Art laffer on what this can be done to correct this. The fda is under fire for its handling of food recalls. What the agency is accused of doing. Were fourdays away from new years eve. New york city is bracing for unprecedented security and record low temperatures. What is being done to prepare for the nations largest celebration. Leah . Lea dow making a turn around this afternoon. Inching closer to 25,000. Gerri willis on the floor of the new york stock exchange. Gerri, what are the traders saying. Lea, were down with the traders and they are optimistic. The dow closed up 27 points. Back and forth all day long, finally ending in the green for the dow. Winners in the dow, visa, mcdonalds, amex, unitedhealth. Variety of industries there, broad improvement across the board. Other news that markets responding to, pending home sales increasing. 2 of a percent, exactly like it sound. Tells you how the Housing Market will be in future weeks. Gaining hovnanian, lennar, pulte group and toll brothers. Good news it there. Tesla having its own announcement. Elon musk tweeting today that they will start making a truck, a pickup truck that they hope will to up against ford and the fseries trucks. Could be a while coming though. Were still waiting for the crossover from tesla which is supposed to come out in 2019. Big promise. Well see whether they can deliver. Back to you. Lea gerri willis thank you. Consumer confidence falling from a 17year high. The number remains strong, 122. 1 but it came in lower than the analysts were expecting. Lets bring in todays panel. Liz peek and veronica daguerre. Retail sales had a banner year. Are consumers expressing different sentiment in what theyre saying and what theyre doing . I dont think so. How people feel about the Current Situation was still extremely elevated and in fact higher. So what people are expressing little doubt about the near term, what jobs look like you know, three months out or whatever. Look, weve had nancy pelosi talking about the tax bill being quote, arm armageddon. Other democrats talk about how it is the worst thing to happen to the middle class in the history of mankind. Im not surprised that has taken a bit of a toll. In february when they open paychecks, notice the tax with holdings are going down and spirits will rise in the First Quarter i think wages will increase. I think this is a blip. Lea veronica, talk about broader markets. This is one of the lowest Trading Volume weeks in the year. Anything on the trading horizon we might hit the 25,000 mark later in the year . This is light volume. A lot of Market Participants are off this year. People could sell and take gains at yearend. So they could pressure stocks. I think going forward, folks will be looking at some markers. One record well hit after another going forward. But the thing is, if you are a longterm investor and you dont need money in the market for the next 10 years, for example, then dont worry about these arbitrary markers. Youre probably not watching them too closely anyway. Lea good insight from the panel. David. David meanwhile something very out of the ordinary is happening in this country. Homeowners in hightaxed states are pushing to prepay their 2018 taxes. Now this before the new tax law goes into effect on january 1st. Many could benefit by paying in advance before the state and local Tax Deduction is capped at 10,000. Liz, it is always unusual when people rush to pay their taxes. Im thinking that all of the focus in these hightaxed states on how to deal with actually having to pay all of your state and local taxes will put the onus on local politicians. Maybe well get local tax relief, no . I wouldnt count on that. David oh shucks. Sorry. There is not much they can do. Look, they made promises to employees unions and so forth that basically sop up much of their revenue. I think this is a really strong reminder, i hope our politicians are paying attention, tax policy really does impact behavior. If you make it more attractive to sell houses peel will sell houses. David good point. You make it more attractive to move out of blue states, guess what, people will move out of blue states. The next shoe to drop what happens to property prices in some of these areas. David that is a good question, veronica. Property prices in manhattan have never been higher right now but you wonder if that will continue. This could add pressure. Before they prepay the property taxes maybe sure youre not subject to amt. Not paying more than 10,000 next year. Make sure you have the money to spare because if you dont have an Emergency Fund set in place it doesnt make sense to prepay. Also check with your local states because as we know some states such as connecticut arent letting people prepay. I would hate to see people prepay and realize later they couldnt do it. David i have heard, i havent personally checked out, veronica, new york city, you may not be able to do it. Maybe things will change or they will before the end of the week. Have you heard any news on that . I havent heard about new york city but mixed about other places in new york. Definitely check with your accountant. David thank you very much, liz and veronica, appreciate it. Thank you. Lea the big chill will be sticking around. An arctic blast will hit most of the u. S. With bonechilling temperatures. Rick reichmuth is toasty and warm in the weather center. Bryan llenas is not so much in times square. Brian is lotting younger. He can handle that better than i can. It is really cold. Were talking about incredible snowfall this week, erie, pennsylvania, 63 inches of snow. Lakeeffect snow, warmer air moves across relatively colder lake. It picks up all the moisture from the lake, when it moves from west to east. Fetch, a lot more distance travel. Pick up moisture. The wind has shifted not as much as length of the water. Snowfall comes down a little bit. That will be the case for next day 1 2 or so get ready that picks back up by saturday. You will see the wind move toward the west and so snowfall totals will pile up again unfortunately. Temperaturewise, very cold. 12 degrees in anchorage, alaska. 