DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING "Cost of Freedom Recap" CONTAINS STRONG OPINIONS WHICH ARE NOT A REFLECTION OF THE OPINIONS OF FOX NEWS AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON AS INVESTMENT ADVICE WHEN MAKING PERSONAL INVESTMENT DECISIONS. IT IS FOX NEWS' POLICY THAT CONTRIBUTORS DISCLOSE POSITIONS THEY HOLD IN STOCKS THEY DISCUSS, THOUGH POSITIONS MAY CHANGE. READERS OF "Cost of Freedom Recap" MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN INVESTMENT DECISIONS.
PRESIDENT ROLLS BACK CLIMATE CHANGE REGULATIONS; SAYS COAL MINERS ARE GOING BACK TO WORK
Steve Forbes: Before I went to the studio I looked in the sky to see if a meteor was coming to the earth so extinction is not an option right now. Trump has it right, either clean environment or prosperity is a false one. You get clean environment by prosperity. By removing the war on gas and coal. The war on coal was immoral.
Bruce Japsen: I don't think so. Some of the people who came out and criticized what the president did were the pope, the Vatican, and Exxon-mobile..
Mike Ozanian: And technology is a big reason for that, David. Technology, if you'd gone back ten years ago, nobody was redistricting this, but it's advanced so much the amount of energy they can produce from shale because of changes in technology is extraordinary. Id' like to see Trump abolish the department of energy. One reason why solar has gotten so many jobs. How about $2 billion in subsidies from the doe last year and also stop the subsidies to coals and other fossil fuels. They got 640 million of subsidies, let the marketplace sort it out.
Elizabeth MacDonald: It's the market forces. Yes, we don't want pollution, everyone can agree with that and concern about climate change, we get it, but who is the best answer to fix it? Who has the right answers? I think that the government has answers and net gas is driving down the emissions to 1992 levels. We're seeing, and you know what else we're seeing? The Obama administration itself, David, said there would be no discernible impact on emissions from the own clean power plant for the next 30 years, so, instead. Nat gas is stepping in and technology is stepping in.
Rich Karlgaard: You know, I don't believe in the case that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. In fact, it's a resource. People forget there are something like 3,000 coal plants under way or in the works or being planned around the world. Chiefly in China and India. There's an entrepreneur in India who's capturing carbon and repackaging this as baking soda. You know, you look at the stuff as a resource, not a pollutant.
John Tamny: Oh, yeah, there's a total overreaction. Let's remember the vast majority of the world's population continues to migrate to the very coastal cities that all of these weak-kneed hysterics and when it goes to this, they're confused and it's a dollar phenomenon.
PRESIDENT TRUMP CREATES 'OFFICE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION' TO HELP CUT GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRACY
Rich Karlgaard: I like it because I think you can combine innovation and taking out bloat in the government. The first part could be military procurement. There's a piece out this week how Peter Thiel’s company created a data platform for the million for $100 million, but the military went with an inferior program from another supplier for $6 billion. And that makes no sense at all.
Mike Ozanian: I agree with you, David, we don't need a bigger government. We don't need more bureaucracy. Ronald Reagan didn't have somebody with this title and he really let the animal spirits of this country bloom. I think what you do, you cut discretionary spending and I think you cut the size of government and you'll get all the innovation you need.
Steve Forbes: Oh, there's badly needed reform in government. I used to head up the oversight agency for radio-free Europe and liberty. We weren't officially a part of the government. Ours were a fraction of voice of America, which was part of the government. There's a lot that can be done in defense, veterans administration, food and drug administration that would save lives and the differences, as Trump would say, would be huge. Absolutely.
Elizabeth MacDonald: The first test pilot of this should be Medicare and Medicaid fraud, now trending at a quarter trillion dollar in waste, fraud and abuse. The thievery in those programs are industrial. If this is happening in private sector, the government bureaucrats would be in jail. Watch what Texas is doing, smart card with fingerprints so Medicaid people and beneficiaries could make sure they're tracking them and they deserve the money. Tracking dead patients throughout the system and getting rid of it. They're using technology like software to track fake billing from doctors throughout the state. So this is the technology that could be put in place to stop wasting our money.
Sabrina Schaeffer: If John were here I’m on his side. I love the idea of making the government a bit more innovative, but the fact is that government is not the private sector, it does not have a bottom line, it does not have competitors, it cannot be streamlined the way that private industry can. A far better approach, bull up the Forbes top 100 companies most innovative, I looked at them this morning, lots of great ones out there. We don't need to grow government in order to learn that.
Bill Baldwin: I know how to reduce waste. We should have Kushner run a new office of American freedom. He would look at an innovative ways to cut government, like eliminate green energy subsidy.
HOUSE DEMOCRATS SPARKING NEW DEBATE AS THEY SEEK MORE MONEY FOR THE IRS
John Tamny: Not a chance. The IRS only exists so that Congress doesn't have to do the dirty work of reaching into people's pockets in increasingly obnoxious ways to take our money and spend it. We should cut IRS funding and let Congress own up to the taxation policy.
Bill Baldwin: I'd give the IRS another billion dollars. Tax cheats are costing us 400 billion a year, if we can catch them, then the tax burden on John and the other honest people, I’m assuming he's honest, will go down by 399 billion.
Sabrina Schaeffer: I'd have to see the numbers on that one. I'm with john here, again, I think these are lawmakers that have been in Washington too long and they have complete faith in themselves to make things better, and this sort of early 20th century progressivism. I do not have any confidence that the IRS or any other part of the government will make my life better. We should cut that at the IRS and cut people's taxes so we can have a simpler more streamlined system.
Bruce Japsen: The Democrats aren't the only ones like Steve Mnuchin, and the Treasury Secretary said that the IRS fell under Obama and he wanted to increase the size maybe we need more collectors to get more money in.
Mike Ozanian: That's probably a good thing. Look, in all seriousness, here is what I have to say. From 2010 to 2014, the IRS spent $97 million refurbishing offices on things like new furniture. If they need money, let them use old furniture.
Steve Forbes: You don't increase the amount to the criminal enterprise especially under president Obama 2010 election to suppress the voter turnouts and suppress the groups that opposed ObamaCare. That's a national scandal that was never published. As far as the IRS, less is more.
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