Discussing just that, an early return to work. 9 40 eastern time today on this program. There is outrage at Speaker Pelosi loading up the stimulus package with a host of items unrelated to supporting workers and industries. For example, canceling post office debt, the return of obama phones, same day voter registration, 35 million for the Kennedy Center for performing arts. What has all that got to do with getting money to people who have just lost their jobs, millions of workers thrown out of a job. However, treasury secretary mnuchin and senator schumer did meet last night, and they suggested that a 2 trillion rescue package, stimulus package, is close. Well see. All this has given the market a shot in the arm. For much of the morning, we have been limit up for the dow jones average and at the opening bell, the dow will be up, what, 900 points, maybe more when the restrictions of the limits on trading are off. S p, nasdaq also up 4 , 5 . Clearly, investors like the 2 trillion rescue package. They like the trillion dollars the Federal Reserve is putting into the economy very quickly, and they like the possibility of an early return to work. Now look at this. Gas prices still tumbling. The average price is down to 2. 10 a gallon. Yes, it is cheap if you can drive. Separately, the wall street journal reports that the airlines are considering a voluntary plan to shut down all domestic passenger traffic. They are simply running out of passengers. All right. This program will again observe social distancing. Im joined by susan li, lauren simonetti, ashley webster. We are all keeping great distance between us. We are all doing well, locked down as we are. I see Smiling Faces all round. I regret to say, however, that i am gaining weight. Sorry about that. I hate this. Ashley arent we all. Stuart at least youre honest. Well done, everybody. More on this later, i promise. We will get started with this possible return to work early. Scott shellady joins us. Scott, i think you want this. You have been arguing for this. Spell it out. Yeah. Weve got to open up america, open america up again. The things you just listed at the top of the show about the money, thats all well and good what the government wants the throw at everything and i think the stocks might like that just a little bit. But what they love is the prospect of opening up the economy again, stuart. I mean, every day that goes by is more and more drastic. I dont want to be too dramatic but i took a car to the studios here this morning in scottsdale, arizona. They fired 25 of 28 drivers. The guy that came by to help me out with my pool yesterday, they are closing down. Theres nothing moving. So yeah, i like the idea of getting some cash to people, but still, its going to go in their pockets and it really cant get around the system because they cant get out of their houses. We have to open up america again and i think that thats really why the stock markets doing what its doing. Stuart i think you could open up some industries and certainly some businesses and still observe social distancing. You can do that and get a paycheck back to millions of people. I think that is the main story of the day, scott. I think its under discussion right now. Well, thats fantastic news. I think youre right. He started to President Trump started to allude to that yesterday and we can still have some common sense measures, right. If youre an atrisk person you should probably stay home. You should definitely stay home. If you have an atrisk person in your family and you are a young person thats been out and about in south padre spring break, dont go see your elderly relatives right now. All those are common sense measures. That shouldnt stop a 19. 2 trillion economy. We have to observe some of those things but we have to get the doors of the economy opened up again very very soon. Stuart stay there, scott. Thanks for joining us so early in the show. I want to move on. I have a development from susan about the olympics. Whats happening . Susan the summer olympics are being postponed until 2021. We heard from the japanese Prime Minister shinzo abe after much discussion with the ioc, looks like they will postpone the olympics. We had a lot of countries including canada, norway and possibly even the u. S. Reevaluated their participation in the july summer games because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Now it looks like japan has taken the initiative saying we will postpone until next year. You got to feel sorry for the athletes involved because obviously, you peak at different times, you have been training for the last four years for this big event and people, i guess they perform in different years, different parts of their lives, and you know, you got to feel sorry for them that maybe they missed their chance here. But this is for the good of the people and japan, boy the wy th built about 28 billion in infrastructure so they also spent a lot as well. Stuart yeah. Got it, susan. What we are doing here is talking a lot about economies around the world shutting down, just as we think about opening up a little bit here. Ashley, tell us what they are doing in britain now. Ashley Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, went before the country last night and said this is it for at least three weeks, now we are going to go into lockdown mode. He said theres only going to be four reasons why you can leave your home. You can leave once a day to exercise, you can travel to and from work where only absolutely necessary, you can shop for essential items and to fulfill any medical or care needs. No gathering at all, no gathering in public of two people or more, and he says the police will now have powers including fines and they will disperse any gatherings. He said the country is facing a moment of national emergency. We have to protect the National Health service and save lives. Stuart ashley, what about spain . Ashley the latest from spain is pretty grim. In the last 24 hours, they have recorded 514 deaths. That is the worst 24hour period. Nearly 2700 people