(luke) this will be a gold mine of local intel. just you wait. (marci) right. so, tell us about this corn festival? (stylist 1) oooh you got your corn pudding... you got your corn chowder... (marci) so... is it safe around here? (stylist 2) sometimes. (luke) if a family of eight were to need a cold plunge, where would they find it? (stylist 1) ...and then they dip it in butter, then bam, it goes right in. (stylist 2) ...really cute vampire bar. (stylist 1) the reverend does like a blessing on the corn. (luke) donut shops. how far from here? (marci) no eyebrows? (luke) think of how light it'll feel in the summer. we've got to run. eleven thousand more neighborhoods to go! (vo) ding dong! homes-dot-com. maria: welcome back.

good monday morning, everybody. thanks very much for joining us this morning. i'm maria bartiromo. it is monday, april 15, it is 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. and i hope you're having a good monday morning. iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles saturday. 999% were intercept sed, the u.. military he destroying 80 drones and six missiles. the president biden says the u.s. will not be part of any retaliation on iran. joining me now, florida congressman michael waltz, a member of the select committee on intelligence, also a retired national guard colonel and green beret. it's a pleasure and honor to talk with you. thanks for being here. >> thanks, maria. good morning. maria: your reaction to all of this and now the fact that the administration is saying we stand with israel but, but, but, we won't be part of any

retaliation. >> yeah, maria. it's no surprise that biden is doing more to consistent strainl than he is to constrain iran at this point. the biggest way to help israel, help our ally and live up to the rhetoric is cut off iran's cash. we've been saying it for months. that they are exporting more oil than they ever have, they're selling 90% of it to china, so chinese money is flowing into tehran that is flowing out take all of the terrorist proxies, including the houthis who are cutting off global shipping down in the red sea. that's what we have to do. and in terms of aid, we have had two aid packages, one with pay for, one without pay fors, sitting on chuck schumer's desk for months. maria, we also passed the ship act out of the house that would put secondary sanctions on chinese buyers of iranian oil.

the sh shipping companies, insurance companies, refineries. if we were serious about helping israel and we want to get to the long-term problem you have to cut off the cash in tehran they're using to fund all of this and they're going to keep doing it and launch more drones, build more missiles, and keep pounding our ally until they have a catastrophic hit. we've got to cut off the cash. maria: you would think this is the easiest thing the white house can do, cut off the money to iran. you know, it doesn't involve a military move, doesn't involve being part of retaliation. just cut off the money. this administration is doing the opposite. so they waived the sanctions renewal and then on friday the president said he did expect iran to aattack israel sooner rather than later and sent this

message to iran, not the first time we've heard the same message. watch. >> what is your message to iran in this moment? >> don't. >> i have one word. don't. >> to any actor, state or non-state, trying to take advantage of this crisis to attack israel, don't. >> we have just one word. don't. maria: well, obviously they weren't exactly shaking in their boots from the don't warning. former secretary of state mike pompeo writes this, so much for don't when your secretary of state declares near moral ebbin equivalence you get bad guys wreaking destruction. >> they know there will be no consequences. you can have the most powerful capable mill any the world but if our allies or enemies don't respect or fear you or respect

your capability and will to use it, then it's for gnawing. naught. what president trump knews was you don't have to use the military, our most powerful weapon is actually our economy and the ability -- i just don't know how to say it. when you waive sanctions, you allow 10 billion to flow in frm iraq, 6 billion for hostages and john kirby said president biden passed 500 new sanctions but you don't enforce them and allow china to get away with it, china is ultimately the big winner here. not only are they getting cheap oil. our military is once again exhausting itself in the middle east. the ships and missiles should be in the pacific, not the middle east. and so china's sitting back, fat and happy. maria: that's a great point about the middle east, versus the pacific. let's talk about what you can do as an elected official. the house reconvening to you address funding for israel and

