LARRY KUDLOW: Kevin McCarthy is running circles around President Biden
Kudlow reacts to McCarthy's plan
Save America. Cut the budget. Grow the economy. That's my rendition of what House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is calling the Limit, Save, Grow Act. Mr. McCarthy unveiled his $4.5 trillion budget savings on the floor of the House today as part of the GOP debt ceiling package. Nothing is perfect in life, but as I've said before, this is a very good package and here is the great part of this story, truly.
Joe Biden will have none of it. None of it. Speaking in Maryland today, President Joe Biden just went back to that stale, sorry, silly, unserious MAGA business that he and his sinking approval ratings have become famous for. Yup. There he goes again.
Not a mention about the inflation that he started with his frenzied overspending and his tax-and-regulate crushing of the productive supply side of the economy, including his so-called "life and death" war on fossil fuels, all of which has added up to the biggest stagflation in 40 years with workers' real wages continuing to decline, middle-class families losing living standards and an extraordinary wave of pessimism circulating throughout the country.
All he can do today is prattle on about MAGA, with the usual whining about tax cuts for the rich and reducing benefits for everybody. Really? How out-of-touch is Joe Biden? In poll after poll, given a choice between more government services and higher taxes on the one hand, and fewer government services and lower taxes on the other, steady results for years from Gallup and Pew and others show the vast majority of folks prefer less government and lower taxes.
ELON MUSK: NO ‘MAGICAL CURE FOR INFLATION’
Mr. Biden's big government socialist experiment is a failure and, even worse, it's an unpopular failure. His response to Kevin McCarthy is not a response — it's a whine, and voters are getting tired of Biden's whining and complaining. Step up to the plate, Mr. Biden. For once, try to be a mensch. If you don't like what McCarthy's put on the table, come up with your own plan.
There's going to be an increase in the debt ceiling, but it's going to be accompanied by some spending restraint. If you want to make a deal, then deal, but stop whimpering. Right now, Kevin McCarthy is running circles around you. McCarthy may be the most popular politician in America today. You, Mr. President, are close to being the most unpopular. Not even your own party wants you to run again for president. Now, what does that tell you?
The Republican plan increases the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion, with 10-year budget caps growing at 1% annually, starting in FY '22, rescinding unused COVID money, nullifying the student loan giveaway, repealing the trillions of dollars of green credits, unlocking the fossil fuel spigots for an all-of-the-above energy policy, reining in runaway executive branch bureaucrats, workfare for social benefits, and pulling back the IRS. You have a problem with this, Mr. President? Then deal. Stop complaining about the Trump tax cuts that are not on the table right now and gave us an economic boom and, the real facts show, helped lower- and middle-income folks the most.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Stop your income redistribution, tax the rich and most successful entrepreneurs and why don't you start looking out for the country with a policy of growth? Your problem is, you don't understand that while people have jobs, their take-home pay is falling and that is one reason why you are so unpopular, and you are in denial about this.
I'm going to guess, after today, when the Republican speaker of the House provided a constructive option for limited government and an increase in the debt ceiling, while all you can do is blather on about left-wing, Democratic slogans, it's going to do you a lot of political harm, even while the country continues to suffer economically. You know what? Folks are looking for an adult response. Save America. Cut the budget. Grow the economy.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the April 19, 2023, edition of "Kudlow."