I think a body that empowers home loss, the saddam government , we were just talking about it. It should not be so interested with the security of the United States of america. Countries we cannot trust right now, and i would love to be able to, but we cannot. We have to take our own security into account, and i agree this is a legitimate threat. Amended earth every day. We have things that we have to worry about. We have the right precautions in place. The right precaution is not address the u. N. We might as well neil i wanted thank you all. This is just something they want to attack and give some thought to. I say have vetted because we dont want to die. Ec we dont want to be destroyedin and obliterated. Y. The willis report is coming up next. Gerri hello, everybody, i am gerri willis. Tonight on the willis report, no urgency in washington as 1 trilliondollar concussion is just around the corner. And one of the biggest tax in obamacare and its about to head. Thousands of dollars more a year for your Health Insurance. And gas prices are now up for 32 days straight. There is plenty of supply, but why are prices soaring . The willis report is on the case. Gerri we will have all of that and more coming up. First, our top story tonight. More and more likely that acrosstheboard spending cuts will happen in washington. Ten days away from the socalled sequester. Our elected officials are working on the problem, actually, they are not, they are taking time off. They left town with no clear idea on how to fix this mess. Even president obama, who spent this weekend working on his golf swing with tiger woods, he even managed the next around today. He is on his way home with no solution. Remember, the sequester was his idea. The effects on the economy is clear. The economic recovery is being held back by washington. Goldman sachs chief u. S. Economist out with a new report, saying that the onomy will ntinue to go well below its potential. Most consumers obably werent aware of the hit to their disposable income until they receive their midjanuary paycheck. One republican pollster in a new report rights that we have entered a new phase for the dysfunction and paralysis in washington is having a Significant Impact on how consumers feel about the overall state of the economy and their personal financial situation. The drop in Consumer Confidence, he says, is directly related to a lack of competence in our current political leaders. Consumer confidence has taken a hit, a big one since postworld war ii history. Already there is evidence of a slowdown in consumer spending. Reports that walmart had its wot start to its month in seven years. The payroll tax hikes may be starting to bite. Gas prices are up 51 cents in the last two months. Prices are up every single day since the middle of january. It is already over 5 in parts of the country. There is a lot to talk about. The stock market hitting new highs, the dow jones a few points awayfom 14,000, but the Federal Reserve free money is driving much of that. Remember, we have barely made e losses back of the past five years. The solution from the white house is more spending. The president in his state of the Union Address called for more spending on construction. The same shovel ready jobs en he admitted did not work. Influential market busted president obamas policy. Saying if we do what the white house wants, we are headed for total economic collapse just like the country of greece. And the u. S. , n 22 years could be in worse shape than greece is today. Hiking taxes wont get us out of the mess either. Washington needs to stop thinking that it is the solution anstart realizing it is a problem. For more on this, i want to bring in my panel. Thank you both for being here. What we are talking about at the end of the day is 1. 2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. The administration has been complaining about this for a week now, what it will mean for the middle class. Yes, the president is out playing golf. What do you make of that . One thing about the sequester that we should notice is that its really 2. 4 of federal spending this year, 85 billion and 1. 2 trillion over the next 10 years. 2. 4 is nothing. It will not send the markets down. But the way the sequester to set up, it targets very popular and vital programs, like defense and health safety. Gerri lets turn to stanley for a second. Would he make of these cuts . Yohave described them as two tenths of our spending cuts over the next five years. Yet the president painted as if it were, you know, life and death. Woulhe make of it . Every single spendinggcuts with obama is one too may. [laughter] they are in charge of choosing how this spending will be allocated. As to the congress being out of town for the next few days, as long as they are back on every 28, i think we will be fine. Senator schumer from new york predicted that th gop will join the democrats in closing the loopholes in making spending cuts. I think that democrats have the high ground, especially politically, and i believe just like on the fiscal cliff, republicans will come on board. They have no choice in what you say . Well, senator schumer has a little bit off. 3 hes right that we want to close the loopholes. But we want to bring certainty into the economy, particularly to the private sector. We want tax reform. What hes really talking about is closing loopholes so that our kantian president can spend more. [talking over each other] gei so what hes saying is that the gop will bend over once again and what the democrats want. Do you agree . Will they be forced with president wants . They will be forced to do so if they dont get the story straight and explain to the people while the president is sending us on an uncertain path of outofcontrol spending, weakening the dollar. The gop needs to do is explain in context whites making these moves and connect with the American People and how it affects them on a daily basis. Gerri there is a truncation problem. That is for sure. What has been the cost to the economy of what has gone on in washington are they dont talk to