ukraine today. i spoke with speaker of the house yesterday, mike johnson said he wants to pass a package this week after the dronend a missile a attack. on sunday morning futures, here w's what speaker mike johnson said. watch. >> way back in october we with passed our israel support package. it's been siting on chuck schumer's desk ever since. the house republicans understand the necessity of sitting with israel. we will try again this week. maria: former president trump has talked about the possibility of turning aid for ukraine into a loan, is that what you're considering? >> yes. i had a great visit with him at mar-a-lago on friday. when you talk about aid to ukraine, he's introduced the loan lease concept which is a really important one. repo act, which is seizing the assets of corrupt russian oligarchs to help pay for this resistance. i think these are ideas that i think can get consensus. we'll put something together and send it to the senate and get the obligations complete. maria: congressman, i want to get your thoughts on how this would play out.

i know there's a loan idea, seizing sovereign russian assets, lifting the moratorium on lng exports but there's still a fight underway about why you're going back to the drawing board now. you already passed a standalone aid bill to israel. here's rand paul and what he says about this whole exercise right now, the senator from kentucky. watch. >> what i would say to speaker johnson is hold your ground. show some cahones. show industrial fortitude. you've already passed aid to israel. tell chuck schumer take it up and it's going to be paid for. maria: so congressman, what a does all of this look like? tell us your reaction and whether or not you're going to see alternatives to what we're talking about including a loan, you know, trump says send money to ukraine, fine, but make it a loan or do you want to seize sovereign russian assets, that was another part of the repo act or maybe the biden administration needs to lift

that moratorium on lng export projects so that there is not a worry about oil and gas situations in america. your thoughts? >> maria, i would i say d, all of the above. i certainly certain agree with r paul that we l already passed to aid packages. the problem is chuck schumer is afraid of the puerto rico hamas, puert-- pro hamas, pro palestinn progressprogressives. look, we cannot and i don't see anything moving without border, maria. this isn't an either/or. it is a matter of priorities. and we're hearing that loud and clear from our consistent sit ct we have to secure our border. joe biden created this mess through executive orders and a eliminating trump's executive

orders. and i pray that speaker johnson in his phone call with biden said you put him back the in if you want to see aid. number one. number two, let's make russia pay for it. that's what the repo act. number three, russia is flush with cash with the high price of oil. why? because biden is condition stricting our oil and gas so their war machine is cranking away, yet we are constraining our own gas. we should flood the world with cheap, clean american oil and gas, drive down the price of oil. now you're getting two for one. you're drying up iran's war machine and russia's war machine. so this is about policy as much as it is just signing another blank check and finely, maria, i a want to introduce an amendment that says until europe meets its 2% defense commitments, all 31 nato nations, we're done with aid going forward. they have to pay a their fair

share. we can't ask the american people to dig deeper in their wallets when european politicians are doling out social programs like germany and spain and italy especially, that's a good deal for europe but a bad deal for the american taxpayer this is about policy, not just blank checks. maria: are you saying that you are a no vote if a package comes to you that includes ukraine aid along with israel aid? >> i'm saying you have to have all of those other pieces in place, maria. no more blank checks joe biden's failed strategy. he backed us into a stalemate n europe because of his bad policies. maria: we'll be watching your work for sure. thank you, sir. >> thank you. maria: quick break and then president trump says this attack on israel would never have happened if he were president as joe biden's don't strategy clearly failed. it's the hot topic of the hour and it is next.

you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. the code's not working. dad, she really needs to pee. we're gonna get in in a minute, okay? representative. [cs line] please continue to hold. meanwhile, at a vrbo... when other vacation rentals leave you hanging, try one where you can reach a human in about a minute.

do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy - even a term policy - for an immediate cash payment. call coventry direct to learn more. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. our friend sold their policy to help pay their medical bills, and that got me thinking. maybe selling our policy could help with our retirement. i'm skeptical, so i did some research and called coventry direct. they explained life

insurance is a valuable asset that can be sold. we learned we could sell all of our policy, or keep part of it with no future payments. who knew? we sold our policy. now we can relax and enjoy our retirement as we had planned. if you have $100,000 or more of life insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit coventrydirect.com to find out if your policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance.

