Progressive Democrats continue push for $3T in spending
Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on the Democrats' standstill over the massive bill.
This is a rush transcript of "Your World" on October 13, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto, and this is "Your World."
And I want you to think fast, think very fast on this. What do Blue Origin's picture-perfect mission and inflation have in common? What if I told you today nothing at all, really? Because while Captain Kirk and company made things quick and landed even quicker, inflation is sticking around and the only thing it's doing is making Americans angrier.
Today, FOX on top of a price rocket that won't stop at the grocery store, where Madison Alworth sees prices still jumping, at the gas pump, where David Lee Miller sees the cost of filling up still soaring, and at the White House, where Jacqui Heinrich sees a president now scrambling.
At least with the Blue Origin guys, they're back safe and sound. The rest of us, safe to say just sounding off.
We begin right now with Madison at a Paramus, New Jersey, grocery store checking in on the eye-popping cost of simply checking out -- Madison.
MADISON ALWORTH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Neil.
Yes, prices here are on the rise. They just continue to go up. The Consumer Price Index out today saying that over the course of this past year, prices have gone up 5.4 percent and that's from things like gas and other shopping, the biggest contributor being housing and food.
And within food, there are some categories that have increased more than others. Let's take a look at some of the highest hitters in terms of that increase. So, when it comes to meat, you're seeing an increase of over 12 percent annually. Bacon up over 19 percent. Fish and seafood up over 10 percent.
We spoke to shoppers today, and many of them say they are clearly noticing the sky-high prices when they shop.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just looking at the broccoli rabe myself, and it's $4.99 a pound. I mean, usually, I get a broccoli rabe for $2.99.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Usually, the same amount of stuff every week, the same group of items, and where I would spend $80, $90, it's now $120.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of a bad storm of things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALWORTH: Definitely a bad storm of things. There's all these different factors contributing. You're seeing issues with shipping, issues with stock and supplying the shelves, as well as labor issues.
Here at Stew Leonard's, to keep such a strong staff, they have had to increase many of their salaries by 10 percent. That is being passed on to the consumers. I'm next to the peppers, but, Neil, for you, I pulled some bacon. Today, you're paying $7.99 for bacon, a year ago, $5.99.
And even though we're seeing higher prices, Neil, everyone that I have spoken to has said do your shopping now, especially for the holidays. People are ready to celebrate. And they are just buying up inventory and there's no telling whether or not the supply issue will be fixed. So even though prices are high, supply is still super tight -- Neil.
CAVUTO: So you're telling me the healthy stuff is staying kind of within bounds. The unhealthy stuff is not, right?
ALWORTH: A bit of both.
CAVUTO: OK.
ALWORTH: Definitely, the unhealthy stuff up there. But, like you heard, broccoli rabe double the price. So I don't know. Broccoli rabe, bacon, they're both experiencing those huge jumps.
CAVUTO: Yes, what to do. What to do.
Bacon would have to hit 50 bucks for me to just say, that's it. That's it. I'm going for chicken.
All right, Madison, great reporting. Thank you very much.
Well, here's the good news and the bad news on this whole subject. Average American wages are moving up at about a 5 percent annual clip, roughly. Here's the bad news. The cost of just pretty much everything you buy running at a 5.4 percent annual clip, and therein lies the rub, and, by the way, not just when it comes to food.
Susan Li with more on that -- Susan.
SUSAN LI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Neil, that's right.
Daily life is getting more and more expensive. You feel it when paying the rent, booking a hotel, buying a new car, and then filling it up. So numbers confirmed it this morning. Americans are still paying the highest prices in 13 years, the Consumer Price Index still at those elevated levels the past four months, and it's not going down much.
And rent is a big reason, making up a third of the inflation gauge, and rents jumped the most in 20 years in September from August. Isn't that astounding? You also have hotel rooms and cruises costing a lot more these days. Cars and trucks are up 42 percent. Appliances like TVs and washer and dryers are not getting any cheaper either.
Now, the good part of the story is that consumers are spending a lot more than usual. Stimulus money, vaccinations and businesses reopening are helping to boost the economy. And even though wages are picking up, they did go up 4 percent last month, that's not enough to offset the increase in consumer prices.
