Nancy Mace: ‘Tax increases will add to inflation’
South Carolina Republican discusses the Democrats' spending push on 'Your World.'
This is a rush transcript of "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on October 15, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Had it with this '70s show, prices soaring, gas lines returning, savings dwindling?
Well, how about we turn the clock not quite so far back, not 50 years ago?
How about just six years ago to 2015? And it has nothing to do with the price of gas back then or who the president was back then or another guy teeing up a run for president back then.
No, 2015 was the last time we heard from a singer simply known as Adele, an iconic musical voice whose album "25" would be the last we'd hear from her for years, years, six long years. That is until now, because inflation may be back, and you can't change that. But so is Adele. And, really, why would you ever even think about changing that?
Today, today, FOX on top of a pop star back and teasing her return with a single song. I'm sorry. I can so lost.
Adele, she's back. There's hope for the world.
Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto.
And I know what you're thinking because you did this last time I had an obsession about her. This Adele fixation of yours, Cavuto, is weird. Maybe it makes some of you uncomfortable. Last time I got into this Adele thing, some of you said it was downright creepy. You're old enough to be her father.
True enough. But I'm old enough as well to appreciate this remarkable singer's impeccable timing as well. So, today, today, all of these predictable stories that dominate our national discourse, the mess in Washington, the soaring prices, the spending craziness, well, they're all taking a backseat to a front-and-center superstar that might ever so briefly take our minds off what ails us and might very well unite us, if even for a little while.
Look what it did to the markets today. They're calling it the Adele rally.
OK, maybe they're not, but I am.
That's why I'm making a big deal of all this, not because of some weird, even disturbing obsession, although it does disturb my wife and so many others, but because of the calming, captivating lyrics Adele brings to a beleaguered world that needs the welcome distraction.
That's why this is so big, because something good is back. What better way to jump into a weekend, right?
By the way, you're welcome, America. The world is watching, at least "Your World."
So, will "Easy on Me" be an easy win for Adele? The world wants to know.
To David Lee Miller on this phenomenon that is Adele -- David Lee.
DAVID LEE MILLER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, three words. It's a hit.
Adele's video for her new song, "Easy on Me," has already been viewed on YouTube more than 33 million times. And that makes it the ninth most watched video in the first 24 hours of release, that list, by the way, dominated by K-pop. The only other artists on it are Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift.
And the 24 hours, well, that's not even up yet. She still has about three more to continue to climb the list. The entire album, called "30," is set for release on November 19. And like her previous albums, the name is a reference to a certain period of time in her life. In this case, it's when the 33-year-old singer was 30 years old.
If early reaction is any guide, it could do better than her last albums, which was the bestselling album of the year 2015, the fourth bestselling album so far this century, selling 22 million copies. It won the Grammy for best album of the year.
Adele recently told an interviewer with Vogue magazine -- she was the cover story as well -- the song "Easy on Me" is about what she refers to as her inner turmoil. It deals with life-changing events. The song is dedicated to her 9-year-old son, and she says she hopes the song will help him understand her reason for a recent divorce.
The song and the album seem destined for both commercial and critical success. But Adele is resisting comparisons to her previous blockbuster hit. And she told Vogue -- quote -- "There isn't a bombastic 'Hello.'"
The new album is expected to be the first time Adele's music can be listened to on a streaming service, by the way, upon its initial release.
And, Neil, I know you're a fan. This won't surprise you. But a recent quote from Adele, she said: "I didn't write songs about a specific elusive thing.
I write about love, and everyone knows what it's like to have your heart broken" -- Neil.
CAVUTO: So true, David Lee, so true. Thank you, my friend.
Some of the best reporting I have seen out of you in many, many years, but that's David Lee.
All right, now, a lot of you want to know, have you been in contact with Adele? Well, we did reach out to Adele on this stunning development here, because this began at FOX Business, which, if you don't get, you should demand. Of course, Adele already gets it. So she heard about the fuss.
Anyway, she got back to one of my producers on FOX Business, Kevin Fitzgerald. And they said: "Hi, Kevin. Thanks for reaching. As it turns out, this isn't possible. Best, Benny," who is a top P.R. representative.
Now, I had told Kevin, let them know you're calling. It's Neil Cavuto. And, all right, he did four or five times. But, but, but, but I suspect Adele is a little busy. New album comes out. It's just like Bret Baier with this new book. You're busy. You're busy, busy, busy.