maria: welcome back. it is time for the hot topic of the hour. former president trump writing on truth social, iran's attack on israel would not have happened if he were still in the white house. a new wall street journal op-ed writes this. the a attack should at least cause mr. biden and fellow democrats to end their cold war with israel over gaza. going on to say, quote, this is an opportunity for trump, he should drop his own ambivalence towards israel and declare undivided support. i spoke with former director of national intelligence john ratcliffe yesterday on sunday morning futures. he told me the attack high lights the failure of the biden administration. watch. are you expecting a response from israel to iran? >> absolutely. and i think that there should be. there must be. joe biden doesn't have any red lines. they get crossed. the israelis do have red line and an attack by iran into

israel was a red line that must be answered. i think israel will act alone here. and they will consider and should consider a strong response that could target anything from iranian oil infrastructure, iranian military installations, iranian leadership or perhaps iranian's nuclear facilities and nuclear program. maria: liz peek, your reaction? >> well, i think trump is absolutely right that this would not have happened. let's talk about why. first of all, trump was unpredictable and he was feared. he had shown on a couple occasion ofs he was not unwilling to use the military that was not off the table. secondly, don't forget that the abraham accords were creating tremendous support group of arab nations to confront iran. iran was not only broke. it was also isolated and facing a mounting threat that basically would contain its bad behavior in the region and, third, oil

output. u.s. oil output was surging and we didn't need iran's oil. when you're talking to mike waltz, both of you were neglecting the consequences of further military action, israel taking action against iran. any further h escalation and oil prices go through the roof. what is the number one fear of the biden administration? $5 gasoline. they won't let that happen. maria: so that's the only thing, that's the north star. >> that's it. maria: that the biden administration is focused on. >> absolutely. maria: i mean, john, your thoughts? >> well, i think the energy policy is very important. unfortunately, the biden administration had a very narrow view of energy policy that the only thing that mattered was climate change. but believe it or not, what they overlooked was the fact that oil has important implications for economic performance as well as

for geopolitical stability. you can't overlook the cost of allowing the price of oil to rise and that strengthened enemies such as russia, iran, and we're now paying the price for that. people have to re realize you he to have a more universal global perspective when you're looking at energy, when you're looking at climate change, because otherwise you could get yourself into an awful lot of trouble. maria: yeah. it's true. all right. we will keep on this. we'll take a short break. when we come back the race for the white house is on, most americans not feeling good about president biden's first term, calls are growing for a biden, trump debate. let's see them both on stage one on one. former presidential candidate vivek ramaswamy is here to discuss the state of race. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us.

morikawa on 18. he is really boxed in here. -not a good spot. off the comcast business van. into the vending area. oh, not the fries! where's the ball? -anybody see it? oh wait, there it is! -back into play and... aw no, it's in the water. wait a minute... -alligator. are you kidding me? you got to be kidding me. rolling towards the cup, and it's in the hole! what an impossible shot brought to you by comcast business. you can cashback 5% on travel purchased through chase with freedom unlimited

and... buy better plane seats. switch to a king suite. or book a silent retreat. silent retreat! oh! hold up! earn big with chase freedom unlimited with no annual fee. how do you cashback?

her uncle's unhappy. i'm sensing an underlying issue. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit... unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for. maria: welcome back. new polling from the new york times finds 25% of voters view president biden's years in office as mostly good for the united states. a full 42% remember president trump's time in the oval office

as good for america. joining me now is former 2024 presidental candidate, entrepreneur and author of capitalist p punishment, vivek ramaswamy back with me. great to see you. thanks very much for being here this morning. how would assess the state of to the day? >> look, i think this is a unique opportunity that americans have, it's a once in a century opportunity, maria. we get two presidents whose rack records you get to compare side-by-side. usually if you have challenger to incumbent like biden, you get hopes and dreams. you have four years with trump of a sealed border, growing economy. with biden you have rising prices, rising interest rates, flat wages, an open border and we could see it m marching towad major conflict because of america's weakness. the choice is clear.