So Americans aren't feeling wealthier because the prices they are paying are going up faster than their wages are. And inflation is also the main reason why Social Security benefits are going up by almost 6 percent for seniors. And that is the largest increase in almost 40 years.
Now, as you can imagine, the Federal Reserve is watching all this very closely. And they have signaled very strongly again this afternoon that it will start cutting back on stimulus starting as early as maybe the middle of next month. We are still at least a year away from interest rates going up, despite the fact that you're looking at these highly elevated prices, Neil.
CAVUTO: To put it mildly.
Susan, thank you very much, Susan Li.
Well, all of this if you think about it started back in January when gasoline and oil prices started rising. They're still rising. In fact, they're continuing to rocket on their own.
The very latest from David Lee Miller checking things out in New York City -- David Lee.
DAVID LEE MILLER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Neil.
I guess you could say Americans are experiencing gas pains. As you so rightly point out, gasoline prices continue to rise. And here in Manhattan, where the gas stations are few and far between, filling up your tank could very well empty your wallet.
Take a look behind me at the signage. Your eyes do not deceive you, a gallon of premium rounded up $4.90 and it will even cost you more for premium, $5.40 a gallon. According to AAA, the average price nationwide for a gallon is now $3.29.
That's a hike of 10 cents over the previous week. Gas is now at the highest price since October of 2014. Surging crude oil prices are to blame. They are now at a seven-year high. AAA says crude prices account for at least half the price that you pay at the pump.
The top three most expensive states to buy gas, California, where it's averaging $4.44 a gallon, followed by Hawaii at $4.16, and Nevada, where it's $3.87.
And back here in New York City, where most people don't even own a car, Gas prices are on average a little less than $3.5 a gallon. But if you need to fill up on the outskirts of Times Square, expect to pay around five bucks. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four dollars and 90 cents for regular.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a lot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It takes me about $120 to fill up the car. It's ridiculous. It's breaking everybody's bank.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just put $40 in and I didn't even get a quarter tank. So, obviously, it's too high. Hopefully, it gets better in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILLER: Energy analysts say they expect prices are only expected to continue to increase. Complicating matters, contributing to the problem, there's been a slight increase in demand.
Some good news. If you do live in Texas or Mississippi, those two states have the lowest average gas prices in the country at $2.92 a gallon. And if you do the math, that's slightly more than half, slightly more than half of like you will pay here in Midtown Manhattan -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Ah, but the joy of living in New York City.
David Lee Miller, thank you very, very much.
Well, you have heard a lot of problems with the supply chain. That's actually kind of aggravating these price run-ups we're seeing. And there's no sign right now we have got any control over it, although today the president signaled is going to try something.
To Jacqui Heinrich at the White House with what he's going to try.
Hey, Jacqui.
JACQUI HEINRICH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Neil.
Yes, as major retailers are warning that shoppers during the holidays will continue to encounter these shortages and also price hikes because of the congestion that we have been seeing across the supply chain, the White House has been working to broker this deal with private sector entities to get things moving.
Two major ports of entry are going to be expanding their hours, Los Angeles moving to 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operations, Long Beach adding overnight and weekend shifts. Warehouse unions agreed to work overtime. Carriers like UPS and FedEx agreed to increase their volume and get their goods out of there.
And then also major retailers like Walmart, Samsung and Target also committed to getting their goods out of the congested ports faster. The White House says that this is an issue they have been working to address for months. But over this time, the situation has gotten worse, not better.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEINRICH: Why did it take until today to get these kinds of commitments that we're seeing from the various groups that are here with the president today?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: For average people sitting at home, they're not focused just on the port. Of course they are. They're focused on getting their goods, but they're focused on the cost of goods. They're focused on how much meat cost. They're focused on what their checkbook looks like.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEINRICH: So the White House saying they're working to address a lot of these issues across the supply chain from the beginning of this administration, and it's a multilayered problem.
In his remarks today, the president said that the agreements reached took weeks of negotiations and has the potential to be a game-changer. But he also directed responsibility at the private sector to make it happen in the short term.
And in the long term, he pointed to Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If the private sector doesn't step up, we're going to call them out and ask them to act, because our goal is not only to get through this immediate bottleneck, but to address the longstanding weaknesses.