I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: All right, let's get the read right now from Ashley Dvorkin.
I can't wait to see the e-mails on this.
Anyway, Ashley Dvorkin joins us, FOX News entertainment reporter. Hannah Hope here as well, The Sun assistant showbiz editor.
So good to have both of you with us.
Hannah, all kidding aside, there are certain events that people look forward to, like a big movie when it comes out or a new series that suddenly takes on excitement. But in this case, someone who we haven't heard from in the better part of more than half-a-decade, she's very good at building up the tempo here and the excitement. Is it resonating?
ASHLEY DVORKIN, FOX NEWS ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCER: Yes, I think it's resonating.
HANNAH HOPE, THE SUN: Adele...
DVORKIN: Oh, go ahead.
HOPE: (AUDIO GAP) say it's very similar to the James Bond world premiere we had in London just last month.
Adele is like the music version of that, if you will. So, happy Adele day.
CAVUTO: No, I hear you.
Ashley, you were saying?
DVORKIN: Yes. It's happy Adele day.
CAVUTO: Right.
DVORKIN: I think, absolutely, the excitement is building. And I think that artists and singer-songwriters in particular really connect when they're honest. And that is what Adele does.
She tells her story. And whether you relate to that specific story, you're just excited to share your feelings too and belt out these songs to the best of your ability along with her.
CAVUTO: All right, now, I don't want to give away everything on this song that's been released ahead of the album's release on November 19, "Easy on Me," but it does go through her recent divorce and what she went through.
What that woman has gone through. I will get my act together here.
But, Hannah, one of the things that comes out of this is that she really hasn't changed a lot of the tone, the deep brooding and all of that. And I'm just wondering, what changes here?
HOPE: Really open, like you say, about her divorce, about all the feelings that she's gone through.
What I have got to say, with this opening single, unlike "Hello," there is more of a feeling of hope with this and looking to the future and growth. I feel that she's feeling strong and confident. And she's coming out a woman, whereas before in her 20s she was still very much a girl.
CAVUTO: You know, you echoed exactly what I was thinking earlier. Before, she was a girl. Today, she's a woman.
All right, Ashley, I'm looking at this and wondering the pressure it puts on her to have a runaway, huge album. The last one, if you think about it, was before streaming got to be a big thing. How does that change things now?
DVORKIN: Well, for Adele, I don't think it really changes much, because it doesn't seem that she is looking at this for the popularity of it, the fame of it. She's looking for that connection.
And she even talked about how this was therapeutic for her. She talked about the album and writing it like a friend that was there for her. So I think she's just excited to share it. And as you can see, as we talked about, all the excitement is building. So it is going to have that effect.
It is going to be just as popular.
And I think whether they stream it, buy the albums, whatever you do, people are going to be getting this -- these -- this music.
CAVUTO: Hannah, obviously, the other thing they're talking about is how much weight Adele lost, I thought too much weight myself. I was worried that that would affect her voice. It hasn't. She's still as angelic as ever.
But that's the new -- some of these images we have are some of the older images. She's just much thinner now. Your thoughts on all of that.
HOPE: (AUDIO GAP) ... pounds is obviously a huge amount of weight to lose.
And in her recent Vogue interview, she was really on it. And she said she hadn't done any dieting or intermittent fasting. It was actually from exercising three times a day...
CAVUTO: Wow.
HOPE: ... which helped her shed all the weight.
I mean, there's kind of a lot of backlash actually from some of her female fans, which she seems a bit irritated by, because I think she sort of did it for herself. She wasn't doing it to impress anyone or to kind of conform to that Hollywood stereotype.
And she's just really done it for herself. But you're right. I think that she does look different. Some people think she likes too thin.
I have got to say, I think she's kept it really classy with her style. She looks like old Hollywood glamour in her recent Vogue cover, which reminded me a bit of Brigitte Bardot with the hair curls.
CAVUTO: Oh, I like that, a little Brigitte Bardot comparison. Very good.
Ladies, I want to thank you both very, very much here.
And I told you about the Adele rally on Wall Street, no doubt excitement about this album. There are a lot of you saying the Wall Street rally had nothing to do with Adele. I'd like you to prove that to me. But that's a separate issue.
I want to go to Dr. Joe Bennett. He's quoted a great story in The Wall Street Journal today, Berklee College of Music professor, forensic musicology. So he knows of what he speaks.
