This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," January 7, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Get the jab or lose your job, because Citigroup just hold its workers, if they are not vaccinated come January 14, they are terminated.

Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto.

And FOX on top of something that has nothing to do with what the Supreme Court decides on the wisdom or even legality of the president's vaccine mandates, private companies deciding for themselves that, for the better part of valor, it's probably better if they were vaccinated, and for them, if they're not, not better, because they're out the door.

Susan Li on what's happening now at one company, just the latest company to say, get the shot or get out -- Susan.

SUSAN LI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Neil.

So, forget vaccinated by next week, or you will be fired by the end of this month. Citigroup is the first major Wall Street bank to implement a strict COVID vaccine mandate. And this applies to all of their 70,000 staff, regardless of where they live. So that means that those that live in Florida, Texas, Missouri, and Kentucky, where they don't necessarily have a statewide vaccine mandate for big businesses, they will also have to get the jab, because, even if you don't live in New York, you have to comply.

Citi says that 90 percent of their staff have already gotten both jabs. And, staff, you can apply for exemptions. But Citigroup's vaccine mandate really goes a step further than others have on Wall Street, with Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America and the like requiring vaccines, but only if you go into the office.

Now, you can imagine that not all Citigroup employees are happy about this, some posting on YouTube and LinkedIn complaining about the huge overreach, an experience, by the way, that many have felt of the health care industry, where there's a federal mandate for workers to get vaccinated, and the Mayo Clinic being the latest to fire 700 of its staff who had to get their shots by this past Monday.

Now, other private businesses have also enforced a no jab, no job policy. That includes the airlines United and Delta, along with Tyson Foods and even Google. Many of these companies, though, including Boeing, have reversed their vaccine mandates and requirements pending the outcome of that Supreme Court hearing, which we know started today, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, Susan, thank you very much, Susan Li on that.

So, companies can enforce such mandates. Can the United States government? That's what the Supreme Court was weighing today and hearing oral arguments on the wisdom of mandates out of the Biden administration.

Shannon Bream has more.

Hey, Shannon.

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Neil. Great to see you. Happy Friday.

So, now these two mandates, the two arguments, cases are done. They rest in the hands of the justices as we stand by. So, about that first one, that's the OSHA requirement. It's the employer that has 100 or more employees. You got to request -- you got to have a mandate for a vaccine or you can request a masking and testing if you're unvaccinated.

It was clear that all of the liberal justices today saw there wasn't even a reason to question that mandate, and certainly not to put a stay on it. Here's Justice Kagan.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ELENA KAGAN, U.S. SUPREME COURT ASSOCIATE JUSTICE: More and more people are dying every day. More and more people are getting sick every day. I don't mean to be dramatic here. I'm just sort of stating facts.

And this is the policy that is most geared to stopping all this. There's nothing else that will perform that function better than incentivizing people strongly to vaccinate themselves.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BREAM: So, Justice Kagan said getting people to get vaccinated is the best way to stop the virus from spreading.

Justice Breyer seemed incredulous that anyone would actually argue the mandate should be stayed. And Justice Sotomayor said it's not really a vaccine mandate at all, because it provides that testing and masking alternative for the unvaccinated. She's calling it a mask mandate.

Justice Alito repeatedly said he believes in the safety of the vaccines. We know all the justices are vaxxed and boosted. But he said there are cases of adverse reactions and asked whether OSHA, which is about ensuring worker safety, has taken that part of the equation into account.

Here's a bit of what he said.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SAMUEL ALITO, U.S. SUPREME COURT ASSOCIATE JUSTICE: Has OSHA ever imposed any other safety regulation that imposes some extra risk, some different risk on the employee, so that if you have to wear a hardhat on the job, wearing a hardhat has some adverse health consequences?

Can you think of anything else that's like this?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BREAM: So, as for the second case, this is the one that mandates vaccinations for anybody who works as a contractor, is a volunteer at a facility that gets Medicare or Medicaid funding.

It seemed the justices were much more open to upholding that particular mandate. We will see. We don't really know. We're just trying to read some tea leaves here a little bit. But this has been super fast-tracked.

So, Neil, I would expect a decision within days, at the most, maybe a couple of weeks. We're standing by.

CAVUTO: Wow. That's incredible.

So, obviously, they have got a fast timeline here. There were some of the thoughts originally going into this, Shannon, that a conservative court largely might sort of repel at the notion of any force mandates. That might not be such a given, though, right?

