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.
GOP FRONTRUNNERS APPLAUDING NEW BIPARTISAN MEDICARE PLAN
Charlie Gasparino: The president's recent poll numbers are very bad. I think there's a degree of fatigue right now with the President in terms of he's against anything that makes sense. It's starting to seep in. The Simpson-Bowles was another bipartisan way of dealing with a major problem of deficits, social security, entitlements and reforming it. He's against it-a bipartisan plan. He's against this-a bipartisan plan. At some point, that starts seeping into the electorate and people say, ‘well what are you for? The status quo?' I'll say this now. The economy could get better, but this president is going to have an up-hill battle because he is the status quo and the status quo is not good.
Dagen McDowell: The White House said that this plan from Ryan and Wyden will cause Medicare to wither on the vine. Mediscare is part of the democrats playbook in 2012. They are going to talk about it endlessly. The republicans want to end it. They want to push Granny and Grandaddy off the click. This is going to be something that they try to hammer. But, I do believe the Ryan-Wyden plan at least opens the door because it's bipartisan to a normal, rational conversation about it.
Adam Lashinsky: I think politically the President is not against any consensus or anything right now. He's not against Bowles-Simpson. He just didn't do anything about it. I agree, he hasn't been good on this. And he hasn't been good on this issue either. By the way, the republicans invented the scare tactics on Mediscare. Remember Sarah Palin's death panels and Obamacare?
Scott Martin: I don't see what the big deal is about saying this is the end of Medicare as we know it because Medicare is broken anyway. This is going to hurt the people that are 54 and under that this plan is going to affect anyway.
GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES CALLING TO OPEN KEYSTONE PIPELINE
Charlie Gasparino: The reason BP had a problem is because it was so far offshore. The reason it was so far offshore is because environmental reasons. The whole lie about how the oil won't come immediately and won't do anything deal with gas prices, you do understand that oil is set in the futures market. If the futures market sees future supply, the price of oil generally goes down. I'll tell you, this is going to be a hard thing to fight against during the election. People don't like high gas prices.
Dagen McDowell: This is not an issue of safety. This is a political issue. He doesn't want to deal with it until after the election next year. More ironies, the teamsters and other unions want this to happen because of the job creation. The other irony is, if you ship this oil to China, you'll get pollution from the shipping, sub-standard refining and then it's going into factories that causes more pollution.
Adam Lashinsky: I think in Michele Bachmann's answer we saw the difference between running for president and governing. She said she would turn this thing on right away. Well, when you're president and you have something like what happened in the gulf with BP, you say I'm going to be the one on the line if I just turned it on. We have to make sure that it's safe. Then we turn it on. Everyone agrees that there are good jobs here.
Scott Martin: Our energy policy and history in the past couple years has been so good. I think we had Solyndra, Fisker and now we're not going to do this pipeline because we're in election mode. I just don't get it. We've got to get energy independent. We've got to get a system going from Canada. You're going to create a lot of other jobs besides the construction. You're going to see a lot of economic benefit from this pipeline. It's got to be a go.
MIXED MESSAGES FROM OCCUPIERS OVER POLITICAL FUNDRAISERS
Charlie Gasparino: Obama has basically set records with Wall Street fundraising over the last five years-since 2007. All you have to do is look at one firm. It's Goldman Sachs, which was Obama's second largest fundraiser for his 2008 campaign. They're not even on the list of Obama's biggest givers. They are now the number one contributor to Mitt Romney and that's all you have to look at.
Dagen McDowell: I do want to point out that's finance insurance and real estate and Obama, back in 2008, whooped John McCain in terms of raising money from them--$42 million versus $32 million.
Adam Lashinsky: I think Charlie just made an astute observation that is going to help Obama, which is that Goldman is going for Romney. That's very good news for Obama given Goldman's esteem right now in the country.
Scott Martin: Don't forget, in 2008, Obama took all his donations from the private sector and set records. Mitt and Obama are going back and forth as far as the lead, but he's blowing away all the other republican candidates. So, maybe we should tell the Occupy Wall Street-ers that information.
STOCK FUNDRAISERS
Adam Lashinsky: Corning (GLW)
Scott Martin: Visa (V)
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox