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The Kudlow Report





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Nike 12, Us 5, Adam Lanza 5, Oregon 5, Newtown 4, Alabama 3, America 3, Robert Frank 3, Ho 3, Asperger 3, China 2, Virginia Beach 2, Florida 2, Chris Pollone 2, Brian Shactman 2, T. Rowe 2, Connecticut 2, Louisiana 2, Mississippi 2, Tsa 2,
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    December 14, 2012
    7:00 - 7:30pm EST  

. listen, go look at some other stocks. don't just focus on apple. it's just going to drive you crazy. like i say there's always a bull market somewhere. i promise to try to find it just for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer, and i will see you monday. beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. they had their entire lives ahead of them. >> that, of course, was president obama speaking beautifully and emotionally today about what i believe and many believe the most horrible and heinous and heartbreaking tragedy that anyone has ever seen. most folks are asking the same questions we are, how could this
possibly have happened in this great country of ours? let's go to nbc's chris palone near the scene with the latest. >> reporter: at the hour in newtown, connecticut, people are starting to gather in at least three local churches holding prayer vigils for the victims' families. police say it could take up to two more days to identify all the victims and collect all the clues at the elementary school here near me. the big question on everyone's mind tonight is why? imaginable horror. more than a dozen elementary schoolchildren brutally murdered by a gunman who walked into a school and opened fire. >> there were 18 children pronounced dead at the scene. there were two children transported to area hospital, pronounced dead at the hospital. there were six adults that were pronounced dead at the scene. >> reporter: frantic parents rushed back to the school, desperate for any information about their children. >> we just ran like every other
parent and we found out we couldn't get to the school. >> i drove from work. i work in bridgeport. i drove back up here. it was the longest drive of my life, it was really hard not knowing. >> reporter: teachers barricaded the students in classrooms before they could be evacuated. >> children, beautiful, beautiful children who had simply come to school to learn. >> we heard like shots and everybody went on the ground. and ms. martin closed the door and we went to the corner. >> reporter: police and s.w.a.t. teams surrounded the school and stormed outside buildings. >> upon arrival, entered the school and began a complete active shooter search of the building, searching every portion of that school. >> reporter: it's believeded the gunman drove there where he killed his mother, a teacher, and her students. >> shocked, disgust. why would this happen? >> reporter: the magnitude of the loss of life involving so
many children has shaken this community and the nation. >> i know there's not a parent in america who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that i do. the majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. >> reporter: in washington, d.c., flags are flying at half staff as the country mourns with this small connecticut town that has lost so much. of course, thoughts and prayers of this entire community tonight are with those 26 victims that died here at the school. 20 young children under the age of 10 and also six adults. meanwhile, the investigation here continues. that's the story live in newtown, connecticut. chris pollone, nbc news, back to you. >> many thanks to chris. now to try to talk something sensible about this, we welcome blake zeft to the show, a former obama presidential campaign aide. we welcome back nan hayworth and
mark simone. nan, let me begin with you, please. you're a doctor. >> yes. >> i know you're not a mental health doctor. but it has been alleged that he has asperger's syndrome, personality disorders -- nobody knows. does mental health play a huge role in this, from what you know? >> well, i'm the mother of two sons as well. i just can't imagine the scene at that elementary school. and of course the families whose children survived. these children who witnessed this. there's no explanation for these things, clearly, larry. and this is the latest in a series of shootings this year. every one of them has been perpetrated by someone who has been deemed to be exceedingly mentally ill.
we do have a problem as a society in identifying those who need help so that they won't do these things. and it's a very, very difficult problem. it's going to need a lot of concentrated effort. >> mark simone, we are a big country. and i still believe we are a great country, even though we have our own problems as illustrated tragically today. mark, if it is a mental health issue, if this guy, huge disorders, personality disorders, what do you make of this? how do you cope with this? what steps should be taken to deal with this in your view? >> it's 100% a mental health problem. it's not a crime of passion, no robbery. strictly mental health. in china, they're having a similar phenomenon where these things are occurring with more frequency. you can't get your hands on guns in china but it's happening with knives and axes in schools. there's not really much you can do.
