cass patel, all on sunday. plus on fox business start smart every weekday with "mornings with maria" on fox business we hope you will start your day with us every weekday morning. that will do it for us this weekend, thank you for being with me i hope you a great rest of the weekend and i will see you again next time. ♪. gerry: hello this week on the wall street journal at large, democrats insist their multitrack and other plan to remake the u.s. economy will cost nothing, and may be there fantasy world but sadly we all have to live in it and pay the true cost. >> it is 0 price tag on the debt. >> this is a 0-dollar bill, is

good to be completely paid for. >> the reconciliation package will cost $0. >> so much for 0 president biden's cut ability takes another hit this week as top generals testified on a senate hearing and afghanistan they contradicted successful withdrawal and confirm biden alone made the decision to pull u.s. troops out ignoring advice from top military aid. >> required military command to give our best military advice but the decision-makers are not required any manner shape or form to follow that advice. >> the war was a strategic failure on the issue of why we didn't bring out civilians, is really an state department call. >> the biden administration may not be up to the job of keeping people safe but when it comes to buckpassing there is no one better at it, it was a generals fault, maybe the state department, plus a new vaccine

mandate maybe costing the cloud over the economic economy, get vaccinated or be fired, the mandates for schools and hospitals to scribble to fill positions admitted at heavy labor shortage in the country. i'll be joined by two leading commentators to talk about the big news and thoughts on what comes next, here to talk about the democrats fiscal drama on capitol hill is house ways and means ranking member texas congressman kevin brady. >> thank you for having me. >> the democrats insist the multitrillion dollar spending plan will cost 0. you understand the math? >> that is nonsense only in washington the claim will rank up if you like your health care plan you can keep it it is simply not true by any measure, this is trillions of spending, trillions of new welfare expansions, trillions and tax hikes and even with all of that they are hoping for a bunch of

budget gimmicks, they are going to borrow a bunch of money to do it and bottom line this is very costly not just in dollars and cents but in u.s. jobs, tax increase on a small businesses and also ultimately on working families in the middle class. gerry: joe biden says it's popular to all these programs expanded healthcare, expanded education and all these giveaways why isn't free money being dished out from washington, why wouldn't that be popular. >> i think what people understand exactly what the impact will be we think losing 3 million u.s. jobs and driving many of them overseas will be hugely unpopular. when small businesses and their workers find out how tough this will be with the tax hikes and mainstream find out permanently in a be difficult to hire

workers, reopen, people are standing in lines at restaurants and having supply problems when they see the price increases and a form of taxation and accelerating, and now the new proposal, bank surveillance on working families, farms, small businesses, the intrusiveness of the irs, i think american people feel differently about this package. gerry: we seen this many months over the progressives like senator joe manchin and kyrsten sinema, whatever comes out eventually from all of this, it is however, a very, very progressive, a very social welfare as social democratic set of measures that they are passing. >> no question about it, this past week we saw democrats in disarray, obviously nearly averted a government shutdown

and our transportation programs expire did nothing of the debt ceiling, the test here is not about nancy pelosi leadership, the test is are there any moderate democrats left in the house who will stand up for the local small businesses and u.s. jobs. the other point, the one and a half trillion dollar package that they're now starting to think about frankly can be just a scribbling on the economy and just as damaging long-term with the welfare state expansions as a three and half trillion dollars, that is not a compromise and we are fighting hard to stop it. gerry: quite a number of your republican colleagues in the senate supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill that's white-collar bipartisan for structure bill most of your colleagues in the house very much opposed to it, that seems to be the majors investing in

the country's infrastructure that a lot of people think the country needs why is that not such a good idea. >> i do agree republicans and democrats have supported infrastructure, now more than ever we need that type of agreement and investment. about a third of that build is what i think most americans believe is true infrastructure, roads and bridges, rails, water systems, broadband, all of that, the rest of it we think is wasteful spending, special interest does not need to be done but here's the major difference between the senate and house, the senate was really separated from the tax and spending bill, the house is linked completely that is why they're struggling with it, republican support investment roads and bridges, what we don't support our roads and taxes and in the house there is no question the infrastructure bill drives the spending and the tax hikes, that's why we are

opposing it. >> thank you yet a busy week thank you for spending some time to join us. gerry: coming up the democratic spending standup and the other biggest issues with our panel, biggest issues with our panel, thth alright, here we go, miller in motion. wha — wait, wait, is that a... baby on the field?? it looks like it, craig. and the defensive linemen are playing peek-a-boo. i've never seen anything like that before. harris now appears to be burping the baby. that's a great moment right there. the ref going to the rule book here. what, wait a minute! harris is off to the races! we don't need any more trick plays. touchdown!! but we could all use more ways to save. are you kidding me?? it's going to be a long bus ride home for the defense. switch to geico for more ways to save. it's another day. and anything could happen. it it could be the day yous ri welcome 1,200 guestsse. and all their devices. or it could be the day there's a cyberthreat. get ready for it all with an advanced network and managed services from comcast business. and get cybersecurity solutions that let you see everything on your network.