BREAM: Yes, and I think that's true in both of these cases.

I think the OSHA mandate is in more danger, meaning it's possibly more likely that the justices would stay that one. I think that one with health care workers, though, has probably got a stronger path to victory as far as being upheld.

But, listen, the reality of this whole thing is setting in for the justices. Eight of them attended in person today. Seven of them had on masks. Justice Sotomayor elected to do the whole thing from her office on the phone.

A couple of the attorneys could not actually appear today. They had to their arguments by phone. We know at least one of them, it was because they tested positive. So, listen, they're aware that this is very real world. There are all kinds of implications for all of us in this case and beyond when it comes to just how far the executive branch's power reaches.

CAVUTO: Wow. Wild stuff.

Shannon Bream, I think I know what will be a dominant part of your show tonight, Shannon Bream, "FOX News @ Night," our chief legal correspondent.

Thank you, Shannon, so much.

Let's get to read on this from John Yoo, the former deputy assistant attorney general.

John, where do you think this is going?

JOHN YOO, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Hi, Neil.

I think, if you listened to the arguments -- and I hope you didn't have -- it went for three hours. They went twice as long as they were scheduled to today. It sounds -- I agree very much with Shannon. It sounds like the OSHA regulation, the one about the vaccine mandate in all workplaces, it sounds to me like no conservative justice thought that was constitutional.

The three liberal justices were saying, oh, who could disagree with such a great policy? The conservative justices said, it's a great policy, but it's up to the states. It's not up to the federal government, which doesn't have a power over public health. States, no one disputes, have full power to require mandates.

And, as you led the show off, companies themselves can impose a mandate as they choose. The other question today about whether the government can require when it spends money on health care at hospitals to require health care staff to get vaccinated, that sounds like it's on much better footing.

And I expect the court would probably uphold that one.

CAVUTO: Do they make carve-outs or exceptions, John, for, let's say, an international, in this case, health crisis? Justice Kagan seem to be intimating that vaccinations were the only way to get this under control, and that therein lie the reason and the rationale behind this vaccine mandate push.

YOO: That's it's a great question, Neil.

And you raise a good point, because suppose this case had come up two years ago. Suppose President Trump had said right the beginning at the outbreak we need to take certain emergency measures. I think the courts would be much more deferential.

Look at the case that you and I talked about a few months ago about the eviction moratorium. The Biden administration made the same argument. They said, this is an emergency, we have got to stop evictions. Congress didn't give them any power to do it, and the court struck it down.

So I would bet, if you read that eviction case, and you try to say well, is the vaccine mandate going to survive, I would say probably not, because it's been two years. Congress could have passed a law any time in the last two years to require this vaccine mandate, but they chose not to.

They chose to let the states and companies handle it.

CAVUTO: All right, we will watch it closely.

John Yoo, always a pleasure. Always learn a lot, John Yoo, the former deputy assistant attorney general, law professor at the University of California at Berkeley. We will keep you posted on this, any further developments.

Again, as Shannon Bream reported, a decision could come within a matter of days, as remarkable as that is.

Just want to let you know we added 199,000 jobs to the economy in the latest month. That was about half what most were looking at here. And the reality is of that there are 11 or 12 million jobs that still go begging. There were a lot of Americans who turned down jobs, quit their jobs, just said, the hell with it.

So, where are the workers?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, we added jobs to the economy, not nearly at the rate we wanted and were expecting to see in December, 199,000 added jobs in all. We were expecting at least 400,000.

The unemployment rate did fall to 3.9 percent. But I want to show you something that maybe could partly explain what's going on here, the number of people who simply aren't interested in working who are quitting their jobs, millions of them over the last few months who've said, I have had it, I'm out, or looking at greener pastures or other opportunities.

And that prompted a very interesting discussion I heard this morning on FOX Business featuring no less than economic titan Steve Moore, who put it in a way that even I could understand. Where are the workers? That's what Steve Moore was asking. Where are the workers? I thought it was a brilliant comment.

He joins us right now, an economic adviser to Donald Trump, economist extraordinaire, bestselling author. Also, Rebecca Walser is here, Walser Wealth Management.

Welcome to you both.

And, Steve, on that point, I think you raise the point of the day, the month, the year. Where are they? Where are those workers? Twelve million jobs are somewhat going begging.

STEPHEN MOORE, FORMER DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Yes, I -- that's right.

