Larry Kudlow: 'This Idea Makes Me Very Uncomfortable'

"'Kudlow' panelists Steve Moore and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., discuss a potential U.S. government stake in Intel and 2026 tax cuts." 

Source:FOX Business anchor Lawrence Kudlow.

From FOX Business

Erick Erickson has weighed in on the Trump Administration's state socialism proposal as well: 

"Time and time again, when the government gets involved, the leviathan grows and both the Middle Class and small businesses get the shaft. Innovation stalls and economic growth slows. Go back to the buckets. As the government issues more debt, more people buy public debt instead of investing in the public sector. The government’s bucket fills up with money that does not go to shareholders, workers, investors, innovation, or growth.

The Trump Administration is now bragging that over $150 billion has been generated from tariffs. Some of that comes from American businesses. But some of that comes from American consumers. More of it will come from consumers soon as companies raise prices. That is more money in the government bucket, not the private sector bucket.

Now, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is urging the government to become the largest shareholder of Intel. Some defend it by citing national security reasons, ignoring the government does not own shares in other defense contractors. Others defend it because Trump is in charge, so damn the principle. But like with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, General Motors, etc. all this will do is increase burdens on American taxpayers, decrease efficiency in the private sector that will slow growth, and puts a major American microchip company in the position of doing what the government wants, not what is best for the company...

You can read Erick Erickson's full blog post.

Austrian-British economist Friedrich Hayek I believe has always had the best quote about socialism: 

"If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialists".

I'm going to give you a little background on both Larry Kudlow and Erick Erickson before I weigh on what the Trump Administration is trying to do here with their state socialist proposal here. 

From what I wrote back in May in response to what Conservative columnist Kevin Williamson wrote arguing about President's Trump's... let's say socialist tendencies: 

"I could give you old cliche to talk about whether or not Donald Trump is a Socialist or not, by saying: "If it quacks, like a duck, walks like a duck.. but hopefully you want to hear something more interesting than that. I sure as hell want to say something even more original and interesting (ha, ha) than that. 

I think what's going on here, is the President and The White House know they're in trouble: 

House Republicans are freaking out about not just losing the House in 2026, but getting blown out and not having much of an opportunity about winning it back in 28. 

Senate Republicans are even worried that maybe even their majority will be at risk in 26, because of what House Republicans are worried about as well, which is who unpopular the President is, especially as it relates to his economic policy. 

And The White House is out of believable, positive spin, The Donald himself has even run out of decent lies in how to spin his bad economy, (I guess the Trump tariffs have even hurt TrumpLies.Inc) so they're desperate and are trying to come up with anything that they can think of at the time, to try to justify (because they can't spin) the weaknesses in the American economy right now. 

So Donald John Trump: the Manhattan real estate mogul, the self-proclaimed billionaire, the "king of reality TV", sounding like a Socialist, because he's talking about sacrifice and the need for Americans to cut back. When no one in his White House, including himself, would ever even consider cutting back anything that they enjoy in life, to benefit someone else who isn't doing as well... I don't think there's anything more to it then what I just laid out. Donald Trump is not a Socialist... but he's a desperate politician, to the point if sounding like a Socialist is what he needs to do to improve his political fortune, that's exactly what he will do." 

From The New Democrat

This is what I wrote about Mr. Kudlow back in March: 

"The title of this video is: "Karoline Leavitt: Trump is Working 24/7 To Bring Down The Cost of Living". But if you bothered to watch the video (and I don't blame you if you didn't) nothing in there about bringing down the cost of living in America. Which by the way, Donald Trump promised he would "eliminate inflation on day 1 of his presidency". You got of a lot of talking points and claims from Karoline Leavitt about what the Trump Administration is doing, with no facts to back her up. And Larry Kudlow as well Ms. Leavitt blaming the current problems with the economy on Joe Biden. But nothing in there about what the Trump Administration is doing to bring down the cost of living. 

And after announcing new tariffs on Canada and Mexico today, which will just make groceries more expensive, along with deporting farm workers, which affects the price of eggs and milk in America, you would think Kudow & Company would want to talk to the White House Press Secretary about how the President plans to make the cost of living in America more affordable, since it's now more expensive since he became POTUS 6 weeks ago." 

From The New Democrat

This is some of what I wrote about Mr. Kudlow back in June: 

"Like a lot of other people and things that Donald John Trump has touched right before they died, (to paraphrase Rick Wilson) Larry Kudlow before Donald Trump took over the Republican Party and turned it into the MAGA Party... was a neoconservative, supply-side, business oriented and economics oriented, Northeast, country club, Republican and political commentator. But now he acts like Donald John Trump is God himself and backs everything that he does and goes out-of-his-way to make it 100% that he always backs The Don 100% of the time, regardless of what the President is doing and saying. 

The President could call for nationalizing private universities and banks because he doesn't like their politics and Kudlow would claim: "The President is standing up for real Americans". 

I would love to know who kidnapped Larry Kudlow and who they got to replace him. The guy on FOX Business looks like Kudlow, but he sure as hell no longer sounds like him." 

From The New Democrat

And here's a little background on Erick Erickson: 

"Erick Woods Erickson (born June 3, 1975) is an American conservative talk radio host, blogger, and former politician. He hosts a three-hour weekday talk show on WSB 95.5 FM and 750 AM in Atlanta, which is syndicated to other radio stations around the U.S. He also writes a political blog called The Resurgent. Prior to this, he was editor-in-chief and CEO of another conservative political blog called RedState.[2] He was a political contributor for CNN from 2010 to 2013, and afterwards was a contributor to the Fox News Channel before leaving the network in 2018... 

