmann. rick perry. herman cain. newt gingrich. and, and, romney has been through this the whole time so we have had so many different candidates that have risen and fallen but tomorrow will b

>>neil: for them sexes? flat tv screen for the house you could argue it is for everybody. >>neil: when all is said and done, how will it pan out? >>guest: it is a little too early to tell. a head start at 16 percent and people saved up for black friday and i was at an event and it was packed at the out let center. players that have incredible prices, dollar general every dollar store, for stocking stuffers, people will load up. if you bought for yourself and you are spent out, you still need the shock and fill the stockings and you go to the low of the price and no one does that better than they do. >>neil: the best retail experts, a woman, classy, i have a theory that women really like processed meats and cheeses. am i right? >>guest: you are a hickory farms guy? >>neil: beyond. way beyond. >>guest: well, you have to deal with that. >>neil: ain't this rich, the folks living in this $1.2 million waterfront house are collecting welfare. and a lot of it. top moving. of course, neither do i. solution? td amerit

>> i have a suggestion, neil. we should all agree that institutions, that public leaders should use some sensitivity and during difficult times it would be a bad idea for them to be photographed living it up on the beach. but, beyond that, i mean, do unions have a right to have meetings and to organize and criticize and-- >> and we have the right to criticize the hipocracy. adam. >> absolutely, charlie. >> and taking bailouts and-- >> i think that charles hit on the the proper point here, it isn't so much where they're going, i don't care where any of them go. i could give them a couple of options, i'm just saying, it sounds, particularly egregious, when they're the ones pointing fingers at others doing this. anakin to me coming in monday and advising everybody. you know, you really, you really-- >> and not a good idea. >> wait-- >> did you expect anything less shallow from the occupy wall street movement? these kids had no idea what they were doing. and i mean, i think it was basically a media fixation. >> it was

hi, everybody, merry christmas i'm neil cavuto. the nonpartisan sword by both sides of the aisle, the ad about granny and it's version of the granny, naming it the lie of 2007. short on facts, long and scare tactics and you heard it here first. this is why we're not moving, big government bans are having a ball insisting everything is fine and folks who want to rein in entitlements are not. >> many seniors in america will be forced into poverty and worse, some will end up dying. >> neil: it gets worse. look at this ad again, it's well done, look at the guy pushing grandma. does he look familiar familiar to you. -- do you think they want him to look like paul ryan? and the guy who addressed medicare costs killing us, now he's killing us, the bern featured in the ad was the late harvey korman, but i can't prove it. why do they scare? so they can spend? and if someone is right and congress is just getting started, charles payne, adam lashinsky, charlie gasperino. and amelia. what do you think? >> we're going to see a lot more. in the

thank you, neil diamond.se] when sonny rollins was growing up, he and his friends would sneak into jazz clubs by drawing mustaches on themselves -- (laughter) -- with an eyebrow pencil -- (laughter) -- to try to look older. did that work, sonny? [laughter] we don't know if it fooled anybody, but they did get into the clubs. harlem in the 1930s was a hotbed of jazz, and for a young musician with a big horn and bigger dreams, it was heaven. duke ellington and coleman hawkins lived around the corner. sonny learned melody and harmony from thelonious monk, and miles davis was a regular playing partner. it wasn't long before sonny earned the nickname "the saxophone colossus," and became known as one of the greatest improvisers in the history of jazz. today, he often plays hour-long solos without any repetition, leaving audiences speechless. people sometimes wonder how he can play for so long, but in sonny's words, "it just means there's something out there, and i know i have to find it." sonny also loves to roam th

>> neil: hey, you guys.changed in the vestry. >> sofia: oh, come on, i'll show you. >> cane: thank you, thank you. >> harmony: hi, muffin. >> devon: how you doin'? >> cane: hey, hey, hey. >> lily: hi. >> tucker: hello, devon. >> devon: hi. i was-- wasn't really expecting to see you here. >> ashley: well, i don't get as many chances as i'd like to see faith. that's why we're here. >> neil: have you met harmony? >> ashley: no, i haven't. i've been wanting to, though. hi. i'm ashley. >> harmony: nice to meet you. >> ashley: nice to meet you. >> harmony: ahh! mrs. chancellor, i'm glad you came. >> kay: harmony, i have a surprise for you. >> harmony: oh, you didn't have to do that. >> kay: i hope you'll be pleased. okay. >> devon: ana! ana, what are you doing? hey. >> ana: (laughs) hi. >> devon: how are you? >> ana: good. >> devon: oh, it's so good to see you. >> ana: good to see you, too. hi. >> devon: ohh. >> billy: that's good work. that's beautiful. amazing. now go put it under the tree, please. thank you. oh

