 And welcome back to news on let's talk about your money so Democrats still bickering over the agenda and whether or not to pass the spending bill is Progressives are continuing to push for support on the infrastructure bill but only only if the reconciliation bill is approved first. Meanwhile as Democrats argue over how to spend your U.S. tax dollars weekly jobless claims now total 351,000 this according to the Labor Department and that is far worse than expected. And there are also signs now that we could see a rate hike very soon. Joining us now to discuss all this and more is our bipartisan panel Robin Byron and Melissa Armagh. So Melissa I have to start with you as the founder of and CEO of Stock Swoosh. So we've been talking about this three and a half trillion dollar spending bill what seems like forever. And the press progressive wing has been pushing and pressuring and saying you know we're not going to pass this infrastructure bill until we get this bill. It does kind of in some way seem like the never ending story, although Russia collusion did for a while as well. So are we going to see any headway on this? Where do you see this going? I hope it dies and I hope it doesn't pass because I don't think there's any way to escape the fact that they want to end up raising taxes on everyone if they pass this bill. There's no other way to pay for it. Democrats kept trying to sell the bill to the American people saying they're only going to raise taxes on people that earn $400,000 a year or more. But there's no way it's too big. And there's too much fluff and puff in it. They don't need all the things they have in that bill. Again, Joe Manchin is the one he talks for it. Then he talks against it. He changes his mind. It depends what day of the week is. So who really knows what's going to happen whether or not it's going to pass. One of the things that's been on Congress's mind is the debt ceiling. So that's been kind of taking front and center. So they put the stimulus bill off to the side. But you mentioned the jobs numbers. Well, the jobless claims came in. The weekly jobless claims come out every Thursday morning before the market opens and they were higher than expected. Unbelievably, the market is rallying today despite that negative news. But I don't think this lasts long because, again, we're in a period of inflation and the Fed chair Powell, Jay Powell talked yesterday and he said we do see inflation continuing into 2022. And he said we don't see exactly when it's going to taper off. He mentioned the summer of 2022. But again, if people don't get back to work, if interest rates rise, okay, then people are going to pay more for their credit card bills for their monthly expenses. We're ready in a period right now where gas is more and food is more. I just visited my family in Pennsylvania last week. I was shocked at the prices there in Pennsylvania. Typically, New York is expensive no matter where you go. For example, I wanted to buy a spice, pumpkin spice, it's falling out, eight and 99 for a little tiny spice, one of those spice things, eight ninety nine. I said forget it. I don't mean that. Was it organic? Just kidding. Non GMO. Non GMO organic though. Just doing things like that. Everything seems to go up. The people have really had it. And what they don't want is to be taxed more because we're really paying more for goods and services, which you can consider a tax really. Yeah, now you bring up also, you know, all good points and and I laugh about it. But trust me, I understand for the people that are watching this going, it isn't funny. Have you seen my grocery bill? It's true. It doesn't matter whether you're buying organic or not. We've all seen our grocery bills go up. We've talked about it on the show. We've seen gas prices go up. Now they're talking about, as Melissa just mentioned, raising that debt ceiling, something that Republicans are going to continue to argue against. They may not get the support. In fact, most reports are saying they're not going to get the support. And then, as we mentioned, the jobless claims, not very good, especially if you're a Democratic candidate like, I don't know, Robin. Sorry. Sorry, I don't mean to beat up on you today. But yeah, it's got to be tough for Democrats right now, right? I mean, how do you? This is difficult. How do you paint a more optimistic picture? It's hard. Look, I've got literature just on the other side of this table from me that says, you know, that we got shots and arms, that we got emergency relief funds dispatched out to people. But, you know, right now, it's not looking so good. There are still so many people that are not vaccinated. I think we're just barely above 50% in the United States. We're far, far from the 70% that we were supposed to have back in July. So of course, the job market's not looking so good right now. And neither is the economy. And that definitely hurts candidates right now that are running in municipal elections like me. I'm having to just talk about my own race as a microcosm