leaders in congress, they dont talk to the president. What is it costing the economy . There is a looming fiscal cliff every other week. I think that Deferred Investment adjusts Consumer Confidence in a bad way. Gerri can you quantify it in some way . Is in their way of saying, oh, the hit has been 1 of gdp, 2 of gdp. Mav one or two. One or two Percentage Points difference. But as long as the president doesnt agree on basically a bunch of tax cuts, this may be the best option. The on the way forward is so hard to see here. It is one fight after another. We will be doing this all year long, and i have to tell you that the American People have precious little patience for it. No, they just dont want to hear it anymore. Where does this all week . It means that the gop really have to exain and get its ducks in a row. I dont think a lot of people really understand what sequestration means, what the fiscal cliff means, and Everything Else and how this will affect them. Right now, the president has the higher ground. The crisis and how it affects them, the gop needs to it explain that it is hurting im. Gerri people dont understand, it hasnt been a lot of talking about it. Okay, head start will be decimated, at the fda inspections, a thing of the past, National Health institute project will be done. What do you think . They are overplaying their hand. We face a sequester situation and these cuts are up to the agency. Trust me, hes trying to make it as bad as possible to make republicans look bad guys. I agree with that. But i do think that that means that politically he will have the upper hand a month from now. Gerri gives him a little power, its a leverage tool. Thank you both for coming on tonight. We really appreciate your help. Reason our commanderinchief is on vacation and it is president s day. It was put on George Washingtons birthday to honor president s. This list of tonights topfive. Number five, George Washington with 10 of the vote. John f. Kennedy is number two, and number three is bill clinton. Number two is abraham lincoln, 14 of america hink that he was the greatest president , which could be reason for the huge success of the Steven Spielberg film. The number one greatest president is ronald reagan. Almost one in five americans think the hero of the Republican Party is ronad reagan. I agree with that. He scores yet again. That man is always popular. A lot more still to come this hour, including the latest on another huge tax from obamacare that you never saw coming. I will break down how out of touch this president has when it comes to our economy. Dont go away. 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[ ding ] oh, thats helpful well, our company does that, too. Actually, we invented that. Its like a sauna in here. Helping you save, even if its not with us now, thats progressive call or click today. No mas pantalones woman what do you mean, Homeowners Insurance doesnt cover floods . [ heart rate increases ] man a few inches of water caused all this . [ heart rate increases ] woman 2 but i dont even live near the water. What you dont know about Flood Insurance may shock you including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as 129 a year. For an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. Its delicious. So now weve turned her toffee into a business. My goal was to take an idea and make it happen. Im janet long and i formed my Toffee Company through legalzoom. Never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. Go to legalzoom. Com today and make your business dream a reality. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. Gerri one of the many problem come the one im thinking of today, the problem with the Mainstream Media is getting tired of stories and more and move on. Take unemployment. This has been the worst recovery jobs on record. The media just cant get all that interested in. Usa today ran a story saying that private Sector Employment topped its prerecession high if Housing Related Industries are taken out exclusively. Thats nice, but you can do that because housing is the big kahuna of job creation. You have to include it. That is why want to talk about jobs today. We cant ignore it. The number of jobs in this country has fallen from 139 million at the peak of the labor market in november 2007, 20,133,000,000 today. A drop of nearly 6. 5 million jobs from the peak. For 2. 5 if you include those that are working parttime because they cant find fulltime jobs. The 10 million who are marginally attached to the workforce. Signs of distress are everywhere. More people are on food stamps. 15 of the total population. Another record that we dont want to talk about. The millions of americans who are collecting Social Security checks to compensate for disability. 11 million people. These are shocking statistics that should have all of our attention. It should have congress up in arms. But instead, we have accepted it. Its like that embarrassing uncle that nobody wants to claim. And its pretty easy to hide the problem. Unlike the great depression, there are no long lines to get the medias attention and lead the nightly news. It goes unremarked. Another ablebodied worker, thats just the way it goes. But it shouldnt be acceptable to the nation that can boast the biggest economy in the world. The president talked about how the growing middle class is essential for a growing economy. But the truth is, it works the other way. We have to have a growing economy to get a rising middle class area that will mean less regulation, lower taxes, and an attitude towards business. Large and small, that is encouraging, not discouraging. That is what i think. Coming up, a double standard for president obama as he continues to reward his friends. We will tell you about the multibilliondollar tax that he passed on to you courtesy of obamacare. We have the details next gerri anot her. Gerri earlier this month we told you how baltimore could be going bust. His major reforms are not enacted, the city could be headed for ruin. What did they do . The mayor had the city spent 585,000 for a consultant from