I might add parenthetically one of the reasons why I think it's very important that we get the infrastructure plan passed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEINRICH: Now, the president, by the way, did have a chance to pass that bipartisan hard infrastructure bill at the end of last month.
But when that date came, he did not whip the vote. He instead allowed progressives to stave this off, to block it until the social spending piece that they have been withholding their votes in order to get is also passed at the same time.
That bipartisan bill, by the way, would give $17 billion to ports alone. So you're beginning to hear from the administration just how important it is to get that infrastructure bill done, because it's going to directly address the problem that we're seeing, Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, Jacqui Heinrich at the White House, thank you very, very much.
So, prices go up. The president's poll numbers go down. It happened to Jimmy Carter. Made him a one-termer. What's the potential impact here?
Bob Cusack, The Hill editor in chief.
Bob, while people always talk about, it's the economy, stupid, sometimes its prices out of control, stupid, that can do it, too. What do you think of the early impact politically of this?
BOB CUSACK, THE HILL: Well, I think the impact, Neil, is you got to look at this Virginia governor's race that is very tight. That is a state that has been trending toward the Democrats for many, many years.
So I think that's the political concern. The policy concern with the president's numbers really tanking since the spring -- he had a good start -- first 100 days went well, got the COVID-19 bill, but now they're tanking and he's now got to -- he's got to pass both the bipartisan infrastructure bill, plus another social spending bill, which could be $3 trillion to $4 trillion.
That's honestly -- there's no way they're going to pay for all of that. And that's not only going to exacerbate the concerns, Neil, of inflation going even higher.
CAVUTO: Now, they say that's not going to happen. What they say is more than offsetting the potential price pressures is the fact that it's going to keep the economy humming and the people will like all the benefits of that spending.
It seems to be a bit of a leap to me, but what do you think?
CUSACK: Well, I think if you look at the budget scorekeepers, the Congressional Budget Office, it's wonky, but they're the independent.
CAVUTO: Right.
CUSACK: We're going to see what they say about this bill.
And I also think, Neil, one thing that has to be raised is the Fed chairman. Jay Powell has been downplaying the concern about inflation for months, and now he's saying it's frustrating, and now they have got to rethink what the problem is and how bad it's going to get.
And, of course, this comes in the backdrop of the question of whether Biden will renominate him for another term.
CAVUTO: Yes, and I wonder if there's something politically there with Jerome Powell. You don't want to do anything to hint to the president you're going to be raising rates or directly assaulting inflation. That could hurt your chances of getting nominated.
But it could also mean that, if he is, that's exactly what he does.
CUSACK: Yes. No, that's right.
And that's -- Republicans have gone on record, a lot of them, saying that Powell should be renominated. Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats not so crazy about that idea.
CAVUTO: Right.
CUSACK: But there's no doubt about it. That's going to be a big storyline in the weeks and months ahead about whether he gets renominated.
CAVUTO: Got it.
All right, thank you very much, my friend, Bob Cusack of The Hill, the editor in chief, the big cheese there.
All right, so we told you about what could be a shortage of Christmas presents under your tree. We're going to be exploring a little later in the show the prospect you might not even be able to get the tree. And then it brings up the question of Christmas itself.
Well, animated shows and specials might talk about Christmas being canceled, but, these days, it's looking like it could be delayed -- after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You really are a heel. You're as cuddly as a cactus. You're as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: You know, it's like a bad Abbott and Costello bit, the idea that you're only going after the rich to tax them up the yin-yang, right?
But then you're also empowering the IRS to look at transactions as small as $600. That doesn't sound like the rich.
All right, so Aishah Hasnie with more on that from Capitol Hill and a battle royal over it. Aishah, what's going on here?
AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey.
So, Neil, the latest is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came out yesterday and said, look, I am drawing the line in the sand. We are going to make sure that we have this situation, this IRS expansion or strengthening the IRS, in this tax and social spending bill.
And it's really not a shocker because this is how Democrats plan to strengthen the IRS to pay for all of their social programs. So the proposal, essentially, as you said, would require banks, credit unions and all sorts of financial institutions to monitor your deposits and your withdrawals that are $600 or higher.
It's part of strengthening the IRS to help pay for this -- quote -- "zero dollar social spending plan."
