Is this choice between keeping the government open and screwing all those military retirees circumstance is that the right choice . He has a point, outrage after congress forced our country servicemen and women to make another sacrifice. This time, to help country balance the budget, todays deal in washington would cap Retirement Benefits for many by tens of thousands are dollars, retired command or for u. S. Navy, and editor. Joining me now, how are people reacting to this. Well, this is not good news for them. It will cost average enlisted retiree order of 80,000 over their working life, and cost average retired officer about 120,000. This is not viewed as a good deal, as you said, a breach of contract. Gerri i want to give you something representative paul ryan had to say about this, which is, i found surprising, military Retirement Program serves a small minority of the force about 17 . It provides generous benefit with 40 years of pension payment in return for 20 years of service, he said that cuts should stand, you say . Well, i say, i mean as a newsman, i am sort of agnostic but as a retiree, that is a breach of contract, there was a deal made that was one of reasons i walked through the front door and served, all those who served after 9 1 9 11 have n through a cruise ib else, of all places to find money it strikes the Retiree Committee as a bit unfair. Gerri Pentagon Spending in 2012. As newsman, i know you know that government waste book was out we saw all indications of waste all kinds of waste, places that we could have saved money, study to find out why wives should calm town, 325,000, romance on the web Government Research research, 914,000, there are all kinds of wastes but we dont go for, that we go for military mentioned instead, people are outraged. Our viewers are. Tell me though, because you know here we are the holidays, a lot of people top give, what the is best way for americans to reward the people who represent them, and defend them every day . Well, there is a bunch of ways that people can give to veterans, i think people would have to ascertain what it is they want to help with, with military widows . Families, military education . I say, do your homework. You know there are freight charities that Great Charities like fisher house help with military family in terms of longing when their loved ones in of hospital, organization like iava, for education benefits and transition benefits for those who served after 9 11, then, veteran service like american legions and vp vfw do a lot. Do your re search, mil militarym with a great listing of charities, and on top of that say a kind word do well by your neighbors who happen to be veterans. Gerri it is notable senator mccain tweeted they would remove this, from the budget bill. I dont know if it will happen or not but that is what he says your react . I think what you see what paul ryan said, about the logic that attitude, again veteran community is a bit suspect it will be removed. You know, senator mccain is a veteran, you know well have to see how it goes. Gerri ward thank you for coming on. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you my pleasure. Gerri and now we want to know what you think, our question tonight, should we try to balance the budget on the backs of our heroes . Log on to gerriwillis. Com, i will share results at the end of the show. As you open your hearts and wallets to your Favorite Charities this holiday, our next guest has important tax traps to avoid, tom is a contributor or wall street journal, is numbers me, tom great to see you, this is a great story we saw in wall street journal about tax traps, you need to do to make sure if you giving money away aree you are not getting stung by irs, giving away stocks that appreciated. A lot more people are doing it stock prices are up so sharply, but there are many pitfalls there knew your invest am look a investment, look aso held more more than a year, consider giving those to charity, you get full market value and the deduction. Gerri like that idea. But do not give away ortterm gains, i see people do that, you only get to donate deduct your cost, that is not a good idea, never, never give away your losers, instead sell your losers, use those losses to trim your taxes. Gerri offset your gains, talk about some charitable donations. This was new to me, so, you need to show, if you hav have got something in reeurn for money you gave. A rule that says if you give more than 250 you have to get a receipt, saying whether you got something in return. Such as sports tickets or a denner, if you dont, and you audited irs will disallow it get that receipt. You can give know give 50 to your alumni, and maybe to a dinner that year, years later, irs become after you say, not so fast. Level is 250 or more for what they cause quid pro quo, make sure that the charity says that. Gerri you say some americans are tapping their ira, for donation. Important rule, because it is about to expire, we have no idea whether congress will extend it if you are 70 1 2 or over you can tap your ira give 100 thousand directly to charity, then none counts as part of your adjusted gross income, it is tax smart move, and it counts for required minimum distribution for your ira. Gerri donor advice funds, what do you think . They are great, very convenient, and take care of the paperwork, you make a gift to a donor advice fund, for example fidelity, schau. Fidelity,charles schwab. Th the big guys yes. Last word, thinking about we want to give at end of the year, anything else to watch out for . Here is one tip that a lot dont know. You top donate but you dont have the cash, you can charge it on your credit card as long as you charge