Tomorrow. Good evening, everyone, this is the kudlow report. Gun controls are coming whether we like it or not, this cannot be done by executive decree as Vice President biden suggested today. Congress must vote, and then, again, a fullcourt press on guns has now apparently put walmart into the conversation. Also in washington as i feared, obamas staff chief jack liu is headed for the treasury. I think its a bad appointment, wrong on every count. Well have howard dean and steve forbes debate the issue. And in cooperstown, new york, rampant steroid use has resulted in this, no one will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of fame this year, no bonds, no clemens, no one. We have the latest on this major league dis. Its not a fiscal emergency, its about the flu and its not going to be the only city. And finally, this trillion dollar platinum coin idea to solve the debt. Not only stupid, itll make the u. S. Look like a Banana Republic. Can we please avoid that, at least . The kudlow report begins right now. Another big day on the gun control front. A key statement from Vice President biden on the issue. Eamon javers joins us with the details. Good evening, eamon. The white house suggests it could use an executive order to move gun control legislation reform forward here in washington, d. C. And also today, the Vice President met at the white house with gun control advocates, some of whom shared their personal and emotional stories. My name is annette nance and my 16yearold son blair holt was killed in chicago in 2007. I witnessed my mother and 12yearold brother shot and killed in our living room and the next day witnessed my grandfather shoot the next door neighborhood. Im collin goddard, i was shot four times. And even before the meeting with those folks, the Vice President suggested that the administration is determined to act. Every once in a while, theres something in the wake of the conscience of the country. And that tragic event like nothing ive seen in my career. So were here today to deal with a problem that requires immediate action. And meanwhile, the state of new york could be moving ahead with legislation of its own. This is not taking away peoples guns. I own a gun, i own a remmington shotgun, ive hunted, ive shot, thats not what this is about. It is about ending the unnecessary risk of highcapacity assault rifles. And laerry, after all of the activity today, representatives of the nra and walmart, which is one of the nations leading retailers of guns are going to meet with Vice President biden and officials over at the white house, as well. The Vice President s office just releasing a statement within the past couple of minutes saying hes going to have three separate meetings tomorrow, including one in the evening tomorrow with representatives of the entertainment industry. Larry. All right, eamon javers, thanks very, very much. And now to talk about this, lets bring in our panel, we have karen finney, and former Dnc Communications director, we have guy benson, Political Editor for townhall. Com and mark simone wor radio talk show host. Good evening, everybody. Hey, larry. Guy benson, let me start with you. If youre talking about restricting automatic guns. If youre talking about restricting these 100bullet magazine cartridges and so forth, you cant do that by executive. Well, i totally agree with that. And you are sometimes starting to hear automatic weapons con flated with semiautomatic weapons conflated with automatic assault weapons. Some of the jargon that goes on. Youre 100 right, im not a conservative when it comes to gunrelated issues. I think that any restriction has to meet a constitutional test. And also the test of whether or not itll actually remedy the problem that presents itself. If were going to do this, at least do it the way that Governor Cuomo is doing it, through the legislative process, rather than the way the president has attempted to do it as he has time and again where hep finds congress to be rather convenienced so he bypasses them as if he doesnt exist. Thats not the way we work in this country, its not the way we should work. We have a constitution for a reason. Karen finney. Biden also did say that separate legislation would be required. Sure. And i agree with guy. Look, i would like to see some changes made. Okay. Im willing to see restrictions made. But i want to get your take on this. Because we had a bill from 1994 to 2004 that had a lot of restrictions. Including the semiautomatic guns. That bill was never extended, never, not under george w. Bush, not under barack obama. Essentially, karen, is not that bill going to have to be extended . Thats going to be at the heart of this process. You cant make executive decisions alone. Well, i think what the Vice President was saying, theres going to be a number of different ideas put on the table and some, you know, some folks will agree with and some others wont agree with. And we know back in 2011 not that long after congresswoman Gaby Giffords had been shot in that horrible incident, the Justice Department again convened some meetings and did the same thing sort of looking at what options could be done by executive order. I think we need to be careful to separate out that the administration is going to look at what things to solve this problem can be done by executive order and what things have to be handled through the legislative process. I want to say on the issue of automatic and semiautomatic weapons, ive talked to a number of soldiers who have mentioned theyre shocked that the gun they saw looked a lot like the same guns they carry in afghanistan. I thought general mcchrystal put it very well earlier this week in making the point that even in the semiautomatic realm, we know the guns can be modified, which is what happened to aurora in the 100magazine clips. I think they should be restricted substantially, i think these 100bullet ammunition magazines should be restricted substantially. Mark