Transcripts For FBC The Journal Editorial Report 20240714

Expressed regrets about that chant saying he disagreed with it. Is his feud with the four Democratic Congresswomen setting the tone for his 2020 Reelection Campaign . Lets ask wall street journal communist who served as Senior Advisor to president george w. Bush, karl rove. Carl, welcome. You wrote this week for us that you thought that alexandria cortez and i assume some of the other women in her squad are hurting democrats and helping the republicans. How so . They are so big a presence in social media and in the media generally that their leftwing views are getting an outsized attention and so when alexandria ocasiocortez puts out a draft for the Green New Deal that talks about how flatulence and unspecified measures to restrict people from getting on planes to take their vacations in a transfer mission of our entire society it gets attention. Similarly, their views on things like israel and the war on terror the first week in july aoc called for the abolition of the foreman of homeland securi security. People with box cutters should get on planes. Paul those views are beginning to find the Democratic Party in some or in the eyes of many swing voters but nancy pelosi, speaker of the house, seems to get this because shes been criticizing them and trying to reduce their public profile, at least their influence in washington but then you get the president of the United States interjecting himself into that debate with his comments on they should go back, is he undermining some of the benefit for republicans . He did. With his tweet and then it got carried to an even bigger level in his rally with people starting to chant, send her back. I cant improve on the arguments that were laid out in this excellent friday editorial of the wall street journal on that issue but i think the president understood that and thats why he said in the Cabinet Meeting on thursday basically distancing himself from it and i hope everyone heard what he had to say. The more the focus is on their ideas and views and values and the less it is on their them personally the better off the president is for making the argument. Paul i think im hearing privately from republicans before in particular the president s expression of regret but even afterwards that they are anxious about the ruling party being defined in the eyes of a lot of voters as anti immigrants in creating their own group of deplorables with this rhetoric. Look, who are the key voters in the 2020 president ial election . Each side has its own base but the election is ultimately going to be decided by people who are weakly linked to either party and in 2016 and off of those voters voted for donald trump for him to win the election in the Electoral College in 2018 they shifted their votes to democrats for congress which is why principal is he the speaker of the house. They will be one not buy things that create a sense that donald trump is uncomfortable with diversity or uncomfortable with women and uncomfortable with immigrants but they will be won over by saying these people have values and views in the democrat leaders are navigating things that are bad for our country. The more he keeps it on the substance the better off it is. In the policy you talked about her earlier and shes fighting a two front war. She understands the democrats are being simply overwhelmed and whatever the doing and house of representatives is being overwhelmed by the talk of impeachment and increasingly the talk by the squad of these leftwing lunatics wacky ideas. Shes she loved the fact that she got a moment to unify the Democratic Party and go on the offense to condemn the president s rhetoric and stand her in better stead with those swing voters but ultimately the leftwingers will undermine the Democratic Party on the sum or another they can file them or diminish the impact. Paul for a bit, lets turn to the democratic president ial race and joe biden seems to have lost some ground since the first debate. How much trouble is he in, do you think . Can he survive these attacks . He can survive them but you got to get his sea legs underneath them and solidify support. He was at 41 in the average shortly after he announced and it was unbelievably high. Paul there was a lot of name recognition. And yes and dominated in the news. Five or six weeks later he was down at four which is a respectable number when you have the field as wide as it is now. But that is down to about 26, 27 in the real clear politics average which means hes lost about a quarter of his support between when he stabilized and after the first debate. Hes got trouble there and the interesting thing to me is that all of this change in the field is not benefited Bernie Sanders and hes declined as well. We now have essentially four plus one plus everyone else in the 4r biden, harris, warren and sanders and the one is people to judge who has money and buzz but does not yet have the poll numbers and everyone else is part of the amorphous minor mob. Paul one thing that struck me is that theres been no one else in the moderate lane whose of the party who has been able to emerge as an alternative to joe biden and why do you think that is is it that theyre too obscure or too many or is it that the party that the energy in the party was really with Elizabeth Warren, bernie sander, molly harris and mayor pete on the left . Look, the energy