MARIA-00
Politics; More Detainees in Gitmo Released?; Housing Price Rebound; Cuomo
Floats Free College - Part 5>
Tarlov, Mercedes Schlapp >
Deaths; Terrorism; Travel, Automotive Industry; Stock Market; Politics;
Government; Policies; Guantanamo Bay; Andrew Cuomo>
Well, in this study finds that Uber and Lyft may be able save the world from traffic jams. The study says carpool services like UberPOOL and Lyft Line could reduce the number of vehicles on road by 75%, this study was conducted by MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, it also says that Uber or Lyft carpools could eventually replace the most taxis in the New York City area. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, watch what happens when a sheriff and cowboy team up to rope a rogue calf (INAUDIBLE) just casually trying in the middle of the highway because that's what they do. Patrol cars are approaching, a cowboy sitting on the hood of the car, he roped the calf in one try and that was it right there. They got a big reaction from the sheriff, everyone around, of course, the sheriff was recording the whole thing on phone. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MONTE BELEW, HENRY COUNTY SHERIFF: We just roped him (INAUDIBLE) we just got him. (INAUDIBLE) just tie him to the front of my car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASONE: Happy sheriff. The video is now been seen more than a million times since it was posted just yesterday, pretty big number actually. And finally this Woody Harrelson, he was taken on a number of interesting roles recently, maybe cast in the upcoming Star Wars spin-off, according to variety, the Cheers and True Detective actor is the top choice to play the mentor to a young Han Solo. Production soon to start this month, that movie set to be released in May of 2018. And also I should Star Wars Story Rogue One, huge success obviously about 800 million worldwide. They've obviously figured out Disney has. Let's take every little piece of the Star Wars story and make it its old little movies. Back to you.
MCDOWELL: Woody Harrelson is an amazing actor that--
KELLY: Absolutely.
MCDOWELL: That True Detective on HBO with Matthew Mcconaughey. That was like one the best
things HBO has done in 10 years.
KELLY: So, turning back to Disney that they had actually four of the top five grossing films last year. So that shows how strong they are in the franchise business whether it's from Marvel or Captain America, that was the number one grossing film last year. And then you have Star Wars where they're coming out with a new series, I mean, they're doing very well in box office where we're now in a streaming world where people are pulling off and not going into the movies so much doing -- streaming, you know, over top services, so pretty interesting.
MCDOWELL: Rogue One, the Star Wars franchise is better now that George Lucas doesn't have his -- hands all over it.
KELLY: Yes. Exactly. And he's going to Obama send away as supposed to working on Star war.
MCDOWELL: Which Star Wars fans are happy about. Ahead, the manhunt intensifying for gunman behind terror attack at a Turkish nightclub. The new details, investigators have learned about that suspect. And a brewing battle over Obamacare on Capitol Hills today as President Obama speaks to salvage at least parts of his signature legislation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCDOWELL: New developments in the worldwide manhunt for the shooter who opened fire at a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year's Day. The Turkish government announcing that it has established the identity of the gunman, but is yet to publicly name that suspect. This, after authorities arrested five people earlier this morning in connection with that nightclub attack, joining me now is the Clarion Project national security analyst in Liberty University, professor of counterterrorism Ryan Mauro, good to see you. What do you make -
RYAN MAURO, CLARION PROJECT NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good to see you.
MCDOWELL: -- of the progress that authorities have made so far in trying to track the suspect down in the - in the arrests that we've seen?
MAURO: Well, I'm concerned, I don't want to judge the Turkish authorities conducting the investigation, but generally speaking, ISIS-type terrorist want to die in the attack that they're conducting. The fact that he escaped tells me that he is planning another attack. He's probably still in turkey and he has a round two plan. And so, I'm very concerned about it. There are a lot of false reports out about the identity, and it's been a few days, and only know, a few hours ago, they said that they possitively identified who it is based off of fingerprints. So that delay is also concerning to me that they just didn't right off the bat have a list of suspects and say, this is the guy.
MORGAN ORTAGUS, MAVERICK PAC NATIONAL CO-CHAIR: Ryan, I think what's really interesting about these reports, is that this is not a case where ISIS inspired somebody because they looked at their - you know, online magazine or looked at their Twitter or something like this. It appears and we're still waiting for the authorities to say that this actually may have been directed from ISIS, you know, in Syria, in Iraq potentially. Again, we're still waiting for all the details. And if that is the case, if it's directed and not inspired by ISIS, doesn't that speak to actually the relevance that ISIS still has in Syria even though we're claiming that we've made a lot of gains against them over the past six months?