12 degrees in cleveland, ohio. You get the idea. The cold air is settling down across the lower 48. Still colder across parts of canada. Not that big of a difference. Windchill. Minus 39 in yellow knife. Feels like minus 16 in fargo. Feels like zero in kansas city and down towards the south. 28 in dallas. 41 in new orleans. Florida, youre still good. Southern part of florida youre still good. Here is what happens next few days. Cold air hanging around but a little bit of a break tomorrow. Not in the northeast. High temperature friday of 20 in new york. Saturday, here you go, the cold air comes back in again. Last day of the year, look at this, lea, incredibly cold temperatures here. 37 degrees for a high on new years eve day in at lant. The peach drop will be very cold. 19 for a high were looking for on sunday. That means when the ball drops in times square, were talking probably in the lower teens. That is the actual air temperature, not the windchill. If youre out in that kind of temperature actually dangerous. If you have any idea that you might want to change your mind i suggest you change your mind, stay inside for new years eve. That is my advice, lea. Lea or go to miami. David miami sound so nice. Erie, pennsylvania, that is five 1 2 feet in three days of snowfall. Just extraordinary and theyre getting more brian well not have snowfall in manhattan but it will be cold, very cold. How is the new York Police Department preparing for the new years eve event . Reporter hi, david. Were talking about 12 degrees like rick just said on sunday. Here on that night, when the ball is dropping, hundreds of thousands of people will be out here no matter what. This is one of those once in a lifetime moments for a lot of people but it is dangerous. 30 minutes you put your hand out here you can get frostbite in these types of conditions. Preparations are underway. 2600 water ford crystal triangles installed on the sixton ball above times square, 400 feet above the ground here. Other than that the nypd is obviously concentrating on security give the fact two terror attacks here over the last two months. The one on halloween where there was vehicular attack killing eight people. Two weeks ago, when a failed suicide bomber detonated a pipe bomb on the subway, in the subways underneath times square. So some of the things nypd is expected to do, there will be extra scrutiny and rental and truck locations in and around new york city to prevent vehicular attack. Extra security in hotels and Office Towers in and around times square, overlooking hundreds of thousands of people, given what happened in las vegas when the shooter killed 58 people from overlooking the concert there. Vapor dogs will sniff out for bombs in the air as well as on people. Those are some things we can expect, on top what will already be a secure event. Everybody will be checked by the nypd. There will be san trucks in and around times square, blocking potential vehicular attacks. Even sewer holes will be sealed for about 20 blocks here as well as trashcans will be removed. So the nypd has done this before. This will be the 114th celebration in times square but it will be frigid. Were talking about top three coldest new years eve in new york city. Guys. David i can already hear it with your lips right now. Your lips are almost frozen i can tell. God bless you. Im a florida guy. David not a good city to be if youre a florida guy. Brian, thank you very much. Lea. Lea breaking news out of disneyland in california. The theme park suffered a power outage halts some park operations. Youre looking at pictures. Guests on rides were escorted off by the shaft. This was from the parks transformer. Were looking at live pictures. The majority of the power is back on but excepting only guests for reentry. David thats tough. There is fake news you may have heard about. It is over a dead tree at the white house. The tree is alive and well. Backlash over mainstream reports over the first lady and historic next ture at the white house. Lea the caliphate has collapsed. A new report shows isis lost nearly all of it is territory in syria and iraq the time President Trump has been in office but the fight is not over yet so what needs to be done now . David also purge the fbi of antitrump bias . One republican congressman used that word to say what is needed right now. Is that a good idea and how would you do it . Well debate it coming up. Can you imagine a Republican Justice Department and fbi working with the Republican National committee, created and funded dossier to go after a democratic candidate . This would make watergate looks like nothing. Lea isis own the verge of defeat in iraq and syria. The terror group losing 98 of its territory, 50 of the socalled caliphate taken back since President Trump took office, according to military officials. Reports indicate fewer than 1000 isis fighters remain in iraq and syria. We have retired general jer boy skin. General, nice it see you, sir. Good to be with you. Lea how much do you attribute president s trump policy for fighting isis in iraq and syria . I dont think you would see any of this happening had it not been for President Trump coming on the scene as the commanderinchief. Look, he has given our military not only the equipment they need such as the aircraft for bombing and artillery to be used for the same purposes but he has given them a new set of rules of engagement and allowed the commanders on the ground to actually pursue isis. He understands the concept of winning the fight which is something the Previous Administration never could get their arms around. Lea you know right now were looking at a picture of isis territory and i want to take a look at some of those pictures, the current isis territory compared to the way it looked in 2014, even if we take a look at the map, current isis territory compared to the way it looked when President Trump took office. The picture seems to tell a thousand words 1000 fighters left but what im asking what about the socalled cyber caliphate . Seems like were seeing isis fighters move to other regions. Were seeing attacks in