among an activist is what is clearly with the left. The interest of the media is clearly with the left and with Pete Buttigieg but not so much invited. What we know is that socalled moderate, the liberal slash lot moderate lane is the biggest lane inside the Democratic Party for what weve got is sanders, warren, harris and others trying to carve up a slice that is basically a plurality, not the majority of the democrats. What will be interesting to me in the next day is a makeover shark who will be in the first nights debate with warren and sanders will she tried to display herself as a moderate alternative to them and thereby begin to crowd that space in the event biden begins to fall but right now hard to see how someone in that third tier, four plus one, plus everyone else hard to see how they bumped themselves up at this point, especially since the fundraising has been rather. Paul good to fly back that will be her real opportunity. Thank you, carl. When we come back, it fails in the house but puts the democratic divisions on full display. Can House Speaker nancy losey keep her caucus together as she pursues her agenda ahead of the 2020 elections. Were not having them set our agenda but we are setting our own agenda. Keep it down there. I have a system. Keith used to be great to roadtrip with. But since he bought his house. Are you going 45 . Uh, yes. 55 is a suggestion. Its kind of like driving with his dad. What a sign, huh . Terry, can you take a selfie of me . Take a selfie of you . Yeah. Can you make it look like im holding it . He did show us how to bundle home and auto at progressive. Com and save a bunch of money. Oh, a plaque. He later navigated northward, leaving. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents. But we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Award winning interface. Award winning design. Award winning engine. The volvo xc90. The most awarded luxury suv of the century. The volvo xc90. When crabe stronger. Strong, with new nicorette coated ice mint. Layered with flavor. Its the first and only coated nicotine lozenge. For an amazing taste. That outlasts your craving. New nicorette ice mint. President trump the United States house of representatives has overwhelmingly voted to kill the most ridiculous project i have ever been involved in, the resolution how stupid is that on impeachment. Paul house ordered wednesday to block an effort to impeach president trump. The first test of that divisive issue since democrats took control of the chamber but House Speaker nancy pelosi has tried to hold toe the line on launching impeachment proceedings but outraged on the caucus on president s tweets prompted al green of texas to reduce the resolution on tuesday. The vote putting the parties divide on full display with 137 democrats voting to table the resolution and 95 voting to move forward with impeachment proceedings. Lets bring in our panel. Wall street journal communist, Kate Batchelor odell and Editorial Board member kyle peterson. Kim, what do you make of these Impeachment Vote . Is at the end of this saga or is it a sign of pelosi and trump that maybe it could come back . Oh no, this is just the beginning, paul. Look, what happened this week is that democrats were exposed as impeachment phonies. They love to talk about this issue and it sounds really good to their base and the president is criminal, high crimes and misdemeanors, except when it comes down to it mrs. Pelosi knows its not what the country wants and it would probably backfire on her more generally. The problem is the more they continue to talk about it the more the pressure builds to actually hold a vote. You saw the beginning of that this week. Paul can, i read the resolution and it did not in the constitution is as high crimes and misdemeanors but all the article of impeachment is said i misdemeanors and listed a series of character traits and behavior by trump but nothing criminal, no obstruction of justice, no collusion, nothing like that but we think trump is unfit for office. Obviously, that will not work politically. Well no, look, they came up with absolutely nothing out of the Mueller Probe and put all their talk into that probe and now they are grasping. Again, having spoken about impeaching trump for 2. 5 years and getting rid of reversing the last election the radicals in the party are not going to drop this but will continue to pressure mrs. Pelosi but holding these investigations and to have an impeachment inquiry about. Paul kate, as you read the House Democratic conference, any difference, any differently . Will there be more pressure to have this come back . No, i think kim is reading this right. Immigrants have assumed much of the Political Risk of impeachment by moving forward with some kind of resolution and they have achieved none of the results. They are forced here of 95 people voting for it which is a large contingent of the Democratic Party but 137 against and that includes all moderate members who are trying to straddle democratic bases with the independent voters who elected them and won them congress in 2018. I think it will continue but i think it will continue to just radiate and bad ways for democrats. Paul the condemnation by the house of donald trump tweets, is the policy called them racist tweets. That was an effort, i think, to unify democrats against him and jump after they have been fighting for several days over the