philadelphia to confirm that baltimore is struggling financial. Because apparently they dont know it themselves. The finance Department Apparently lacked manpower to complete a study, and now that it is complete, they are hiring others to implement the findings. Get ready for obamacares most overlooked whopper. As a brandnew tax cost over 100 billion. Liz macdonald is here with more. This really surprised me. Health reform, it seems like taxes keep popping up every day as we read what is in the bill. I found this one really surprising. What is happening is Health Reform has enacted a new excise tax on Health Insurers. For the Health Insurance premiums and Health Insurance having to pay the excise tax back to the us government. Heres what its going to cost. It will get passed on to consumers and businesses. So the average american family, they are going to sue their Health Insurance premiums rise by about 7200 over tha10 year period. Were 720 per year. Its really interesting is for the first time that i have seen, this is a group that ballparks these tax bills, both of these government groups said the Insurance Industry will pass this cost on to consumers and businesses. Premiums could go up as much as 2. 5 per year. And i thought, who will get hit the hardest . If you look at this map, california, new york, minnesota, pennsylvania, ohio, florida on the list, texas on the list. This is where a lot of Small Businesses are, this is where the Health Insurance premiums are sold into these markets, and we do have two congressmen. They have reintroduced the bipartisan bill to repeal the sales tax that Health Insurers will have to pay. Gerri here is what i dont understand. We were promised at a premiums would go up, we would keep our doctor, and thats not true, we may lose our doctor have to be satisfied with the nurse practitioner. Why did we not know about this before . Whei read this bill in this section, we see what is going on, when you listen to Industry Groups and the Health Insurance industry, they have been saying that this is the excise tax that were going to get hit with. And he put it together and you see the cbo and joint committee saying, yes, they are going to pass on us. Then you have to say to yourself, to the Congress Know about it when they wrote the law . Did they know the consequence that would get passed. In my mind, i would have to say yes. Because they have been trying to work on this before the clinton administration. Its the one they have been talking about this forever. After a while, people find out. Let me just be clear. This tax is getting passed along, youre not going to see it as a tax. Youre going to see it in your Health Insurance premiums going up. Gerri liz macdonald, thank you so much for coming on tonight. Very important story and you did a great job. Coming up next, gas prices have risen almost every day this year. Cebook making headlines. This time for what the company didnt do instead of what it did. With the spark cash card from capital one. Boris earns unlimited rewards for his Small Business. Can i get the smith contract, ease . Thank you. Thats three new paper shredders. [ boris ] put em on my spark card. [ garth ] boris Small Business earns 2 cash back on every pchase every day. Great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. Read back the chickens testimony, please. Buk, buk, bukka [ male announcer ] get the spark Business Card from capital one and ea unlimited rewards. Choose 2 cash back or double miles on every purchase every day. Told you id get half. Whats in your walle gerri gas prices rising rapidly for 32 days straight. Jumping 13 and many on the west coast feeling at the worst. Los angeles is seeing gas prices past 5 per gallon. The president and chief analyst at omni Trading Academy joins us now. Oscar, why are these prices so high . The factors that we like to look at the most are the technical factors. Using technical analysis. The grass to look at what has happened in the past engage what could happen in the future. Whats interesting about this gasoline futures market is that if you look back over the past two years, reading into my terminator 2011, gas market shot up from 210 all the way to 348. In 2000 welcome once again the gas prices shoot up again. Right now, the futures market is trading much lower than not. I noticed trading up higher than not, it is pushing for dollars higher at the pump in most places. Gerri this is the worst possible time for consumers. We had the effects of higher taxes, folks are facing a terrible jobs market, so many things coming down at one time. You say its only going to get worse . What was seen in the gas market, the oil market itself, does have a seasonal tendency to rally for the next few weeks. I dont think we conduct it. A lot of times, you will get the price going up a little higher, it uses the prices even further, you will start to hear from iran, and that will probably boost the season more. You have the technical picture. Shortterm we do need to expect higher prices. Gerri we see these rising ices. Does this make us more affordable to problems at refineries . Laster besought fires. Last year we saw fires. But we are really starting to look good as a nation that produces oil and will be producing it. As time goes by, it is going to be a real benit in our country, the price of gas and crude oil and especially natural gas. But that is in the future. Gerri well, oscar, i wish you had better news to deliver, but thank you so much. My pleasure. Gerri obama has about time and again to end the tax breaksbut here is a dose of reality for you. 10 million was earned last quarter by the oil giant. For 2012, exxon mobil earned 45 billion and paid 102 billion. The tax rate is 31. 