Businesses notice and they are sitting on the sidelines or thats not stopping the unions from going after them. The latest casualty is hostess, the maker of twinkies. With the bakers union on strike. Greg rayborn warned that unless the bakers would compromise, the company would fall apart. The workers didnt listen. With more on this, we have seen stephen hayes, Senior Writer of the weekly standard. Great having here. Lots of pleasant people. Happy faces. Do you buy . In one word, no. I do not. I think this is exactly what you get at the very beginning stages of these talks. For the exact reasons you suggest. No one is getting any details right now. All they agreed on was the basic framework for moving forward. Whereas Speaker Boehner said we need to do this in the short term and we need to get beyond the fiscal cliff. In 2013 come we can talk about serious tax reform and serious entitlement reform. It is sad that tte president wants to do that. He has been insisting on these rate hikes. Gerri listen to the president talking about compromise. Our challenge is to make sure that we are able to cooperate together. Work together. Find Common Ground together. Make tough compromises together. Build some consensus. In order to do the peoples business. What folks are looking for, and i think all of us agree, we are looking for action. They want to see we are focused on them and not focus on politics here in washington. Gerri compromise. He says the word compromise. Why dont you buy . He said the word compromise, but he also said our challenge is to find compromise. Hes right about that. Theres a history there. We are not making these judgments based on nothing. We go back, we will do the debt ceiling, the way out of the debt ceiling negotiations, to create a super committee. Going to th suer committee and look at what they did. They worked on a come they couldnt come to an agrement. They cannot find a compromise. So they punted and kicked it down the fiscal cliff. Now, youre facing this fiscal cliff. They will revisit these issues in 2013 and put in some longer term Structural Reforms both on the ttax side and the entitlemet side. I am pessimistic that we will see anything serious done in the shortterm and longterm. Gerri i want to ask your opinion about an outlier opinion, amerins for tax reform, grover norquist. He said the president will definitely improve extending the tax cuts for everybody. Now, is he just saying what to see happen . Or do you think he might have a point . No, im skeptical. Look at how much time the president has spent. On the campaign trail, but then afterwards as well. Assisting on these rate hikes. He focused on a point of disagreement last week with house republicans. Yes talked about it again. You have House Democrats and Senate Democrats who have campaigned and are insisting upon these rate hikes. I also think its a good political issue. Gerri lets talk about the polls. Richard trumka said there is no fiscal cliff. What we are facing is an Obstacle Course within a manufactured crisis. We make it back . I dont know . What is manufactured . We have been in the most predictable crisis. And you seem to have a lack of will on the part of the president actually get something done. That is the fundamental problem. Gerri i have asked you about one other comment. This from patty murray. This is that taxing the wealthy is essentially more important than taxing the budget. Now coming of the senate doesnt have any track record of passing budgets. Am i the only person who is shocked by this . No. We can consult recent history to understand we havent had a budget and more than three years , and that taxing the wealthy is one one of the things the democrats think whatll solve the problem. Youre talking about 80 billion a year. 800 billion over 10 years. When you are trying to fill a hole that is 1. 4 trillion, more or less of a the deficit. The math just doesnt work. You can also go back and make a simple point that this is going to cost jobs. If we raise taxes on the wealthy, youre talking about the congressional budget offi. Just the tech sites on the wealthy are going to cost up to 200,000 jobs. Ernst young said that it will cost 700,000 jobs. Is this a time that we actually want to be costing jobs and the economy struggling to regain footing . Gerri some people say we are early in a recession. Weve been talking about it a lot. The fiscal cliff will cost the average American Family 3500. Think about that. Though he wont say . To become a thank you for coming on tonight. Had a great weekend. Always fun to have you on the shelf. You or having me, gerri. Gerri now we want to know what you think. Heres our question. What is the real agenda of Senate Democrats . Solving the debt crisis or sticking it to the rich . Log onto gerriwillis. Com. Both on the righthand side of the screen and side of the screen and i will show the results at the end of the shsho. As i mentioned earlier, hostess is closing all of its plants and laying off 1800 18,500 workers after failing to reach a deal with the bakers union. Taxpayers could end up putting a massive tax bill if the workers file for Unemployment Benefits and get them for the maximum number of weeks. That cost taxpayers 430 million, including the same unit workers that forced the company to close. With more on this is our labor economist for heritage. James, great heavy on the to have you on the show. Weve been talking about this for some time the old company promised that he would liquidate the company is these workers didnt come back to work. I think thats exactly what happened. Were you surprised . Not really. The problem is with the labor unions. They make the company is less nimble, less competitive, less competitive and they have to get an agreement with the unions and they dont do that. Gerri the tragedy is that this represented about 5000 workers compared to the 180,000 of lose their jobs. A small group of people standing in the way in bringing and bringing the company to its knees and ultimately liquidation. Thats exactly