Uncertainty over ObamaCare crashing consumer confidence?

Affordable Care Act's impact on the economy

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OBAMACARE'S IMPACT ON ECONOMY

WAYNE ROGERS: The biggest problem, I think, is uncertainty. There's uncertainty in the law; nobody knows what it says. Nobody knows what the rules are so businesses can't plan ahead. In fact, a lot of businesses are-because they know about the restriction in employment-they're going to part-time employment so they don't have to pay this. On the other side, the people being affected by it-there are people getting their policies cancelled-I think there's over 5 million so far today in the United States, and they haven't signed up that many people. A lot of people don't need this. For example, there is a woman-my makeup person here-has said the following: she doesn't want to have children so she's not interested in the childcare part of it. She's not interested in all of the things that she's going to be forced to carry, and those are all cost to her. That means everybody's disposable income is going to come down, like the lady we just saw, and that means less spending. That's all bad for the economy.

JONATHAN HOENIG: Spending is down. We know that hiring has been down for months and months. What creates confidence? What creates assurance in the economy? Is it government intervention? No, in fact, government intervention creates the paranoia, creates the fear. What makes confidence is self-esteem, knowing that you're dealing with reality. ObamaCare essentially says "just submit and we'll take care of the rest." How can you have any confidence is a system that its own creators are admitting is a train wreck? ObamaCare is.

BOB BECKEL: First of all, I feel really badly about Hoenig and his stock portfolio, number one. It's been going through the roof, so I really feel sympathetic for him. I'll give you a loan if you need one.

MICHELLE FIELDS: The economy is absolutely going to suffer because of ObamaCare. ObamaCare is leading to deterioration in confidence. Right now consumer confidence is well below the historical norm, and it's the lowest it's been in seven months, and the reason why is people were not expecting to pay this much in premiums. They certainly were not expecting to get cancellation letters because Obama promised that wouldn't happen. For a lot of people health care is not an option-it's a necessity, and they were not expecting to pay that much money. So they don't have that money to go out and go shopping for Christmas. That is just how it is right now. That is what the American people are feeling.

FINANCIAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS MOUNT IN WAKE OF U.S. NUKE DEAL WITH IRAN

MICHELLE FIELDS: This deal is terrible. The deal does not make Iran reduce their nuclear program in proportion to the amount of aid that we are giving to them. They came to the negotiating table with a shattered economy. They were desperate, and it's very unlikely that we will see them in this type of position again anytime soon, so we should have taken advantage of that. What we did was we basically legitimized Iran to countries like China and to businesses that now don't see Iran as toxic anymore. So they walked away with a great deal; we walked away with nothing, and we're the ones who were not weak going into this negotiation.

BOB BECKEL: What Michelle just said-with all due respect, I admire you greatly-but frankly you don't know what you're talking about. The fact of the matter is we did degrade. They cannot take centrifuges and make the grade level you need for nuclear weapons, one. Two, the Germans are doing the inspections-the best in the world. Three, it's a six-month deal. Four, you have to have new centrifuges in order to finish their program. That's been stopped. What's the alternative? The alternative is we've said nothing, we've done nothing, and in the meantime they've moved ahead with a nuclear program. At least this gives us an opportunity to see.

JONATHAN HOENIG: Six months, and the Iranians are proclaiming this deal still allows them to enrich Uranium. To Michelle's point, this emboldens them. This legitimizes them in the world stage. It's ironic, the President is so quick to use forced "sanctions", if you will, against Americans for not signing up for ObamaCare, but so hesitant to use them against our known enemies. Iran is not a wildcard here; they are a known large state sponsor of terrorism for 30 plus years, and we appease them. We essentially commit to suicide against them by not keeping the pressure on and instead, to Michelle's point, sending them $8B in aid.

WAYNE ROGERS: Eric, let me ask you a question. Why are they coming to the table now? Because the sanctions worked. That's why their coming to the table now. They're not coming to the table because Obama is a great negotiator. They're coming to the table because they're desperate and they need to. That worked. The sanctions are working. I read some idiotic editorial in the New York Times where the guy said "well, the alternative of this is war. Either we have war or we have this negotiation." He's a fool. What works, of course, is sanctions. It did work. Look, the peace of the world was maintained from 1812 Waterloo to 1914 WWI by mean who understood the balance of power. This is a balance of power. We had the power, we had sanctions; that's what brought them to the table.

NEW CALLS TO DISCONNECT GOVERNMENT'S SUBSIDIZED PHONE PLAN AMID REPORTS OF WASTE AND FRAUD

JONATHAN HOENIG: Business has the power to trade. Only government has the power to steal; that's exactly what this Obama phone program is. It's not the abuse that's the problem, it's the phone program itself. Bob might try to suggest that we have such a thing as a right to a cell phone, but there's no such thing. The entire program is immoral. It's a waste. It should be scrapped.

MICHELLE FIELDS: The Declaration of Independence doesn't say "life, liberty, and an Obama phone." Why are we doing this? That's not part of the government's job. Are we going to start giving iPads and laptops? We spent, in 2012, $2.2B in this program. It's time to cut it. It's riddled with fraud and waste. Cut the program and stop giving out Obama phones. It's not a right.

WAYNE ROGERS: it all starts with the word "need". "We need this." Everybody says "oh, we have to have this. We need that." And the government is supposed to be the person who supplies this. That is the beginning of a fraudulent transaction right away. So it's rife for fraud. All of these programs the federal government runs are riddled with fraud. That's why.

BOB BECKEL: Just a couple of things. One, this is a program that was started under a Republican administration--

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