direction of the Democratic Party but did that give republicans a chance to say look, you are just politicizing this issue and instead of letting the criticism of the president s tweets be out there on their own and do some political damage. Sure it did and that is what makes this week so strange but its been a war of attrition with each side running to its corner and digging in. It is like the wilderness in the civil war. Exactly. As far as what the democrats did nancy pelosi has played her cards pretty well here. Be impeachment resolution by this representative from texas, al green, has offered that twice before. Its the third procedural vote he is forced on it but if the policy has given her caucus a way to vent steam. Think about this. One week ago we had just spent several days in a country talking about how nancy pelosi and this squad and these four. Leftwing members of her caucus were at each others throats and now that is gone and they are united and we spent several days talking about whether the tweet by donald trump is technically racist or not and weve heard him at a rally with people chanting, send her back, about a u. S. Citizen or congresswoman so thats another week were not talking about unemployment or wage growth and i dont think thats where donald trump wants to be. Paul but i think he does, kim, he does want to be there or at least thinks he does because i agree with kyle that if this is the focus in the campaign focused on Donald Trumps results with the economy and fulfilling the promise or many of the promises he made as a candidate versus the democratic agenda i think he has an advantage but if its on his character and behavior then i think that gives us someone like a biden who says lets return to a normal politics give them a chance to win. Yeah, maybe. Then again look at what donald trump accomplished this week. I agree and a lot with negative headlines for the president but on the other hand the only thing that was in the news other than him were these four incredibly radical hard left women who are rapidly becoming the face of the Democratic Party and that is what the white house wanted to happen in one regard. Probably, without the other drama but the cameras will not go away now and follow these women around from now until next year and this is how we would like to set the race up and its between his policies and the socialism or socialistic policies that these women and others on the radical left of the party are proposing. Paul kate, theres another line of attack the president darted to open up which is the donothing congress and that is he saying there, see nothing in all the worried about his attacks and impeachment and these resolutions that dont add up to anything for the american public. Is nancy pelosi going to try to do anything here in the next 15 months . Sure, if the posting was was to have a relatively easy week announcing people like its gotten out of hand and i think that he is a point that the Democratic Congress does not have much to show for being in power for two years. They will continue to do both on the minimum wage and other issues but even things that looked possible at the beginning like a deal on drug prices more distant now though still possible but i think its entirely possible that he come out of this Congress Without many significant polity achievements to show for it. Paul that will not help the swing moderates who in the swing districts gave the democrats their majority. All right, when we come back, it was a battle that help to find president trumps first term in office and out in the book takes us behind the scenes as the Kavanaugh Supreme Court Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation f patients that i see that complain Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation f about dry mouth. They feel that they have to drink a lot of water. Medications seem to be the number one cause for dry mouth. I like to recommend biotene. It replenishes the moisture in your mouth. Biotene definitely works. [heartbeat] hey i live on my own now ive got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. Unlike my parents. You rambling about xfinity again . Youre so cute when you get excited. Anyways. Ive got their app right here, i can troubleshoot. I can schedule a time for them to call me back, its great you have our number programmed in . Ya i dont even know your phone anymore. Excuse me . what . I dont know your phone number. Aw well. He doesnt know our phone number you have our fax number, obviously. Todays xfinity service. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Ill pass. President trump we confirmed more than 125 federal judges to apply the law as written, including two Supreme Court justices, neil gossage and brett kavanaugh. Paul as the president has into his 2020 Election Campaign the judicial nominees remains front and center with a bitter battle over sprinkler Justice Brett kavanaugh on the defining events of his first term and though he was ultimately confirmed by a vote of 5048 my next guest says there were no real winners in the kavanaugh fight. Chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network and coauthor of the new book, justice on trial, the kavanaugh confirmation in the future of the Supreme Court. Welcome, good to have you here. Weve had a lot of nasty political fights over the justices before. We had robert and Clarence Thomas and was this