Kudlow: In the Biden philosophy, success is penalized and failure is rewarded

The first U.S. omicron case was reported today in San Francisco, and I must say so far the White House has been rather sensible and circumspect. The fully vaccinated person returned from South Africa a little over a week ago and tested positive two days ago.

Even Tony Fauci says the person is experiencing only "mild symptoms." Got that? Mild symptoms. As in, let's not panic. So far, this is a non-emergency.

We have vaccines, boosters, pills, and therapies to deal with omicron and the other strains.

Yesterday, President Biden said no lockdowns. Today, Tony Fauci actually agreed with the President, no lockdowns. Yet. Don't know if we can trust them.

Just saying, lockdowns, closing businesses, closing schools, forcing little kids to wear masks, forcing people to stay home - we tried all that. It caused incalculable damage to the individuals, especially the kids, and of course the whole economy and massive job losses.

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And of course, unnecessary extension of so-called "emergency relief assistance," which generated high inflation. In other words, a catastrophe. The cures were much worse than the disease. Have we learned from this disaster? I sure hope so.

But then again Joe Biden, being Joe Biden, just can't help himself. He just had to blather on today how his $5 trillion tax and spend package is going to make everything better. And of course, he attacked large corporations and wealthy, successful Americans, because they have to pay their fair share. As though they don't already.

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In the Biden philosophy, success is penalized, failure is rewarded. Just take a listen to what he said:

‘The Build Back Better plan is fiscally responsible by making the largest corporations and the richest Americans pay a little more in taxes Think about that. That's a tradeoff worth making in my view. Having those who have done very well pay their fair share in order to provide a little breathing room for millions of American families. 

But because he's Joe Biden and can't help himself, he fell even deeper into the mudhole he's already dug.

You see, his $5 trillion spending package will actually reduce inflation and bring prices down. He and the White House staff are the only people who actually believe this nonsense. No one outside the West Wing agrees with this, including Democrat economists.

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Then, of course, he says he's doing everything he can to address the price increases - take a listen:

‘Prices are still out of sync as the world comes back. But as we continue to overcome these obstacles, the more price pressures will ease. But I have not been content to sit back and wait. I've used every tool available to address the price increases and it's working.’

Well, wait a minute. They just doubled lumber tariffs on Canadian softwood. That'll of course make home prices go much higher, as the cost is passed along. This is a stupid policy. Home prices are already way too high and not affordable for the blue-collar middle class.

And wait a minute, the maniacally obsessive fossil fuel-hating Interior Secretary, Ms. Deb Haaland, is putting a package together, of course, with the White House, to perhaps double drilling fees on public lands.

Now, that will keep supplies down because of the tax hike, and lower oil supplies will, of course, raise the price of crude oil and gasoline.

For the last 10 months, President Biden, his energy secretary, his interior secretary, his transportation secretary, his treasury secretary, and his national economic council director have all been bashing fossil fuel companies and fixing up ways to tax and regulate them literally to death.

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So guess what? The drillers aren't drilling, and the producers aren't producing, and you can't blame them. Again, tax something more, and you get less of it. That's why economic recovery demand is outstripping oil supplies. We are 2 million barrels per day short of pre-pandemic levels, and that has caused oil and gasoline prices to skyrocket.

There's nothing fancy here, just supply and demand. Incentives do matter. The prior administration lowered taxes and regulation across the board, but especially in fossil fuels. So we had a boom. Energy independence. Inflation stayed low, while growth was high.

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I've often asked if anyone on the senior staff has told Mr. Biden that America has an awful lot of oil. Now I'm thinking, no one has told him about basic supply and demand curves and how the economy really works.

So, you know how this is going to end.

Save America. Kill the bill.

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow's opening commentary on the December 1, 2021 edition of "Kudlow."