now have been have died from the virus in spain and the number of cases approaching 40,000. So spain really struggling to keep up with it right now. Stuart but ashley, in italy, i understand the number of deaths is declining. Is that accurate . Ashley that is right. For the second day in a row, the number of new cases and the number of deaths has come down. Now, before you get too excited, Health Officials say it is way too early to know if the worst is over. Of course, with each passing day, they will get a better sense of this. But again, the italians have had more than 63,000 confirmed cases and they have lost more than 6,000 people to the virus. So in the next 24 hours, if this trend continues, there is a little bit of light to be seen in italy. Stuart i wonder if theres some light to be seen in china. Susan has the latest from there. Whats going on . Susan the epicenter, the Hubei Province where the city of wuhan is in, looks like they are going to ease travel restrictions. They are going to end that twomonth lockdown starting at midnight in hubei and this is of course where we saw thousands of cases break out. The city of wuhan itself still remains in lockdown until april 8th, from what im seeing on the register from the chinese government. Dont forget the outbreak started in late december and two months on, and this might be telling us how long you have to keep people in quarantine in order to contain the spread of this virus. Two months is a long time, right . Stuart yes, indeed. But its interesting that hubei is the province where it started. Susan right. Stuart they are starting to ease up on restrictions and will ease up on restrictions in wuhan in april. Ive got to say thats positive news. I have to believe that. Susan it took several days of having no new cases of coronavirus. Most of the cases are being reported, new cases, are travelers coming from outside of china back into the chinese borders so now beijing, shanghai are requiring returnees to actually selfquarantine for 14 days. But you have to take these draconian steps as you know. You lock down a province which is home to how many hundreds of millions of people in order to contain the virus. That, i dont know if the u. S. Is ready to do that just yet but that is the remedy. Stuart okay. Got it. Lauren, how about price gouging . Two items here. Whats the department of justice doing and whats amazon doing . Lauren attorney general bill barr is saying if you are hoarding items that are scarce and that are needed right now in the coronavirus pandemic, or price gouging on those items, we are coming after you and you could be referred for criminal prosecution. This isnt if you have a lot of toilet paper stocked up at your house. Its if you actually have the masks and gloves and items that our hospitals need. If you are hoarding them or increasing the price on them, you are in trouble by law enforcement. At the same time, amazon is suspending 3900 accounts on its site and taking 500,000 products off its site because they do suspect price gouging, sending a warning to sellers that if they at least think you are gouging prices, they are going to submit your information to the feds. Stuart all right. I want to bring in greg valier. Greg, talk to me about this possible early return to work. Whats your opinion on it . I tell you, i have been doing this for a long time. I have never seen a shift in attitudes like the one we have seen in the last 48 hours. I think theres a growing consensus that Young Healthy people could get back to work in april. Older people or people with existing conditions might have to wait until may or later. This has been electrifying to see this change and i think the president feels that its almost mandatory. The consensus is this country cannot tolerate a lockdown for two or three months. It would rip the fabric of society and the economy. Stuart it doesnt mean to say everybody goes back to work. You can still keep social distance in all kinds of industries and you can target those most at risk, the elderly, and say okay, youve got to stay home. In other words, its a dilution of the draconian lockdown. You are in favor of it. I think business is in favor of it. I think it looks to me like the market is in favor of it. Right, greg . Yeah. And you know, theres a middle ground. Its not an issue of total lockdown or letting everybody go about their previous business. Its a midpoint where you use common sense and i think that its going to get increasing political support. The one negative here is that it could so alienate the scientists, dr. Fauci, that he could quit in protest. Stuart that would not be good. All right, hold on for me. I want to go to ashley. We are talking about the eventual relaxation of some of these restrictions but i think there are new states putting those restrictions in place. Ashley yes, indeed. With regard to your conversation there, we are going in the opposite direction when it comes to the states and their regulations. Washington governor jay inslee issued the latest stayathome order for residents. He says they will do this for two weeks. Pretty much the same rules and regulations, i think that brings together now 15 states now have a stayathome policy. Michigan and massachusetts yesterday, rhode island, washington, theres a number of them out there basically saying the order mandates that nonessential businesses close within 48 hours. This was from yesterday evening. Social gatherings of any kind, including weddings, funerals, also barred. Again, this will last for two weeks. Just the Grocery Stores, pharmacies and banks will remain open. Restaurants with takeaway that offer Takeout Services can remain open. Washington state has 2200 confirmed cases. That was where it first cropped up, if you remember, what now seems like a year ago the first case was in the seattle area. There you go. About 15 states i believe right now that have stayathome orders. Stuart got it. Thank you, ashley. Back to susan. That wall street journal report of domestic flights shutting down. Tell me more. Susan voluntarily or