Kudlow grills the progressive left's wish list

So, with Biden’s polls plunging and wide gaps in the Democratic Party over spending and taxing along with some serious grassroots opposition from groups like the Save America Coalition, I really do believe the Democrats are on the run. They're back on their heels. They can't get their story straight. 

Again, this evening, I express my support for Joe Manchin's strategic 'pause' carrying over until next spring of 2022. Our motives may be a bit different, but our goals right now are similar.  

If the Democratic budget resolution doesn't get through reconciliation until then—which admittingly is an improbable longshot —then the whole thing will die. 

I do believe public Democratic weakness after the Biden meetings and the nonsensical press conference with Schumer and Pelosi has a lot to do with the huge stock market rally today and while insiders tell me that President Biden told Democratic leaders to come up with their own topline on spending and I presume taxes, at this point, that project looks impossible with Manchin at $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion.  

The Bernie Sanders budget scored at $3.5 trillion and the actual gimmick-free budget scored at about $5.5 trillion. That’s a very big spread and as the Tax Foundation estimates show, even the Ways and Means tax mark, which I believe would do great harm to the economy, even that will only produce a net revenue increase of $1 trillion with Laffer curve dynamic scoring. 

So, $1 trillion won't pay for $3.5 trillion or $5.5 trillion. 

So, there's another problem.  

The attack on drug companies with excise taxes, price controls and forced subsidies will not yield anything close to $700 billion—if any of it gets through at all. Reconciliation, by the way, under the old Byrd Rule is supposed to reduce deficits. 

The Democratic wish list will raise deficits and debt by at least $15 trillion over the next 10 years and probably a lot more.  

Then, you have the so-called Democratic House moderates who do tend to be more pro-business, but their holy grail is a restoration of the SALT tax deduction in order to satisfy their wealthy suburban voters. 

By itself, this could be a deal-breaker in the House. Republicans correctly oppose this in the name of tax reform.  

Why should Nebraska and Oklahoma pay for New York and New Jersey? The far-left progressives don't like it because they look at everything through the lens of class warfare and this one doesn't fit the bill because it would help rich people and we mustn't do that, right? Wrong! 

Actually, what ought to happen here is the Trump corporate tax cut and business expensing package should be made permanent and the top tax rate should go down to 30% while the income tax base should be broadened, but alas, that's not going to happen. 

Meanwhile, on the spending side, the key reason I’d like to see this bill killed is the dramatic rise in entitlement spending. 

The federal government paid leave family plan, along with a trillion-dollar increase in the child tax credit (which is a massive spending hike through the tax code), along with increases in child dependency care (the old AFDC welfare program) and free universal pre-K education plus other dependent care—these are middle-class entitlements with eligibility up to—hold your breath—up to $200,000. 

Here's one more: the progressive left wish list also includes forgiving student loans up to $50,000. This is another bad idea. This is the middle class bailing out rich people.  

No, I’m not a class warrior, but if the affluent want to go to college, then pay for it and go to college.  

We've already deferred student loan payments by more than $100 billion. At zero interest rates, borrowers should be refinancing their loans, reducing principal and interest to substantially lessen the debt burden.  

The worst offenders here are these permanent grad students who are in the main left-wing crazy people who can't get a job. 

I don't want to forgive them for anything. I don't even want to forgive them for being. 

All these middle-class entitlements, which meet the left-wing progressive dream of a universal guaranteed basic income, have no work or education requirements. Work and education are the best anti-poverty programs ever known. 

Work and education are the keys to climbing the ladder of opportunity, but the Democrats want to try to transform the very essence of the American idea. They want to destroy the core fabric of American society.  

The government will pay you, no need to work. That is big government socialism. 

That is an assault on free enterprise capitalism. That is a sure way to increase poverty, increase inequality, reduce labor participation and move us further on the road to serfdom.  

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP

Is this really what we want? I don't think so. 

I think the public increasingly agrees with my point of view. So, just to coin a phrase: Save America. Kill the bill. That's my riff.