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gerry: very busy and dramatic week, we have plenty to talk about let's take it up with our panel box contributor correspondent byron york, the democratic strategist and communication ceo laura think, thank you for joining me. gerry: let's talk with the politics battle that's been going on almost entirely with the democratic party let me start with the republicans somebody said republicans are sitting back with the popcorn and enjoyed the skeptical of democrats fighting with each other is not a very skeptical for the democratic party, is it. >> i been rather out of five, he

saw joe manchin come out putting his blind in the sand with the 1.5 training dollars and progressives fighting on the hill for what they consider to be the priorities and use all the clean maker herself nancy pelosi pushing it through, we are seeing this made in public so it's not going to be perfect but i think you see progress made that was the news of the week we want to see americans see their healthcare cost lowered and the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit moved through and see american jobs created with the second package. gerry: for all the fighting that we watched the democrats do this week, as laura says the president insist the program is popular and full of all kinds of giveaways, child tax credit, big spending on education, healthcare, art republicans going to have a challenge fighting back against all of these giveaways. >> actually if you look at polling of president biden's

handling of the economy, it's been going down and down, a lot of american workers are concerned about other things like inflation but i think we seen a lot of real divisions among democrats the most progressive of them wanted the big social and climate spending bill to be $6 trillion and then everybody was talking about $3.5 trillion for a while, joe manchin comes out and says $1.5 trillion, that's a lot of difference. it'll be interesting to see whether they can find something that they can come together. if i say one more thing, the fundamental cause of all the democrats problems if they do not control the majority of seats in the u.s. senate, it is 50/50 to have to depend on the vice president to break a tie if they can get their and they want to do new deal, great society style, sprawling legislation and you cannot do it without a big majority. gerry: that's a good point there

is no mandate for this, president biden was elected president but as byron says there's no majority in the senate, is tied the democrats lost in the habit majority of the handful he's tried to do fdr and lbj programs on the thinnest of margins, it is not happening. >> all agree with you strategically but what the president and members of both houses of congress have majorities of americans from broadly different political leanings that agree that the wealthy don't pay their fair share in this country and agree bridges in roads need to be built in childcare is to expensive prescription drug cost need to go down and what you see is action taken on behalf of, it is a diverse collection of democratic representatives with the majorities, that is why it is challenging but do not bet against nancy pelosi, she has carried legislation to houses of congress before with the affordable care act and she will do it again.

as a result middle-class families are going to see the cost go down, not just in the short term but the long-term these are durable issues facing the middle class. gerry: what we learn this week about the democratic party, who is driving the democratic bus. >> if i could add one answer about the affordable care act, democrats pass that when they had 60 votes in the u.s. senate the filibuster approved the majority in the u.s. senate. president biden runs for office centrist in the democratic field of 20 or more candidates, bernie sanders is his main competitor, who is running things clearly i don't think joe biden is governing as a centrist and the fact is the president, one without a big majority on capitol hill has a lot of people the answer to, there is no doubt that the progressive wing of the party is an extraordinarily

vocal and powerful group the house progressive caucus, just the house has 95 members, if anybody is driving the democratic party there pretty close to the wheel. gerry: let's take a break will become back i want to talk about the other big topic on capitol hill, president biden's damage credibility as his own generals contradicted some of his planene (vo) this is more than just glass, walls, doors and carpeted floor. it's a place to change the world. loopnet. the most popular place to find a space.

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>> nobody is telling you we should keep 2500 troops, it's a stable situation for the last several years we can do that and continue to do that. >> no one said that to me that i can recall. >> i recommend we maintain 2500 troops in afghanistan. >> we've been consistent

throughout we should keep a steady state of 2500 could bounce to 3500 may be something like that. >> the input was received by the president and considered by the president. gerry: americans top general defense secretary testified on the hill contradicting what president biden had claimed in august, 15 were on president biden's credibility let's take this up with our panel, lauren let me start with you i know their trading delicately in question sometimes about president biden's capabilities but it's not likely that he would've forgotten that his top military advisers advised him to keep 2500 troops in afghanistan. >> he received advice from all corners considered and made the decision and a 20 year war that happened, the longest were at the u.s. history at a cost of $2 trillion and he was the first president that had the courage and tenacity to do that. that will be part of his legacy