. >> brenda: here we go, neil cavuto is next. >> well, a bipartisan break down? and fox on top of the red and blue, now playing a dangerous game with your green. republicans and democrats fighting over how to pay for a payroll tax cut. but where was this religion on pay as you go, when democrats were pushing stimulus, regardless of the cost and republicans pushing that tax rate. don't look now, i think we're all about to get rolled or should i say payrolled. to ben stein in the flesh, this is cool. dagen mcdowell, and along with charlie gasperino and i want to thank charles for filling in for me last week, did such a good job, i decided to take him off the set. charles payne, kiss the payroll tax cuts goodbye. >> no, listen, neil, the guys in washington, they've got religion, all right. but we're going to get the payroll tax extension, i'm 99% sure of that and 100% sure it's going to involve fuzzy math added to the accounting debt that we have and it's not going to be paid for, but i think both sides feel there's too much to lose, forget religion, it's all about

>> i'm not sure, neil.'d argue the last couple of weeks as far as the oil price movement is clearly because of the issues in iran and not because demand going up over the holidays, it's right. it's a futures issue and if the energy market sees that more supply is going to come on, naturally, price is going to go down and i think, generally, that's going to be a good effect on gas prices in america. >> you know, though, i wonder, i tried to get this out of governor huntsman, but adam to the point, is there a point where the republicans or should there be, maybe i'm talking to the wrong guy, there is some environmental consideration, where you would put a limit on tapping oil. in other words, where the need to protect our environment, trumps whatever, the systems and new jobs he gets. and would there-- the republicans just seeing the environmental ground and saying it's dot, dot, dot? >> again, it becomes an issue of governing, it was nixon who did so much to promote the epa and a sitting republican president

that is my proven track record. >> bret: neil cavuto? >> neil: thank you, bret. governor perry, by your own admission you are not a great debater. you have said as much. downplayed debating skills in general. but if you were to become your party's nominee, you would be going up against an accomplished debater in barack obama. there are many in this audience tonight, sir, who fear that possibility. and don't think you are up to the fight. allay them of their concerns. >> i want to share something with you. as each one of these debates -- i'm kind of getting where i like the debates. i hope obama and i debate a lot. i'll get there early. we will get it on and we will talk about our differences which are great. i'll talk about what we have done in the state of texas and talk about passing a balanced budget amendment to the united states congress. i'll talk about having, the type of part-time congress that i think americans are ready for. you know, there are a lot of people out there, i understand it. there are a lot of folks that said tim tebow wasn't going to be a

that is my proven track record. >> bret: neil cavuto? >> neil: thank you, bret. governor perry, by your own admission you are not a great debater. you have said as much. downplayed debating skills in general. but if you were to become your party's nominee, you would be going up against an accomplished debater in barack obama. there are many in this audience tonight, sir, who fear that possibility. and don't think you are up to the fight. allay them of their concerns. >> i want to share something with you. as each one of these debates -- i'm kind of getting where i like the debates. i hope obama and i debate a lot. i'll get there early. we will get it on and we will talk about our differences which are great. i'll talk about what we have done in the state of texas and talk about passing a balanced budget amendment to the united states congress. i'll talk about having, the type of part-time congress that i think americans are ready for. you know, there are a lot of people out there, i understand it. there are a lot of folks that said tim tebow wasn't going to be a

neil. neil and lucy, they'll understand. where are they? at the north pole. at the north pole?heme park. neil has been taking lucy to the north pole ever since he and i got our divorce, remember? divorce? are you sure you should be driving? i'm gonna make everything ok. i'm gonna make everything better. yeah. ok. [organ and bells playing] frost: ♪ welcome, all you girls and boys ♪ ♪ come on in and build a toy ♪ mom and dad shall have some fun ♪ ♪ my resort's for everyone ♪ there's lots of elves to help you buy ♪ ♪ santa t-shirts santa size ♪ ♪ lots of rides, so much to do ♪ ♪ and comet's in the petting zoo ♪ ♪ but what's the best of all? what's the best of all? ♪ ♪ you'll meet santa, come meet santa ♪ ♪ watch him make his list and check it twice ♪ ♪ you get a gift if you've been nice ♪ ♪ meet santa, come meet santa ♪ ♪ enjoy the food, the rides, the globes ♪ ♪ come on in and see my show ♪ ♪ buy a ticket, here we go ♪ ho ho ho! come meet santa ♪ ♪ you'll meet santa ♪ yes, i'm santa ♪ ho ho ho ho ho! get a ticket. we were here first. shut up. i'm supposed to go. [bell ringing] gi

>> where is neil. how do you know who i am? >> you miss neil, don't you? >> i do miss neil.he comes back. hope it's not a weird transition. neil will be back, right? >> neil will be back tuesday. i won't be a weird transition, you stinker. we had a good time with you tonight and we'll