Hello, everybody. Im gerri willis. Tonight no progress on the fiscal cliff as democrats and republicans trade barbs over the issu. One group of americans is finding a way through this regardless of congress and the president. Smallbusiness owners in this countryare prepari to hire. Join me now, chief. S. Economist for i may just pull one side. Heart of America Group founder, and member of the Jobs Creation alliance and actual job creators in this country who say their voices not being heard in this office took with debate. Also with us from the weekly standard, steven haze. Welcome. Great to have you here. I want to start with the conversation in washington and what the speaker had to say about the status of the fiscal here is mr. Boehner. This is in the Progress Report because there is no progress to report. When it comes the fiscal cliff that is turning our economy and jobs, the white hhuse is wasted another week. Gerri what do you say . We wasted another week. We seem to be getting nowhere, and now folks are saying the president is trying to entice us of the fiscal cliff. Look, i think theyre actually some pretty strong incentives for the president to take the country over the fiscal cliff. If you look at what the president s stance to gai if the country goes over the fiscal cliff, there are very clear and identifiable things. On the one hand he president could identify himself as a tax cutter. He could say on january 1st the president in terms of the country and say, now in favor of cutting these taxes that have been raised because we did not solve this before ththe fiscal cliff. He can turn and say to my want to restore some of this funding that my secretary of defense and joint chiefs of staff told me i need to restore and can position himself as st of the protector of u. S. National security. So tre are some clear incentives to the president to lead the country over the fiscal cliff. Do i think thats what he wants . Probably not, but do i think there are incentives for him to do it temecula. Gerri never looked at it that way. As you look at this debate on going, there are a lot of folks who say we will be flirting with recession or in recession if we do go over t cliff. Do you agree . That happens only if we go off the cliff andtay off for an extended amount of time. To we dont go into recession just because we dontave a resolution on january the first. Its a question of whether we have no resolution at that time but it seems that is likely to a come within a short time. The longer we go into january with no resolutn the ore likely that we do go off the cliff into recession. Gerri the broader concern is if we confined in the ground. Great have you on the show. Only moments ago i was speaking to a felow whose business is bung and selling Small Businesses. He taught me all year long Small Business owners out there seeing the fiscal cliff in front of them have been sing im ready to sell. Have you seen that . Well, i just talked to a friend of mine today. Why would anybody in america who has been successful continue to do it . On january 1st if my wife and i get hit by a bust the government thinks theyre entitled to 55 basically everything have made. Heres one hotel that ionas with about 20 million. Apparently passing them on to my chilen on january 1st is some kind of threat to there public. I think its a threat to being in the land of the free. Gerri as you are implying, the taxes, the debt tax soes after january 1 if nothing happens. Monster. Gerri absolutely frightening. To you, you can see how people are reacting in the heartland to this. Were seeing reports every single day about people who are no upping the an to charity because theyre worried that their charitable donation will be worth less. Companies are paying dividends like to have not seen in december. It seems to me like the rest of the world is ahead of congress. Washington is in the rearview see, and everybody else is getting ahead of them. Ight. I say thats like every other day in america where the rest of e world as head of congress. [laughter] gerri how is this different . [laughter] i thinkhats right. I think what were seeing in public is a little bit different from all rehearsing in private. What youre likely to see is republicans agree to some kind of decoupling of the tax rate issue, whether they do it and this proposal that has been floated that they vote present and let the president and democrats on the issue or whether they free up whether john boehner frieze of members of congress to vote for some kind of a compromise that would include a rise in rates on the wealthy. I dont know what the mechanisms will be, but you have the negotiations taking place on the one hand, and on the other hand you have negoations on all the rest of the stuff which is likely to be lumped into some kind of an omnibus bill a series of bills at the end of the year struck the last minute to bail us out of this issue. Likely to include a bunch of unattractive addons, last minute things, and it will be the kind of agreement, the kind of negotiation that leaves the rest of america, the heartland, as you say, even more disaffected with the ways that washington is doing business. Looks like the way that washington is going to be doing business from here forward. Gerri to you. You watch this. You must be disbelieving. The length of time these things take. Very impotant jobs numbs and the jobless rate in down to 7 . But what is astonishing about that report was not that number or even the one below it. It was the number of people who are out of the workforce, not looking for a job, a disaffected, the people who dont want to look. Some 350,000 folks. This was, to me, a real wakeup call in the jobs market. What do you see . Well, less than two out of three americans that are working that means more than one out of ree people are apparently sitting on. At kind of productivitdue respect to all kind of growth to we expect if one of three people are sitting home . We had a grand bargain in this country for about 50 years. We took about 80 percent of gdp in revenue and spend 20. 