columbine had an armed guard. virginia tech has an armed police presence. it's not the answer. i think it's just identifying these people and somehow stepping in before this happens. >> blake, let me ask you this -- mark opens the door about security and armed guards and so forth. my sister-in-law, bless her, down in virginia beach, is a schoolteacher. she called my wife this afternoon to relay a story about security in some of the inner city schools in that area. let me read you what she said. somebody comes into the school, they have to get buzzed in. this guy got buzzed in. we don't know yet why, how, when and where. but he got buzzed in. the buzzer goes off and sets an alert. follow me on this. somebody buzzes in. maybe they go through a window. teachers start a drill. the kids are put into a corner. listen to this. shades are pulled down, lights are then flicked off to leave
the impression to a potential killer that nobody's in the classroom. now, i know people go to newtown to avoid all this. but unfortunately, is this the kind of drill we're going to have to put -- i have a home right next door in redding, connecticut. it's an awful nice area, god bless it. people go there to get away from the inner city. but look what happened. is this the kind of place -- is this the direction that our schools are going? >> what i think you're getting at is almost a comparison to what we've recently done with regard to anti-terrorism where people have had to change the way in which they've conducted their air travel and other types of ways of life where you're used to taking our shoes off and going through the tsa pat-downs. we're spending a lot more money on counterterrorism than gun violence. but we have more deaths due to gun violence than to terrorism. we have to start putting more attention, more resources and maybe having to change some of these types of security
measures, unfortunately. >> congresswoman, let me ask you about this security issue. this is a tough issue. most people don't want to have to go through drills like that. like i said, a lot of people in the newtown area and i know it well, we're up there, that's why they're there, because it's a calmer, peaceful place. and yet is the kind of drill that my sister-in-law had in virginia beach, is that coming nationwide? is it going to be like the security, the tsa that we hate it but it came nationwide fast? >> maybe. but since we just heard in this report that his mom, apparently the shooter's mother was a teacher there, probably he was familiar to the staff. i'm going to guess. we don't know. but -- >> that's why they let him in. >> right. what does that tell us? that you can have security measures in place and they can be exceeded. we have cultural issues that we clearly have to deal with. there is so much imagery, so much information, so many sources. we all know it.
and freedom of speech is something that is our right as americans. so i'm not suggesting that we restrict our speech. but as a society, we really have to think about all these channels and how we look at the content as content providers. what imagery and what content people are surrounded with. >> i'm dying to find out what kind of mental health assistance he got. >> that's it. this is a 20-year-old. >> who the doctor is, who the therapist is, if there's a shrink. mark simone, one of the other bizarre parts of this story, this kid was armed to the teeth. he had four guns or some such thing. he had bulletproof vests and all the rest of it. the guns were legally purchased and the guns were registered to his mother. that just blows my mind. they were legally purchased and the guns were registered to his mother who he killed. >> again, i don't think it's a gun issue. i'm all for gun control, if we
get rid of all guns, that would be great. but i don't think that's the problem here. the worst incident of this kind was in 1927, 40 killed in a school. that was done with a homemade bomb. you remember that disco is few years ago in new york where the guy was thrown out. he went and got gasoline and matches and managed to kill all those people without even entering the place. all these solutions make sense. but you can never fully defend yourself against a madman. >> do we know where the mother was killed, at the home in newtown or at the school? >> no. someone was killed at that home. there are two crime scenes in newtown. the first thing i saw when i put on the television, a woman saying, i can't believe it happened here. again, it's mental illness. i would imagine there's more guns in the inner city than in newtown. it's not a case of that. we have to somehow have a way of finding these people, identifying these people and preventing this. >> and yet as we all know we
don't want to -- there is a very high incidence of mental illness, very small incidence relative fo tto the amount of ml illness of these kinds of hideous events. how do we not stigmatize people who will never, ever commit or come close to committing a crime like that? these really are -- >> multiply point about the guns is i don't blame this on gun control or any of that stuff. you may. we'll talk about that in a minute in detail. but it occurs to me and i don't know -- there is so much about this that i don't know. but if this guy had these mental illnesses, these personality disorders, why his mother has all these guns around the house, it just doesn't make any sense to me. that's a judgment call. i don't know anything about her. i don't want to draw any conclusions. i just want to say, when i heard that, it really piqued my interest. if she was killed at her home and we don't know that, that