I call it the disappearing American worker. And it's been going on now for well over a year. We have -- as you quite correctly pointed out, Neil, we have got 10, 11, 12 million job openings. If you have got any useful skill, if you're a carpenter, an electrician, if you're a nurse or if you're a bookkeeper, construction worker, manufacturing worker, the jobs are out there.

We have got tens of thousands of trucking jobs open. And those workers can make $70,000, $80,00, $90,000, $100,000 a year with overtime. So we're not talking about minimum wage jobs that are going without workers right now.

And I think there's a couple of factors at play. I think the number one factor is that we have gotten away from this idea that to get all of these welfare benefits, you have to either be looking for work or in a job. And so that has kept a lot -- millions of Americans out of the work force.

The increase in food stamps, the rental subsidies, the child payments, all of these things are just -- makes it very difficult for small businesses to compete. The second factor is, there's just -- I have to admit there are a lot of Americans that are just afraid to go back to work because of COVID.

CAVUTO: Yes.

MOORE: And now we have got this new wave. And it's keeping a lot of Americans out of the work force as well.

So, my main thing is, let's have policies in Washington that encourage people to work. Maybe we should cut the payroll taxes, an incentive to get people back to work. What we're doing is just the opposite now. We're actually paying people not to work.

CAVUTO: You know, Rebecca, there might be something else going on here too.

People did, a good many of them, shore up their finances during the pandemic, maybe reprioritized, and might be looking at alternative pastures. What do you think's going on?

REBECCA WALSER, WALSER WEALTH MANAGEMENT: Yes, it's a really -- it's a really interesting dichotomy, Neil, because we did see people save a lot when they had the federal bump-up for the unemployment.

That ended in September, though. And we know that people had to go through their savings quite drastically. And so even the normal holiday surge of employment came in less than expected. Obviously, we missed our numbers in November, October, December. And it's more than half of a miss.

So where are these people going? And it's like Steve said. The only thing I can think that's really changed since the federal unemployment increase ended in September is the AFP plan that Biden's administration put into in March, which pays people automatically monthly for numbers of children based on how much they earn as a married couple or as a single couple -- as a single person.

And that's the only thing that I can think that has changed, other than the mandates, other than people being afraid of the different variants, to really make them not go back to work, because we have so many job openings. This is one of the most difficult job markets to hire in.

It's been impossible. And employers are at their wit's end.

CAVUTO: You know what is so wild about it too, Steve?

No, no, you're quite right, Rebecca. One of the things that is wild, those job openings are very generous jobs being offered, period, top dollar, a lot of $20-or-more-hour jobs, and people are scoffing at it. It's prompted many businesses to throw in college credits and some help with college education, and a host of other benefits that are being ignored.

I'm wondering if there's something much more significant going on here and it lasts a while. What do you think, Steve?

MOORE: I think there is this wealth effect that you were just talking about, that people feel richer, hey, I don't have to work anymore. Look at my nest egg.

What people are forgetting, though, is you may have more money that you made in the stock market. But guess what? Inflation is going to erode the value of the amount of money that you made.

CAVUTO: Right. Right.

MOORE: But I want to make another point that's not economic.

But every study shows that people who are working, Neil, are actually happier than people who are not working. And families stay together longer. It's good for the families. It's good for everybody if people are working.

And so this idea that people can sit on the sidelines and watch Netflix all day, and somehow that's the road to happiness, it isn't. It's bad for America. It's bad for our businesses, and it is bad for -- and we need to get the incentives aligned, so that people have -- are getting paid for working -- not for working.

And I have talked to people who say, look, I'm getting all these benefits right now. Why should I go back to work and be a trucker? Those -- these are tough jobs, a lot of them.

CAVUTO: Indeed they are. And, by the way, Netflix isn't their only option. They could always go to FOX Business, FOX News.

(LAUGHTER)

MOORE: That's right.

CAVUTO: But I do get your point.

Rebecca, real quickly, how long you think this lasts?

WALSER: It's going to last until we get this straightened., i mean, whether we get the -- we agree to accept that we're going to have corona with us for a long, long time and we're not going to boost every six months.

And we're going to get to some level of normalcy, Neil. I don't know what it looks like. But, once we do, we got to get this job market back to normal as well.

CAVUTO: Yes, it is weird, guys. You got that right.

Steve. Rebecca, have a great weekend. Again, happy new year to you both.