voters get to make that choice. maria: a group of major news outlets are urging presidential candidates to commit to a debate. they write this, be the there's one thing americans can agree on during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high. there is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with each other and before the american people. their visions of the future of our nation. this is no s secret. we all want a he debate before a presidential election. will the administration commit to t put being biden up on stage with president trump next to each other before september when many people will have already voted? >> this is what american politics is supposed to be about at its best, each party puts up its best candidate. they have competing visionses they offer to the american people and the american people

get to choose their president. that would make our founding as far as proud. here's where we are today, a night mayor of that vision where the party in power are trying to prosecute political opponents in the middle of an a election, trying to remove a candidate from the ballot, threatening tech companies that are trying to silence. there's an opportunity to you unite the country. president biden needs to show up to the debate. i will call on him to come out of his cave and share with the american people what is his vision for the country so they can compare that to donald trump's and make their choice in a free and fair election. that's what america is supposed to be about. that's what we need to revive in this election. maria: will president trump be able to handle the campaigning along with all a of these indictments. jury selection for the former president, criminal trial, i don't know how you get to criminal trial by paying off

this porn star. anyway, it's going to begin today in manhattan a. your thoughts as jury selection begins. >> look, is president trump going to be able to handle it? yes. is this what should be happening during a presidential election? absolutely not. this manhattan da trial led by alvin bragg's prosecution reveals the farce of all of these prosecutions. think about the legal theory underlying the case, it's broken to its core. on one hand, they had say he should have used campaign funds to make the hush money payment. had he used campaign funds that would have been more likely a case for legal violation. they were going to get him going or they were going to get him coming. you have former commissioners like bradley smith who criticized the merits of the case. this is prosecutorial abuse to its core. and that being said, maria, let's move to the positive. i think four more years of trump i think we'll be able to reunite this country and lead us out of this terrible period we have

been in. america's not a country where you see the party in power yawing prosecutorial force against its components. that's the stuff of banana republics. that's where we are today. we don't have to stay there. after he wins, donald trump is going to unite this country in a way people across america are hungry for. that's why people are rallying against the prosecutions, as unjust as they are. maria: what cabinet position are you expecting to get in a trump administration? >> i'm looking to serve this country whatever way i can. it would be an honor to serve along side president trump. the main focus is making sure he's elected, not just by a little bit, but elected by a landslide. i think choice be a 1984, 1980 ronald reagan style landslide. a landslide is going to be a decisive victory. that's what we need to you unite the country and we need a

mandate to govern so i'll help as best i. maria: you were very popular with young people. will you be able to get the young people to vote for trump while joe biden is promising those same groups that he's going to forgive their student loan? >> look, i think that joe biden's trying the model of bribery. president trump is trying the model of offering a vision of where we're headed as a done you tri, reviving america's greatness, success will be our vengeance. it's a beautiful part of president trumps' message this year in particular. i saw young people in the campaign. the reason many of them interfaced with my campaign and supported us is they're hungry for an alternative vision. the left fed them race and gender and wokeness. we will say here's what we stand for, the individual, the family, the nation, a that i'm a citizen of this nation, the united states of america and young people are starving for that sense of identity and purpose. and donald trump's vision to revive the greatness of this

country and i believe that's what the republican party stants stands for all the way down. i think we'll propel major victories in the white house, the congress and senate and down ballot as well. i believe if we stay on track that's what we'll get. maria: great to have you this morning. we'll be watching it. we appreciate your work. we've got a goldman sachs beat crossing the tape right now, cheryl cheryl with the breaking news. >> look at the markets go. earnings per share a very strong beat, came in at 11, 58, street looking for 856. revenue, again, a very strong beat. 14.21 billion. and the street was looking for 12.92 billion. they also have he declared a dividend, 275 per share. a few things here. i was looking at the trading equities revenue, the estimate going into this was 2.95 billion, just on the trading desk. on the equity side. 3.31 billion was the actual number which is a pretty decent