piques my interest even more. you sort of say, how does this kind of thing happen if your son has a mental disorder, you don't want to have a lot of guns around the house. >> just getting back -- taking what you just said and what the congresswoman just said about mental health, one of the issues when he talk about, is it gun control or not gun control? there are different ingredients. one of the things is that some 40% of guns in this country are purchased at gun shows. and there's a gun show loophole where background checks don't need to be conducted. if you purchase a gun elsewhere, you have background checks that are required. and you can find these problems such as mental illness and it makes it difficult for people like this to get these weapons. it's not going to solve every crime but it's not a reason to discount it. it does get tricky when you deal with mental illness and to stigmatize people. >> asperger's syndrome is very common. >> it does get complicated. but i do think that background checks can be useful in averting
some of these tragedies. >> there are still missing bodies out there or there are rumors -- girlfriend talked that's missing. what are the facts here? are there people missing that we don't know about? >> we're not sure yet. there was the misidentification of the suspect. i'd rather not say at this point. i think there's more to this that we're going to find out. no one is sure yet. also the mental health issue, often there's someone who's on medication, maybe they've slipped off and stopped taking it. there has to be a system of making sure that's not happened or any parent who sees a change in behavior in someone who already has problems has to be on top of that more. >> what were you going to say before on the mental health? >> asperger's, it's been said this young man hads a perrer's syndrome, obsessive
compulsive -- >> hang on a second. i want to go to chris pollone who's on site. >> reporter: we're learning more and more information as the time passes here this afternoon and police are able to figure out a little more of what's going on. a few developments over the last hour or so. there was some confusion early on on who exactly this gunman on. early on he was identified as a ryan lanza. later we learned it was an adam lanza. the reason for that is police have gone to hoboken, new jersey, where they actually picked up adam lanza, the gunman's brother. they took him in for questioning. it turns out he is ryan lanza. he told police that it was very possible that his brother was actually carrying his id on him today. no idea why. but that's something that they determined. they've also determined that that brother to their satisfaction did not know about this potential attack or had no part in it.
so at this point, he is not being considered a suspect. other information that we're learning also, nbc's pete williams reported earlier that the guns used in this attack were registered to adam lanza's mother and were legally purchased apparently. and we have also learned originally it was believed she is a kindergarten teacher here at the school, it was believed she was killed in her classroom at the school. we also learned that there was a separate crime scene not far from the school, a home where a person was found dead. we have now learned that the person found dead at that home was indeed adam lanza's mother. and then he came here to the school and carried out that attack that killed 20 children under the age of 10 and six adults. those are the latest leads that we're following. >> chris, let me ask you real quick. in other words, the chronology here to the best of what we know is that adam lanza first killed his mother at this newtown house and then went to the school to
commit this mass murder? is that what you're saying? >> reporter: yeah, that is the latest indication. and you know from being on these things that that will change five times between now and midnight. but that is the latest indication is that that murder happened at the home. then he came here to the school. had some sort of altercation in the principal's office and then went down to os stenably his mother's classroom and shot many of the students. they say the shooting was contained in about two rooms. and most of the victims were in those two rooms. >> we have to leave it there. thank you all. tough night to come by. i appreciate your following through. "the kudlow report" will be right back. ♪
we know that nike is a hot brand. it's also one of oregon's biggest employers. and now the company is forcing the state's hand saying it wants a 40-year tax deal in exchange for bringing in new jobs or else. cnbc's own brian shactman joins us now with much more. good evening, brian. >> hi, larry. nike is the second biggest employer in the state of oregon. in fact, one of only two fortune 500 companies that have
headquarters there. and basically they told the governor they want to expand and if they don't get tax certainty, they are going to be free agents and there are several states trying to poach them. the governor called a special session to pass legislation that says any company, nike, that spend $150 million in new investments over five years could get what they call single sales factor status. i want to explain it to people. that is taxing nike based on in-state sales, not just the combination of sales, real estate value and payroll taxes. it's an absolutely sweet deal for nike. whether it's 40 years or five years, it's going to be in between that range. but it shows you how important companies are to the states and how important taxes are to these companies. it's not just about lowering their rate. they want a tax certainty. they wanted to make sure this deal stayed in place for a long time. >> you know, brian, i get this. i get the whole story.