MAURO: Yes, a lot of it will depend on when he was trained and also where he was trained. We don't know for a fact that he was trained in Syria just yet. A lot of it is an assumption based on how skilled the attack was, for lack of a better word. That he came from Central Asia and he was trained there, then we have a big story on our hands that ISIS is able to professionally train terrorists in other places. So we don't know yet, but the general consensus right now is that he was professionally trained somewhere, and that's very concerning. I'm also still concerned about the reaction of Turkish government, because in the past, when there have been terrorist attacks on Turkish soil, yes, they'll talk about ISIS or whoever perpetrated the attack, but then in days following that, there's a tendency to blame the United States and the west and to get him to conspiracy theories and then that hatred over the attack is then directed towards us. So, we have to remember, that even though we work with Turkey on things like ISIS, they are still - really an adversary for being honest with ourselves.
CARTER: So, one of the questions you're seeing this, what does it mean for us, and to think people see these kinds of events happen, it terrifies folks, but what does it mean for Americans and for us right now?
MAURO: Well, the immediately impact, is that it helps radicalize other people. There truly is a lot of positive news when it comes to taking territory away from ISIS, but you don't hear about it a lot, largely because an attack like this happens and then that gets all of the attention. Success breeds success when it comes to ISIS. If there is a successful attack, then it is viewed as Allah's endorsement, that God is blessing their interpretations of their faith and blessing what they are doing. And so, when you have an attack like this, then others will say, "ISIS might be losing territory, but look, they're still succeeding, so following them is still the right path." And that has direct repercussions for the United States.
MCDOWELL: In fact, Ryan, Turkish news media is reporting that the attacker came to Turkey from Syria where he was radicalized so that raises the issue of Syrian refugees entering Europe and the U.S., does it not?
MAURO: It sure does. There have been conflicting reports, and the story changes quite frequently especially over the past two days from the reports I'm seen - I've seen, but when it comes to the issue of Syrian refugees, the issue that you have there is not just of ISIS members implanting themselves in the flow of refugees to Europe and United States, but what about those that come over to United States or Europe and have precursor radical beliefs. Beliefs that are not quite at the ISIS level but they're radical enough that they can then escalate over time and become radicalized later. And so, it's not always just about a terrorist already having someone that supports them, it's about bringing someone else that's a nonviolent radical to the violent stage later on.
MCDOWELL: Ryan, it was great to see you. Thank you so much for being here, Ryan Mauro, take care.
MAURO: Well, thank you.
MCDOWELL: Coming up, the healthcare overhaul -- is it really an overhaul? Is it repeal and replace? Vice President-elect Mike Pence and President Obama heading to Capitol Hill battling over the future of Obamacare.
Amazon delivering big numbers for its sellers. The record-breaking shipping totals posted by this retail, this technology giant in 2016.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCDOWELL: Welcome back, I'm Dagen McDowell. It's Wednesday, January 4th. Your top stories at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time - the future of Obamacare hanging in the balance. Congress taking the first steps to repeal the president's signature legislation.
And last hour, former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, FORMER SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: (INAUDIBLE) to individuals means nothing if you can't afford coverage. So, I think the notion that somehow the republicans will have a -- keep the insurance companies, selling to people with pre-existing condition without any financial help and any support is meaningless because people will not be able to afford coverage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCDOWELL: What is the replacement from the republicans? We discuss ahead. Trump tweeting moments ago about Ford, writing, "Thank you to Ford for scrapping plant a new plan in Mexico and creating 700 new jobs in the U.S. This is just the beginning - much more to follow."
A closer look at how Trump is using the social media platform to govern. And the true cost of the Fight For 15, restaurants are not only raising prices because of minimum wage increases, they're changing the way they do business. Amazon scoring a big win for the holiday season, the retail giant doubling deliveries from third party vendors. The market coming off a rally to start the new year with a triple digit gain on the Dow yesterday, 42 point add-on in the futures that we're seeing so far. Exactly one hour away from the opening bell.
In Europe, stocks are little changed, they're lower across the board, but essentially flat in England and France, the euro strengthening there against the dollar. In Asia, overnight, markets were higher except for slight loss on the Hang Seng, and look at the Nikkei on its first trading day of 2017, up 2 1/2 percent. And we begin this half hour with the fate of Obamacare, President Obama and Vice president elect Mike Pence both heading to Capitol Hill today, bringing their agendas on the legislation directly to lawmakers. Blake Burman has the very latest from Capitol Hill, good morning Blake.