number, could have been better but we'll see. also, it really was the investment bank that really helped the company power through. those profits jumping 28% for goldman. and they also have provisions for credit losses of $318 million as well. but again, it was underwriting, deal making and that boosted the investment banking side of the business, maria. so again, the call's at 9:30. it will be interesting david solomon who comes on the call, executive departures he'll be asked about, there was an ill fated move into re retail banki. have they recovered from that. in the past they had commercial real estate write downs, will that be discussed on the call. it was the investment bank that really pushed -- as you know,s goldman is a wall street firm. they make their money on the

street. and the quarter was good to them. back to you. maria: and you could have expected it, right, cheryl? we had a pretty good quarter in terms of capital march a gets. we had a lot of deals, healthcare, a string of deals in healthcare, couple deals in media and tech. the stock is ripping right now, cheryl, thank you. stock is on fire, up 3%. look at the dow industrials, up almost 200 right now because of as cheryl noted it's a dow come component, john your reaction. >> investment grade bond issuance, up 30%. that's nothing. high yield bond issuance was up 117% and leveraged loan activity up 173%. on top of that, we probably had some strength in terms of private equity. so it figures that the investment banking division of goldman sachs did better than expected in the first quarter. maria: i wonder if this bodes well for morgan stanley which is coming out later on in the week. do you think we're going to see

a similar number? >> -- a similar blow-about. >out.>> we'll see strength in s of co corporate borrowing activ, m&a also. let's not forget the first quarter was very strong for the equity market, its was up sharply and that provided nice underpinning for the increased activity as far as riskier assets and riskier securities are concerned. maria: we're at the highs of the morning now, goldman stock up 3 and-a-half percent. morgan stanley, i want to check that as well. >> b of a will be out tomorrow. morgan stanley, i'm looking at the estimates, looking for 14.41 billion. bawe could see a stronger performance out of morgan stanley. we get blackstone this week, american express, j&j, there's a lot of big dow components coming out throughout the week that will hopefully be markets

positives. maria: morgan stanley, checking on aum, asset management, because that's certainly one of the very important lines of business there so we'll see about their aum but morgan is rising this morning on the heels of the goldman quarter which as you're reporting is a real blow-out, cheryl. >> it really has been a strong quarter. by the way, they reduced head count at goldman by 2%. that's something that the street seems to like. i realize it's job losses on the investment banking side. still, they're talk about -- maria: expense control. >> you keep your books straight. there you go. maria: the stock is up 3 and-a-half percent on goldman. morgan stanley is up bar than 1%. stay with us we'll be right back.

before you use ai to transform business, accelerate growth, predict trends, you need to begin with trust. introducing watsonx governance. helping you govern any ai, as data, models, and policies change, so you can scale it responsibly.

let's create ai that begins with trust, with watsonx governance. ibm. let's create. hi, i'm tali and i lost 85 pounds on golo. i started golo because i was diabetic and my a1c and cholesterol were high. the minute i started taking the golo release, i knew it was working. i was not hungry, and i did not have any cravings. since losing weight with golo, i'm healthier now than i've ever been, and my doctor is thrilled. golo is so much more than weight loss, it's gonna give you your life back. ♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. voya helps you choose the right amounts without over or under investing. so you can feel confident in your financial choices voya, well planned, well invested, well protected.

there are many ways to do things. at old dominion freight line, we do them this way. this way has people who start early. people who care and inspire each other to do things the way they should be done. this way uses technology (♪) and goes the extra mile (♪) to deliver your promises on-time, every time. this way is why we're the number one national ltl carrier for quality. for us, this way is the right way which is why it's the only way we go.