WALSER: Happy new year.

MOORE: Thanks, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, in the meantime, there was another little wrinkle in his employment report, got my attention, at least, apparently got the market's attention.

Wage growth is going up at about a 4.7 percent annual clip. The reason why that is significant is, the Federal Reserve has a number in the back of its head that is closer to never letting that get over 2 percent. Now it's been steadily saying well, well, well above that 2 percent, to, as I said, 4.7 percent in this latest period.

And that report and, again, the employment report in general sort in general sort of rejiggered the whole prediction game that the Federal Reserve is going to go ahead and raise interest rates as soon as March, and this report provided the proof.

Thomas Hoenig joins us right now, the former president and CEO of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, kind enough to join us.

Thomas, is it your sense from this report and the wage growth of close to 5 percent year over year, that that cinches it, the Federal Reserve is going to hike rates, and maybe as soon as March?

THOMAS HOENIG, FORMER PRESIDENT, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF KANSAS CITY: It certainly would add to the likelihood that they're going to increase rates in March. They should, for sure.

And I think they -- it's that and other things. I mean, look at the economy of 2021 that we're coming out of, a very strong economy, retail sales a record. We saw, today, that the credit -- increases in credit -- retail credit are double digit. So you have -- there's tremendous demand.

And, on the other side, you have the supply factors I heard you talking about that I think are very important. The issues with logistics, that will be taken -- that will slowly take care of itself, but you also have fundamental trade issues that are putting supply constraints that raise prices.

Those are things they have to worry about, and then, finally, their own policy. They have been in a very accommodative policy for more than two years, I mean, before the pandemic, and they're continuing that even now.

And so that's going to add to that demand. And so you say the earnings are up 4.7 percent. That's significant, but, remember, inflation's up 6.8 percent.

CAVUTO: Right.

HOENIG: So that's a 200-basis point difference, and they're losing ground. Labor's losing ground. So I would expect that you would see even more increases.

And depending on what the Fed does, unless people become confident that inflation is going to come down -- and, at this point, they're not. The Fed has not acted to suggest that -- the labor is going to demand and I think going to get, given the unemployment numbers, that those wage increases...

CAVUTO: And everything goes up. To your point, everything goes up in that environment, the more people get paid, the more the cost of the goods they pay for themselves.

It's a self-feeding beast, I guess.

Where do you see all of this going? Because the only way to address it right now is, obviously, you can raise rates. The Federal Reserve has already announced it's going to slow down, to eventually stop its purchasing of Treasury securities, mortgage securities and the rest.

But the rate hikes themselves seem to now have changed from being a few to maybe more than a few, and they might be substantial hikes. What are you looking at?

HOENIG: Yes, think about it, that you have basically inflation of 6.8 percent. You have interest rates at near zero. You have negative interest rate, real interest rates of nearly 6 percent.

That suggests you have a very large increase in rates ahead of you. And so the Fed's challenge is to do something like -- I mean, raises those rates to slow this economy, but not kill it. And that is a very fine line they have to run. But they're going to have to raise rates. And how they do it matters a great deal, not only because of scaring the markets, yes, getting people very uncertain, which will cause them to pull back too quickly.

So, I would say they need to start sooner than later carefully, very much announce their move but very carefully in terms of what they're going to do. But what they need to get moving.

CAVUTO: Yes. Yes, that's what everyone's scared for, but very much expecting.

Thomas Hoenig, the former president CEO of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, very good seeing you, Thomas. Have a wonderful new year, even with that forecast, my friend.

HOENIG: Thank you. Great.

CAVUTO: All right, COVID is in the news again, Omicron and the one million cases per day the last, what, four days running.

So it goes up, up, up, up and away. So, it begged the question, is COVID here to stay? There's this report in The New York Times that the president's been advised to acknowledge that, that we have to live with this, and it is here to stay.

He isn't on board, apparently -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: Maybe a bunch of disgruntled men looked themselves in the mirror and said, you know what? I'm not all that. A majority of them rating them only 5.9, rating themselves out of 10. What's got them down?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, some shifting guidelines coming out of the CDC right now, and for a White House that is trying to get its messaging straight on COVID, some confusion as well.

Jacqui Heinrich at the White House with more.

Hey, Jacqui.

JACQUI HEINRICH, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Neil.