Now, Speaker Pelosi yesterday acknowledged that, yes, people are concerned and worried about it, but firmly pushed back and confirmed the tracking is definitely staying in this bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): There are concerns that some people have, but if people are breaking the law and not paying their taxes, one way to track them is through the banking measure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HASNIE: So, Senator Tom Cotton fired back on Twitter with this.
He says: "When they say they will only tax the rich, they're lying."
But Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview last night the whole thing has been mischaracterized. She's saying that the proposal does not involve reporting of any individual transactions of any individual, and this is really them just going after individuals who are failing to report their income and what they have earned.
But even some Democrats out there like Senator Ron Wyden have said, look, Democrats should work on more -- quote -- "reasonable criteria" to make sure that they are focusing on the very wealthy.
Pelosi did say, look, they're still under these negotiations and the $600 number that everyone's sort of been talking about, that could change. It could go lower. And so we will see what happens. But, yes, it's a great point that you brought up. It really doesn't feel like they're just going after the rich here.
CAVUTO: Yes, that's not the Grey Poupon crowd. But we will see. All right. Thank you very, very much, Aishah Hasnie, on all of that.
To Congressman Kevin Brady, the man made possible those big tax cuts we got under Donald Trump.
Congressman, when you are monitoring transactions as little as $600, you're not going after the Bill Gateses and Jeff Bezoses. You're looking at a much wider pool here. That's pretty obvious.
REP. KEVIN BRADY (R-TX): Yes, you are absolutely right.
So, look, for years, when the IRS commissioner was truly independent, you would meet with them a couple times a year on the Ways and Means Committee, go through the tax gap, compliance technology, customer service, issues like that.
And what they always told you, us, we think the cheaters are farmers and small businesses, but we don't know how to get after them. This new bank surveillance scheme is not aimed at the wealthy or the big corporations. They're aimed at farmers, small businesses and families.
They intend to track these total transactions each year. They believe -- Neil, I think this is tied to raising the SALT cap. They think they can get about $250 billion from the bank surveillance and the 80,000 new IRS agents. They think that's how they can pay for several years or more of the SALT cap repeal, which, as you know, half of that goes to millionaire households or bigger.
CAVUTO: Yes.
BRADY: And so it seems ironic that you would be tracking the smallest businesses and the family farms to give this huge tax break to the wealthy.
CAVUTO: You're talking about the state local tax deduction.
BRADY: Yes.
CAVUTO: It was capped at $10,000 under that tax plan that you and leading Republicans came up with.
That's an interesting scenario. I'm wondering. On the plan that they're kicking around, Congressman, it looks like Democrats, who are going to decide this one way or the other, since it's not expected to get any Republican votes -- I'm talking about the human infrastructure package, not the bipartisan one.
It's looking like it could be falling apart. Do you get a sense that it might not happen at all?
BRADY: I do.
And I think every day that they struggle makes it more likely this collapses. I don't think the Friday jobs report or today's inflation report helped them one bit. The president's now nearly a million jobs short of what he promised from the last COVID stimulus. Certainly, that worker shortage, which they have been in denial about, is having a real impact on our recovery and Main Street businesses.
And these higher prices, which, frankly, I think will get higher as the rental and housing incomes start to go into play here and higher health care costs, look, he's lost the competence of the American people. They don't trust him on his handling of the economy in any sense. And I think that makes it very difficult for moderate Democrats who run back home as a Main Street moderate Democrat to vote for a bill that will work against their local communities, and certainly against families.
CAVUTO: Obviously, they will respond by saying, as grim as things look for the president right now, it was roughly at this stage in the Reagan presidency, actually closer to the midterms, when he was looking like a one-termer, because inflation wouldn't leave and neither would the recession, ends up surviving it, and then some, and wins.
That's what they're betting on, that this package, should it pass, is going to have the same impact as Ronald Reagan's tax cuts had 40 years ago. What do you make of that?
BRADY: I think they are, respectfully, living in a parallel universe.
(LAUGHTER)
BRADY: Never should the Biden administration ever be compared to the Reagan administration in any way.
And the way President Reagan, frankly, worked us into one of the strongest economies on the planet was cutting taxes, not raising them, giving balance to regulation, not driving them higher.