it this year, you can can deduct it this year even though you dont pay until next year. Gerri thank you, tom, appreciate your time. Good to see you. Gerri good stuff, for more tracks traps, to go off end of year tune to in willis report a week from today, christmas day, for an hour long user guide to taxes, 6 00 p. M. Eastern. More this hour, consumer alert about a new form of paying your medical bill, if you are looking to get a mortgage in the new year, get ready to pony up trex dough, new fees for you, thank you for mr. Government. [ engine revs ] [ male announcer ] the mercedesbenz winter event s back, th the perfe vehicle thats just right for you, no matter which list youre on [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho [ male announcer ] get the allnew 2014 cla250 starting at just 29,900. Just by talking to a helmet. It grabbed the patients record before we even picked himp. 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Move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years. Were new york. If theres something that creates more jobs, a ows more businesses. Were open to it. Start a tfree business at startupny. Com. Gerri listen up homebuyers get read tea pay mored in the new more in the new year, with fees for those without a perfect credit score or a large down payment. So could this move backfire and hurt the economy . Joining me now wall street Journal Journal reporter nick, great to you have show, government putting a top spin on this by raising fees. Have you Federal Reserve gone you know buyiig up millions in Mortgage Securities to keep rates now, now fannie and freddie monday night, really the direction of regulator say we want to increase certainties to raise mortgage races, we want to reduce footprint of companies in market. Talk about how much it would raise costs. It depends on your credit score and down payment level you have. So really the hill consumers with hit consumer with score between 680, and 760, they are good but not perfect. You are looking for upfront fee that could amount to a quarter point increase in your mortgage rate. Gerri we worked up one. Ffees were up 2 of the loan. Interesting. That is almost half a point on your half a percentage point in motorrage rates. Kristine that makes a big difference. A lead wind for houses market of wee weve seen some signs tht crazy activity has slowed down. Gerri we have got great Housing Starts today. Permits are more reliable indicate or, they were more muted in the game, it is slow steady growth, Housing Starts, it was a great number for housing started, i wonder if it was a anomaly. Gerri a head let me ask you, prices go up, stall out this fall in terms of sales of existing homes looks like a boom on is long in the tooth, you add to fact that Interest Rates are going up and government adding to, you say regulattrs, dimarco, making this happen, why . Well he wants to increase role of private sector, their ability to compete with fannie and freddie. There is a view that private capital has been on the guideline because government is under pricing mortgages. Concern that some folks raise, industry will fight this pretty aggressively, they do not like the idea of fees going up because it makes it harder to sell houses, they will have less volume, they will fight it. It will be interesting to see if they can make argument that win the day with new regulator that was confirmed. Gerri the new guy, mel watts, a democrat from north carolina, he has been a fan of the Housing Market the way it was before the during the boom, that is to say easy credited, easy money, vigorous government involvement everyone should have a house, i know a lot of people dont want to see us return to those days, but is this the right medicine . This will stop consumers. Have you had bankers call you say, nick year getting into market now because of that attract quarter point. No one said that, i think that fee increase may not be enough, i talk to team who said this is not helping the economy, were just concerned that it is too much, you know another straw in camels back, but tension raise, everyone in wash was washington said he want government out of housing, how serious are we about having private capital back. Gerri let me ask you, weve seen big lenders, wells fargo a lot have ignored this building they have down sized this business, are they 2 they think they can make a buck . Im shocked at degree they have abandoned this business, im not i think for consumers this is bad news, it sounds like they dont want to do business with us, i am wondering if tinkering at the margin will make a difference for them. They are dealing with lawsuit, and regulation, and cost from crises that have been put back on them, and so, it is san open question for 2014. Are fewer people going to be in the space when fed removes stem less, and rates go up. Nick thank you, you are the right guy to talk about it. Gerri thank you. Just like Everything Else cost of Home Insurance is going up. At least in most states, which homeowners will be hit hardest . This list is tonights top 5, number 5 oklahoma, state making this list due to frequency of tornados, number 4 mississippi, this state has been hit by 10 hurricanes. Texas is 3, since 2005, suffered damage from 14 hou hurricanes. And number 2 louisiana, say the hardest hit by katrina. And number to one state with highest Homeowner Insurance rate is you getsed it florida. Average premium in Sunshine State about 1900 bucks a year. That is neerly twice the nical average ofs anothe 978 a year. And later in the show, who said there are no more surprises . The fed making an announcement that few people saw coming. Even the smart insider investors. Next