WEBVTT - Obamacare Replacement to Cover Fewer People, Sparking Blowback 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.040 P and L is brought to you by proper Cloth, 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:05.120 a leader in men's custom shirts, with proprietary smart sized 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:08.720 technology and top rated customer service. Ordering a custom shirt 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:11.680 has never been easier. Visit proper cloth dot com to 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:19.960 order your first custom shirt today. Welcome to the Bloomberg 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:22.599 P and L Podcast. I'm Pim Fox. Along with my 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.759 co host Lisa Abramowitz. Each day we bring you the 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:29.360 most important, noteworthy, and useful interviews for you and your money, 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.360 whether at the grocery store or the trading floor. Find 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:35.840 the Bloomberg P and L Podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud and 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:44.159 at Bloomberg dot com. We heard from President Trump just 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.120 shortly ago. We heard that he reiterated his plan to 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:51.280 roll back Obamacare. But what is less clear is exactly 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.840 how Republicans plan to do this. But with some sense 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.400 of clarity is Zach Tracer, a healthcare reporter for Bloomberg, 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:03.200 who wrote a really compel piece today on the Bloomberg Zach, So, 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.679 this story talks about some of the details that we 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.640 are learning. Can you outline what those are? Sure? And 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:11.400 I think the thing to keep in mind here is 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.960 that we haven't seen a bill. We we don't know 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.640 what you know, Republicans in um the House are are 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:19.720 going to try to get past. But what we are 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.560 hearing is that you know, first off, UM, likely it 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.920 will get rid of the requirement in Obamacare that everybody 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.360 have health insurance. Um, it might make some changes to 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.120 the subsidies and sort of the the net result of 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.319 all this is that fewer people are going to have 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:36.400 health insurance. At the end of the day, we keep 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.600 hearing about the three legs of the stool of the 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.320 Affordable Care Act. Can you pull one of them away 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.679 and still have the stool be useful? That's right. So 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:50.080 one one of the big problems here will be that 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.320 by ending the individual mandate, the requirement that people buy 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.960 health insurance, it will be really tough to to keep 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.400 healthy people in the market potentially, And that's one of 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.400 the things that the republic plans are trying to grapple 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:03.600 with is how do you get sort of young, healthy 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.280 people to buy health insurance in the absence of a 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.359 law requiring them requiring them to do so. And that's 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.120 something you know that that Obamacare struggled with too. So 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:14.160 I think, um, you know, if if folks can come 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:17.200 out of this with a better option, a better plan, um, 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.680 that may be an improvement. How exactly are these details 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.640 about a potential replacement coming out? You know, we've been 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.919 talking with lawmakers and um, you know, these these lawmakers 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:29.960 are confronting constituents, and so they're trying to come up 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.880 with ways of explaining here is what Republicans want in 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.280 an Obamacare replacement. And just when you say confronting instituents, 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:38.480 you're talking about in part the town hall meetings that 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.000 have gotten rather heated right around the around the country. 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.000 That's right. So you know, Congress is out this week, 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:47.960 so lawmakers are back in their districts talking to the 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.799 folks who voted for them or who didn't, and they're 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.480 trying to say, here is what Republicans want to do 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:56.560 with Obamacare. And it's not easy because they don't have, 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:58.799 you know, one specific bill, and so they're they're sort 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:00.840 of trying to outline these principles. And one of the 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.560 things that we've discovered from interviewing them is that, you know, 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.680 it's very difficult to talk about this idea that fewer 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.000 people are going to have health insurance. Does the does 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.760 the nomination process of Dr Tom Price for the head 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.560 of Health and Human Services. Does that in any way 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.560 affect what may or may not happen with the a 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.320 c A. So. Dr Price, who's now the head of 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.080 the Department of Health and Human Services, UM will probably 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.840 play some role in crafting this, uh, this replacement. It's 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:34.040 not clear yet just what that will be. UM. He 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:36.400 said he's going to leave it up to Congress at 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:38.920 least initially, but I do think the the administration will 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.800 play a role at some point. UM. You know, one 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:43.680 thing he talked about a lot, and that comes up 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.560 here is the importance of what they're calling access to 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.680 health insurance. So Republicans are going to give folks some 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.040 sort of tax credit that will help them by health 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.400 insurance and say, look, everybody has access. It's up to 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.440 you whether or not you buy health insurance. I have 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.960 to wonder going forward, at what point do they have 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:03.920 to come up with a replacement. Is there a sort 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.960 of deadline? I think that the the insurance companies that 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:12.119 are selling health insurance and Obamacare really really need certainty. 