And, Doctor, one of the things I found fascinating is, you go back in history to prove that songs about breakups and divorces, they cut across the musical spectrum here with some of the biggest names. And those songs ended up doing quite well, don't they?
JOE BENNETT, PROFESSOR OF FORENSIC MUSICOLOGY: Yes, I think it's something of a truism in songwriting.
If you can write about a universal human emotion, in Adele's case, like heartbreak, one that we have all experienced, and if you can do that in a way that communicates to people, it's a very good recipe for a hit, because you're, by definition, talking to something that a large number of people find relatable.
And, as you say, there's no shortage of particularly women singers and singer-songwriters through history who've done this to great effect. Adele is the one we're talking about now, but if it had been decades ago, we could have been talking about Edith Piaf or Judy Garland or Dionne Warwick or K.D. Lang.
CAVUTO: Right.
BENNETT: So many people have sort of trodden this path.
CAVUTO: And a lot of men as well, Marvin Gaye back in 1978, with "Here, My Dear," or even Bob Dylan, "Blood on the Tracks," even though I guess in the '70s he said he wasn't really talking about relationships.
But they risk a lot when they do that, don't they, with Willie Nelson in "Phases and Stages," I mean, '74? They do take a bit of a chance there, don't they?
BENNETT: Well, yes.
And, clearly, when you're talking about your own personal autobiographical experience as a songwriter, there's a certain emotional risk there to the artist putting themselves on the line in that way. And yet there's also an opportunity there for the songwriter to mine that experience for the emotional truth that it conveys and to put it down in a lyric that people are much more likely to find understandable and relatable.
CAVUTO: Has there anything like, Doctor, in Fleetwood Mac, with the "Rumours" album, "Go Your Own Way" and Stevie Nicks, talking about the breakup with Lindsey Buckingham?
That was weird because it was a song by the same band and the key players.
That had to be the weirdest in history.
BENNETT: Well, certainly, one of the most commercially successful in history.
CAVUTO: Absolutely. Absolutely.
BENNETT: That album born of heartbreak, and I think possibly because of a combination of that -- if you're talking specifically about "Rumours," its success could be ascribed to a combination of those universally relatable romantic themes, that is, everyone's -- most adults have had the experience of having their heart broken -- with this sort of updated sound that the band brought to that album.
A lot of those sounds on "Rumours" sound deceptively cheerful when you just listen to the music, but it's only when you get into the lyric analysis when you realize how brutal some of those sentiments really are.
CAVUTO: Yes, especially when you're in the same group.
Thank you very much, Doctor. You're an encyclopedia with this stuff. I appreciate you taking the time here.
I hope you appreciate taking the time here.
We're following the repercussions of this. And maybe if you can update me if Adele does get through here, I will take it. I know a little busy.
But, right now, the administration, not a peep out of them on this whole Adele issue, so they're worried about some other big issues and they're rolling in the -- deep in trouble there. But so far, so far, the administration right now is pretty much saying hello to some new criticism
-- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, the e-mails are coming in fast and furious on this stunning Adele development, including one viewer who said: "Your obsession with her is disturbing, not only because you're old enough to be your father" -- everyone brings that up -- "but because you look kind of creepy when you're talking about her."
I think that's a little mean.
But we have indeed heard back from Adele. And then the call was cut off, but right before it was, we had called her real quickly and all she had to say was, "Hello?"
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Never gets old for me, but it gets old for my crew, because they have heard it about 8,000 times.
All right, let's go to Jacqui Heinrich right now at the White House, blessedly moving on to bigger, more important stories.
But I find it curious, Jacqui, that the president didn't once mention Adele today. Just me, but take it.
JACQUI HEINRICH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Not yet.
CAVUTO: OK.
HEINRICH: There might be hope yet, though, Neil.
CAVUTO: Very good.
HEINRICH: I will just tell you, though, Press Secretary Jen Psaki, she walked behind me a few moments ago. You don't get face to face with the press secretary all that often. And when you do, you want to ask really, really important questions.
So, because I love you, I asked what she felt about Adele's new song, and she did not give me an answer.
(LAUGHTER)
HEINRICH: She looked busy. I think she had some other things to handle today.
CAVUTO: Oh, they all look busy.
(LAUGHTER)
HEINRICH: Anyway, the president is on his Connecticut trip today.