your credit card through your Doctors Office this idea may hurt more than help you make your payments, dont go away. Hi honey, did you ge e toaster cozy . Yep. Got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with n fedex one rate, i could ll a box and ship it r one flat rate. So i kn untilt was full. Youd be crazy not to. Is tt nana . [ ma announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability fedex. Gerri imagine getting eye costly credit card. Next. Gerri a new crackdown on predatory lending practices in your doctors was on the, you need to know about this vulnerable patients getting pitched medical credit card at end of their doctors visit to help them pay for costly procedures that are not covered by insurance. John critic card expert joins me now, john, you know, just gets worse and worse, that is my i cant you know, these products out there. Are just they are rip offs, you know, the coosumer Product Safety Commission out there is aking dont do this dont take these out, im sorry not Safety Commission but Consumer Financial protect bureau saying this is a bad deal, do you agr agree . They can be a very bad deal, and the rob they can be bad deal because they be such antic presentive deal, think of these offers, similar to the no interest in starr financing offers you get with a big box retailer, you want to buy a piece of furniture, flat Panel Television they offer no payments for 12 months if you open a store credit card with us, these are aim but instead of financing, flat Panel Television you may be tuning a boob drop or work under your highs, either stuff that is elective not covered by your Insurance Company or you may not have insurance at all, this may be your only other option you problem, i as with all credit product, devil is in details, what some consumer do not understand because of deception or because they just done get it was it if you didnt have full plans of car paid off by a certain date, interest would be applied retro active to date you took card out, that is not fair from and lending to consumers, i was going to say, they added these guys. At care credit to their already impressive and growing list of lenders they flex their muscle and order them to payback a large amount of money. Gerri they are ordering them to payback a large amount, company in cross hairs is care credit, there are 4 million card holders, they are offered in 175 doctor offices including dentists, deferred interest, 26. 99 , they will hand out a ton of dough, i mean a ton, 34. 1 million, they refounding to consumers, you know, they are not only ones doing this citigroup does this wells fargo, i think it is because everyone is looking for a place it make money, in the banking business on Consumer Credit. You know, doctors love these, products, you know why in they get paided ifly, so it is in their best financial interest, that push these cards to their patients because otherwise, they are waiting for insurance checks to show up, they may not get paid 100 of when they bill, deductible, consume are may have written a bad check, this way, if is a cash flow game, they get money immediately, then up to the lender to go chase down the consumer, for payment, at 26. 99 that is a full 10 Percentage Points higher than average Interest Rate on a general use credit card, you would be better off, as a consumer to whip out your discover card, and flop it down, pay for it this way. Gerri john, we have to hit two more stories. One is a big sinking deal with senator warren, who wants, i want to talk about this, i know you are hot on this story, she wants to make tilling well, she south rained she wants to make this illegal, she is outraged that companies are using Consumer Credit scores when they figure out who to hire. It is fair mongering, i am outraged about the weather, no one cares. I that this fear mongering, the sleaziest way to garner a vote that i could think of. Credit scores are not used by employers, period. Credit reports, which are different than the scores are allowed to be use per federal law, for decades, they are a valuable tool for muchers to use s to ers to use when deciding who to hire. Gerri i dont want them to have my report, why can they have my report . From my pry asy point of view privacy component of view. Were cherry picking the offended consumer, were we didnt hear anything from the millions and millions of employees who had good credit, their credit card helped to grease the skids and helped them get hired with less bologna, it is the squeeky well gets the grease. And think of the other, fennive hings you do when you apply for a job, you have to go to a path room in a cup, and take personality tests. Try to get in some of the boxes of those personality tests, they verify your. Education, and your educational history. And you are worried about a credit report, that is being pennywide, and pound foolish. Gerri here, is something you may be inrested in. Story breaking this afternoon from righters. Breaking news reutters, unknown number of Target Corporation customers shopping over black friday weekend had their credit card also, could stolen in an extensive breach of u. S. Retailer security. Dow jones reporting this wednesday as well. And wow. You know you try to get it all done, and you get your credit card information stolen, john . Thank god for faish credi fat billing act, it limits you to cap of 50, if you see anything on your card that is suspicious report it, you have to pay a grand total sum of zero dollars. You are in the clear. Gerri thank you, john, have a great christmas. Thank you, mirrory christmas to you. Gerri all right, coming up, if you are buying obamacare coverage, you will get attract time to p