different in your view in any Financial Way from those . In some ways we trace this injustice on trial in phoenix progressing hostility on those nominations but we also see some stand out from others in this unfortunately did take us to an absolute new low. The scene lastminute leaks of allegations before with Clarence Thomas hearings but however, this was a new low in terms of the number of dirty tricks played and in terms of the level of allegations and by the end we were talking about serial gang rape being alleged with virtually no evidence out there and lots of contradictions on these things. The fact that got dragged out with a lot of bad actors in the media who played along and then in the senate and so as we wrote in the journal on monday there needs to be a con ability or we worry it will happen again. Paul when you say a con ability, what do you mean . Are the charges that have to be brought . The people do you think people lied and if you lie to the Senate Judiciary committee that the crime or are you think people need to be prosecuted for that . Thats the same crime as if you lie to the fbi. Some people sending in these allegations may be were not thinking through that. Some have been referred for prosecution to the department of justice by Chuck Grassley who is in the Judiciary Committee chair but unfortunately we have not seen, to my knowledge, any progress on that and its concerned because there were people who even in the moment were admitting they were saying things that they had made up or that were someone in this letter and i thought it was important so i basically put my name on it and forward it and that is horrible behavior and dragging someones name through the mud and also using the Committee Resources that should be spent on better things. Politicians that can be held accountable at the polls and that happened to some extent in 2018 and media who left their journalistic credentials aside and were acting as partisan. Paul want to ask you a couple quick actual questions because they came up at the time. Diane feinstein was the first person to disclose the Christine Blaney ford accusations and did she know about that several months before and made deliberate decision to hold that to the last minute . Yeah, she had that letter in her hand in july and there is a process designed after the thomas still hearings that allow for investigations happen financially so she did not have to disclose the name to do so but instead of going to that senate design process that she knew very well existed she held onto it and we learned that with something that was foster great ability for people like Susan Collins who were a swing vote. Paul did you think she did this as a late hit the chances increased that somehow railroad republicans to have the nomination withdrawn was that the strategy . We dont know if she looked at it and said these are old allegations and no cooperation we dont need to look into it or if it was something that was held in her back pocket for later and i think either way what happened was a National Circus and a disgrace. Paul did chuck schumer, democratic leader in this all along . Did he know what was going on in that it seems to be hard he did not. He came out on the gate and said will take whatever it takes to stop the summoning. We did hear from talking to people working around the front desk of the rumors of their were plans all along of how they would take down the nomination and some of those included allegations of Sexual Misconduct so that is a real concern. Paul what are your lessons for the next nomination fight here . Anything you would advise the demonstration or next nominee . Again, making sure people recognize the seriousness of making under verified charges like that and blatantly false charges. The next nominee has to be ready knowing that regardless of how pristine i record they have in life they have led there could be allegations like this coming at the last minute. Americans have have their antenna up as well to recognize things like this when they happen in is a pattern of procedure that the democrats. Paul how can you defend yourself against if its completely demented . You cant go insane while i wonder if they accuse me of this so how do i defend myself if you dont know what it will invent. And you cant prove a negative. Having the people realize that this is not coming up because theres a problem with the nominee but generally it comes up with all this historically because of the seat and a major shift happening in a Major Political things going on around it. That helps these rumors and allegations not gain traction when they dont have evidence behind them. People see its just or there they go again be one quickly, i want to ask you about Brett Kavanaughs first term on the Supreme Court. Build your expectations and particular, as often has he agreed with chief Justice Roberts, does that give you pause . Notice that its generally the times when you have Justice Alito agreement chief Justice Roberts and there are times when he and the other the more conservative justices have diverged from the chief on cases but there are great wins where we have chief justices vote as well whether on gerrymandering or keeping the court out of what is an inherently political question and religious freedom and pushing back on the concealed jurisprudence that has been there for a long time and inappropriate deference to administer