right. Again, thats the problem with humans. Cabinet post host is that American Airlines and general motors. They make it less competitive. Companies invest less. They earn less. They create fewer jobs. In the end, they go out of business. Gerri the president of this bakery union, he says the crisis facing Hostess Brands is a result of nearly a decade of financial and operational mismanagement resulted in two bankruptcies, mountains of debt, declining sales, and plus markets. They tended to resolve the mess by attacking most valuable asset, the workers. This makes no sense. It is hurting workers. He blamed the workers they blame wall street. And you fail the company, making a come to its knees. Hes clearly trying to shift the blame. This is a company that is on the edge. Very competitive marketplace. Americans are becoming more healthconscious. Products like twinkies are not always on top of the menu anymore. Its a company thats been in trouble. The owner and other union were begging to come back. They said this company is in real trouble. They said, you know what . We think you are bluffing, were going to do it anyway. Now, 18,000 workers are going to lose their jobs. Gerri this is an industry with famously narrow margins and we reported on the show earlier that it will probably cost taxpayers some 438 or 39 million in Unemployment Benefits. Also costs for medicaid for these people. The ramifications go so far beyond that. Absolutely. What can happen to see your . He makes about 200,000 a year and he gets to keep his job. A total lack of accountability on the part of union. Gerri here is what Richard Trumka said. This is the second time according him on this show. He says what is happening with hostess is a microcosm of what is happening with america. As people make themselves rich rich by making america four. Would he say . I think this is ridiculous. Look at the number of companies have gone bankrupt like u. S. Airlines. General motors, chrysler. The list goes on and on. That is when Union Membership has hit another record low this year. They organize these companies and they make them uncompetitive. They make them less flexible. The companies go ut of business. Gerri he made that point earlier. This is the biggest workforce in the country. Some 1 million workers, they want to be unionized. Is it possible to just the opposite is happening now . We got a longterm trend of decline in membership, now unions are starting to gain ascendancy . Its hard to say. That is out of a workforce that is out of the million workers. 160 or so workers, those who want a union, yes, there is a reason why they have lost every election they he had. They cant find one store where there is a majority of walmart employees that want to join the union. You look at hostess, its not hard to see why not. Gerri interesting. Have a great weekend. James, always a pleasure to have you on the show. A lot more to come, including another taxpayer bailout on the horizon. This time, the fha. Next, its not just the wealthy that will be paying more in taxes if we go over the fiscal cliff. I will break down how much it will cost you. And we took our cameras out of the street to ask people what they think about the fiscal cliff. We will show you some answers throughout the show starting now. I think they will need to sit down and talk about what needs to be done on both sides. Most importantly, i think it will impact them in the long run and they need to figure it out right away. If we dont do it now, were going to bin terrible shape. They all need to get their heads out of theirbutts and heads out the boys uses and capital one venture miles for their annual football trip. Thats double miles you can actually use. Tragically, their ddy got sacked by blackouts. But its our tradition thats roughing the card holder. But with the capital one venture card you get double miles you can actually use. [ cheering ] any flight, anytime. The scoreboard doesnt lie. Whats in your wallet . Hut i have me on my fantasy team. Gerri in the debate over taxes and the fiscal cliff, all the talk is pretty much highlevel stuff. We talk about tax rates, tax brackets, but not dollars and cents. Today and tonight, right here, im going to talk about dollars and cents. Let me tell you, if you have a weak stomach, you might want to go lay down. Heres what we are talking about in terms of tax hikes. If we go over the fiscal cliff, the dollars and cents, and by that i mean the increase are going to pay in taxes, not the whole kahuna. Take a look at this chart. Here is what we are talking about. If you make a hundred thousand to a Million Dollars from your going to pay 38,602 additional in taxes. If you make 200,000 or 500,000 from 11,000. Early 12,000 additional taxes. If you make 100,000 or more, nearly 600,000 in taxes or more. If you are making a Median Income come you can expect to pay 22,000 in taxes just because of the fiscal cliff. That is 500,000 to every million come closer to 39,000. 39,000, i did not make that up. For all that i have paid and the lost momentum in the economy, while we gain in terms of revenue . No one says raising taxes on the rich would do anything to reduce the deficit. Raising taxes to current levels for those families making over 250,000 a year would only raise 824 billion in revenue. Not in one year, but over a decade. We have a trillion dollars in de each and every year. Not enough to undo the sequester or so the company for the country, that is, on the right track financially. It is becoming increasingly clear is that the spending problem. The nations federal tax revenues are rising. Look at this. We are approaching the levels just before the great recession. Nobody seems to be talking about what we need to heal. Cut spending . Congress . Noa chance. That is what i think. Drop me an email at gerri foxbussiness. Com. Coming up on the willis report, our taxpayers would have come to the rescue again . Executive vp is here with the answers next. And you ever feel like youre being watched . It could be google. Find