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.760 They are going to be deciding on their their plans 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:20.240 for eighteen in the next few months, really m by May, 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:24.400 and this is what Etna, Anthem senteen, health Net, Wealcare, 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.960 I mean all of Melina, Humana, United Health, that's right. 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.719 And and already we've seen you know, Humanita and United 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.440 Health pretty much quit and has pulled back. Um And 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:36.840 you know Molina has said, for instance, that they need 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.560 certainty or they may pull back. Anthemis as something similar. 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:41.679 So the health insurance are warning, look, if we don't 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.320 get certainty, we are not going to sell these health 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:46.920 insurance plans. Have they pulled back because of uncertainty or 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.040 because it wasn't profitable for them? More because it wasn't 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.520 profitable for them. Um. The the idea is, you know 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:55.600 that if you can't make money, and this gets back 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.040 to what we were talking about with you know, getting 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.600 enough healthy people into the system. If you can't make 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.000 money on the why would you you know, play in 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.880 this market. What about drug pricing? The issue of whether 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.520 Medicare can actually negotiate, whether the government can negotiate drug 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.320 prices has long been a point of debate. Is there 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.160 any anything you can tell us about that? Yeah, it's 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.560 definitely a point of debate and something that that will 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.120 continue to be debated. Sema Verma, who's the nominee to 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.080 head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was asked 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.120 about this at her confirmation hearing, and she said, you know, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.960 I think the current system works pretty well. There's a 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:33.640 lot of people that would disagree with her, and so 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:35.880 I think that it's going to continue to be a 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.400 debate what health insurers would like to see with respected 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.400 change is made to a c A. I think one 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.560 thing that health insurers really have said overall is there 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:48.640 needs to be a way to get more young and 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:51.680 healthy people into the insurance pools. So, you know, big 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.800 problem right now is it's mostly older and sicker people. Um, 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.000 you know, they feel like, um, you know, they're they're 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.719 not tied to the old system that they'd be pretty 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.280 open into some of the Republican replacement plans. They just 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.159 want to know what are the rules that we have 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.120 to operate under. Is there any guidance for what the 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:11.280 actual public exchanges will look like? Indeed, will they even 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:15.480 remain the way they are in uh, let's say online form, 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.800 which is where most people interact with them. You know, 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:21.880 it's a great question. Um. I think that the Republican 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:26.200 plans will likely have some role for an online market place, 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.600 whether they call it an exchange or something else. It's 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:30.719 you know, a popular way to buy you know, plane 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.440 tickets in hotel rooms. So so why not health insurance? 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.960 From what you here are Republican and Democratic congressmen coming 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:42.200 together and discussing this or is this really being left 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.800 to the individual parties to negotiate among themselves. I think 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:47.800 at this point that the Democrats are pretty happy to 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.680 leave this. Two Republicans, I mean Republicans again control both 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.279 houses of Congress, they control their presidency, so you know, 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:57.600 at this point it's something that they're having to hash out. 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.440 And um, I think they've so far not gotten Democrats 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:03.600 on board. Who is the ring leader with respect to 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.880 the Republican negotiations? You've seen it right now coming out 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.120 of mostly out of the House. Um, you know, so 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:11.480 it has to come out of the House first, and 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.240 then um, move on over to the Senate. I think 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.640 that's where the rubber may meet the road. You know, 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:18.240 there's some of the things that could pass the House 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.880 may not pass in the Senate where the vote margin 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.120 is much narrower. Do we have any numbers? Do we 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.720 have any like how much any of this would actually cost? 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:29.600 You know, one thing that's going to be a real 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:33.360 challenge is that cost issue. So um, Republicans will want 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.120 their plan to cost um to to have on the 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.360 cost side to cost somewhat lower than the A C A. 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.640 They also want to repeal a lot of the taxes, 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.480 potentially all of the taxes in Obamacare. That math is very, 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.400 very difficult, and um, we don't know how they're gonna 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:49.280 how they're gonna but I mean, is there like a 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.040 big number out there that we can I mean, may 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.880 not be accurate for what turns out to be the result, 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.120 but I mean, right now, is there any idea how 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:58.320 much any of this cost? Or is it sort of 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.760 like healthcare you don't know until actually have to go 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:02.080 and pay it. Yeah, I think it's so much of 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:03.360 it's going to be in the details, you know. One 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:05.480 of the big questions how bigger the subsidy is going 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:07.680 to be? All Right, I want to thank you very much. 