the agencies where reports have exceeded their proper role and the court is finally moving back in the right direction. A lot to be grateful for. Paul so youre happy so far . All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for coming on. Still had, joe biden, Bernie Sanders square off over their healthcare plans of the former Vice President defend obamacare and vows to build on it but is his plan that far from sanders push for singlepayer payer healthcare . A lot of people are running the party who want to get rid of obamacare and start over with something new. Something new. Folks, im not for that. Here i go again on my own goin down the only road ive ever known like a drifter i was born to walk alone youre a drifter . I thought you were kevins dad. Little bit of both. If you ride, you get it. Geico motorcycle. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more. What might seem like a small cough can be a big bad problem for your grandchildren. Babies too young to be vaccinated against whooping cough are the most at risk for severe illness. Help prevent this talk to your doctor or pharmacist today about getting vaccinated against whooping cough. 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Taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. So, now what do you think . While my a1c is important, theres so much more to think about. Ask your doctor about jardiance today. My proposal is we take obamacare and build on the parts that a been taken away and we had a public option which means that anyone who has their employerbased Health Insurance they like, they can keep it. Paul that was democratic president ial hopeful joe biden rolling out his Health Care Plan in iowa this week the former Vice President promising to finish the job over obamacare and rejecting calls for medicare for all. Its an effort to distinguish himself from some of his 2020 rivals, including Vermont Center Bernie Sanders. He took aim at biden this week accusing the democratic frontrunner of sounding like donald trump on the issue but were back with him and stossel, kate odell and kyle peterson. Kate, what is the fundamental difference between what biden is proposing and what the medicare for all crowd needs . There making much of their differences this week for the primary purpose but i dont think the differences are all that large. Joe biden is talking about a public option and what a public option is the government ensures that expose and line of credit from the treasury and thus can undercut other insurers on premiums and cost and then can also have huge leverage to decide what to pay doctors. What a public option does overtime is cannibalized as the private market. Paul that is different than what what Bernie Sanders want to do what should do away with private insurance right away. Sure but my point is that where you end up over time is not that different. The bernie bill does outlaw private insurance over some that transition time. But what biden is proposing would de facto get rid of public and private insurance over time versus this swift transition so its one blow or installment plan. Paul think the public option has so many competitive advantages and has zero cost to capital because they would get the capital from the government because it has political backing from congress and the Democratic Administration and we would be able to essentially have advantages over private insurance competitors, is that what you are suggesting . Rights. It also changes the economics of the employers offering insurance if anyone can buy into it which is what biden is suggesting, what. Paul private employers would dump some of their Employee Plans onto this private option . No, but its not clear if an individual to make the choice between employee insurance and the public option and its not clear how exactly that would shift. Right . If the public option is saying we offer all these free benefits at a very low price or whatever it will change the Market Dynamics of offering employer insurance. Paul kim, how does this play politically and is is a smart move to differentiate himself biden from the folks on the left . Its a smart move because if you remember this last a set of debates they all basically sounded like the same Leftwing Party up there all raising their hands at the same time for most things. What we are lacking here is a moderate, more moderate frontrunner someone who distinguishes himself from the other frontrunners who are the bernies and Elizabeth Warren and molly harris who are in the progressive wing. I agree with kate and dont think this is all that active that much of a moderating principle and this is in fact monica to get for all just on the installment plan but at least he can claim that he is not going as far as the people in right now that is what biden needs to differentiate himself. Paul how is this bernie going to fight back, kyle . You will say its not enough. Theres always been talk about the biden plan is not universal coverage because it leaves some people uncovered and theres been a progressive voice saying that it would kill 125,000 people over ten years. Paul kill them providing insurance it would kill them . Because the people left off the insurance it would be covered by the bernie plan would have health effects. Paul thats ridiculous its a complete crystal ball gazing but the optimistic case here for biden is that there will be someone, the