Larry Kudlow in Trump Cabinet members actions and issues
On Budget & Economy:
$6.2 trillion in aid; we think we can get through this
We've got a $6.2 trillion assistance package. We're trying to keep folks working. And we're also protecting payrolls. It may not be perfect but I think it's going to give tremendous amount of resources to get us through what we still believe is going to
be a question of weeks and months--hopefully weeks--maybe I should say prayerfully weeks. But we think we can get through this period. It's the largest mainstream financial assistance package in the history of the United States.
Source: ABC This Week 2020 interview of Trump Cabinet
Mar 29, 2020
On Corporations:
In return for cash grants, US should have stake in airlines
Q: You are going to be taking equity stakes in the airlines? Is the government going to be an activist shareholder, wanting to tell these companies how to run their businesses?KUDLOW: I don't think we will be activist, but we are laying down some
conditions, as I think you know, no stock buybacks, no executive compensation increases, things of that sort. You're either for economic security or national security. You cannot run a country with a vibrant economy like ours without the
airline channels. I think, in return for direct cash grants, which is what the airlines have asked for, I see no reason why the American taxpayer shouldn't get a piece of the rock.
Q: Do you worry that some of this assistance has people making more money to stay home than they would be making on the job?
KUDLOW: We have to do whatever it takes to keep people going.
Source: Fox News Sunday interview of Trump Cabinet
Mar 29, 2020
On Jobs:
You can't have a good job without a healthy business
Q: So, what is waiting for unemployed people on the other side of this? I don't see how it can be just weeks.KUDLOW: It could be four weeks; it could be eight weeks. I say that hopefully, and I say that prayerfully. That's what some of the science
experts are telling us. I don't know if they'll be right.
You can't have a good job unless you have a healthy business. And what we've tried to do is to provide tremendous, tremendous assistance to the individual men and women, and therefore, on the other side, tremendous
assistance to the small businesses for which they work. We're trying to balance this out.
We've got a $6.2 trillion assistance package. We're trying to keep folks working. And we're also protecting payrolls.
Source: ABC This Week 2020 interview of Trump Cabinet
Mar 29, 2020
On Jobs:
Boost in unemployment insurance won't go on forever
Q: Do you worry that assistance has people making more money to stay home than they would be making on the job?KUDLOW: We have to do whatever it takes to keep people going. That's #1, just daily living expenses and so forth. #2, we did plus up the
unemployment insurance. The package is designed for four months. It's not going to go on forever. We are dependent on the state of the virus and whether it's flattening out and going to hook down. But it is not something that's going to go on for years.
Source: Fox News Sunday interview of Trump Cabinet
Mar 29, 2020
On Budget & Economy:
We're going to stay with Trump pro-growth program
First of all, I don't see a recession at all. Second of all, the Trump pro-growth program, which I believe has been succeeding. Lower tax rates, big rollback of regulations, energy opening, trade reform, we're going to stay with that.
We believe that's the heart of the free enterprise. We want an incentive-oriented supply-side economy, providing opportunities for everybody across the board.
Source: Fox News Sunday interview for 2019 Trump Cabinet
Aug 18, 2019
On Corporations:
We believe in supply side Laffer Curve
Q: What about Trump's tariffs on China?KUDLOW: Senator Rick Scott of Florida, very smart guy, made an interesting proposal. He said, look, why don't we take the tariffs from the China trade and turn those back to the taxpayers in the form of tax cuts?
Q: Isn't all that money going to shore up our farmers?
KUDLOW: We've got room to do that as well. Let's let people keep more of what they earn. Let's let them keep more of what they invest. That's the supply side of Laffer Curve. We believe in that.
Source: Fox News Sunday interview for 2019 Trump Cabinet
Aug 18, 2019
On Free Trade:
Trump's strategy on China tariffs is working
On China, the tariffs have hurt them enormously. Business investment is falling, retail sales--China is in some economic trouble.
President Trump is using tariffs in order to put more pressure on the Chinese economy. I think his strategy is, in fact, working.
Source: Fox News Sunday interview for 2019 Trump Cabinet
Aug 18, 2019
On Budget & Economy:
FactCheck: No, deficit is increasing with Trump tax cuts
In June 2018, Kudlow asserted that the tax cut was generating such growth that "it's throwing off enormous amount[s] of new tax revenues", and "the deficit, which was one of the other criticisms, is coming down--and it's coming down rapidly".