out how the internet giant is tracking your every move. And ever since the states legalize Recreational Use of pot, a rush is growing for this industry and our expert tells you how you can cash in. You how you can cash in. We are on the case ne 4g lte is the fastest. So, which supeast 4g lte service would yochoose, based on this chart . Dont rush into it, im not looking for the fastest answer. Obviously verizon. Okay, i have a different chart. Going that way, does that make a difference . Look at verizon. Its so much more than the other ones. So what if we just changed the format altogether . Isnt that the exact same thing . Its pretty clear. Still sticking with verizon. Verizon. More 4g lte coverage than all other network combined. Gerri attention taxpayers, you could be on the hook for another bailout. The federal Housing Administration posting a massive 18 billiondollar deficit, prompting fears that the agency could require a taxpayerailout for the first time in its history. For more, we have a resident scholar at the American Enterprise institute and former fannie mae vice president. Welcome back to the show. Always great to have you here. I cant get over the fact, you know, we saw this coming, it was like a Freight Train that was on the tracks for a long time. We are finally here. And i just cant believe were going to have to bail this agency out. Were there any other options . To absolutely. This could have been avoided. Fha keeps digging the hole deeper. Expanding and expanding trying to grow its way out of this. That is usually a recipe for disaster in the Financial Services industry. We have seen it time and time again. Easy to do because its other peoples money. Gerri now one in six fha loans are having this problem. Is it possible for us to get back to a private marketplace . Should the government be in the business of trying to encourage people to own homes . Basically we need to get back to sound lending. Fha likesto make people think that what theyre doing today is what they did literally 40 or 50 years ago. They talked about in the 1950s they came up with this way to do little, down payment when they successfully. Well, they were doing it successfully, except the down payment was 20 . The loan payment was 21 years, and the housing debt ratio was 15 . Today, they have a 4 down payment. Their average debt ratio is 35 . Interest rates are half of what they were in 1954. Gerri you make a very good point. He gets to the politics of the issue. How can we flip the switch on fha and freddie mac when they are one of the you out there that are actually underwriting loans with a low down payment requirement. Is there anyway to develop political will and put an end to this . I have been saying for three years the private sector doesnt like to beat itself against the wall. It has to go through openings. The government with 90 of the market and all the regulation that has been put in place, it has basically not provided any opening for the first step is that the fha should trim. This should improve their underwriting standards. They should do that responsibly. Once it does that, some of its readers going on, other changes that regulators are doing, the private sector would cme back. This is not going to happen overnight, but you have to have an environment that allows it to happen. I think congress has to do something. They have to do something to bring fha in. Gerri that idea, you know, helping lowincome people, forget about it. I want to ask you quickly, what is really a pr effort going on to make people want to keep fha. Here is Shaun Donovan saying that they have weathered the storm by taking the most aggressive and sweeping action in the history of reform. Trying to make the point today that we have more money coming. Everything is going to be okay. Americans, go back to sleep, keep sending us your taxpayer dollars. Absolutely not. What they are not mentioning, and they did this a year ago when they came out with a report, they knew the projected house price numbers were completely wrong. They basically ignore that. Then they made a correction this time to the tune of 10 billion. Well, this time they are using Interest Rates from july, and they are basically saying that Mortgage Rates are going to double by the Third Quarter of 2014. Well, there was a little event that happened in september with the feds. Thats not going to happen. Thats going to cost them another 15 or 20 billion. Instead of being a 16 billiondollar hole, this is a 30 billiondollar hole. Its always the next year, dont worry, next year will bail us out, and it never fails to mount. Gerri oka so theyre lying about the numbers even. If they were a private company from the sec would be all over them. Gerri strong stuff. We appreciate your time, we hope you come back. He won coming up next, a republican governor opposed to obamacare. But his status unknown anyway. Though brian will be here to tell us. And the fbi is not just reading david petraeuss emails. He was one of a thousand people whose Gmail Accounts the federal government went after. I think they will finally resolve it, hopefully before the end of the year. Get together, three to one. Gerri states across the country are scrambling to set up Health Insurance exchanges. Just one of the many mandates in obamacare. The extended todays deadline for states comply with the law for another month. Twenty states have already said they will not create their own exchanges. Rather, they will leave believe it to the federal government to run. Mississippi, despite the governors opposition tohe lot,s going ahead with the exchange. Earlier i sat down with bill brian and i asked him why his state is going ahead. Its a unique situation. We have an elected commissioner of insurance here in the state of mississippi. A good friend of mine. We just fundamentally disagree with secretary sebelius, im sorry to say that we would be setting up an Insurance Exchange. When we first started, we were all for it. We were thinking about a privatebased Insurance Exchange that woul