next democratic debates for july 30, 31 and there will be someone on the state to potentially take a hammer to the bernie plan so the bernie plan, if you look at it, theres a lot of odd things. There are no copays, no deductibles which is more generous than basically any state health plan anywhere in the rest of the world. Paul or private health plans. Right, and it takes the skin out of the game so every patient whos thinking should i go to the urgent care or wait to see my regular doctor on monday will take the more expensive option and yet he says it will save money and hes talking about how it will raise taxes to the middleclass and cost 30, 40 trillion but he wont be paying your premiums and the optimistic case for biden is that there will be someone who will go on the debate stage and point out those things. Paul but kate, the public option in 2010 when the democrats ran held 60 votes in the senate and had dominance of the house of representatives and could not pass the public opti option. Rights. That was had 40 votes at the senate at the time and i was years ago. The Affordable Care act included these things called cooperatives that were supposed to remove the motor from healthcare and compete with private offerings and they were infused with billions in taxpayer loans and other 23 original ones that existed there are, i think, four left in 19 have failed. We seen some evidence that this does not go as planned. Paul briefly, kim, your advice to joe biden would be to go right out bernie and say your plan cant pass and you will destroy private Health Insuran insurance . Or would you summarize . Reporter absolutely. Hammer away on how it will take everyones plan away and what it will cost, the taxes that you will cream the middleclass with an active be joe bidens big offering but hell have to be aggressive about it. Paul thank you, kim. Still had, if congress coming after your ira . What you need to know about a fact is, every Insurance Company hopes you drive safely. But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. 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A bill passed by the house the summer and now to be considered by the senate and could upend years of Retirement Planning for some americans. It could potentially stick it to middleclass savers. All right, kyle, called the secure act passed the house overwhelmingly support from both parties and what would you do, good and bad. Reporter a lot of stuff in the bill 125 pages long and most of it is controversy also for instance, it would raise the age at 70 and a half year to stop the money into additional ira and reset to the many do and it would expand 401k offerings for many parttime workers and a lot of that is pretty uncontroversial in the past with three nobles but the real issue is that this is way to pay for those expansions of tax benefits and the way they chosen to do that is by suddenly limiting the Tax Advantages on heirs who inherent retirement accounts, iras so under the current law if you give an ira with money in it to a child or grandchild the child of the grandchild can stretch the distributions out for essentially their whole lifetime and use that to pay for college or use that to buy a house or pay for their own retirement what the bill would do is push that up and required the account to be emptied for any errors in essentially ten years. Paul how much money in 401ks would be affected . According to estimates three and 4 and iras would be unaffected so were talking 25 of ira dollars that are given to these nonspouse errors and if you talk to think about it it adds up to money so Fidelity Investments puts out a census of its account holders and says it has about 350,000 account holders with more than 1 million in their retirement accounts and another 30000 federal workers who have 1 million in the federal retirement account so theres other people who potentially. Paul the argument would be look, this is something that iras and 401ks were for your retirement were not intended to be passed along to heirs these are just rich people so why should we care . One reason is the fundamental fairness of the issue. The change would take effect for anyone who dies after december 31, 2019. If you are 95 years old and have a bunch of money they put into an ira in your plan for years and years as youve invested was to give that to your child, grandchild to help them along to build Family Wealth its quite a change to suggest that in six months from now you have to redo your full retirement and holistic plan. Paul kim, the other thing is iras are promised that from politicians that you can make your money text protected will not come after it done the road after inducing you to save so theres a little concern here that once Congress Gets into this act of changing the rules on iras maybe they change them to start to limit or raise your taxes on them or other ways to go after that money . First, to your first point this is a fundamental premise. For years politicians have encouraged americans to engage in private savings because it also was meant to take the stress and strain off of government programs, like Social Security. This is one of the reasons we have this program and one of the big things they always say is remember like on like Social Security or private retirement something is yours forever to keep and gets passed down so thats a fundamental problem to this. This is a