BLAKE BURMAN, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: Hi there, Dagen, good morning to you. And it is going to be quite the scene here on Capitol Hill about an hour from now, as President Obama will leave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, make drive about a mile to the east, and he will huddle here with house Democrats for one last time, presumably as president here at capital, as a last minute rallying cry and a last ditch strategy session if you will, to try to save the health care law that bears his name. That meeting will come at around 9:30. Then, just about simultaneously or a little bit after that, the vice president-elect Mike Pence will be here at the capitol as well, he will meet with Republicans. This is a broader meeting to update them on the transition efforts, but, of course, Obamacare, and just how to repeal and replace it as Republicans have vowed will be front and center in that discussion. In the last hour, as you know, you spoke with the former health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, who tried to make a case against the Republicans repealing and replacing, and she said if they were to do that it would cause chaos, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES FORMER SECRETARY: To pass a bill that says we are going to repeal the current law with nothing to take its place will cause pure chaos, not just for the individuals but really for the marketplace. Insurance companies will not continue to participate in a market where there is no certainty that they will have any customers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURMAN: Dagen, Democrats admit back in 2010, the messaging surrounding Obamacare was not at the level that they feel now should have been back then. And that word chaos is one that they're already starting to throw out there to try to test it along the messaging line. As far as Republicans go, they say their plan they want to phase out Obamacare and phase in what they would like to put in, of course, the big question with all of that is the timetable surrounding it. Dagen, back to you.
MCDOWELL: Thank you so much, Blake. I think that's called scare tactics. Thank you, Blake Burman. Let's bring in Wyoming senator. John Barrasso, who is also an orthopedic surgeon. Senator, tell us -- I don't know if you could hear Blake Burman's report, but, again, we heard it from Kathleen Sebelius, this is about messaging scare tactics about what Republicans want to do in terms of repealing Obamacare without having replacement there in the waiting. I want to get your response to that.
JOHN BARRASSO, WYOMING SENATOR: Well, it really ought be about healthcare and patience which is a doctor and the things I'm focused on. As you know, this healthcare law has been so costly and so complicated that right now 8 out of 10 Americans thinks it needs to be fundamentally changed or repealed and replaced and that's what Republicans are promising to give patients what they need which is the freedom, and the flexibility, and the choice to make decisions about what's best for them, not what big government thinks they ought to have.
MCDOWELL: Well, do you worry though about ensures stepping away from providing insurance to millions of these individuals, if you repeal it and not have a very specific replacement there. If you repeal first and then you sunset that repeal over period of two to three years, which is what's being talked about.
BARRASSO: Well, a couple things, first is there really is no marketplace now for a third of Americans going into the Obamacare exchange, there is only one choice, you can only buy one thing, that is not a marketplace, that's a monopoly. And we've seen all across the country, prices have skyrocketed. Plus, the deductibles have skyrocketed to the point that even people who have Obamacare insurance can't actually afford to use it, can't get the care that they need from a doctor that they choose. So we need to take a different path. The American people have voted for that, you heard the promises from the Republicans to repeal and replace. But it's been six years of malpractice by this administration. This is not something that you're going to be able to in one day turn around, it's going to take some time to get the power out of Washington back to patients, physicians, and for decisions to be made at the state level, but we have to actually move right now and we've done it yesterday with introducing our Obamacare repeal resolution to take out the most damaging parts of this health care law, and the most unfavorable which is, of course, the mandate that everybody has to buy a government approved insurance policy.
MCDOWELL: Right. And I mentioned that I talked to Kathleen Sebelius who ran health and human services under when the Obamacare legislation was passed, and I asked her about the repercussions. I want you to respond to what she has to say, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES FORMER SECRETARY: If indeed, the congress moves ahead, the Republicans and congress, and repeals a law with no certainty about a replacement and there is no replacement plan, I don't care if they say we promise we will have a plan within the next two or three years, no insurance company will participate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCDOWELL: I've reference that, but I want to get your response because, again, sounds like these Democrats are trying to scare the American people about what Republicans want to do.