Well, President Biden is bucking calls from former members of his own health advisory team to embrace a new normal of living with COVID. And he's not ready to take that advice yet. But he is amending his pledge to shut down the virus with a bit of a new caveat.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Having COVID in the environment, here and in the world is probably here to stay. But COVID, as we're dealing with it now, is not here to stay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEINRICH: The slight shift in messaging follows a series of op-eds from those former team Biden doctors, urging the administration to scrap their pandemic strategy.

They called the administration's previous claims about making progress on the pandemic premature, and they urged humility instead moving forward. Biden, promoting his administration's work to tamp down the virus, is digging in his heels a bit against that advice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The new normal doesn't have to be. We have so many more tools we're developing and continue to develop that can contain COVID and other strains of COVID.

So I don't believe this is that -- if you take a look, we're very different today than we were a year ago, even though we still have problems. But 90 percent of the schools are open now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEINRICH: Also working on her messaging.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky reportedly seeking media training since the fall, after a series of missteps, prompting criticism that continued this week on confusion testing guidance and on what basis it was formed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: This is hard, and I am committed and -- to continue to improve as we learn more about the science and to communicate that with all of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEINRICH: The White House, though, does appear somewhat closer to making good on the 500 million free tests it promised. It signed the first of many contracts with manufacturers and distributors.

And we are hearing there's a deal in the works to ship them via the Postal Service. But the administration does want to avoid getting caught flat- footed again, in the future.

And you got folks at Health and Human Services and Office of Management, Management and Budget, we are told, calculating how many billions might be needed in the future for vaccine distribution and therapeutics, although the White House tells us there is no new or imminent request to Congress for more money, at least right now, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, Jacqui. Thank you. Have a good weekend, my friend.

Jacqui at the White House.

Let's go to Dr. Julie Morita on all of this, a member of the CDC Advisory Committee to the Director, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation executive vice president.

Doctor, if I could start out on a more general question, if you don't mind, some confusion as to whether COVID is here to say. Many medical experts with whom I talk are saying that it will become part of our lives, much like the annual flu shot. Where are you on this?

DR. JULIE MORITA, CDC ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE DIRECTOR: Yes, Neil, thanks so much for having me today.

I think it is possible that COVID is here to stay. It's not clear for certain, but it does look like that's possible. What I would say, though, is when people are raising this question are -- should we just accept this as the new normal is that what we're experiencing right now with Omicron is not something that we want to accept as the new normal.

We have incredibly high rates of disease, with many people being hospitalized, and even young children being hospitalized at this point. And it's not something that we want to be living with. We really need to optimize the interventions and make sure that people are getting vaccinated and doing everything possible to minimize transmission and minimize disease.

CAVUTO: Now, with Omicron, one of the things I find so startling about this, Doctor -- and I'm sure you're asked it a lot -- we had four million cases in just the past week, vs. four million cases in the first six months of the pandemic itself.

Yet we're told the overwhelming majority of these cases are relatively mild, at least by comparison. Do you agree with that?

MORITA: Yes, I mean, that's what the data are telling us right now, that there's this incredibly high surge or diseases, of people getting sick.

But when you compare the number of cases to those that are being hospitalized and those that are dying, the numbers just don't compare. It's really clear that people aren't getting as sick, aren't getting hospitalized like they did in prior waves of the pandemic.

That's not to say that this isn't serious, though, because the numbers are just -- the total numbers are so high of people getting sick. Our hospital systems are really, really stressed. And we have to take this seriously.

CAVUTO: You know, this new variant IHU, I guess it's called, Doctor, should we be worried about that?

MORITA: I think, with all -- throughout this pandemic, what we have seen is the emergence of various variants.

And it's critical for us to keep a close eye on them and to look at -- the first question is, how transmissible are they? The other question to ask is, how bad is the disease that they're causing? Is this causing really serious disease?

And then the other question to ask really is, how effective are our treatments and our prevention measures in preventing transmission of these variants?

And so it's important to keep a keen eye on what's happening and what's emerging, but also to answer those critical questions, so we know how best to respond.

CAVUTO: You know, Doctor, Moderna's CEO was saying that there may be a need for a fourth COVID shot. This comes at the same time Israel has instituted an additional booster, so four shots in all, to deal with, I guess, everything from the original COVID and Delta and all the rest and now to Omicron.

But where does it end? How many shots, how many boosters?

MORITA: So, Neil, this goes back to that question that you asked me originally, is Omicron -- or is COVID here to stay?