simone, what do you think about this . Because a lot of this is going to come to new york through andrew cuomo . Im not against gun control. I dont see civilian use for those big guns and all that. But to think that solves the problem is crazy. Cant trust any politician who just proposes gun laws and goes back to sleep. The fact that a deranged person, like the one in newtown, connecticut, could still enter the school with a couple of handguns or a knife or axe. If were not going to talk about Mental Health, were not talking about the problem. I want to talk about Mental Health. I dont know if this kid couldve been stopped but he was obviously mentally ill, should have been institutionalized, and i think, mark, im going to guess, cuomo mentioned this specifically, i hope the federal legislation deals with this too. Its got to be easier for National Documentation for people with Mental Illness problems and for what ill call reinstitutionalizing them. Theyve been out on the street for years and need to go back into the institutions, mark simone, that should be part of the change. Absolutely, weve cut the number of institutions, the funding, all that sort of stuff through the years. We just have more people like this on the streets. You know, in china, theyre having these incidents in schools with greater frequency and they have no guns, its being done with axes, swords, weve got to do something about these sort of people being loose. If were going to talk about the Mental Health component which i absolutely believe we should having lived in california after proposition 13 passed and you had a lot of mentally ill people put right back on the streets, making our streets more dangerous. What that means is when we get to these talks about spending cuts and when states are talking about cuts, we have to be very careful what were talking about and recognize that we may have to make those cuts, but this may be a consequence of some of those cuts if we cant get somebody in the private sector to make up the difference. Ill spend another buck or two to do it. But let me mention, on to a slightly different subject on this whole matter, that is joe biden meeting with the nra which fascinates me. It tells how smart a politician joe biden is. Do you think he can pick up any support on anything with the nra . I think its window dressing, smart, politically savvy window dressing, but i think the white house and nra have completely different goals and agendas here. But the white house will at least say, hey, look, we met with the other side. Whether or not its in good faith i think remains to be seen. And one more thing, i want to go back to Governor Cuomo, and i am no fan of Governor Cuomos, but i will, once again, echo what you said, larry, part of his package that hes introduced in new york does explicitly address the Mental Health issue which i think actually is important and it also toughens laws when it comes to committing crimes with weapons. Right. Thats also an important element. Let me just walk through. Hang on a second. Let me walk through. I didnt like cuomos karen, youll love it, i hate it. I do like him on gun controls. Tighten assault weapon bans. Heres one, mark simone, renew licenses every five years. I like that a lot. Limit large ammunition sales, i like that a lot. And much better background checks. Not only for the mentally ill, but for everybody. All private sales should be strictly monitored with background checks, mark simone, whether its in the state or the federal government. That is so important. Those are all great. Im for all of those. But to think thats going to solve the problem. None of this stuff is going to cause less shootings on the street of chicago or terrible incidents like mark, you cant say that. You dont know thats true. How can you possibly say that . If some of the if some of the shootings that have happened over the last couple of years, if some of those individuals had not had access to highcapacity magazines, like in aurora, colorado, where even the police had no way of knowing they had someone in their community amassing large numbers of weapons, of, you know, gas, and the kinds of things we now know he boobytrapped his apartment with as well as ammunition. If they had had some way of knowing, hey, theres this guy he seems to be ordering all this stuff. How do you know that wouldnt have prevented something . I suppose it would been greater if he had a lesser weapon, but youll still have this nut in there and have death. So we should do nothing . No, we should do youre saying basically this one thing wont solve the problem were going to have to do a number of things. We cant stop at gun laws. And thats what everybodys saying. Thats what the whole conversation has been. Karen but, guy, ill say this, just get my two cents back into this. Im for handguns, im for concealed handguns, im for rifles, all manner of hunting and shotguns and things of that nature. Its the semiautomatic stuff and these 100bullet ammunition things that bother the heck out of me. Thats what scares me. And i do think the background check documentation for both the mentally ill or anybody buying a gun is deficient. I think the computer systems, can be completely changed and must be changed. Larry, i think its important to point out that many, many handguns and many rifles are semiautomatic already. And have been, most americans think, oh, wow, must be this big militarystyle gun. But, in fact, a lot of everyday guns are already semiautomatic. I think you make an interesting point, but its also worth addressing the fact that some of the locations and jurisdictions with the most stringent gun laws have the highest gun violence rate and murder rate. And finally, larry, on this renewing every five years the license thing, im not 100 sure why you do that. And i do worry about the implications that has for totally lawabiding gun owners. Why should they have to do it . All right. Lets stay with