of what's at stake and try and separate it from what's happening federally. I'm not dependent and rely so much on the Biden administration to carry me through. I've got to talk about my merits as a candidate myself. And that's frankly the way it should be. It just is unfortunate that I'm not able to write on the coattails of an administration that's enjoying public success right now. But listen, the administration is so concerned about all the jobs, the job is claimed, why are they asking companies to mandate vaccines? I can tell you the reason that the number one up because companies now are mandating vaccines and people would rather get fired or quit because they don't want to take the vaccine. So they're so concerned about people paying their bills and working full time and getting people back to work. Why are they asking private companies and public corporations to mandate vaccines? Because that's exactly what they're doing. And the companies and the big corporations are exactly doing that. They can work from home for a majority of these jobs but you brought up last week people that can't work from home like truck drivers and that is a fair statement. So we've got to find a way somehow. I urge people to look at the greater public good, talk with your doctor about what's right for you. But that's not working. But that's not working. I hear what you're saying Robin to interrupt but that clearly isn't working and probably not helping you in your efforts to win your race. Sorry, New Gallup poll just released that Biden's approval rating now fallen 6 percentage points to 43% in case you're wondering that's the lowest of his presidency. So just to tack that on. But going to Melissa's point, we just talked about it the other day. I mean, you're talking about, you know, people at health officials, right? I mean, people that are nurses that are walking out on some of these jobs first responders. This is going on in Louisiana. And then, you know, we mentioned the other day with our bipartisan panel. Now they're talking about dishonorable discharges for military service members who won't get the vaccine. A lot of backlash for that several GOP senators working to fight that. But you know, say what you want. But there are still a lot of people hesitant to take this vaccine. And a lot of people I would say probably argue that these mandates are making them even less inclined to take it. So if he's trying to reach that 70% threshold, which as you mentioned he had set for July that hasn't happened. And now he's trying to set that for the world. What is the way to encourage people to do that? Because clearly what's happening is not working. The way is to make this less political. And the way to do that is we need more Republicans, frankly, to come on board and say, this is a public health crisis, and we urge you to get vaccinated, talk with your health professionals. We need Republicans to help with the vaccine hesitancy. It was unfortunate that Donald Trump, former President Trump got vaccinated, you know, quietly and without the cameras. Most of the politicians on the left are doing that, you know, publicly to say, look, I'm getting it. You can't do it. It didn't hurt. It's not that bad. I didn't have any adverse reactions. And it doesn't help. And you've got people like Tucker Carlson on there that are making ludicrous claims night after night who talked about Nicki Minaj's cousin's former friend that's had swollen testicles. I mean, it's crazy stuff like that. We've got to rein that in and look at the greater good for humanity, frankly. I think people have lost trust in the government. They've lost trust in the CDC. It doesn't at this point. Now it does not matter what they say, go back and rewind six months ago, 12 months ago, Biden and Harris talked against the vaccine because it was the Trump vaccine. You don't want to make it not political too late. And you can blame your own party for that Robin. But we could do the blame game back and forth, but we could do the blame game back and forth. But just, you know, moving forward, that isn't helping the situation. If that is the goal of the Biden administration. And if people like the former president do support it and do take credit for the vaccine. I think, you know, Robin brings up a valid point. Where do we go from here but there are still a lot of fears. And as you mentioned, Melissa, a lot of mistrust for obvious reasons. We mentioned a study that happened. There were men, black men purposely, you've mentioned this Robin, that were infected with syphilis. So we could just watch them. Correct, correct. And that look at my family is mixed and I have my brother-in-law, I talked to him, he brought that up to me as a concern. It took a lot of listening to understand their concerns and their valid concerns. They are valid concerns and we're going to continue to talk about it. But I do have to go. I'm so sorry. I do have to go to commercial break. But thank you both. We're going to wear away your voice coming in next. We'll be right back.