CAVUTO: Yes.
BRADY: And, certainly, he wasn't fueling inflation with just runaway massive stimulus spending.
So there's no comparison. He wishes that that was a parallel, but, in truth, it's not. We're going the opposite direction.
CAVUTO: You must have known we were going to talk about William Shatner with the parallel universe thing.
Kevin Brady, that was brilliant.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Thank you very much. Very good catching up with you.
Indeed, Captain Kirk, which, of course, made possible this whole discussion of parallel universes, actually got to fly into space today, maybe for all of 10 minutes, but he was mesmerized. And 90 years young, he is at a record.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM SHATNER, ACTOR: I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just -- it's extraordinary, extraordinary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: Finally, he made it, William Shatner in space and back in 10 minutes, but he's still called an astronaut.
So, we began to wonder, what would a real astronaut think of all of that?
After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: When you get a chance to be up there for the 10 minutes that you will, what's the first thing you're going to want to do?
SHATNER: I'm going to look out the window, Neil.
(LAUGHTER)
SHATNER: I'm going to see the vastness of space and the fragility of the Earth.
This comforter blue that we have around us, we think, oh, that's blue sky. And, then, suddenly, you shoot through it all of a sudden, and so you whip off a sheet off you when you're asleep. And you're looking into blackness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: He was overwhelmed. And why wouldn't he be?
The man who had been wanting to get into space for the longest time since he played a guy who had conquered the heavens back in the 1960s. William Shatner got his chance to see what it looks like from there, albeit for about 10 minutes or so.
Still, he did it.
Casey Stegall in Van Horn, Texas, with the drama that unfolded.
Hey, Casey.
CASEY STEGALL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Neil.
Yes, he certainly did it. And I have got to say, you could feel your chest rattle right from where I'm standing as we watched that rocket take off this morning and we watched the spacecraft gets smaller and smaller and smaller as it ascended into the gorgeous blue Texas sky back here.
According to the flight data and the folks with Blue Origin, just two minutes after liftoff, the New Shepard rocket was already cruising past 118,000 feet, traveling more than 2, 200 miles per hour. Think of it, a minute later, 308,000 feet.
Before it was all said and done, the Blue Origin suborbital flight reached a maximum altitude of more than 350,000 feet, more than 60 miles above the Earth's surface, providing quite a view and an experience, needless to say, for the four on board.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHATNER: What you have given me is the most profound experience. I can't - - I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEGALL: And brand-new video just in the FOX now released by Blue Origin showing the first interiors of the mission, in particular, the three or four minutes that they experience weightlessness as they floated around that space capsule.
Remember, it was just really back in late July when the company's founder, Jeff Bezos, took the inaugural flight for humans. And he took his brother up in space and a student and a former NASA astronaut as well.
But, today, Bezos was here on site. There were some jokes made. He played chauffeur actually and drove the vehicle, drove the crew from the quarters out to the launch pad. There was some joking that he was going to maybe get lost in the space capsule and go up for a second flight today.
But, Neil, he stayed here watching safely from the ground with the rest of us.
CAVUTO: Just amazing. Great reporting on all of that, Casey Stegall, in Van Horn, Texas.
Now to a legitimate astronaut. I'm not saying these other guys aren't, very impressive, what they did, but they were up there a few minutes. They count as astronauts and they got over the 63 miles, which defines space, whatever.
But Walt Cunningham is here, a genuine American hero, the Apollo 7 astronaut. Remember, that was a crucial mission after the Apollo 1 fire sometime back, a big test for Apollo, and eventually getting us on the moon. And Walt was among those who made that possible.
It's an honor to have you, Walt. Thank you.
WALTER CUNNINGHAM, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, thank you very much. It's a pleasure.
CAVUTO: What did you make of this mission?
CUNNINGHAM: Well, it's going to go over different, but -- with different people.
But having been an astronaut like 60 years ago until 50 years ago, it's a totally different thing that we're watching. And so it's hard -- hard to identify it as actually doing that.
But, at the same time, you can put it in perspective with what you know we have been trying to do for years.
CAVUTO: And if you think about it, Walt, in the days when you were doing all this incredible stuff, it was NASA, NASA, NASA, of course, a consortium of companies behind that as well.