but i just awant to say this. giving that special sweetheart tax deal to nike does not help small businesses in oregon. it does not help entrepreneurs coming into oregon. the state's got a 7.6% corporate tax rate. that's 21st in the country. they have a 9.9% personal income tax. in other words, if they would lower their tax rates across the board, they might not have to give these giveaways to companies like nike and they might grow faster. >> and nike has a sweet deal to begin with. there is a huge debate about the cost benefit of doing this. nike's a great partner. i crunched the numbers. the average salary for a full-time employee at nike is $100,000 and up. it's a great place to work. it could 12,000 direct and indirect jobs here. but they don't bring in a lot of tax revenue from a company worth $44 billion. nike had the leverage and the governor -- basically nike said, we need to jump to this and the governor said how high. at the cost of $13,000 to get
the legislature back from vacation, he's going to make sure this passes. >> i hear you. all i'm saying is you lower the tax rates for everybody, that would really open up opportunities in oregon. but many thanks to brian shactman for a great report. it's simple, changing tax laws will change behavior. that's it. and that's why it's been a very busy few weeks for the very wealthy in america. they're already making a lot of moves to prepare for all the tax hikes that are coming. robert frank is about to tell us about some of them. don't forget as always, free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. lower all marginal tax rates for businesses and individuals and you'll get opportunity and you'll get jobs and you'll get growth. i'm kudlow, we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year.
as we draw nearer to the fiscal cliff, people who give away millions of dollars to their heirs are now making plans on what to do should those tax breaks go away, as i think they are likely to go away in the next couple of weeks. our very own cnbc's robert frank joins us now with the details. it's a sad story, bob. >> it is a sad story but very important. we focused a lot on the income tax, capital gains rate, dividends tax. this is huge for the wealthy. right now, you can give up to $10 million per couple to friends, heirs, whatever and
then the tax kicks in. next year, that drops to $1 million and the rate goes from 35% to 55%. if you have a large estate, this is a huge amount of money. what's happening is you have all these wealthy families transferring millions, billions of dollars probably to their heirs in advance of this tax increase. >> in the next couple of weeks. >> it's happening right -- i've talked to trust and estate attorneys who have no time to talk to me because they're doing so many transactions for these people. >> i was reading, the president's estate tax idea, he doesn't want to go back to 35% and $5 million single, $10 million married. he wants 45% and a $1 million exemption. what i'm suggesting is either way, people are right to do what they're doing because they have the best break they're going to get right now. >> that's right. this world is ending. this tax regime that we've had for nine years for the wealthy is over.
and they know that. i think his exemption is going to be 3.5 million x, not $1 million. whatever it is. it's a lot worse than it is now. so they're rushing to get ahead of it. >> robert frank, we appreciate the report. we're going to keep an eye on this. unfortunately i think that exactly what robert described is going to happen as the republicans cave in on president obama's tax increase. we have a special program you don't want to miss that's coming up. it's called "trading the globe." tim seymour and mandy drury are going to co-anchor this thing. you don't want to miss it. that's it for me, tonight, "the kudlow report." thanks for watching. we'll be back on monday.

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