warning sign as well but its a warning bell, as it is, watch out because there are billions of dollars of Retirement Savings out there and nothing the government would love more to get there hands on part of it or some of it via taxes et cetera and its an engagement and argument that americans really need to pay more attention to. Paul kate, politically why did republican vote for this so overwhelmingly and will it pass the senate . Paul, i think theres this momentum in congress that basically you want to do something good like change the retirement withdrawal rules on a system of 7072 or payment rules and then you look at the couch cushions for ways to pay for it in the procedure guide the policy more than the policy outcomes by the policy. I think thats what is happened here. I dont think it was a particularly good process and so i think that now instead of just being jammed with the house felt like the senate might otherwise i think the senate might take a look at this for their own bill and at least slow down the process and not go forward with it so quickly because if you remember resident obama once floated changing the tax treatment of 529, college savings, that lasted about ten seconds because the public outcry was so fierce. I think politicians are aware that coming from your retirement account is not popular for one bad idea. When we come back, a facebook executive faces a grilling on capitol hill. Skeptical lawmakers question the tech giants plan to launch its own digital currency. Own digital currency. Award winning interface. Award winning design. Award winning engine. The volvo xc90. The most awarded luxury suv of the century. But how do i know if im im getting a good deal . I tell truecar my zip and which car i want and truecar shows the range of prices people in my area actually paid for the same car so i know if im getting a great price. This is how car buying was always meant to be. This is truecar. Thats it. Im calling kohler about their walkin bath. [ sigh ] not gonna happen. My name is ken. How may i help you . Hi, im calling about kohlers walkin bath. Excellent happy to help. Huh . Hold one moment please. [ finger snaps ] hmm. The kohler walkin bath features an extrawide opening and a low stepin at three inches, which is 25 to 60 lower than some leading competitors. The bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. Kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. Are you seeing this . The kohler walkin bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. Everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohlercertified installe. And its made by kohler americas leading plumbing brand. We need this bath. Yes. Yes you do. A kohler walkin bath provides independence with peace of min. Facebook is dangerous. Facebook might not intend to be dangerous but surely they dont respect the power of the technologies and they are playing with a toddler who is gotten his hands in a book of matches and facebook has a burn down the house over and over and called every arson a learning experience. Paul that was democratic senator sharad brown of ohio grilling facebook executives over the tech giants intention to launch digital currency. He faced two dates of questioning with lawmakers voicing skepticism over the companys plans citing its past record on privacy and concerns over the growing power of big tech. Andy writes the tech column for the wall street journal and thank you for coming in. But he make of the libra currency . Is the potential for good here . Look, first of all, its admirable. Someone is finally trying to undercut the two3 credit card fees we all pay. Its also providing services for the unthinkable, not only in the u. S. But burma and bangladesh they will finally have banking and i also think the way they are doing this is a stable coin, its not like bitcoin will fluctuate in price but it will constantly have a stable price. Theres nothing special about crypto currency or block chain how they implemented it. They can do this with index cards and the fact that its crypto currency dont be full by that and its just a way of implement the. Paul it sounds to me, andy, this is more than a crypto currency and really an alternative Payment System and a competition for mastercard and visa and for people who are blocked out of debit cards because of the dodd frank act and now maybe this is or tends to be low income and maybe this is an alternative. I agree. Therefore it is admirable but however, unlike the name libra its not free. The way it works is they take your money and go by treasuries and other instruments and then they keep the interest on it. You get nothing. Its a like a checking money Checking Account with no money or no toaster is not free to consumers and i dont think its ever going to be free from regulators. The way it set up is it will be a regulators haven. Paul well, okay, so i guess the bottom of the question will be do you think regulators will let it happen . We know already that Central Banks are not going to let it become an alternative currency because they want the monopoly over currencies. But the question is will the regulators allow this to be an alternative Payment System for people . Thats a big question. What is it. It looks like time deposit and looks like a Checking Account but its also your buying into a fund and might be an Exchange Traded fund and also it could be a security and have the ftc