But, here, it's very rich billionaires, whether you're talking what Jeff Bezos is doing or certainly Richard Branson or Elon Musk leading the charge. How do you feel about that?
CUNNINGHAM: Well, I just look at it as a kind of a -- one of the progresses that's gone on since we started flying in space.
But the public, which is less informed, I guess, but they will tend to look at this -- and I have seen some references to it. They talk about it as like the civilians and being able to go in space and what have you.
It's a totally different mission. And people need to appreciate that, because I can only tell you that our launch, our total launch just to get into orbit was just a few seconds under 10 minutes. And we were -- we were pretty busy on -- managing and looking at and monitoring all of the systems in that spacecraft just to keep people alive.
And that's not quite what goes on today. You're along for the ride today, it looks like to me.
CAVUTO: Yes.
Obviously, this is the way space travel might go in the future to open it up to more Americans of all different stripes all across the world, but it's a high entry fee. Two of the paying customers on this trip reportedly paid $250,000 each for the ride. That works out to about $25,000 a minute.
What did you think of that?
CUNNINGHAM: Well, I think that I was a little shocked and surprised to find out how cheap was the fee that they charged for people to take a ride up there and back.
(LAUGHTER)
CUNNINGHAM: And that's not what the major thing is.
The major is the risk that you're exposed to, because when I launched, Apollo 7 is what -- that was the final calling for it, but that was the first flight of the Apollo program. And that was the third mission that Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and I had been on and assigned, all -- it was all in the same line.
But when we had to cancel one mission, we would reschedule and pick up another one.
CAVUTO: Right.
CUNNINGHAM: But all of those missions were aimed at getting the first spacecraft into orbit, which we ended up doing.
And, as a matter of fact, I think you will find out, if you look at it now, that that 10.5, 11 days, right in that area, that that was the longest first mission of any new spacecraft ever.
CAVUTO: Absolutely. And that came after the Apollo 1 fire. That was a huge test for you guys, whether we could get this back on track to get to the moon.
And thanks to what you and your colleagues did, we were, and history was made a couple of years later.
But I don't know. I knew that none of you had to pay a steep entry fee for the honor, but heroes all.
CUNNINGHAM: Well, you're right.
CAVUTO: Yes.
CUNNINGHAM: You're right.
We didn't have to pay anything.
CAVUTO: No.
CUNNINGHAM: But I'll tell you this. To this day, that's still the world's longest and greatest first flight of anything.
CAVUTO: No, I remember it like it were yesterday.
Walt Cunningham, I want to thank you very much and your incredible service to this country, one of fewer than 600 individuals who in total have ventured out into the heavens. And, of course, he had some memorable ventures, didn't he?
All right, Walt Cunningham of Apollo 7.
All right, when we come back, my old boss here at FOX News, as long as I can remember when he was here, he was -- always warned about China, didn't believe a lot of the info coming out of China, didn't quite buy the fact that they had somehow miraculously started controlling all the minerals and precious stuff, i.e., even to this day, chips that they do.
And now he has a fascinating book out, fiction, I might tell you, that gets into the COVID origin thing, again, through fiction, but something tells me he was taking a very real view at what might have happened.
John Moody is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: How did the whole COVID thing begin?
A lot of people try to piece together a lot of different elements and come up with a theory.
My former boss here, the head of news at FOX News at the time, John Moody, has done it through a book of fiction, if you will, "Of Course They Knew, Of Course They..."
And it leaves you wondering. He pieces together some disparate issues, but gets back to the issue about China's role early in the COVID pandemic. And he is kind enough to join us right now.
John, that was my take from your book, that this was a way of you piecing together things to explain how it all began, and apparently with China's knowledge. What do you say?
JOHN MOODY, AUTHOR, "OF COURSE THEY KNEW": Oh, yes, sure.
And thanks for having me on, Neil. It's great to see you again.
CAVUTO: Thank you.
MOODY: It is -- it is indisputable that China knew what was happening in the city of Wuhan, that they covered it up, that they lied about it, that they refused to cooperate with any international scientists who wanted to come in and look around and see what could possibly have happened there.
And they even tried to dodge the blame. One of the Chinese Communist Party's Web sites said that the virus was created by the U.S. military and dropped on Wuhan from low-flying American planes.