maria: welcome back. jury selection begins today in new york city for president trump's so-called hush money trial. cheryl with all the details now. >> jury selection is set to begin in a few hours in former president trump's historic criminal hush money trial. he's a accused of falsifying records to hide the tr true nate ofpayments to a lawyer. this is the first criminal trial ever for a former u.s. president. expected to last for six to eight weeks. as to whether a fair jury could be aseemed be assembled in new , jonathan turlye joined you. >> it's easier to find a stray manatee in manhattan than an actual trump supporter.

this is one of the most hostile jurisdictions to trump. that will be reflected in the jury pool. they're not going to be asked about political leanings. he can assume he's going to have a motivated judge and a fairly hostile jury. and that's one of the things that i think alvin bragg is counting on. this is an aba absurd case, he's counting on the fact that the jury may not demand a lot once they see who is sitting behind the defense table. >> jury selection could take up to two weeks. jurors will be asked 42 questions in total, such as where do they get their news from, do they follow trump on social media, if they've ever attended a trump campaign evidence. . trump does say he intends to take the stand to defend himself. and finally, there's a thrill end to the masters tournament, crowd favorite scotty scheffler claiming his second green jacket in three years. it you was great. watch. >>

[cheers and applause] >> scheffler shot 4 under on sunday, more reasons to celebrate, he's got a baby on the way. >> my priorities will change very soon. my son or daughter will now be the main priority along with may wife so golf will probably be fourth in line but i still love competing. i don't plan on taking my eye off the ball any time soon. >> scheffler heads home with $3.6 million in his pocket and the green jacket. tiger woods posted the worst score of his masters he career. there were a lot of eye balls on him a but he didn't play well. i'm being polite when i say that. maria: i'm glad that golf moves down to four with the baby on the way. [laughter] maria: all right. thank you, cheryl. >> you bet. maria: time for the word on wall street, top investors watching your money. joining me now chief investment

officer and a rnb financial services fund portfolio manager, anton shutz. thank you for being here. we're rocking an rolling with the goldman sachs report this morning, crossing moments ago, a double beat on first quarter earnings and revenue, a dividend, investment banking 28%, profits up 28%. the company is on track to add 80 points to dow industrials, stock is up 3 and-a-half percent, $13 higher and that is lifting the dow industrials, it's up 200 right now on the dow because goldman is obviously a dow component. what's your reaction to these numbers. >> do you own goldman, anton? >> i don't. i wish i did. but they hit it out of the park. at the end of the day, there's not a lot to poke a hole in here. they did a great job in a lot of aspects be. people were waiting for revival in investment banking and on the fixed income side there was a huge amount of issuance and we saw that in some the other big banks.

goldman hit on everything. the end of the day, not having that consumer business looks great that goldman's back to its roots. maria: yeah. well, what do you think this means about the other capital markets related businesses that will report? for example, are you expecting a similar situation when we get morgan stanley out or bank of america which owns merrill lynch? >> well, i mean, if you think about those other companies, they're not quite as pure on the investment banking side as goldman is, so morgan stanley really has a lot of pride on the wealth management business which won't have the same kind of percentage move. morgan stanley ought to have good numbers for sure. goldman because of its concentration obviously i don't think it's all by itself. if you think about concentration, t the last quartr it you was new york community bank and everybody said oh, my gosh the banking community is if trouble. everybody else reported good numbers. goldman is starting with good numbers. goldman is unique, the way it's

built, the way it has concentration, that consumer business is no longer a distraction. maria: i mean, you'll have bank of america to sift through i believe you do own b of a, right, you talked about b of a a lot with me in the past but here you're talking not just about capital markets but also enormous lending business. how does that offset. i want to goal get your take on regionals, bank of new york, key bank, all of these companies are watched closely for exposure to commercial real estate, exposure to impact of changes in rates. so what's your take on b of a what you about those regionals? >> b of a certainly has had a very, very strong start to the year and if you look at the move in interest rates, people keep poking at its bond portfolio which they'll poke at again given the move higher in rates but b of a ought to have a