involved in the thing with secretary when mnuchin worried about Money Laundering and terrorist finances so therefore any number of regulators will pile in and say this is under our jurisdiction and under a bank or in exchange for this is someone selling the stock and i dont think facebook has quite thought through just what kind of company they will become with all these regulators attached to them. Paul so, the labor of crypto currency disruption of this is hyped. As of now and is that how you would put it right now that theres a lot of things that have to happen before this can become backed . There will be a huge number of things that take place and i dont understand why they did not do a joint venture with j. P. Morgan or citibank or someone who knows how to deal with this hereditary environment so that way the sink to be done much quicker. Part of their coalition is visa and mastercard who want a seat at the table but uber and lyft and spotify and paypal and ebay so they could of gotten this thing done very quickly if they had done a joint venture but they want to do it themselves and Silicon Valley is run fast and break things and thats fine and they may pull it off longterm but given the scrutiny that facebook is under for the leakage of user data remember, the way they get paid is not only collecting interest but the transaction information of all the stuff that we buy. Banks are not allowed to explain that information. Will facebook be allowed to . Thats up to the future regulators and their inviting men into the tent. Paul related issue the 5 billion of the trade commission is apparently will find facebook and we dont know for violating its privacy agreement. We dont know the details of this but is by billion packaging for facebook . Does that matter . Yeah, i think it will be a relief. All sorts of calls to break up big tech from Elizabeth Warren to ted cruz. Its coming from all sides. The reality of it is i dont think they will be broken up or its a very long process to break them up. The fact that the federal trade Commission Said look, pay a fine and we will have a little extra oversight on facebook is a great sign for facebook. It will not stop the calls to break up big tech but to do that you really need to change the definition of antitrust. Right now is about consumer harm and hard to find the consumer harm in terms of pricing because there is no pricing. Everyone is trying to ban the antitrust laws to find ways to break out facebook and break up amazon and break up google but that will be a tenure process if it happens at all. Paul thank you, andy. We have to take one more break and we come back hits and misses of the dont miss your golden opportunity to experience the luxury you desire on a full line of utility vehicles. At the lexus golden opportunity sales event. Lease the 2019 rx 350 for 389 a month, for 36 months, and well make your first months payment. Experience amazing. Liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, hmm. Exactly. So you only pay for what you need. Nice. But, uh. Whats up with your. Partner . Not again. Limu thats your reflection. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty when crabe stronger. Strong, with new nicorette coated ice mint. Layered with flavor. Its the first and only coated nicotine lozenge. For an amazing taste. That outlasts your craving. New nicorette ice mint. Who used expedia to book the Vacation Rental that led to the ride which took them to the place where they discovered that sometimes a little down time can lift you right up. Flights, hotels, cars, activities, Vacation Rentals. Expedia. Everything you need to go. Time now for hits and misses of the week. Kim, start us off. Paul, in california theyve long been synonymous with crazy. And in keeping, this week to the municipal code they got rid of all gender references. Now you do not drive over manhole anymore you drive over a maintenance hole. They do not have manpower they have human effort and the students not stand for sororities and fraternities a living collegiate greek residence systems. Add to this they also disband natural gas condemning everyone to use electric stoves. I was going to give it a miss but that might be gender bias so ill just give it a pass. And this is moving more of the bureau of Land Management staff out west to colorado. They have uniquely western mission and manages so much land in the west. It makes sense to run more of the operations on while if management working with ranchers and working cooperatives with state government. To do some of the work out west, so cheers to interior secretary David Bernhardt for getting it done. Kyle . A hit, 50 is believed to neil armstrong, buzz and michael for the moon landing 8 to 69. I rewatched the video this week and is still thrilling. They cannot seem to find them into the back to the moon but those guys got it done. I remember that. Thank you for [ cheering ] the original hoop dream. These really are the rules here 1891, james naismith. Granddads signature. Incredible. One familys heirloom. You think your greatgrandfather could ever envision that the game he developed could be what it is today . Goes on one wild ride. He starts looking around and thinks, oh, my goodness. Where are the rules . No. Its a National Treasure with a big price tag. You paid more than the emancipation proclamation. Yeah, well. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]