And I think we don't really know the answer to that question. If it -- if the virus does seem to continue to circulate, and we have a new variants that are emerging, then vaccination may become part of our annual routine, just like flu vaccine.

But I think it's too early to say that at this point. When the Moderna CEO is talking about a fourth dose, it could be we're talking about additional boosters of the same vaccine, but it could also be about a different form of the vaccine that protects against different variants.

And so I think, at this point, it's merely speculation and it's too early to really make that call.

CAVUTO: Dr. Morita, very good catching up with you and answering all of these obnoxious questions.

I just wanted to know, and you had answers for all of them. Much appreciated. Thank you.

MORITA: My pleasure. Thanks, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, Dr. Morita on all of that.

Oh, to be Joe Manchin these days, wooed and vilified at the same time, but, right now, the full-court press within the Democratic Party to get him to maybe open up his ways, from Oprah Winfrey to now a fellow Democratic senator with whom he's quite close -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: Oh, to be Joe Manchin. You have got Bill Clinton, you have got Barack Obama, Oprah all trying to woo over to, who knows, Build Back Better, or more openness on busting the filibuster.

You name it, a who's-who of Democratic luminaries trying to get the West Virginia senator closer to their way of thinking. That might prove easier said than done.

Kaylee McGhee White joins us from The Washington Examiner.

You talk about some pressure, Kaylee. What do you make of that?

KAYLEE MCGHEE WHITE, THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Personally, I can't imagine Oprah Winfrey convincing Joe Manchin of anything. But maybe his colleagues in the Senate will have more luck, though that also seems unlikely.

Him and Kyrsten Sinema have both made it pretty clear that they don't want to change the Senate's rules and abolish the filibuster to pass Democrats' proposed voting rights bill. And I don't think that they're going to budge on that.

CAVUTO: You know, I think a lot of this was born of the reaction to senator got, not only within the White House, when he said he was just -- he couldn't be won over to Build Back Better. Then the party just turned on him, particularly the White House.

And I wonder if this is a fence-building effort here on the part of the party to try to win it back down the road for other things. What do you think?

MCGHEE WHITE: Yes, it could be that even the White House is trying to get back on Manchin's good side, because you're right, he did specifically call out the White House staff for spreading rumors about him, for creating bad blood.

CAVUTO: Right.

MCGHEE WHITE: And so, obviously, this is a really tense relationship right now. And Biden knows that if he wants to get anything done, he does need Joe Manchin.

And so if he wants to pass this voting rights bill, especially now that Build Back Better has failed, he's going to need to convince Joe Manchin. But, again, I don't know if bring in celebrity star power is necessarily the best way to do that. It would seem like you could come up with some sort of political compromise instead, but we will see.

CAVUTO: You know, Mark Warner of Virginia's been mentioned, I guess a close friend of Manchin, as some -- a more moderate influence that, and they could craft a deal or some sort of an understanding, even on the filibuster. I don't know how it would apply to the voting rights deal, but something like that could be cobbled together.

What do you think?

MCGHEE WHITE: Sure.

But, again, what this all depends on is whether Manchin is willing to abolish the filibuster or temporarily change the rules to do that for this voting rights bill. And for him to do that would be really a step against everything that he has said thus far. But who knows, because most of the Democrats right now advocating for abolishing the filibuster were defending it just not too long ago.

So we already know that this party isn't exactly the most consistent. Manchin might end up backing out on his word as well.

CAVUTO: You know, speaking of Joe Manchin and where he goes right now within the party, obviously, there are a lot of frayed nerves and all that, talk that he might become an independent, caucus with the Democrats, but leave it at that, others that he just might switch sides altogether, become a Republican.

I don't see that happening. But what do you think?

MCGHEE WHITE: I think there's a very good chance that he does end up breaking with the party and chooses to be an independent and still caucuses with the Democrats, kind of like how Bernie Sanders does, in large part because I do think that it has become so difficult for him to maintain a good relationship with progressives specifically.

They're at him all the time, encouraging activists to go after him as well. And I don't see how he can maintain a good relationship with the party as a whole when they're willing to entertain those kinds of actions from the left.

CAVUTO: Got it.

Kaylee McGhee, thank you very, very much, following all of this stuff very closely for The Washington Examiner.

We will see how Joe Manchin is affected by all of this sort of rose and petals sort of approach to be nice, try to be nice stuff, how he responds to that.