decent number here, certainly they've been quite asset sensitive over time. i think the disaappointment on appointmentfriday is they didn'p on n ii. tthe more asset sensitive banks will do better. i would say that's probably good news for the bank of new yorks of the world and i think companies like key corp. have derivatives that will be rolling off over time. which again will help. credit quality has been paid forward by the bigger banks like pnc. loan loss reserves against the commercial real estate portfolio are up over 8%. so it's already been paid for. and we're already starting to see that. wells fargo released reserves the other day. goldman didn't put up a giant number in reserves. a lot of that has been built already. that's what banks are supposed to do from an accounting perspective is to build for future risk and i would say that if you go under the smaller banks, they don't have downtown

commercial office buildings. they don't have high rise buildings. it's very different. also, a lot of the companies that i tend to invest in are in states people have been back at work, is not one of those situations where the buildings are empty empty. they may have two story buildings full of doctors and dentists. they can't work from home. so i think the risks are over-blown. 2015 was one of those periods of time, commercial real estate banks are in trouble, didn't happen. it will help if rates come down, no doubt. people have to refinance, it will make it easier. but there are parts of the country where some of the high rises will be in tough shape and the exposure is really not very heavily concentrated in the regional banks. i think that continues to be a mistake made. new york community was a one-off a. there's no company that's built like new york community that has that concentration to rent controlled new york state real estate that's multifamily. think about what the new york state legislature has done here in terms of controlling the rent

rises. inflation has calve caused it mh more expensive to be a land. landlord.maria: the weekend atn israel bringing uncertainty in one area and that is the price of oil. i want to weigh in here and let me know, anton, if you feel like there are companies that are more exposed to oil and the oil business in terms of lending than others. john, your reaction? >> of course, the energy group is going to benefit but with the latest climb of the price of oil and the risk of higher oil prices because of political instability, geopolitical instability in the my dole eastt you have to worry about a renewed climb of inflation. the petroleum prices enter into not just transportation, but they also enter into the

production of fertilizers pharmaceuticals, a lot of chemicals. we could be looking at a situation where instead of subsiding over the remainder of 2024, we have price inflation begin to rise and of course that's going to take away any chance of a fed rate cut and could bring a fed rate hike back into view. maria: what do you think, anton? that's what james grant told us a couple weeks ago, nobody was talking about rate hikes and he said the fed could raise rates. don't be so set on rate cuts. >> well, i mean, clearly energy's all by itself and tack tosser into the entire economy and it is inflationary, there's no codoubt ab -- there's no dout it. you think about banking, louisiana, texas as places where energy -- oklahoma. thing.there's banks that have ee to those markets.

banks are not heavily lending to energy any longer. there's very little exposure now there was a risk that was identified. it's unpopular. whej whenwhen you think about pt the conferences. people rush in and disrupt it because of energy lending. not the same type of exposure, when you think about states that are exposed. louisiana and texas will do better, oklahoma for sure. those are places that will benefit. maria: i didn't realize the administration was as effective as that, as actually pressuring banks to not lend to oil companies and actually forcing them to do just that. that's incredible, anton. thank you. good to see you as always sir. >> take care. maria: we'll be right back.

your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates

matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire

i don't want you to move. i'm gonna miss you so much. you realize we'll have internet waiting for us at the new place, right? oh, we know. we just like making a scene. transferring your services has never been easier. get connected on the day of your move with the xfinity app. can i sleep over at your new place? can katie sleep over tonight? sure, honey! this generation is so dramatic! move with xfinity. maria: welcome back. time for the morning buzz. well, tax day has arind. arrived. americans may need to hold ontheir wall lests. president biden's proposed bubudgedoubles down on tax incrs for the wealthy and corporations. biden hopes to impose $5.5 trillion in tax increases in the coming decade.