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.239 Zach Tracer is our healthcare reporter of for Bloomberg News. 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:13.800 I'm sure you're gonna be following this for quite a while. 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.320 I mean, thank you very much for your your insight. 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.760 Shares of a j C Penny down about eight percent 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.480 right now, after the retailer says it's going to shut 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.640 as many as a hundred and forty stores. Here to 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:43.280 tell us more, Punom Goyal, retail analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. Punom, 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:45.960 let's begin with J C. Penny and tell us what 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.480 are they doing in order to fix what looks like 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:53.160 a very challenging experience. Sure, I think you know there's 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.560 very little that they can do to really fix the issue. 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.280 Traffic is a secular issue for retail and all brick 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.920 and mortars, So to reverse traffic and get it to 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.319 actually increase in stores is probably not something anyone can 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.360 turn around as quickly as they'd hope. But what they 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.080 can do is fix their apparel business. The apparel business 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.559 is more than fifty percent of their sales, and it's struggling, 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.600 especially women's apparel, which is total business. Well, can you 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.360 can you zoom out a little bit? Because we've gotten 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.720 a lot of retail earnings this week. We've gotten l Brands, 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.960 We've gotten Coals, we've gotten Macy's in addition to J C. Penny, 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.360 Is there anything that you can see that sort of 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.880 a unifying feature of all of the earnings that can 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:43.240 point to the state of the retail industry, sure, so 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.480 all of them across the board. Traffic is weak, but 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.280 the number of people in the stores stores, yeah, Basically, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.080 people aren't going to stores anymore. They're going less and 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.960 less and they're shopping more online. The other thing is 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.640 that's something they can't control. But what they can control 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.600 across the board is their inventory, and all of them 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.040 are lean on inventory, which means that they have less 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:09.160 product in store so they don't have to mark the 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.520 product down if sales don't meet plan, and that helps 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:16.679 their gross margins. You mentioned women's apparel. What's wrong with 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.480 the women's apparel offering at j C Penny? You know, 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:21.440 I think it's just the brands that they have. There 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.199 aren't that many national brands and women's apparel, so it 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.720 really hinges on the private and exclusive brands that each 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.480 retailer carries. The problem is not just that j C. Penny. 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.480 Macy's has the problem too, and so does Calls. I 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.520 think women are just you know, shopping where they find 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.080 the right fit, where they find the right product, and 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.520 they're not as loyal to where they shop, so if 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:44.600 they see things online, they're willing to go there and 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.839 try it out. Well, I'm wondering, then, does it need 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:51.240 to have a real rethink of what that real estate 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.160 that big box is all about. Because if you can't 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.720 necessarily sell the clothes and the appliances in order to 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.600 boost your returns, then why not use that real estate 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:04.960 to invite different types of merchants to come in and 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.240 actually create some foot traffic. That's what we would like 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.120 them all to do. They're just very slow to move 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.880 towards that. You heard Coals talk about it a little 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.480 bit when they talked what are they waiting for? They 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:21.360 waiting for a final collapse of the big box retail Uh, 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:25.480 you know location because it seems as though this has 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:27.160 been going on that you know about it, We know 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.520 about it, the country certainly knows about it. What's keeping 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.720 them from innovating lower rents so the big box retailers 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.040 the department stores don't pay that much rent because they 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.440 were considered the traffic drivers when you know the mall's 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:45.000 first opened and um. Therefore, since the rents are low, 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.520 they're slow to innovate. UM. And that's they have long 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.280 term leases, so they have to work with the rates 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:56.319 to come up with plans to add other categories or 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:58.520 even other retailers, or even maybe give up a floor 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:00.720 of the space. Many of them owned two floors. Do 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.600 they really need two floors? I don't think so exactly. 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.079 Why isn't there a Starbucks, let's say in every J C. Penny, Well, 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.600 there's a Sephora, right, that's true. So which company of 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.480 these brick and mortar retailers is doing the best job? 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.520 I think North Term is doing the best job. You 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.160 saw it in the results yesterday after the market closed. 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.600 They really, you know, kept their inventory tight to drove growth, 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:28.160 margin expansion. And while full line is still pressured, um, 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.000 you know, Rack is also a little pressured. Their online sales, 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.199 which are twenty five percent, which I think is the 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:37.079 highest of the department store group is growing double digits. Well, 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.640 the stocks up stocks up four percent right now. J W. 