1919 and a balced budget amendment. Gerri that put the capper on it. Thank you for cong out tonight. We appreciate your time. Thank you. Gerri have a great weekend, ys. As you rushed to make destinations , dont do it blindly. Coming up in half an hour, the ceo gives us his it done dating dos and donts. Yoll want hear that. A lot more still to come to including one of the bellwether companies foremployee benefits, changing the way it does retirement. Next, e 19 member of the Senate Banking committee tells us what he thinks needs to happen in d. C. To get a deal on the fiscal close. Gerri speaker john barrett today calling up thehite house ying their wasting time and president obama is bringing our economy right to t edge. Ford is your we offered a serious proposal basedon testimony of friends that clintons former chief of staff. Since then there has been no counteroffer from the white house. Instead, reports indicate that the president has adopted a deliberate strategy to a slow walk our economy right to the edge of the fiscal cliff. Gerri earlier i asked republican senator Richard Shelby of alabama for his take on the comments from boehner. I believe that Speaker Boehner is on the right track. Thpresident has not come uptown now, been deeply involved, that we know about , in any of these offers are counteroffers. Dealers said he has been campaigning to meet. But he has to get involved if he wants to avoid the fiscal cliff. I think that the speaker has indicated that he will try to engage in, try to meet him and y to avoid the fiscal cleft that the presiient is going to continue to say it is my way orr the highway, that is another game. Gerri it is. Harry reid today saying that the game s at chess game, and the republicans are the jets. Here is harry reid. Hhas a problem. He has three quarterbacks. He cannot decide who the quarterback is gng to be. That is the same problem reblicans are having. Romney is gone, but he is still in the background. We have mcconnell and boehner. Who is the quarterback, mr. Present . Gerri what do you make of that analogy . Well, that is a football analogy. Well do that from time to time, but the reality is the speaker of the house is the speaker. The house is the majority republican, and if he is going to advance that way, that is probably in order. Senator mcconnell is involved, im sure talking with boehner about these issues. He always has been, but you have to have the spokesman, somebody to talk to. The president is absent up here, and i hope he will come to the table. I hope we can avoid it, but a lot of it is going to ultimately be on the president s watch. Gerri i have to te you, there are other people mia. Most of the house is gone on vacation. The senate is spending all this time figuring a helmet will be able to watch lincoln and have popcorn. This is what harry reid is that the last couple of days doing. Why cant we get people in the same room and try to get this thing resolved instead of just talking past each other . That is an excellent idea, but first a believe we have to get the president involved with the speaker of the house and se what the real parameters are and see if ther is any eal negotiating room there, wiggle room on each side. Unl that happens, you know, if you do it in the press and you do it in ohio, you do t in michigan, you do it in texas, somewhere else, thats not doing here. Gerri well, i want to get you to another topic as well today, which is the federal house in adnistration, which is facing just an unprecedented financial problem. And now sean donovan who runs the department of housing and urban development, hey, we are taking steps to try to lighten the load, but is it enough . And what is theright rescue . What is the right plan for the fha . Actually, it is a timely question. We had the hud secretary before the Banking Committee yesterday. Fha has over a trillion dollars in its portfolio. It is hemorrhaging billions of dollars. It has a negative worth of value right now. I am afraid i is going to be asking senate and later for a taxpayer bailout. They alrea have the mechanism in place to tap the treasury. I hope there wont. The secretary, i hope, will he has some tools at his discretion. He can run the premium of and bring in more money. He can stop the hemorrhaging that way. He can also, perhaps, what to he makes loans to. Some of the loans that were made are just defaulting left and right. You cant have that kind of a housing policy. Gerri will it be enough simply to raise premiums . They have already done that, already trying to market these bad loans as quickly as they can. Does the situation called for a more radical response . Oh, i think raising premiums, you are right, alone will not do it. Part of it is, it is inherent in the fha program. People are paying down so few dollars. They have not much equity in the game. And a lot of them have lowered some of the chris coors, you know, to get people. And people i default or have bad credit will continually default again that is part of the problem on underwriting. Gerri we have to find some kind of solution because there is not a person i know who wants to bailout somebody else right now. I think we have had it with the bailouts. I hope so. Gerri me, too. Senator Richard Shelby, think you for coming up tonight. An absolute pleasure toave you. Thank you. Gerri president obama flfloping on his inauguration he is not going to accept unlimited sums of corporate money to pay for his inauguration. Obama had banned corporate donors for is 2009 swearingin in order to give the present supporters ownership. But now they will accept cash from companies and individuals to underwrite the cost of the festivities next month. I guess taxpayers will have to foot some much of the bill, but corporate sponsors will be right there trying to get all of the influence the can. Youre fired up about this during the issue, taught me an email. Gerri foxbusiness. Com. Coming up on the willis report, ibm getting flak from making major changes to its retirement program. At what cost to its employees . Could your employer pull a fast one i knew . Jey discts it all