Both assertions were incorrect. Since the tax cut was enacted, federal tax receipts increased 1.9% on a year-on-year basis, while they increased 4.0% during the comparable period in 2017. By the same method, the federal budget deficit increased
37.8% while it increased 16.4% during the comparable period in 2017. Kudlow later asserted he was referring to future deficits, although every credible budget forecast indicates increasing deficits in coming years, made
worse by the Trump tax cut if not offset by major spending cuts. Barring such spending cuts, the CBO projected the tax cut would add $1.27 trillion in deficits over the next decade.
Source: Wikipedia.com Fact-Check on 2018 Trump Cabinet members
Dec 31, 2018
On Tax Reform:
Never believe the CBO: tax cuts will not increase deficit
In April 2018, Kudlow said that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was untrustworthy. He dismissed CBO's estimate that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would increase the deficit by $1.3 trillion, saying, "Never believe the CBO. Very important:
Never believe them. They're always wrong, especially with regard to tax cuts, which they never score properly." All credible studies of the tax plan, whether by non-partisan organizations, Wall Street analysts, or right-leaning research organizations,
showed that the tax plan would increase the deficit. In July 2018, Kudlow falsely asserted that "Even the CBO numbers show now that the entire $1.5 trillion tax cut is virtually paid for by higher revenues and better nominal GDP."
The CBO actually found that the tax cut reduces revenues and that deficits would increase by $1.9 trillion after accounting for macroeconomic feedback.
Source: Wikipedia.com for Trump Cabinet biographies
Dec 31, 2018
On Welfare & Poverty:
Be tougher on spending, including entitlement reform
Asked if the Trump administration would address "entitlement reform," chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow said it will "probably" look at "larger entitlements" next year. Entitlement reform generally refers to changes or cuts to large government social
programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or food stamps. "I don't want to be specific, but we'll get there," Kudlow said. "But I agree, we have to be tougher on spending."Democrats jumped on the comments, with calls to protect
health-care coverage and social safety-net programs while Republicans trim spending on those programs in order to make up for budget deficits of $1 trillion from last year's GOP tax cuts. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) tweeted that "Social Security and Medicare
are on the line" in November's midterms.
Kudlow downplayed the effect of tax cuts on budget deficits and instead pointed to a longer-term spending problem. "People are quick to blame deficits on tax cuts," he said. "Well, I don't buy that."
Source: CNBC's Jacob Pramuk on 2018 Trump Cabinet
Sep 18, 2018
On Social Security:
Market's higher return trounces Social Security's low yield
Kudlow places the blame for Social Security's doomsday forecasts on the anemic growth rate of its asset reserves. Said Kudlow in a 2007 article in National Review: "The real problem with Social Security is not bankruptcy. It's the dreadful investment
return (barely 1 percent) that future retirees have to look forward to. If Americans had the chance to purchase S&P 500 SPDR contracts, and were able to hold them for fifty years, they would receive a real return of at least 7 percent compounded
annually based on the history of the stock market. That's a lot of Benjamins."In plainer English, Kudlow backs the idea of partially or fully privatizing Social Security to allow working Americans control over a portion of their retirement benefit.
To be fair, the average rate of return on Social Security's asset reserves is a much healthier 2.9% today. But if working Americans could invest in the stock market over the long term, they would have an opportunity to best this 2.9% return.
Source: Sean Williams in Motley Fool blog, on Trump Cabinet
Jul 19, 2018
On Immigration:
Zero immigration till new system to stop ISIS is implemented
With the rise of ISIS, Kudlow has also taken a more protectionist view on immigration in line with Trump. While as recently as 2014, Kudlow supported legal immigration for the sake of economic growth, Kudlow wrote in late 2015 that "this is war."
"I have come to believe there should be no immigration or visa waivers until the U.S. adopts a completely new system to stop radical Islamic terrorists from entering the country," he wrote in a National Review article.
Source: Lucinda Shen in Fortune Magazine on Trump Cabinet
Mar 14, 2018
On Abortion:
Trump's support of late-term abortion ban is "gift from god"
[President Trump's] support of a ban on late-term partial-birth abortion was a heaven-sent gift from God. Trump's opposition to abortion, in general, is a wonderful thing. So is his pledge to nominate pro-life judges, and his related idea that if
pro-life judges overturn Roe v. Wade, that's fine. Send abortion back to the states where it started. So I sincerely hope that in Gettysburg, just as President Lincoln defended the ending of slavery, Trump continues to defend the life of the unborn.
Source: CNBC's Larry Kudlow column: 2016 Trump Transition/Cabinet
Oct 22, 2016
Page last updated: Dec 03, 2021