He was at a child care center earlier touting his Build Back Better agenda, the families portion of his spending plan. He talked about his experience as a single dad, a widower raising his two young sons, to make the case for the child care portions of his plan, the social spending that would address that issue.
He also touched on some other pieces of his agenda, the eldercare, community college aspects, also roads and bridges proposals, money for Internet and clean water.
But, again, these spending plans are no closer to passing right now, with Democrats still unable to agree amongst themselves about what they can pass. The president, though, expressed confidence today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to get it done.
We're not going to get $3.5 trillion. We will get less than that. But we're going to get it. And we're going to come back and get the rest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEINRICH: But, yesterday, the White House acknowledged for really the first time that talks -- the time for talks is running out. Progressives have indicated that they're not in a hurry to pass anything right now.
They're eager to fight the moderate Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for more spending that the senators oppose.
But Democrats are getting leery about the impact this could have on the midterms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): And to the progressives, Alisyn, I would say, wherever we come up short, let's go to the voters in 2022 and say we just made the biggest down payment on issues that will get people back into the work force, and there's more we can do with a bigger majority.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEINRICH: Meantime, the White House is touting higher retail sales in September and lower unemployment rates, to contrast warnings to shoppers ahead of the holidays that continued shortages and price hikes are ahead, despite the agreements the White House brokered this week to get goods moving.
The president has not taken any questions on this or on his stalled agenda all week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: There is a lot of questions the press is going to want ask me, I know, about how are the negotiations going and how we're going to get this done and so on. Well, I told you before what my neurosurgeon years ago said when I had the aneurysm.
He said, your problem -- and I was in the Senate. Your problem, Senator, is you're a congenital optimist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEINRICH: A congenital optimist, a diagnosis from his neurosurgeon years ago. I guess we will see if that diagnosis holds -- Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, in the meantime, we will be hearing from the other side.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: See what I did there?
HEINRICH: Yes, I see. I see what you did.
CAVUTO: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
HEINRICH: Thanks, Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, thank you very, very much.
Let me know if they're going to say anything about Adele, though. Much appreciated, Jacqui.
She has a great sense of humor.
All right, William La Jeunesse, also a great sense of humor, he's at the port at Long Beach, California, but monitoring things and how they're going out there.
I'm thinking, as I'm ready to go to you, William, it's a good thing that we stream music these days. Because if she had to depend on -- that is, Adele
-- I'm sure you're into this as much as I am -- and about this through C.D.s or DVDs delivered to you, they would be waiting on some cargo ship.
It would never get to us, right?
WILLIAM LA JEUNESSE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have, number one, been told that Adele is not on the cargo ship behind me. We have been looking into that all day, Neil.
But it is important to put the president's announcement on Wednesday into some perspective, right? The ports alone do not make this decision to make America's largest port, Long Beach in L.A., go 24/7. In fact, each port has several terminals, each independently owned. And even though the administration says that Long Beach had already gone to 24/7, and that L.A.
Would -- quote -- "meet that effort," only one terminal out of six in Long Beach added the third shift, and only four days, not seven.
So it's misleading to suggest that they immediately doubled capacity, as was claimed, 50 percent, anyways. Well, they're trying to get all the players on the same page. But their timetable is 80 days. That's two to three months, not weeks, to scale up to 24/7.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENE SEROKA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PORT OF LOS ANGELES: We have enough workers today. It's a matter of making sure they're at the right place at the proper time with the skill sets necessary to move all this cargo. And the union have said, we're ready.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LA JEUNESSE: Another problem, of course, is trucking, shortage of drivers, but also the chassis that carry those containers, also warehouse space.
They don't have the -- or the workers, rather, to move the cargo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW SHAY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: We're certainly trying to move to more effective 24/7 operations. I'm not sure how much of that we're actually going to get done in the near term, but it's a good goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LA JEUNESSE: So, right now, there are 77 ships basically offshore, another
25 arriving in the next three days, Neil, a sign, of course, of our dependence, or at least our trade gap with China, which went up 11 percent in August, trade deficit now 34 percent up over last year -- back to you.
CAVUTO: Incredible. Thank you, William La Jeunesse, on all of that.
To Ed Rensi right now, the former McDonald's USA CEO.
And, Ed, I was thinking of you because I don't know what's worse for the fast food industry, news that the labor prices are added control, as well as everything they sell, the prices out of control, or Adele giving up fast food, she loses over 100 pounds. She's an iconic symbol.
I think that's the worst of both worlds there, my friend.