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.640 Nord's from up at dollar eighty six cents, and they 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.440 said that the President Trump's tweet against them had a 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:51.200 quote negligible impact on sale. So who's doing the worst 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.960 job in your opinion? I think L Brands right now? 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:56.320 Quite frankly. I mean, they're a really good brand. But 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.920 when they cited their quarter was AT's say, okay, today 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.480 own but the February remarks that they made with victorious 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:08.240 secret sales down almost that's a huge miss. I think 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.440 they really need to think about what's happening in the 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:15.360 lingerie space. They've dominated that space with elevated pricing, brand perception, 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.000 and there's just been more competition there. So I think 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.480 they need to think about what to do next and 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.000 how they're going to preserve share where their price points 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.400 are much much higher than competition. Uh and just a 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.000 real quick with J. C. Penny's approach to shut up 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:32.800 to one hundred and forties stores, do you think that 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:34.959 this will be sufficient for them? I think there will 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.080 be more. I think this is the first step. They 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.160 have over a thousand stores that will bring them to 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.920 a little over eight to fifty. And it's said in 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.679 many reports, you know, there's about four five hundred moles 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.720 in America that you want to be in, So that's 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:51.000 still a lot more stores fun what most retailers would 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:52.960 want to be in. Yeah. It says that the closings 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:57.360 represent as much as of the company's store base, but 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.680 just less than five percent of total sales. It seems 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.040 like they're targeting the stores that have the lowest foot traffic. 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.840 Punam Goyle, thank you so much for joining us as 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.800 always very informative on this peak week for retail earnings. 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:16.400 Peanter Punam Goyle, senior US retail analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:28.600 speaking to us from our headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey. 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:32.760 P and L is brought to you by Proper Cloth, 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:35.960 the leader in men's custom shirts. At proper cloth dot Com. 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.440 Ordering custom shirts has never been easier. Create your custom 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.840 shirt size by answering ten easy questions, select from over 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.680 five fabrics to suit your personal taste. Shirts start from 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.320 eighty five dollars and are delivered in just two weeks 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.520 with proper Cloths perfect fit guarantee. Remakes are completely free 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.440 and expert staff are standing by to help. For premium quality, 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.960 perfect fitting shirts, visit proper cloth dot com um custom 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:11.920 shirts made Smarter. This is Bloomberg Market Time. PIM Fox, 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.280 along with Lisa Abramowits I want to bring into lou 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.560 Olo Rooney Pa. He is our White House reporter. He's 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.600 at the White House for Bloomberg News to get his 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.400 analysis of President Donald Trump's speech today at the Conservative 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.120 Political Action Conference that was at the Gaylord National Resort. 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:33.080 And Convention Center. To Lou, is anything specific that that 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.360 stood out for you? I was gonna ask you about 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:39.800 the Europe his comments about Europe and and Sweden and France, 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.480 but maybe something else stood out to you. Well. It 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.640 was a very long speech. She talked for about fifty minutes, 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.040 and he talked about just about every different topic that 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.480 his administration has has covered in a short time. It 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:55.240 was sort of a mismatch of his his campaign speeches 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.560 over the last year and a half. His inauguration speech 0:15:57.560 --> 0:15:59.800 he had some lines from there, and obviously the on 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.680 going what he calls a war with the media, which 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:05.360 he is called the enemy of the American people. He 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.520 spent a lot of time talking about that. Right, we 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.040 are all fighting fake news, and he tried to distinguish 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.800 fake news from all news. Uh. He also went back 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:18.120 to build the wall and uh talking about military strength. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.000 To Lou, I really want to ask, has you have 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.360 you ever seen a president before who, right after getting 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.320 an office, makes no effort to reach across the aisle 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.160 and try to unify the different parties and and just 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.080 sort of sticks to the same kind of tone that 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.480 they took during the campaigning. I have not and it's 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:41.040 definitely a sign that this president wants to continue to 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.400 rely on the base that brought him into office. He 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.000 believes that if he was able to get into office 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.680 using this strategy that you know, if it's not broken, 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.200 why why change it. So it does seem like he's 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:53.960 you know, appealing specifically to his base and making a 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.720 lot of enemies along the way, including our European partners 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:58.960 who he singled out in the speech in Germany and 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.480 Sweden and France. Well, tlue to that point. The strategist 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.800 who you speak with, do they think this is going 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.879 to be effective? Uh, well, I think it's effective in 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.280 one way in terms of keeping his base, you