us. Karen, guy, and mark, going to stick around. Weve got to check in with you on a number of topics this evening. The big dis because of steroids, no one has been elected to the Baseball Hall of fame this year, nobody. Were going to ask someone who actually had a vote about the whole subject. And later, president obama is about to nominate jack liu for treasury secretary. I say its a terrible idea. What do big names like steve forbes and howard dean say . Were going to ask them. I suspect sparks will fly. And dont forget, folks, free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. Somebodys got to teach that to jack liu. Well be right back. You know my heart burns for you. Im up next, but now im singing the heartburn blues. Hold on, prilosec isnt for fast relief. Cue up alkaseltzer. It stops heartburn fast. Oh what a relief it is fiber one. Uh, forgot jacks cereal. [ jack ] whats for breakfast . Um. Try the number one yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] over a third of a days fiber. Fiber one. [ male announcer ] over a third of a days fiber. Excuse me, sir im gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. I think your friends will understand. Oh no, its actually my geico app. See . I just uh paid my bill. Did you really . From the plane . Yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24 7. Sounds a little too good to be true sir. Ill believe that when pigs fly. Ok, did she seriously just say that . Geico. Just click away with our free mobile app. For only the eighth time since voting began in 1936, brian, the voting membership did not elect anyone to cooperstown. Leading the pack on 68 on ballots passed, 39 votes short of election. All right. For the First Time Since 1996, no one got elected to the Baseball Hall of fame today. Brian shactman joins us with the details. Brian, i guess this was about one thing, steroids. It was, larry. And its pretty striking the names that didnt make the list. I want to quickly for viewers run through those that came close to getting into the hall of fame. They mentioned craig biggio, and jeff morris, jeff bagwell, mike piazza tim raines, and lee smith. They need 75 to get into the hall of fame, Roger Clemens, barry bonds, Roger Clemens won seven cy young awards, barry bonds won seven awards. Mark mcgwire, less than 17 , sammy sosa, 12. 5 , rafael palmeiro, almost all of them would be first ballot hall of famers. This is only the third time since 1961, its pretty shocking and it is kind of an overall indictment on an entire era of our National Pass time. Have any of these stars fessed up to their steroid use . Have any of them to this day come clean . Well, when it comes to barry bonds, he says he never knowingly took steroids. Clemens has been steadfast that he is innocent. And i always equate this to the Lance Armstrong debate. And we get into this with mr. Verducci who is a great baseball reporter and historian, the evidence is overwhelming, the longer they dont tell the truth, the harder it is for these people to live good lives, actually. Getting honest with yourself. Brian, stick around with me. Stay with me on this. Lets bring tom verducci, the Senior Writer for sports illustrated. Tom, thank you very much for helping us. First question, the obvious one, what do you make of this . The great stars who were steroid users just got completely wiped out in the votes as our Brian Shactman just reported. Yeah, sort of dovetails with the pattern as weve seen with guys like mcgwire and palmeiro. Anyone associated with p. E. D. S is not getting into the hall of fame. I think what people have to remember is its not a snapshot of just one year. Players can stay on the ballot as long as they get more than 5 of the vote. For up to 15 years, so itll be interesting Going Forward to see if this level of lets call it noninterest and People Associated with p. E. D. S goes up at all. Right now, i dont know what to think because the totals are so low, its in question whether 15 years is enough to get some of these guys into the hall of fame. Just to continue the question that i asked Brian Shactman. These big guys, all right, bonds, clemens, and sosa, lets stay with them, 36 for bonds, 37. 6 for clemens, 12. 5 for sosa. If they dont come clean, tom, if they dont come clean, do you think seriously theyll ever move up in the ratings that theyll ever have a chance . No, i dont. Mark mcgwire was a good example. He was on the ballot prior to his admission and after his admission, theres basically no traction in his voting support whatsoever. On the other hand, it did help him get back into baseball as a major league coach. So if any one of these players has ideas of getting back into major league baseball, whether as a consultant, specifically as a cold in field in uniform, i think they cant do it without some sort of coming clean moment, which brings us to the Lance Armstrong case who wants to participate in triathlons certainly needs some sort of coming clean to participate. Tom, couple quick things. First of all, are you a voter . I am. And are you willing to share what your take is on the whole concept and what your votes were . Yeah, for me, anybody who i know is connected to p. E. D. S will not vote for them. To me my vote is an endorsement of somebodys career. An entire career. And i view an endorsement for a p. E. D. Users a an endorsement of of steroids and im not willing to go there. In clemens and bonds, people think they were hall of famers even before their alleged abuse. But what do you do with the generation here . Listen, these are big names that wouldve had great inductions, do we wipe everything off the slate . Do we bring back the record . How do we handle this historically . Its a great question. Ive heard people say were not giving proper homage to an entire generation of players. I would disagree with that. Last year barry larkin, for instance, was voted into the hall of fame. There was really no discussion about p. E. D. Use.