(LAUGHTER)
ED RENSI, FORMER MCDONALD'S USA CEO: Well, I'm really interested in how she feels about mature, chubby bald guys.
But please don't tell Barbara I said that.
(LAUGHTER)
RENSI: Yes, we are in a terrible dilemma, Neil.
And this has been 30, 35 years in the making. First, we pushed through regulation and laws and taxes so much manufacturing out of the United States. We haven't done a great job of training our youth how to become tradesmen and tradeswomen. We need welders and plumbers and carpenters and truck drivers.
And we should have spent as much time and money on them as we have on college loan programs, where we create doctors of philosophy that have never made anything with their hands. And I don't want to disparage them because I happen to believe that we need real deep thinkers in this country.
But, right now, for example, if you're a truck driver on the West Coast, and you want to go into the Port of Long Beach to pick up cargo containers, you have to have a special certification from the government that -- I think it's called a WIC (ph) certificate.
And if you're living in Portland, Oregon, for example, there's only one place you can go to get fingerprinted for that. And the lines are horrendous. And the drivers don't want to go there and stand in line, because every day they're standing in that line trying to get fingerprinted, they're not on a road making money.
The average truck driver right now is running probably 3, 300 miles a week, up to 7,000 miles a week. They're getting paid 38 cents to 52 cents a mile for that. My goodness gracious, really good McDonald's managers are making damn near twice that.
This is craziness that we have got such a dislocation of talent and need against our national interests. And I wish we would start working as hard.
Forget infrastructure for the next six months and start working on, how are we going to bring manufacturing back to the United States strategically?
This is so, so important, not only because we need to have U.S.-made goods, but we need to have jobs for our citizens.
CAVUTO: Yes. You're right.
RENSI: You have a better sense of worth if you work every day and earn a living.
And we say we have a shortage of truck drivers. No, we really don't. We have a shortage of strategic development of truck drivers with a pay that's fair and honest. At least a restaurant manager gets to go home every night.
A guy running a truck up and down the highway is criticized nonstop for the way they drive, and they never see their family.
It's a very difficult lifestyle. And we do nothing to help them.
CAVUTO: We have got to do something, to your point.
Ed Rensi, thank you very, very much. Good catching up with you.
CAVUTO: So, no matter how you slice it, when it comes to this economy, it seems like everybody's rolling in the deep, right?
More after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: I don't know if Adele is going to take her money in all Bitcoin, as some of the celebrities do, but I do know the mayor of Miami wants to do that.
He's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, the president, of course, is still pushing his big spending package.
And you always hear from some Republicans that they're open to the infrastructure-only package, that roughly $1 trillion package, but not all Republicans.
When it comes to South Carolina's Nancy Mace, she's not a fan of either, taking the time to join us now on this Adele debut song day, and she's very excited about that.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Congresswoman, very good to see you.
I will go right past the Adele drama and get to the Washington drama and whether you could be assuaged to vote for the only-infrastructure plan.
You're dead set against that too. Why?
REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): I am.
And if I can just say hello, Neil, and go easy on me. Is that the new Adele song? Could that be the theme of the interview today?
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Yes, that's a good point, yes.
MACE: So, the infrastructure -- Right? Yes.
CAVUTO: Touche.
MACE: So, the infrastructure -- yes, the infrastructure package right now, that $1.2 trillion, we're talking about 3 percent or $40 billion that would go into roads, bridges in that package. The other $70 billion in the surface transportation port -- part of the infrastructure bill would go to public mass transit.
No Republican in the House of Representatives was allowed to negotiate on this deal and work in a bipartisan way. And so it's very difficult for Republicans in the House to support this bill. And if we're going to -- it's obvious, it's clear, our country needs infrastructure.
So if we're going to do infrastructure, let's do infrastructure. And let's do it where it's bipartisan and bicameral.
CAVUTO: You had expressed concern that, even if Democrats on the more expensive package come up with a lower figure, 2, 2.5, that you wouldn't trust it, especially if it meant changing the number of years devoted to certain programs, because they would be re-upped and the spending would be just as big, if not bigger, right?
MACE: No, absolutely.
And to pay for all this spending, we're going to have to have tax increases, which obviously is going to add to our inflation woes. And if you're going to increase corporate taxes, or have to increase them from 21 to 20 percent, we're talking about the largest, highest corporate tax rate in the world.
So what do you think American companies and businesses are going to do?