BARRASSO: Well, I agree with you, Dagen. These people -- do seem to be scare tactics to scare patience. But patience know differently, they know what Obamacare has done is broken all the promises that President Obama made in terms of raising costs, in terms of raising copays, in terms of keeping policies, all of those things have proven to be false. We want to make sure that patients have freedom, and flexibility, and choice, and it's not only about coverage as a doctor, it's about care. It's about making sure people can get healthcare, to have empty coverage doesn't do a lot for people. And as you said in that interview, earlier, today, over half of the people that they're counting have signed up for Medicaid, which is a program that is broken in so many states. If we want to help people on Medicaid, you need to let the states make the decision of what's right for them. And that's why I'm so glad that Mike Pence is vice president, will be vice president of the United States, he knows as a governor and as a former member of congress that there are things that states can do much better. The handcuffs are taken off so that they could make the decision that work best in those states.
MCDOWELL: Senator, here's Kevin Kelly.
KEVIN KELLY, RECON CAPITAL CIO: So, senator, we know that the affordable care act is ironic in name because it didn't lower costs, it didn't improve access as well as, you know, the benefit got worse, but what are Republicans actually going to do? What is the plan or policy to attack those three things that have failed miserably at? Because right now I hear repeal, replace, but I'm not hearing anything really substantive of how Republicans are actual going to do that? Are there certain plans that you can talk about, or policies that will take effect?
BARRASSO: Well, certainly, you know, Tom Price has been nominated to be the secretary of health and human services, he's a physician and orthopedic surgeon, as opposed to Kathleen Sebelius who you had on previously, who then at one time was a lobbyist for the trial lawyer. If you want a lobbyist for the trial lawyers, and she is the one that wrote tens of thousands of pages of regulations that made Obamacare even more costly and more complicated. So now we have a physician in there who introduced his own healthcare plan in congress, year after year, about putting patients in charge. Focusing on healthcare and getting the decisions to be made back locally. Let states decide what insurance qualify is to be -- let's people decide about what insurance is best for them and their families.
KELLY: Will this include all forms of insurance, so is it going to open up the marketplace where people can buy disaster insurance because that's the problem right now, there's certain mandated insurance, you have to buy certain coverage you need, is it going to legalize all forms of insurance?
BARRASSO: Well, number one, it is going to eliminate the mandate that you have to buy government approved insurance. In Wyoming, I hear from so many people who had insurance that worked for them, and they lost it because President Obama said it wasn't good enough for him. He shouldn't be able to -- government, Washington, shouldn't be able to say what's good for you and your family, you ought to have the ability to make that decision for yourself. And those are the things that Republicans are going to continue to fight for. But it seems like from the interview with Kathleen Sebelius, and what I heard from Chuck Schumer and Democrats is, they're not willing to work with us. They want things to fail. We want to actually provide healthcare for people.
MCDOWELL: No, they think it works except for prices. They really the -- takeaway from speaking with Kathleen Sebelius is they don't really see anything wrong with what's done, you just need more government, not less -- more government and less choice for the American people. The one-third -- because she talked about the fact and you mentioned this senator about a third of counties have blue cross, blue shield, as the sole insurer, and in many instances where there is competition, the competition is a Medicaid managed care plan.
BARRASSO: And we know that Medicaid in so many places doesn't work. One of the places it works the best is in, actually, Indiana, where Mike Pence is governor, fought for and got a number of waivers from the government so he could do it a way that for worked for Indiana. We tried in Wyoming to get those waivers, they were rejected. But with Tom Price as head of health and human services, we think we're going to have much more opportunity at a state level to help more people at a much lower cost because then you're not dealing with all of these Washington regulations and mandates, so much of the cost is just trying to comply with Washington as opposed to actually providing healthcare to people.
MCDOWELL: Senator, great to see you. Thank you so much.
BARRASSO: Thanks, Dagen. Thanks for having me.
MCDOWELL: It's going to be a busy year for you, Senator John Barrasso. Coming up, governing a 140 characters or less, Stuart Varney weighs in on President-elect Donald Trump using twitter as he prepared to take the oath of office. The restaurant industry burned by minimum wage increases, how restaurateurs are grappling with the added costs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCDOWELL: Welcome back. We are almost 45 minutes away from the opening bell, about 15 seconds from there. Take a close look at some stocks on the move this morning, AT&T announcing collaboration with a dozen partners, including Intel and QUALCOMM to test 5G residential and business services, the high speed network testing its AT&T's latest move to keep up with Verizon competitive services. Shares of AT&T are up 24 percent over the last year.