an ap poll finds nearly two thirds of americans think their federal income, state, sales and local property taxes are too high. grover norquist is with us, joining us for more on all of this, as american's for tax reform president. good to see you. your reaction? >> well, biden's tax increases are not just on the rich. he wants $5 trillion. he wants to take taxes on small businesses, up almost to 40%. he wants to take the capital the gains tax when you sell something to twice china's. it will make us uncompetitive. the damage of biden's taxes on the american economy and your job. he wants to take the tax on businesses, the corporate income tax from 21% kind of average with europe, higher than china's. higher than france. higher than britain. to make us noncompetitive in the world and under biden's tax policy, we won't compete by having lower taxes than europe and a other of countries. we're going to have to compete

on lower wages. that is an attack on all working men and women, $5 trillion worth of it. maria: i'm glad you said that. thank you for the correction. you're absolutely right. and i know that. the biden administrations is selling this idea that it's just for the wealthy but we all a know that's not true because all of this trickles down. by the way, what about the latest report, a whistleblower report, a watchdog agency that as of last summer 63% of new irs audits are targeting taxpayers with an income of less than $200,000 a year, grover. so not only is everybody getting taxed higher taxes, mott just notjust the wealthy but we see e bulk of audits from the irs is going right for the $200,000 and lower crowd. >> every single democrat voted for the effort to get more money to the irs to hire more people to do audits on rich people, we

were promised. when the republicans said okay, let's put that into law that you won't increase you audits on people below $400,000 a year, the democrats killed that. okay. they actually have a rule in the irs, it's a $200,000 limit, not 400,000. not that they keep that either. biden could change that to 400,000 which he said he did. they refused to. and because of his inflation, the value of your pay that would make you targeted or not keeps going down. in three years it's gone from 400,000 to about 335,000. if biden gets reelected that number because of inflation, the actual wages of people, more and more lower income people will be hit by you biden's rule if, if he was keeping it which you point out he isn't keeping that. they're auditing everyone they can get a buck out of, that includes the vast middle class. they they don't care. they lied when they said they

were just hitting rich people. this is called trickle down economics. you say you're going to tax rich people or corporations and you trickle it down until you're hitting everybody. they played this game forever. maria: you have to look under every rock for money, liz peek, when you're trying to pay for a very expensive climate change agenda and that's what they're doing. >> yeah. that's for sure. and unfortunately not even -- they're not getting enough money even to do that, maria. our deficits continue to be close to $2 trillion. everyone knows ah h that this ia serious problem that the nonserious government refuses to counter. to grover's point, this tax increase that's been proposed and a is inev inevitable from b, it's not being discussed, it's going to crush our economy, crush our growth. that has got to be a central theme of the upcoming election. maria: do you agree with that, grover? >> yeah. look, the polling that you showed that people don't think

they're getting their money's worth out of the federal government or state government, they don't think the income tax at the state or local level or the property ta tax is fair, president trump should talk about nothing except the success of his tax cuts, giving us growth and raising people's wages and the failure of inflation and tax hikes under biden. maria: real quick, grover, before you go, is there anything we need to know about this year's tax deadline? >> it's today. maria: that's it. all right. grover, great -- [laughter] maria: great to see you, sir. always a pleasure. grover norquist joining us. thank you, liz and john for joining us this morning. great two hours. our power panel hour is left, will be here after a short ei break. you're watching "mornings with maria." stay with us. t mo a different s. i couldn't slow down. we were starting a business from the ground up.

people were showing up left and right. and so did our business needs. the chase ink card made it easy. when you go for something big like this, your kids see that. and they believe they can do the same. earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase with the chase ink business unlimited card from chase for business. make more of what's yours.

the future is not just going to happen. you have to make it. and if you want a successful business, all it takes is an idea, and now becomes the future where you grew a dream into a reality.

the all new godaddy airo. put your business online in minutes with the power of ai. the need for domestic lithium production is crucial. surge battery metals is filling the demand and reducing our reliance on foreign sources with its best in class lithium discovery. surge battery metals, energizing our future.