In the meantime, more flight delays to tell you about, 2,600 today, in case you have counted, close to 30,000 flights in the last two weeks since right before Christmas, and on and on it goes. The winter storm getting much of the blame this time, but what next?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, this go-round, blame the weather for better than 2,600 flight cancellations. They seem to be going on and on day in and day out.

But, this time, that winter storm that gripped most of the East Coast getting much of the blame.

Will Nunley at FOX Weather with more out of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Will, what are we looking at now?

WILL NUNLEY, FOX WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: I tell you what.

This system, Neil, that has brought so much trouble to the Mid-South, to the Northeast over the past few days now moving its way out. And we're just dealing with the remnants of it here tonight in Plymouth, leaving some pretty impressive snow totals in its wake, areas south of Boston seeing upwards of 10 inches of snow, 11, 12 measurements and some parts.

And our snow total here is still being calculated, because, at this hour, we still have some snowfall here. Meanwhile, Massachusetts State Police are saying that at least one death has been attributed on the roadways due to this, a single vehicle accident near Freetown earlier today. So there is one injury and one fatal accident report there.

Meanwhile, though, we are ready for the cold. Throughout the day, they have been spending the day trying to clear the roads, lots of snowplows trying to get this snow out of the way. This snowfall started for Boston about 4:00 a.m. For us, it was about 5:00 with some big old snowflakes.

That is tapered off now. And we expect to see what is here trailing off in the next hour or so. But the big story is going to be the cold, because areas where we're standing tonight are going to dip down to about 19 degrees.

So, everything that is on the ground is certainly going to stay. And it's going to create some more problems overnight, Neil, for a lot of the Northeast. We're going to continue tracking those freezing temperatures and the impacts for you all night on the stream on your free FOX Weather app.

And, Neil, in the meantime, we're just enjoying this kind of Norman Rockwell scene that we have here. Even though it's been trouble on the roads for so many, you have to still take in the beauty of it. And, man, it's a beautiful sight here today.

CAVUTO: That's a good news position to have, Will. You have been working nonstop, my friend. Thank you for that, Will Nunley at FOX Weather follow, well, the beautiful images after the fact.

If you're driving through it, you probably don't quite feel the same way.

And men in this country might be going through a bit of a tough period. They have assessed how they look when they take a look in the mirror. And they have rated themselves quite low, quite low.

What's going on, guys?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: You know, usually, we like to end the week on this show examining some of the most vexing issues in our society. And this one caught my attention, a study that shows men are rating themselves no more than a 5.9 on a scale of one to 10.

And it doesn't really matter their age, even though it gets worse with age. They just don't think they look that hot, and they're not happy about it. But that's what it is.

Jimmy Failla joins us right now his take on all of that, "FOX Across America" host. We have got Mike Gunzelman here. These are perfect 10 gentlemen in their own right, Gunz, of course, the Internet radio sensation.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: So, guys, I was looking at this, and I was startled to see, A, men being this honest about themselves and, B, being this conservative about their looks.

Jimmy, did you make of that, 5.9?

JIMMY FAILLA, HOST, "FOX ACROSS AMERICA": Well, I think men what men are doing is they're trying to do the opposite of women, which is to manage expectations, because, as you know, women are famous for the exact -- women are famous for the exact opposite, Neil.

A 50-year-old woman will put a profile picture from her junior prom on there. And then you wind up meeting her, and you feel a little misled.

CAVUTO: Careful, buddy.

FAILLA: It's like when you're buying a used car.

Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

FAILLA: You know when you're buying a used car...

CAVUTO: Oh, boy, you're digging deep. You're digging deep.

FAILLA: ... and they're like it's in showroom condition?

Yes.

MIKE GUNZELMAN, FOX NEWS HEADLINES ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Oh, boy.

FAILLA: I'm just saying, Neil.

And this is all I want to say.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: You don't trust it.

FAILLA: Neil, men are smart.

CAVUTO: OK.

FAILLA: No, not at all.

But this is why men are doing this. Men are being smart, because veteran men know that women aren't attracted to looks. They're attracted to energy. They're attracted to that something about him quality, Neil.

Listen, everybody, OK, we have all been in a bar and seen someone leave behind -- we have all seen someone leave behind a 10 to go home with a six. And I only know that because I have been the six. You know what I'm saying? That's all this is.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: All right, Gunz, apparently, when they're asked a little bit more on this, it's just they think a realistic view how they look in the mirror, and they're being realistic.