know, 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.640 rallying behind him. But obviously we remember that the president 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.280 did not win the popular vote and and continues to 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.480 suffer from very low approval rating. So in terms of 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.080 being able to coalesce the Republican Party around him and 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.520 actually bring up on Democrats that he's going to need 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:27.760 to get through legislation, it does not appear that it's 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.600 going to be effective because we're not seeing very many 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.480 people go across the aisle to say, you know, Democrats 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.560 saying that I will support President Trump. We're seeing larger 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.080 resistance and even some Republicans that are uh, you know, 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.960 going up against their own Republican members of Congress saying 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:45.800 that they're not happy with the way things are going. 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:50.719 He also mentioned the issue of NAFTA and trade agreements 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.440 that the United States has previously signed. We know about 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.080 the TPP Trans Pacific Partnership. It was almost a done 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.919 deal that that was not going to make it to 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.040 the to the Senate floor. Can you speak to us 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:08.679 about the international relationships that the United States has, because 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.320 it seems as though that has been one of the 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:16.440 sore points, at least so far, of the US administration's 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.360 relations with the overseas partners. That's definitely true. The President 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.320 has said that he's pursuing in America first policy, and 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.439 that often leaves some of our international partners and allies 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.000 wondering whether the US is going to abandon these long 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.680 standing partnerships when it comes to trade. The President did 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.160 pull out of the TPP deal. He's also basically said 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:39.040 that he does not want to engage in multilateral deals. Um. 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.360 He wants to engage one on one with different countries, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:43.720 and he wants to, uh, you know, take another look 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:45.919 at NAFTA, one of the long standing trade deals between 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.040 the U S And Canada and Mexico, and a lot 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.240 of these countries that are our allies are wondering whether 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:53.879 the US is going to take a more nationalist in 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:59.000 isolation isolational stance and if they do, um these countries 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.360 are wondering what that means for. Was the audience at 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:06.040 the Sea Pack event this time the same as it 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.640 has been in previous years. It was largely the same audience. 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:11.600 You had a number of libertarians, you have a number 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:14.480 of conservatives, a lot of young people. This year, we 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.560 did not see as many members of Congress who attended 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:20.879 or spoke at at this event. Uh this seems to 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:25.520 coincide with the recess portion of the congressional schedule and 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:27.560 a lot of Congress members are back home and they're 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.160 facing crowds of their own with these town halls where 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:34.159 members are facing protests. But for the most part, it 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:36.399 was very similar to what we've seen in the past, 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.959 but maybe a little bit more cheers and happiness at 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.680 the idea that there's a Republican Congress, Republican House, and 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.160 sent along with the Republican White House. So in other words, 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:50.920 this was the same audience that rejected President Trump last 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:54.720 year the year before. I suppose I should say, yeah, 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.640 the President has a long history of over the last 0:19:57.680 --> 0:19:59.639 five years of going to see pack and when he 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.679 was there, he was not received with such a you know, 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:05.960 a receptive audience, in part because no one thought he 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:07.639 was actually going to run for president. But now that 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.959 he's run and he's actually won the presidency, a lot 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.680 of people that are embracing him and they're they're sort 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:17.920 of trying to merge their version of conservatism with Trump's 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:19.639 and uh and be a big tent party. So we'll 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:25.120 see how that works. Tolue another area, Dakota Access Pipeline 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.479 and Keystone. He spoke about that, speak a little bit 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.720 about the energy policy and what that what the plans are. Yeah, 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:35.920 the President said that, you know he uh, he basically 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:39.440 said that he's authorized construction of the Keystone and Dakota pipelines. 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:43.080 These are pipelines that were stopped under the Obama administration. Uh. 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.040 The President said that also that he wants all the 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:48.640 pipelines that are built in the US to be made 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:51.040 with US steel. We're not sure exactly how he's going 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.359 to go about enforcing that, but he basically said that, 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.440 you know, he's unshackling the the the US energy market 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.080 and allowing uh, you know, these pipelines to be built 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.639 and allowing uh, the US to access the energy that's 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.000 that you know, he believes it's under the ground. So 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:09.600 it's definitely a market shift from what we saw under 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.960 President Obama, who took a much more environmentalist stance on 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:18.000 energy and you know, halted a number of these pipeline projects. 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.520 President Trump says that these are good for jobs, and 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.560 he does not think that the environmental regulations are as 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.680