next. Is the president not doing evything by the book . Fox news legal analyst is here to break down why some say h should be in trouble with the law. Is the season for giving, but dont let washington fiscal cliff talks cloud your judgment for finding the best cherries for your dope. Ou experts shares tips on what you need to know. We are on the case next on the willis report. Gerri big changes coming to tech giant ibm that may change the way you save for gerri there is the story out there not getting a lot of attention today that you need to hear about, particularly if you care about your retirement. Ibm overhauling its retirement program. Instead of contributing to its employees 401 k over time, the company will opt to contribute a lumpsum payment once per year. This may not sound likea big change, but the move undermines the very idea of retirement savings. Lo, the attraction of a fox business is the idea hat you leveled out what you pay for in investments over time. Stock prices go up, they go down, but over time you avere out your risks and your cost. I call it dollalar cost averagi. But with ibms new plan, the advantage of its lead disappears. This would not be such a big deal, but ibm is considered a leader in employee you benefits. The Company Believes is the trail with innovative policies. And other Big Companies are sure to follow the lead. Now, to be sure shareholders may like to move because it will save the Company Millions of dollars a year in compensation expenses. But employees who are close to retirement and desperately trying to make up for losses from the ecessionare not going to be so happy. And also, one thing we should say to be fair, at least ibm has a plan, and they are contributing to it. I want to make sure weve jealously guard every advantage to small investor hs thats why im talkinn about today. That brings me to the Investment Company institute and its press release this week, which, frankly, was a stunner. The Investment Company institute is a trade Group Representing mutual funds and other investment coaniesis product we all used to grow our mutual fund balances. They say after an examinatn of researching data the group gives its members a thumbs up on the jobs it has doe, helping americans prepare for retirement well done. I disagree. Americans are struggling in their efforts to put together an accord retirement savings. True, total retirement dollars have risen over the nearly 30 years E Trade Group is studying, but you expect that because many households lost the benefit of Company Sponsored pensions and were forced to start sitting on their own. We need to look at the cold hard reality. The majority of americans, some 75 , have less than 30,000 in their retirement accounts back in 2010. The savings accrued by the majority of middclass seniors will support their current standard of living. Instead of cutting each other on the back we need to get serious about what eventually will be retirement catastrophe if we dont do something different. Applauding the move because it saves a penny or two is a big fat mistake. Thats my view. Coming up, it is the season to give to charity, especially before the end of the year so you can get tax breaks. What to those charities . And the president obama break the law . For legal eagles looked at in the case making its way to the federal court. John is 42. Mortgage. Married. Two great kids. He wants to protect his family with a 500,000 term Life Insurance policy. What do you think itll cost him . A hundred dollars month . Sixty . Forty . Actually none of the above. John can get a 500,00 policy from a highly rated insurer for under 25 a month. His secret . Selectquote. Selectquote is impartial. Theyll search the pick of insurers like these to give you a choice of your best prices. Selectquote has great savings on term life for women, too. Johns wife carrie, can get a 500,000 policy for under 16 a month. Selectquote has helped make term Life Insurance affordable for hundreds of thousands of people since 1985. How about you . Just call this nber or visit selectquote dot com. Remember when the sound of little feet was music we danced to week to week brought back the love we found trust vowed wed never give it up remember when remember when we said when we turned gray when the children grow up and move away we wot be sad well be glad for all the life weve had remember when gerri did president obama break the law . A federal Appeals Court is deciding if the president s appointments Tthe NationalLabor Relations board when the senate was on recess was unlawful. Why . Well, because Senate Senate republicans say the senate was in session. The chris was brought on by a Bottling Company after the nlrb ruled that the company must enter into a collective Bargaining Agreement with the labor union. The company isrguing the decision cant be made because the recess appointments are invalid. Here is weigh in, lis wiehl, fox news analyst and randy zelen. Look at the end of the day this whole thing is argument was the senate in session or was it not. Were they in kindergarten or on recess. The president may have skirted the law a little bit, like a little bit of sidelining it but dide cross over the line . No does this happen all the time . Yes. Yes it does. Melissa randy, what doou say. Skirted t law like im wearing skirt. He obliterated law. Exactly. Lets take a step back look at what this whole thing was designed to do. Once a upon a time, smart guys, founding father, look you have to make a temporary appointment, Senate Confirm it well not the drag the senate back in. Mr. President do what you have to do. It was for the convenes of senate, not to screw the senate which is exactly what the president is doing. This is family show. We dont speak in those terms. Melissa was he trying to get around the senate . Was he trying to do something that the senate did not like he was spirited but he did not go over the line. Legally it is proper. You cant argue with that. Yes i can. Knock yourself out. At that. He killed it. He threw it out the window. How is it illegal . Because first of all it is inter