Amazon still on the holiday spirit, the online retailer announcing this morning that it shipped 50 percent more items for third-party vendors over the holiday season compared to a year ago. This after it called 2016 it's best ever shopping season, shares of Amazon up slightly in premarket trading. President-elect Donald Trump taking the oval office to Twitter, carrying out his campaign promises to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. all within 140 characters. Stuart Varney is here to weigh in, Mr. Varney, I know that you like this.
STUART VARNEY, VARNEY & CO. HOST: Well, I'm astonished by it actually. You know, I always thought it was Democrats who had a lock on technology and how to influence the voters. And all of a sudden, Donald Trump appears, and in a 140 characters dictates policy right from the top, goes over the head of absolutely everybody, and it does have an effect. Remember, Dagen, this time, yesterday, I think it was right about now, 24 hours ago, Donald Trump tweeted out a criticism of General Motors for building their small cars, or some of their small cars, in Mexico, and saying, look, you want to bring them back hear, there's a big tax waiting for you. That went out about 24 hours ago. Within hours, Ford Motor Company said, OK, OK, we cry uncle, we're not going to build that $1.6 billion plant in Mexico, and going to divert some of the money to another plant in Michigan, where we'll build electric cars and autonomous cars. That's the direct effect of President-elect Trump pressuring business in a very, very new kind of way. And I think at the end of the day, he won that one, Ford caved, they're bringing some money back to America. I'm just fascinated by this. And one more thing, I'm fascinated by the response of the media and the left, they are apoplectic, right over their heads. I kind of think it's funny.
MCDOWELL: You know, I -- just yesterday, Donald Trump understands what the American people want, it's why he got elected, but yesterday what was the Republicans were trying to do with the ethics office? He came out and said, what are you doing, on twitter?
VARNEY: Yes, knock it all off
MCDOWELL: It was astonishing.
VARNEY: Yeah, just like that, the house ethics people some say, oh, we're going to rearrange things. I think it's within minutes, Trump tweeted that knock it off, you're not going to do that, and they didn't, they retreated.
MCDOWELL: Tax reform, healthcare, get your priority straight. It looks -- you know he understand optics better than even President Obama, and he said, what are you doing, this looks really stupid.
VARNEY: I'm just waiting to see if you could tweet the reform or repeal of Obamacare in a 140 characters.
MCDOWELL: Yeah.
VARNEY: I mean, I think -- yes, you can, you can say repeal it and do it now, you can do that. But you can't get into the nitty-gritty of how you repeal it and what you replace it with.
MCDOWELL: I can't wait for him to start tweeting though about individual congressmen or individual senators when they're dragging their feet about something and not getting onboard saying, you know what, to the constituents of so and so, you're not getting a pay increase. You know, he wants to keep more of your tax money because you know that's going to happen.
VARNEY: Dagen, that's very interesting. I see you recovered your venom after your unfortunately delay at the airport the other night. You had enough sleep, and now you're back in fine form, Dagen, it's great to see.
MCDOWELL: Yes, thank you, Mr. Varney. Varney & Co., as always starts at 9:00 AM, Monday through Friday, he is coming up in almost exactly -- well about 11 1/2 minutes. Stuart, great to see you as always. But, first here, we're going to talk about minimum wage hikes taking the bite out of the bottom lines at restaurants, and how owners of restaurants are coping with those changes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCDOWELL: The cost of minimum wage hikes, 19 states including Colorado, California, Connecticut, increasing their minimum wage at the start of the New Year. And our next guest warns more cities may do the same in a Wall Street Journal op-ed call the fight for 15, coming to a city hall near you. Let's bring in Michael Saltsman, employment policies institute research director. Michael, I said this all along, once a few cities starting passing that $15 minimum wage, it was San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, that that was going to become kind of the standard for the left. What is it doing to restaurants in those places where we've seen it so far?
MICHAEL SALTSMAN, EMPLOYMENT POLICIES INSTITUTE RESEARCH DIRECTOR: What it's doing is creating a tremendous amount of hardship, and it's actually leaving quite a bit of carnage in its wake. We see now over 30 cities and municipalities have their own local minimum wage requirements, some in California as high as $13 an hour right now, you compare that to the historical minimum wage standard of about $7.40. So it's quite high, and what we're seeing is customers are not necessarily willing to pay for it, even in wealthier markets like in the Bay Area, where I think people assume that a higher minimum wage was more palatable. At end of the year, some newspaper had described this as a death march. There have been so many restaurant closures out there. And so I think what some business owners are able to do is adapt and do things like automate, but for others business owners, especially the smaller guys, what it means is that their business model doesn't work anymore.