places like kabul and afghanistan. We know theyre moving into egypt and theyre using their online prowess to attract people to do attacks in other parts of the world . Youre absolutely right. Look, i dont think we should be taking a victory lap yet. President trump has done a great job as commanderinchief in allowing our military to win in iraq and syria but isis has not gone away and it is not going to. They are in 30 countries right now. We lost a few special forces guys a couple months ago. That is part of that fight against isis, many of which are relocating to places in africa, places that are remote. Places where they have a bed for recruiting but isis has not gone away. Theyre compelled by a 1400yearold theology. Until we defeat the theology well continue to see isis and other organizations with the same theology as isis. Lea as they are losing land, they are going to be calling for followers to continue to conduct lone wolf attacks. How concerned are you about that . Well, im very concerned about it. I think in the next 30 days, and im not a prophet and dont claim to be, but i think in the next 30 to 45 days you will see something they will be able to lay claim to because they are losing support rapidly as a result of that map you just showed. They depend upon their recruiting evidents to be able to refill the ranks of isis with the fighters that they need to continue to build this caliphate and this cyber caliphate that has been, is very real because that is where i think they get the majority of their recruits is actually through the internet. Lea any thoughts how to get ahead of isis online . Well, yes, we have to start doing some hard things. We have to start taking down their websites. We have to start eliminating them. Look, we have the Cyber Capabilities to do all of those things but weve got to disrupt their operations and quite frankly, nobody but me would probably say this, we need to start putting out some things on the internet there that will confuse their people, that will make, make them do some bad things, some mistakes, that ultimately will work against them. Lea well, i think confusion campaign sounds like a good plan. Cyber is certainly the new battlefield. Thank you, general boykin. Good to be with you, lea, david fewer cops were shot in the line of duty and there is less crime. They say President Trump deserves credit, National President of fraternal order of police tells the washington times, the arguably the president can use the bully pulpit to reflect the support for law enforcement. Up to this point in his presidency he has certainly gone out of his way to do just that. Lea Grocery Store shelves could be stocked with unsafe food. A new bombshell report revealing dangerous flaws in the fda recall system. Well tell you what you need to know. Plus even with the new tax system countless loopholes remain. There is no one to break it all down than art laffer. He joins us after the break. The bottom line is this is the biggest tax cuts and reform in the history of our country. This is bigger than actual president reagans many years ago. Whats the hesitation . Eh, it just feels too complicated, you know . Well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. Jj, will you break it down for this gentleman . Hey, ian. You know, at Td Ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until youre comfortable. I could be up for that. Thats taking options trading from wall st. To main st. Hey guys, wanna play some pool . Eh, im not really a pool guy. Whats the hesitation . Its just complicated. Stepbystep options trading support from Td Ameritrade i used to have more hair. I used to have more color. And. I used to have cancer. I beat it. I did. Not alone. I used to have no idea what the American Cancer Society did. Research . Yeah. But also free rides to chemo and free lodging near hospitals. I used to maybe give a little. Then i got so much back. I used to have cancer. Call 18004944357 today. Your contributions to the American Cancer Society fund valuable research. But thats just the beginning. A cancer diagnosis can kick off years of challenge. And thats where your donation truly shines. You help us fund free rides to treatment. A live 24 7 help line, free lodging near treatment centers. And even efforts to expand access to insurance. So, please donate today at cancer. Org and help attack cancer from every angle. Lea were getting our first look at the president speaking at a fire station in west palm beach, florida, just moments ago. Lets listen in. Little did we know the at tcomcast as well as wells fargo, theyre giving thousands of dollars to their employees and nobody saw that happening but that happened early. And now whats happening is many other companies are following suit the country is seeing a big, big beautiful ship and turning around and a lot of things are happening with the military where rebuilding our military, it was depleted. You guys were depleted too. Particularly the police, were giving them military equipment taken away by the Previous Administration. You know all about that. Now youre getting military equipment. They didnt want us to use the military equipment. Somebody will explain why but now you have the best military equipment and youre able to use it for the police force. But i want to thank the job you do medically and paramedics and the job you do with fire has been incredible. They said would you like to come over to see . Some of you, many of you i met down in palm beach but you do a fantastic job. So we just wanted to thank you very much. Really fantastic people. Hopefully with media surrounding us they will understand exactly what is happening. We want to give these people credit for the great job they do. Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. I will go back to palm beach and you go back also watch yourselves on television, all right . [laughter] [inaudible] do you have any questions . [inaudible] they just passed it and coming to me and its a good thing. You like the, right . We just appreciate one of the things that people dont understand, we have signed more legislation than any