and i think it was clear from the fall what president biden feared a 2500 troops would lead to 3500 troops and really there is no good time to exit we heard the general testified that american intelligence and military forces underestimated, overestimated the ability of afghan forces and government to sustain and we saw that with the taliban takeover, immediately, after 20 years we have to examine this as an american effort that was not successful and not be actions of a single president republican or democrat. gerry: the commander-in-chief, why can't he just say my generals gave me the advice, i listen to and i decided to go a different direction. >> i don't know why he didn't say that maybe he literally didn't recall, i think the hearing changed the whole story

from a general milley story to a president biden story, i think it did show the general milley had been unfairly accused of treason by some of his most rich difference critics and he actually did operate with the full knowledge of his civilians when he was making contacts in china. on the other hand the whole 2500 troops saying, first of all is a critical issue and it raised a critical conflict with the president story and the general story, not just general milley but general mckenzie as well, another issue the president doesn't really take a lot of questions, he does not expose himself to widen far-reaching questions and he needs to answer a lot of questions and follow-up questions about his decision in afghanistan. gerry: we have to take one more quick break when we come back the debate over vaccine mandates heated up as essential workers are being fired over the

vaccination status how it struggling and will talk about all of that. >> people need to be vaccinated testing will not be an option. >> clearly i'm not considered a hero at five disposable paramedical choice as someone who resembles someone else... i appreciate that liberty mutual knows everyone's unique. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. [ nautical horn blows ] i mean just because you look like someone else doesn't mean you eat off the floor, or yell at the vacuum, or need flea medication. oh, yeah. that's the spot. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

gerry: in new york kathy hochul declared a state of emergency hospitals and schools face

staffing shortages to the mandates the biden administration is planning vaccine mandates for many workers that many american countries, let's take it up with our panel these vaccination band-aids were seen all kinds of problems and the situation in new york city, united airlines said it was get a fire 600 workers this week, not only questionable in terms of legality and constitutionality it could do real damage to the economy to. >> those are two different issues, the legality is going to have to go through court process which will take a long time maybe the problem will be over by the time it's based in enormous logistical problems, there are 650,000 hospital and nursing home workers in new york state, the vaccination rate really jumped up in the face of the threat that is very high but is still leaving 50000 people

were not fully vaccinated that's a huge hole in the workforce. that's another weird dislocation that the covid crisis has made in the american workforce. gerry: laura we get the idea behind the vaccination mandates and the idea is to get on top of the virus as much as possible but actually with this what were seen with hospital short of workers in unvaccinated is that the cure worse than the disease. >> i would say this the risk is covid spread through the health professionals with the delta variant being very aggressive, healthcare administrators and leaders recognize that so they know the vaccine mandates work, they know that this resistance, there hasn't been large-scale resistance overall we see this in california and the private sector with united there down to

300 employees not needing to be fired for getting a vaccine out of 67000 is not just united's tyson foods where they saw an uptick from less than 50% to more than 90% of their workers getting vaccinated we see it with the houston methodist in texas there workforce has increased their vaccination rate over 10% you're not seen widescale resistance you haven't seen in california which has a mandates for many weeks you're not seen in new york, this is sound and fury and ultimately the vaccine mandates are going to make people healthier and protect healthcare workers and keeper hospitals open and safe. gerry: all these things that we talked about this week the covid mandate, potential damage to the economy, afghanistan and the crisis at the border which continues to get worse driving down president biden's poll numbers significantly. do you think he's hit bottom.

>> no there is much further to go, what is interesting when you look at president biden's job approval in the first few months it was significantly over 50%, the pimple holding it up was the public's approval of his handling of the covid pandemic. approval of his handling of other issues began to go down, handling the economy, handling foreign affairs, afghanistan was a disaster, handling the border was always bad but the covid approval rating stayed up there until all the confusion about booster shots and all of the latest controversy and now that has gone down. approval president biden's job handling has gone down across the board. gerry: very quickly, we have to go, do you think the president hit bottom. >> i think the president will be just fine he continues to advance his domestic agenda and make strides to protect americans in the deadly crisis.

gerry: thank you very much for joining us, that is it for us this week i'll be back with more interviews on the washing general at large, thank you for joining us. ♪ >> "barron's roundtable" sponsored by invesco qqq. ♪. jack: welcome to "barron's roundtable" where we get behind the headlines prepare you for the week ahead. i am jack otter, former fda commissioner joined us on covid-19 vaccination for young children and the continued importance of masks, later despite serious supply chain issues there will be