They're going to take their business overseas, which means fewer jobs, lower wages for American employees in this country. It's all around going to be -- it's going to go from bad to worse economically for our country if we allow Bernie Sanders and AOC, self-avowed socialists, to write this budget, like Biden's letting them do.
CAVUTO: So, where does this all go?
Are Republicans concerned, maybe with all the best reasons, to be in the opposition of the party of no, and that that's what Democrats will use against you, assuming they can get their act together and get this approved?
MACE: Well, it's hard to say, right, because we're not certain any type of spending deal on infrastructure or otherwise will get done by the Halloween deadline or December 3 deadline.
Thank God for Democrats like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin that are holding their own and holding the line and holding all the cards right now to try to reduce that, that spending figure, that, if it does pass, it'll be lower than 3.5 even.
So, it's very difficult to say what's going to happen. It's really easy. I have to tell you. A lot of people say, well, what about all these difficult votes this year? Voting no is the easiest thing to do. The question is going to become is, when Republicans are in power, when we win the majority in 2022, what are we going to do with it?
Are we going to do, as we have always done, which is increase the debt ceiling, like we have 98 times since World War II? Are we going to increase taxes? Are we going to fumble on other major portions of our economy, like health care? What are we going to do with that in the future? Those are the tough votes.
CAVUTO: Got it. A very good point on all.
Congresswoman, thank you very much. Have a good weekend.
Well, you would think, looking around at Washington, everything that's going on, that things are a disaster, that the sky is falling, but it's not.
More after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, we have been telling you about stocks today. But have you seen what's been going on with Bitcoin?
It has been surging big time, now over 61,000 bucks a coin, a lot of that buoyed by belief that an exchange trade fund, an ETF, if you will, it will soon be approved by the SEC, offering investors another way to take some advantage of this phenomenon here.
Ahead of that particular curve was the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, who joins us right now.
Mayor, you were very keen before many others on having the city be able to pay its workers in Bitcoin. And I'm just wondering, what drove you to that?
And are you still looking forward to do that?
FRANCIS SUAREZ (R), MAYOR OF MIAMI, FLORIDA: We are.
And what drove us to that is, I think there's a lot of frustration on the part of people who think that the financial system that is run by people, as opposed to a computer program, is systemically flawed, because you see corruption around the world, you see hyperinflation, rampant government spending.
And I think people want a currency or a store of value that is devoid of all that. And so that's why I think you have seen the value of Bitcoin eclipse $60,000, as you just showed, because people are betting on Bitcoin vs. the dollar.
It's 60...
CAVUTO: But it's a volatile ride, right, Mayor? I mean, there are a lot of people in this country who are getting concerned that maybe what goes up could come back down. This has been wild swings here.
So, I'm wondering, when you hear that China has all but criminalized all of these cryptocurrencies and strategies, and that our own SEC is talking about taming it, that it's the Wild West of investments, and someone has to regulate it, does that give you pause?
SUAREZ: Well, not with Bitcoin, per se, maybe with some other currencies, but not with Bitcoin.
Now, certainly, the fact that China's banning it makes me want to run towards it, right? The fact that China doesn't control it, and that's why they want to ban it, is something that I think should give all Americans a desire to want to know more about it.
And, certainly, from the perspective of mining, which is how you authenticate the Bitcoin transactions, before, China was a powerhouse in mining. They had -- they were sort of the superpower, if you will, in mining. And they did it with dirty energy.
We're doing it here in the United States. We have just eclipsed China as the number one country in the world in mining. And what's amazing is, we're doing it with clean energy. So we're doing it without polluting our environment, which I think is important, because that's obviously one of the things that people criticize about Bitcoin mining.
CAVUTO: All right, any of your workers express interest in being paid in Bitcoin?
SUAREZ: Many of them have.
In fact, today, for the first time, our chief technology officer got paid in Bitcoin through a -- through a company called Strike that did it for the first time.
CAVUTO: Right.
SUAREZ: He was sort of our guinea pig. And that worked out well.
But we're doing a request for proposal to have a company that will allow our employees to take a percentage of their salary. I certainly wouldn't recommend that they take it all.
CAVUTO: Not the whole thing, right. Right.
SUAREZ: Right. Right.
But it's a percentage. And it's an investment like any other. And they have to take -- learn about it. And there's going to be -- also, we're going to teach them about it and we're going to have some training courses that go along with it.