Now, I'm not an aviation expert, but I don't recall seeing any low-flying American planes flying over China recently.
CAVUTO: What made you do it through fiction, John?
MOODY: I would not have been able to apply the reporting standards that you and I lived by, Neil, and that you still do. I wouldn't have gotten access to the facts that I needed. I had to use fiction.
But it's fiction that's overlaid on real-world events that you I, and millions of your viewers lived through for the past 18, 20 months. I tried to make a story with interesting characters, with believable characters, but very much with the facts that we know took place between late 19 -- late 2019 and right now.
It's still going on. China's still denying it. And China's still telling the WHO just recently, no, you cannot come in and look at our bat caves. And I'm not talking about the comic strip.
CAVUTO: Right, right.
I was just distracted by the sex scenes. I don't want to give that away, John. But I do think you should go to confession.
But let me ask you, in all seriousness, what you make of the reaction you're likely to get. For example, will the book be selling in China? I suspect not.
MOODY: My guess is no. I'm also guessing that the audience for bat readers will be pretty small.
But you just take...
(LAUGHTER)
MOODY: No, look, this is for people who watch your show. This is for people who watch FOX. This is for people who care about what happened and really want to get to the truth and are frustrated by the fact that the Communist Chinese Party has successfully held all those secrets together and is not allowing the rest of the world to find out what really happened, when we know or when we certainly suspect that it was grown and got away from the Wuhan virological laboratory.
CAVUTO: But then it gets into how this deep intrigue may be spun out of control, down to the predictable reaction to mask requirements, and what would extend today to vaccination requirements, that it quickly became politicized.
MOODY: It became politicized, as does everything in this country, in most Western countries these days.
CAVUTO: Yes.
MOODY: However, there's a certain sinister logic to the fact that a virus that was manufactured and came from China was -- the first treatment to try to prevent it was to wear masks that were also made and manufactured and exported from China. That's business creating business.
CAVUTO: So, in this environment, where you talk about China and the fact it has a lock on information, but I remember from your days here, John, you were quite concerned about the fact so much of the world's labor and so many things and minerals we depend on to say, to this present day, simple chips and other sources, they're all in China.
They're the lion's share of all of China. And I'm just wondering where this is leading.
MOODY: Well, it's leading down the path to destruction is where it's leading.
Yes, I have always been concerned about the rare earths that the United States used to control production and modification of.
CAVUTO: Right.
MOODY: We gave that technology to China. We showed them how to use it. They improved on it. They, of course, do it for cheaper than the United States can do it. And they now control about 90 percent of the production of rare earths in the world.
CAVUTO: You end the book -- I don't want to give it away, John -- on an ominous note here. It either sets up the sequel or movie or both, but that, talking in general, you could see this kind of thing happening again?
MOODY: Oh, sure.
And I hadn't thought of a sequel, but thanks for telling me.
(LAUGHTER)
MOODY: Yes, I'm working on a sequel. And it continues down this path to oblivion unless we do something about it.
CAVUTO: And we're not, are we?
MOODY: No, we're not.
CAVUTO: All right. Thank you, John Moody. So good catching up with you.
The book is "Of Course They Knew, Of Course They..."
And, again, it gets into all the possibilities and links them all together. Again, it's fiction. But I'm telling you, you will be reading page by page. It's a page-turner. You will be startled by how it sounds pretty much like real life.
We will have more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: Christmas canceled?
Remember that famous scene in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" where there's a bad storm, and Santa Claus says, we're going to have to cancel Christmas? And I thought to myself, storms are storms, but you don't think canceled Christmas. Calm down.
But the fact of the matter is, we're looking that way right now. It has nothing to do with storms, unless you want to call inflation and short supply a storm.
Mac Harman probably might agree with that, Balsam Brands CEO, maker of all these beautiful Christmas trees right now that are in short supply. So forget about having presents to put onto your tree. You might have a devil of a time finding the tree.
What's going on here?
MAC HARMAN, CEO, BALSAM BRANDS: Well, good to see you, Neil.
It's crazy right now. The supply chain crisis that everyone's finally talking about has been affecting us for months. And so it's been really hard for us to get all of our different holiday decorations from all over the world here to the United States, because the ocean lines are backed up, the ports are backed up.