GUNZELMAN: Yes.

CAVUTO: Do you feel that way?

GUNZELMAN: Well, I would say Jimmy giving himself a 5.9 is very generous in this poll. I'm very happy that they asked Jimmy about this. And he said that he is a 5.9 out of 10.

So, congratulations, Jimmy, on that.

Before we came on, Neil, somebody literally...

CAVUTO: But a 10 on personality, a 10 on personality, which I always argue...

(CROSSTALK)

FAILLA: A 10 on personality.

CAVUTO: ... counted for a lot, yes.

GUNZELMAN: Yes. Yes. Yes.

Somebody tweeted us before we came on saying that Jimmy looks homeless. So that's what we have got going for us.

But, in all honesty...

FAILLA: Stop. Listen, if Gunz...

(LAUGHTER)

GUNZELMAN: In all honesty, Neil, it is about being -- just being confident with yourself and just being happy about one's abilities, because, listen, you might not be great on looks, but you got the personality, and then you can always crush it.

It's the year 2022. We're taking our lives back.

CAVUTO: I heard that in high school all the time. Yes, Neil, you're such a nice guy that has a nice personality.

No, no. You still have no dates.

So, let me switch gears, guys, because this might be explaining the problem here for these guys rating themselves 5.9. They would jump that in order for like this. Taco Bell is offering a new subscription service. I think you pay 10 bucks a month, you get a taco every day. It more than pays for itself, I think after four or five tacos.

And there's reports that up-front demand is going to be strong. What do you think, Jimmy?

FAILLA: The last thing we need under Joe Biden is more people making a run for the border.

And I just think, if we're being honest, this is a dead end to me.

CAVUTO: You're not being...

(CROSSTALK)

FAILLA: But I think -- no, it's a dead end. It's a dead end to me.

But I think it'll work with their clientele, because most of their clientele already has a marijuana subscription service, so why not a Taco Bell subscription to boot?

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: There you go.

Jimmy, I just went to check, is Taco Bell an advertiser? Can we just check that? All right.

FAILLA: Stop being silly.

GUNZELMAN: I love Taco Bell.

CAVUTO: Gun, what do you make of this? Now, Gunz, you would definitely take them up on this.

GUNZELMAN: Oh, absolutely.

In one of my group chats, we have already discussed the subscription service, Neil. But it's all over the place. So I have gone to the Taco Bell Cantina, which actually sells alcohol. I have gone with my friends. We have had Taco Bell parties out there.

My niece -- I have a 6-year-old niece. My brother in law talked to me about the subscription service. My niece wants a Taco Bell party, rather than a pizza party, for her upcoming birthday. So all about the Taco Bell.

FAILLA: Wow.

GUNZELMAN: I have hung out with friends there. I have got one right now. Let's go, Taco Bell all day long.

CAVUTO: I think this is going to be the future.

FAILLA: Wow.

CAVUTO: Guys, I really do. I think this is going to be the future of fast food. It's easy money for the big fast food giants.

They have the dedicated crowd. I think this is going to be a trend. Does that worry you, Jimmy?

FAILLA: No.

CAVUTO: No.

FAILLA: No, it doesn't.

Listen, it doesn't worry me, because I do think this is the future. And what I mean by this is the phone, OK, has eaten people long before they could eat their tacos. And everybody is so addicted to doing things in and out of their phone, that this is just playing into that future.

I think this is where it's headed. I have made peace with it, Neil, because no one does anything without their phone. Like, you get in the car on Thanksgiving, and your family GPSes the address you have been going to for the last 35 years, because everybody's just gotten so used to using the dang phone. So I know this is the future.

And just to circle back for a minute to Gunz calling me a 5.9, if Gunz was a stripper, the cover charge would be $25 to get in and $100 to get out. So, relax.

(CROSSTALK)

GUNZELMAN: ... about tacos.

CAVUTO: All right, so bottom line, what unites us is this dim view that men have themselves fueled by coupons on food that might make their situation even worse.

It's kind of like a sad story, isn't it?

(LAUGHTER)

FAILLA: It's a tragedy. They have broken men down so far in this day and age that we're now just thankful for a Taco Bell subscription.

Look what they did to Gunz.

CAVUTO: There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that.

Guys, thank you very much, Jimmy Failla, also Mike Gunzelman.

There is hope for men, not these men, but there's hope, I'm convinced.

Here comes "The Five."

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