by government order, really, because we already heard from united and also american airlines, both airlines have cut capacity by 40 and virtually nobody is flying. You have heard stories just this week where you only have three passengers on board and these, by the way, are the airlines asking for government help, maybe a lifeline of 26 billion to 50 billion from the u. S. Government. Why not hold back and reserve some cash, maybe cut some of the flights. By the way, its also not safe given we have heard stories of las vegas and also chicago ohare and some of those flight directors have not been able to work because of the coronavirus. So why not just keep everybody safe and preserve some cash right now in these difficult times. Stuart got it, susan. By the way, if you are watching, if you are just joining us, we are limit up for futures, a 900 point gain for the dow industrials and solid gains also for the s p and nasdaq, up about 5 there. Joining us now, representative kevin brady, republican from texas and ways and Means CommitteeRanking Member of that committee. Congressman, thanks for joining us. H this rescue bill, im going to make the assumption the rescue bill is going to work, the vote will be yes. If it is yes, are you convinced that the money will go to the right people at the right time . You know, the answer is it sure looks like it. Im frustrated, three days, thats how long weve lost when nancy pelosi rode into town and bullied the Senate Democrats into holding this bill hostage. Im hopeful that what we are hearing in washington now, which is they are very close to agreement, is accurate. I do think the money thats focused on helping workers keep their jobs, the money thats focused on our businesses and Small Businesses to keep them open to ride this out, then making sure that businesses are around so there are jobs for people to return to, i think thats exactly the right approach, plus i think helping our hospitals, health care providers, are going to need more resources right now. I think the design of this bill really tackles the economic challenge. Stuart if i just lost my job, and im not going to get a paycheck next week or the week after, do you know what is in the bill that will actually give me money real fast . Is there part of the bill that gets me the money fast . Yeah, a good part of it, as a matter of fact, it looks like about 350 billion, is focused on those who have lost their jobs, those whose hours are reduced, those who are furloughed, in other words, still attached to the job, and even those who have expanded unemployment in this bill to cover the selfemployed and contractors, the socalled gig economy, and there is extra money to help complement what the states are doing for unemployment to act fast there. So there is help for those workers who have been laid off. A lot of focus, though, is helping them keep their jobs. We have to keep these Small Businesses and Industries Working and moving, helping them ride this out. So yeah, i think theres been a great deal of thought. As fast as this has moved, i have been impressed with sort of the laser focus until now on those workers and on those job creators. What i worry about is nancy pelosi continuing, you know, to hold this bill hostage. We just cant afford this delay. Stuart will Small Businesses get loans to keep to stay in business on condition that they dont lay people off . The answer is yes. The Small Business provision, again, about 350 billion, is really focused on that Small Business. You know, look, theres no revenue coming in, they want to keep their workers but theres no money to do that. Some have capital but others frankly cant take on more debt, so the focus of the Paycheck Protection Program is to allow Small Businesses to borrow money from their local banker and if they can keep their payroll going, they can use this for rent, utilities, health care premiums, keeping their workers on the payroll. Then if they do that successfully have that loan forgiven at the end of june or thereabouts, i think that approach can create at least for Small Businesses in texas, which are like much of this country, i think that could be a huge help. Stuart congressman kevin brady, thanks very much for joining us this morning. Always appreciate it. Thank you, stuart. I might also point out, i think the key here in the economy is lets lock down the virus, not necessarily the economy. We havent done the first yet. Thats got to be our number one priority. I think some common sense here can allow us to keep this economy sort of unlock more of it but still focus on that virus. Stuart yes indeed. Thats the talking point of the day. Thanks for joining us. See you again real soon. Let me get back to ashley. The plight of americans, lot of americans, stranded abroad. Whats going on . Ashley there are thousands of them, stu. The window to bring them back is closing fast. We understand from the state department some 13,000 americans have contacted the state department saying can you help us get home. Now, people are being encouraged to use commercial flights wherever that is possible but we know the number of commercial flights are dwindling from many countries so its very hard. They are telling people if you are stranded abroad to go to the state Department Website and register with their socalled step program which is smart traveler enrollment program, but there is no guarantee. 5,000 americans have been brought back to this country from 17 countries. Theres another 1600 people being brought back by charter flight this week alone. But there are people out there in very remote areas. I was just reading about some people in akitos, peru. Theres no internal domestic flights and they cant get anywhere close to the capital of lima, how do you get those folks out . Its going to be very difficult. The state Department Says they are doing everything they can but they say look, try if you can to get a commercial flight. If not, register with us, we will do our absolute best to get you back. I will say the priority always is for elderly and those with