And the biggest thing, we can't get truckers to get them from the ports into our warehouses.
CAVUTO: So, where, Mac, are the trees coming from? Where do you get most of them? Because these are artificial trees, we should stress.
But go ahead.
HARMAN: We mostly sell prelit artificial trees at Balsam Hill, and they are primarily manufactured in China.
But we have goods ornaments, tree skirts, all those things coming in from all sorts of places, Europe, India, other places. And they're all stuck right now.
CAVUTO: And where are they stuck, outside this port in California or everywhere?
HARMAN: They're stuck in all sorts of different places.
The biggest place they're stuck is outside of California. We do ship in through lots of different ports in the U.S., New York, Savannah and Texas. But there are so many ships stacked up outside on the West Coast ports. They just can't get unloaded fast enough.
And the president today has announced a big initiative finally to get to it. But the problem is, we have got to get truckers to get those goods out of the ports into our warehouses. And that's the biggest shortage that we're seeing.
CAVUTO: Your trees are beautiful. If people aren't unfamiliar, they don't look at all -- because they're stunning.
But do you have a backup line of, I don't know, Charlie Brown Christmas trees in case you can't get the real nice ones because they're in short supply? What's your backup plan?
HARMAN: Well, it's funny.
About six months ago, we said, geez, if we can't get our trees here, what are we going to do? And we looked into selling live trees again, which we used to do, so freshly cut trees that we'd sell on our Web site. And we called some of the suppliers and said, we're sold out. I can sell you trees in 2024.
CAVUTO: Wow.
HARMAN: And so, fortunately for us, we got ahead of it. And so we do have trees here.
We don't necessarily have wreaths. We don't necessarily have all the ornaments that we want to have. But we do have the trees. We just may not have the exact species of tree or height of tree or light type that you might want.
CAVUTO: Got it.
Keep us posted, Mac. Very good seeing you again, Mac Harman, Balsam Brands CEO.
See, the trouble with getting presents under the tree, the tree itself, it's a mess, right?
And, by the way, in Washington, they could be working right through the holidays, which is fine, because they're not going to have any holidays, right? It's that bad -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right.
Well, if President Biden had to say what he wants for Christmas, it would probably be getting both infrastructure bills signed, sealed and delivered, at least to him, so he could sign, seal them and deliver them to the American people.
But he's having a devil of a time right now making any progress on that. So he might end up with just coal here.
But let's get the latest from Chad Pergram where things stand.
Hey, Chad.
CHAD PERGRAM, FOX NEWS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Neil.
Well, cuts are essential of Democrats are going to get anywhere with their original $3.5 trillion spending bill. Liberal Democrats want it all, but can't have it all. They must whittle down their massive spending package. What makes the cut and what is on the chopping block?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: The fact is, is that if there is -- are fewer dollars to spend, there are choices to be made.
So, mostly, we would be cutting back on yours and something like that. But those are decisions that we have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERGRAM: Trimming the length of some programs is one option to save money.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): I like the idea of that possibility that perhaps, rather than looking at a 10-year allocation, that it could be something smaller, which would reduce the amount of the overall package.
I like the idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERGRAM: West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin worries that's a gimmick. He fears Congress will automatically re-up the programs later.
New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez implores congressional leaders to maintain funding for immigration, public housing and public transportation. Progressives still want to spend $3 trillion.
But this will all come down to two people, Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema -- Neil.
CAVUTO: As things stand now, will it even happen this year?
PERGRAM: Nancy Pelosi wants to do this by the 31st. It is doubtful.
There's a lot of concern here on Capitol Hill that if Democrats lose the Virginia gubernatorial race, there might not be the political capital to move this sometime in November. So they want to get it done as early as possible.
But if you get into November or December, who knows?
CAVUTO: All bets are off.
All right, Chad Pergram, thank you very much.
Well, the good news on the day was that William Shatner, at 90 years young, got to briefly lift off from this planet, take a look down. You can't see any of the arguing going on in Washington. You can't see any of the people freaking out. You can't see any of the threats on supply of goods that will or will not make it for Christmas.
All you see is the pristine beauty of a planet. And, so for Captain Kirk, today, today, that was good enough.
Here's "The Five."
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