CAVUTO: Got it.
Mayor, keep us posted on that. Fascinating.
SUAREZ: We will.
CAVUTO: Mayor Suarez, again, on the push to get paid in Bitcoin.
A lot of athletes like this idea, a lot of celebrities. I don't know if it applies to Adele, of course, with her album debut early next month.
By the way, I'm getting a lot of e-mails from people: Well, what does your wife think of this, Neil, with this obsession? Well, funny you should ask.
It is our 38th wedding anniversary today, today. The funny thing is, I have not heard word one from her.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: I don't know.
We will have more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, we're getting word that President Biden has called Bill Clinton to wish him a speedy recovery. He has been in the hospital dealing with an infection, not COVID-relayed.
Let's get the latest from Jeff Paul in Orange, California -- Jeff.
JEFF PAUL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, Neil, President Clinton is said to be doing dramatically better and getting back to his usual self.
And because of that, we're hearing that he could go home as early as today, maybe even tomorrow. Now, we know President Clinton was admitted to the hospital here in the city of Orange, California, on Tuesday.
And he's reportedly getting treatment with for what's said to be a urinary tract infection that had reportedly spread into his bloodstream. His doctors tell us his white blood cell count is trending down and he's responding well to those antibiotics.
Now, we're being told this is a pretty common thing to happen to folks who are over the age of 75. So, he should be OK. We also know the former president's wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is here in California, and she's been seen leaving the hospital after a visit with her husband and former President Bill Clinton.
We should also mention, Neil, that President Clinton has had some heart issues in the past. He's had a quadruple bypass surgery. But doctors here say that it has nothing to do with his heart, has nothing to do with COVID.
And they're hoping that he gets to go home very soon -- Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, thank you for that, Jeff Paul.
To Dr. Syra Madad, the Special Pathogens Program senior director of New York City Health and Hospitals.
Doctor, great to have you back.
Very little we know about the details for President Clinton, but what's your quick diagnosis?
DR. SYRA MADAD, NEW YORK CITY HEALTH AND HOSPITALS: Well, I think based on information that's available and looking at, obviously, some information coming out, he's on the mend.
And, as mentioned, it's a UTI. So it's a non-COVID-related illness, and it is treatable. So, wishing President Clinton health and a speedy recovery.
CAVUTO: What do you make, meanwhile, of what's been happening on the COVID front in this country, where cases are markedly going down? I believe, just in the last week, Doctor, four million more Americans have gotten some form of a shot, all the way up from their first COVID vaccine shot to a booster shot.
What did you make of that?
MADAD: Yes, this is an exciting time in the pandemic, in a sense, where we have so much great data, and you're seeing FDA's advisory committee meet today, yesterday, and they're going to meet tomorrow.
There's a lot that's on the agenda in terms of talking about the booster shots. So, as we know, there's the recommendation from the advisory committees to move ahead with booster doses of Moderna, J&J, and then they're going to also be talking about the mixing and matching.
And so, all told, as you have mentioned, cases are decreasing, hospitalizations are decreasing, same thing with death, but we're still seeing an increasing number of cases in certain parts of the United States.
So it's just important to continue to be vigilant and continue to abide by the public health guidance, because we want to make sure we get out of this safely as a nation, as well as around the world.
CAVUTO: How are you on this vaccine for kids as young as 5?
MADAD: Well, I'm a mother as well. I'm a mother of three children, and all three would qualify for that pediatric vaccine.
So I'm certainly excited and looking forward to it. But I want to also see the data. Right now, the top-line data that we have is from these press releases from Pfizer, for example. And it looks like it's great in terms of its effectiveness, in terms of its tolerability and the immune response, but I also want to see the data.
And once I -- once the FDA committee also meets and CDC meets, and they provide their recommendation, I certainly am looking forward to getting my children vaccinated. We want to go back to normalish as soon as possible for our children as well.
CAVUTO: Yes, I like that, normalish. You're right. I mean, we don't know what that is anymore, right?
But, Doctor, another thing that has occurred to me, with this booster push, I was surprised so many people who are getting that without consulting their doctors. In other words, they're getting it on their own. I guess it's OK to do that. I assume it doesn't hurt.
But are you surprised by that, that a lot of people just going, signing up with CVS or Walgreens or any one of these outlets to get it without discussing it with their doctor?
MADAD: You know, it's easy to go ahead and get a COVID-19 vaccine, whether it's your first, second, third or your booster shot.