4 . It doesnt sound like a free ride to me. But that is a Monster Company out there that has over a billion dollars in profits. They didnt pay a dime in federal or state taxes last year, and it is not an oil company. Its its facebook. Not only did they not panicking, they are actually getting a refund of around 420 million. All because of a loophole which let companies treat Stock Options like cash but it seems like the president has a double standard. Well companies are bad, Tech Companies helping them host a town hall, well, thats all good. But now we want to know what you think. Log on the brakes. You can vote on our facebook page. Should facebook pay for new taxes . Gerri moving on with apple and the iphone. Using the new iphone is in store for us . Our expert is going to talk to us. Well, what apple has done what they have traditionally done is if you look at the ipod, there was an original model, and then they were eventually up to four. Apple has had multiple models made. It makes it available to peoople who are new to the platform, expand the platform, hopefully part of the Business Practices to try to upsell them late on. Gerri to avoid being absorbed, the most recent ipod that i bought is refurbished from apple. That is just fine. I am still perfectly happy with and ive talked to. Its great if you can find a refurbished. Gerri ateam, the apple ceo, he is acting with david einhorn. They could become what he would like to have apple do is have a perpetual preferred stock. Apple said, well, no, this provision prevents apple from doing this. Apple said, no, thats not the case. We suggest that the shareholders vote for it. However, he has said that he wouud like to study the proposal. We think it is novel. He is interested in it. Gerri dont they use this money for innovation . Speaking of which, tim cook, the face of innovation, is there any reason to worry about this . I do not think so. They know how to manage things really well. The most important thing for apple is consumer experience. Whatever works, they will do. They cant do it and guarantee the user experience. Gerri i think its interesting to watch this company to try to innovate something called i watched. Well, tim cook dropped hints last summer. He was wearing a nike device, i think he was dropping a hint that a lot of people overlook the. Gerri the bandit you are talking about has to do with exercise. But he is talking about the watch could have other options . Exactly, they have experimented with nike and for instance a dead i forget what it was, but a device are connected to an ipad and such for tracking exercise. Theres no reason you cant do that now. Who knows, it could be interesting to me on i am sure that there is more to come. Its so good to see you. Thank you. When we come back, the bonds that you are holding onto. And is it worth it for the United States to keep making pennies . The analysis is coming up announcer at scottrade, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. With scottrades online banking, i get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login. To easily move my money when i need to. Plus, when i call my local scottrade office, i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. Because i dont trade like everim with scottrade. Me. announcer scottrade. Awarded fivestars from smartmoney magazine. Gerri is it time to pull the plug on pennies . It is no secret that minting the corn cost a pretty penny. More than to cost them 120 million to produce this 50 million in currency. President obama weighing in on this with his tw sons during the google hangout chat last week. This is not going to be huge savings for government. But anytime we are spending more money onomething that people dont actually use, that is an example of something we should probably change. Gerri joining me now to make sense of this is just corps and jeff. Tell us what you think . Thank you for inviting me to the show. The penny doesnterve its purpose anymore. Now, it just doesnt have what it did back in the 40s. Which back then, you could have 16 times more of the purchasing power than what it does today. Gerri doesnt mean the round all costs up by a nickel . No, the reformproposal ran into the nearest nickel, half the time the prices go down and other times it goes out. It would neither save the consumer nor the shopkeeper. Gerri if it is important, why have we not done that already . Are there people who love the penny and dont want to see it go anywhere . Well, i think that there is just a natural sense that if something is not really broken, then there is no point in going to fix it. Especially given all of th arguments that we are having. Saving money in ways that are not going to hurt anyone. A bunch of countries have voted dropped their version of the penny. Can you tell me about that . Youre probably referring to canada. The system is quite similar to ours. They are no longer going to be using that coin, they are just rounding t nurse and. Gerri i know that there are many w depend on penni when they are trying to raise money for their causes. This will not be good for them. What is it that . I think important thing to remember is that we can really collect money in many different ways we dont have these pennies, we could use nickels and dimes. We will be able to collect your nickels and we werent pennies. One well, i dont know. Many will say, what about the piggy bank and those trying to save money. You take away an incentive when you take away the penny. I think that we can save money in many different ways. Just because we have that coin, it doesnt mean that its something that we should actually be using. We used to have a halfpenny, but we retired in 1857 because it wasnt worth using. A very similar statement can be made about the penny today. Are going to start with the penny and two years later, back to the nickel and having everything. I think that we should waste of the things that are totally obvious, that includes the penny. Over time, this has lost more value. Given that used to be worth 16 cents more than toy, you could make an argument. But we should stick with what is obvious. Gerri thank you for coming on. You guys from mit are very smart. Thank you for having me. Gerri still to come, i two cents more on hypocrisy in washington. And cheaper bonds with Interest Rates set to rise. What it means for you on investors out there. We have thanswers next we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. Where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. And lunesta® eszopiclone can help you get there. Like it has for so many people before. When taking lunesta, dont drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. Walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. Lunesta should not be taken together with alcohol. Abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations, or confusion. In depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. Alcohol may increase these risks. Allergic reactions such as tongue or throat swelling occur rarely and may be fatal. Side effects may incde unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness, and morning drowsiness. Ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. Then find out how to get lunesta for as low as fifteen dollars at lunesta. Com. Theres a land of stful sleep. We can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. Gerri bonds under press gerri a fox business alert for you now. The wall street journal reporting officemax and office depot could be ready to merge. Terms of the deal are not being released, but it will be a stockforstock transaction and an announcement could come as early as this week. Meanwhile, bondholders beware. Interest rates heading higher. Take a look at the 10 year treasury yields. Higher Interest Rates, bond prices will fall, and here with advice f fixed income investors, and should we be. So lets talk about what investors should do, warning about the risk of bonds. When you make of that . Two types of people. People that own bonds currently in people that dont own bonds currently. Focusing on the folks that have bonds right now. What you need to remember is, people that own yields have been suffering from long time. The feds are buying 40 billion plus dollars worth of bonds every single month. Theyre holding up the market. A lot of this dinner about bond prices coming down, i just doubt thats going to happen anytime soon. But what you need to start thinking about it here baumholder is start to roll out of your bonds and into Something Like an emerging market still investing and sob and in sovereign debt. Is not the sovereign debt of the u. S. Power shares, etf, its fantastic. What it does is provide you with yields around 4 right now. You dont have to worry about complex transfers, that is one way to sort allocate yourself out of u. S. Bonds. I dont think this is going to happen soon. I think that it will be interesting. They are participating in such a big way, i dont see yields skyrocketing anytime soon. The one tell us about berkeleys 20 year treasury bond. Okay, here is the deal with that. If you are an investor that currently wants to own bonds and protect yourself against the drawdown or a spike in yields, you buy this. Your financial visor can talk to about this. It can help hedge against rising Interest Rates. Jpmorgan in the emeing markets bond, local currency bonds. Body like them . They are both sort of the same thing that we talked about earlier. Like the power shares, invest instead of buying in u. S. Dollars, you are buying in foreign currency. If you felt that the u. S. Dollars were just going to fall out and lets just say tt maybe the euro were other emerging markets like that, that would be an etf that he would favor. Again, all three of those providing you a little bit of a hedge against the dip in u. S. Bonds beyond you say thathey dont need such heavy scrutiny. Why that . I think as they stick their nose in the market business, levels of regulation that we had over the years, it is a reason why become so popular. A dark pool is a plce where traders who have a lot of money can go to extremes shows with one another. If you had a million shares of apple that you wanted to sell, you might call me and say, how much are you willing to buy my million apple shares were. And i would say, oh, 460. We would trade it off the market. Welcome to the sec they are now looking into these dark dark pools pool to see if they are influencing the market and traders are using or selling power in the openarket to influence this. But the bottom line is that we do not need more regulation. The more you met with markets, the more regulations that you put on the markets, its just the way markets work. We need to step back and let them be, if you will. I am not surprised by that. I have to talia. What do you make of the largecap stocks right now . We keep flirting back and forth. Who do you see that going to . Well, couple of things. If you look at volume, its been dissipating. S p 500, the volume has been falling off. Traders are getting a little bit weary and not as the firstine. The second thing that you have a market that is overbought. The chances of the Market Making move is less than 2 . What that means to an advertisement trader is it needs to come back around 1420, the s p 500 has. I wrote about this and if it comes down, the longterm still looks good. The confidence is still there. It is still strong. The smallcap stocks, is tell tells me that people are confident. That makes me think longterm changes are due. If you are an investor, im still buying new. Gerri jerry, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. On a stay in usiness history was a sad day for nascar fans back in 2001. Legendary driver Dale Earnhardt was killed at the daytona 500. He collided with another car, crashing into a wall. He had the nickname the intimidator. When a 56 races over the course of his career, he tied for the most alltime wins with richard petty. Even after his death, the fans stayed loyal to him. In 2003 until 2010, his merchandise generated millions of dollars. He died this day 12 years ago. This year, there will be a female driver at the daytona 500. Danica patrick. Thirtyseven male drivers failed to beat her. We will be right back with my two cents more. Should they spoke pay no taxes all stations come over to mission a for a final go. This is for real this time. Step seven point two one two. Rify and lock. Command is locked. Five seconds. Three, two, one. 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