CAVUTO: Right.
MADAD: You don't really have to show much in terms of getting, that dose, if you will. And it's a lot on the honor system, like from the beginning of the pandemic.
I think what's the -- where we need to continue to improve is on that science communication. And people are going to try to make the best decision for themselves and their family, in the absence of any public health guidance. And we have been relatively slow in giving this information because we're waiting on data, which is important.
But it's making people get nervous and wanting to go ahead and be active and take that next step. And so I would just urge Americans to talk to your provider just to ensure that you meet the criteria and it's what's best for you.
But we know these vaccines are safe and effective.
CAVUTO: Got it.
Doctor, I want to thank you very much for that update. We appreciate that.
In the meantime, the auto industry is in a world of hurt. That, you know.
And if you want a new car, you might be waiting for a while. Rumor has it you might be waiting a long while.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, Toyota joined a lot of other big automakers in saying right now they're going to be making fewer cars than they planned originally, next month, about a million such vehicles, now maybe about 800,000, if they're lucky.
Tom Maoli not at all surprised, a car dealership owner, kind enough to join us.
Tom, this is a pattern. What's going on?
TOM MAOLI, CAR DEALERSHIP OWNER: Well, listen, you got to chip issue. You got the supply chain issue. And they can't get these vehicles manufactured fast enough.
The -- all the plants shut down due to COVID. Then we have the chip issue.
We have the supply chain issue. And the manufacturers just can't produce the product. And add to it the labor factor, Neil.
CAVUTO: Yes.
MAOLI: There's a lot that we're still dealing in a labor market where they can't get the proper labor to produce these vehicles and get them to the dealerships.
CAVUTO: So what do your customers do? What do you tell them? What popular models are going to be waiting or what do you have on your lot?
MAOLI: Well, I have to tell you, they're waiting for everything.
CAVUTO: Right.
MAOLI: We're selling into the pipeline. We're selling stuff that is still on the ships coming in. And we're taking orders that are two, three, four, five, even six months back.
We're at -- inventory levels are at an all-time low. Historically, we kept a 90-day supply on our dealerships' parking lots. Right now, we're less than 30-day supply. And I have to tell you, there are not enough used cars out there either.
People are holding on to their cars. They're not selling their used cars.
So it's a very interesting dynamic. It's an epidemic.
CAVUTO: A lot of dealerships are calling in leases, in other words, telling people, even if they have many months to go on the lease, bring their car in. And even if they don't get a new car, I guess the strategy is, sell that car.
MAOLI: Well, listen, people are turning in leases, and dealerships are trying to buy them because they need product to sell to their customers.
They need used cars.
CAVUTO: Right.
MAOLI: And people that are in these leases can sell these cars and get out of them and actually walk out with a check. So that's why they're doing it.
But I have to tell you, I just got back from Las Vegas. I was at several dealer meetings with the manufacturers. And this is not going to end soon.
They're talking about into 2022, possibly into 2023.
CAVUTO: Wow.
What's the longest a customer has been waiting to get a vehicle, let's say a popular vehicle?
MAOLI: We have vehicles ordered out one year, Neil.
CAVUTO: One year?
MAOLI: And it's unbelievable. People are willing to wait one year.
And I have to tell you something. It's basic economics. It's supply and demand. What's going on in the marketplace today is that prices are rising on a monthly basis. The manufacturers are pushing the price up because they have less supply, and they need to make more money.
CAVUTO: All right.
MAOLI: And consumers are the ones that are going to pay for it.
CAVUTO: I hear you. I hear you.
Tom, keep us posted, Tom Maoli, a car dealership owner.
And this is a phenomenon, it affects all the major -- the major automakers.
So, we will be following that.
Also updating you on any calls that we might be getting from Adele on the release of her song "Easy on Me." This thing has been downloaded, what, better than 25 million times. Someone was telling me more like 50 million times.
The new thinner, ridiculously thinner Adele -- I think she's lost way too much weight, but it has not impacted her voice at all. I'm going to play a little bit of her song.
Let you know that, well, she will probably be on my live Saturday show, or at least we will have an update for you. My staff is telling me, Neil, the message light is on, on your phone. So, I know what that means.
But, again, tomorrow, we're focusing on that. We're focusing on all these car delays and shipment delays and cargo problems.
But, you know, as bad as things are, the good news, is Adele is back.
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