From Wikipedia

I give you all of this background, profile information of both Larry Kudlow and Erick Erickson, because I think there's a runaway pandemic as it relates to insomnia and I think if people just read this stuff, they'll fall asleep and immediately start to catch up on the last 6 months or so that they've gone without any real sleep. Actually, I have another reason for doing this. Some might even argue that it's even better than the first 1. 

My real point here is it's not Democrats (at least not left-wing Democrats) who are freaking out about the Trump Administration's using the U.S. Government to purchase a stake in Intel. Most of the opposition is coming from the Right, in some cases, even the far-right, especially if you look at where Erick Erickson has been on cultural issues the last 20 years or so. 

So if you are a die hard MAGA follower, who has been living in this political cult the last 10 years or so... you are so lost in space, that you might be able to make 1 of Charlie Manson's followers seem very sane and sober. But if I were try to talk to you anyway, (perhaps like some dedicated shrink who simply wants to try to help as many of my patients as possible) and even use reason (which is very out-of-style right now) to try to get you to see the light here, I would tell you too look at the Kudlow's, the Erickson's, the Steve Moore's, because they would tell you why this is such a horrible idea. 

As Erick Erickson's said on his blog post: 

"When the federal government took control of General Motors, GM no longer engaged in risk assessed based on shareholder value and economic value, but in political risk... 

I would add to that, once the Feds become part of a private company, that company starts taking more bad risks because they now know they have the taxpayers there to bail them out. Unlike if they are completely in private hands, there's no guarantee of even a private buyout if they go under or pile on so much debt from their own bad investments, that they either have to be bailed out, or go into public bankruptcy. 

As I've said before, (or something close to this) Larry Kudlow, Erick Erickson, and Steve Moore, are no one's radical Hippies or flaming Socialists. Pre-Trump, both Kudlow and Moore would be what you would describe as Northeastern, country club, neoconservative, supply-side, Republicans. They were people who believed that government should be out of the private sector and just let companies operate freely in what they would call a free market. 

Erick Erickson, perhaps a little to the left (key word being little) but he's basically the Gen-X, male version of someone like a Phyllis Schlafly from the 1960s and 70s. Very radical as a right-wing culture warrior, but not a racist or an ethnic bigot. But someone you could describe as a true believer when it comes to what has been called Christian Nationalism. But someone who combined his radical, right-wing cultural war politics, with a more conservative-libertarian view of government when it comes to economic policy. 

So when even have people who are true Conservatives when it comes to economic policy, tell you that state socialism is a really bad idea and you are also on the Right, you should at least listen to them. Unless you are not a Conservative, and more of a State Socialist and someone who thinks: 

"Nazism wasn't that bad. Maybe we should try that here so our companies could be pro-American again". 

Or however you would phrase that yourself. 

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Larry Kudlow: The Trump Economy is Heading For a Midterm Sweep

"FOX Business host Larry Kudlow discusses the latest CPI report for May on 'Kudlow." 

Source:FOX Business DJT propagandist Larry Kudlow.

From FOX Business

Just for the record: Larry Kudlow is not a professional economist or political analyst. And if you bothered to see his video before reading my response to it, he makes it obvious that he's not an economist or political analyst. 

Mr. Kudlow claimed that America has created 500K since Donald Trump became President. Well let's say minus January, since DJT was only President for the last 2 weeks of that month, that's 125K month. But you subtract 59K jobs from the public sector, it's more like 440K in a little over 16 weeks. In 2024 alone, we created 2.2 million jobs. That's around 180K(give or take)  per month under President Biden in his last year. Which was a bad year for him politically, as well as the Democratic Party, but a good year for the American economy. 

Mr. Kudlow also claimed we now have the lowest inflation rate in the last 9 months. The inflation level for May, 2025, was 2.4%, 2.4% in August and September of 2024. Mr. Kudlow might think his audience is primarily just a bunch of drunken idiots, or meth-heads (I guess you could be both) who don't know the difference between the national debt and budget deficit. But from time to time, there are people who watch his videos, who are sober and know at least something about economics. 

So if you think about it and look at the job numbers, the growth numbers, look at inflation: job and economic growth is down today, from where it was in all of 24. And inflation is the same. And you can say that the Trump tariffs are the reason for that. But you won’t hear that from anyone who is paid to kiss Donald John Trump’s feet every night and day on TV.

According to Wikipedia about Larry Kudlow:

"He graduated from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, with a bachelor's degree in history in 1969.[8] Although his academic qualifications and credentials pertaining to economics have been called into question as he completed only an undergraduate degree with a major in history (aside from his foreign policy coursework at Princeton), Kudlow claims that the particular history curriculum that he completed at Rochester dealt heavily with economic themes, especially pertinent to trade policy.[5][9]

In 1971, Kudlow enrolled in the master's program at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, but he left before completing his degree." 

From Wikipedia

Like a lot of other people and things that Donald John Trump has touched right before they died, (to paraphrase Rick Wilson) Larry Kudlow before Donald Trump took over the Republican Party and turned it into the MAGA Party... was a neoconservative, supply-side, business oriented and economics oriented, Northeast, country club, Republican and political commentator. But now he acts like Donald John Trump is God himself and backs everything that he does and goes out-of-his-way to make it 100% that he always backs The Don 100% of the time, regardless of what the President is doing and saying. 

The President could call for nationalizing private universities and banks because he doesn't like their politics and Kudlow would claim: "The President is standing up for real Americans". 

I would love to know who kidnapped Larry Kudlow and who they got to replace him. The guy on FOX Business looks like Kudlow, but he sure as hell no longer sounds like him.

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Laura Ingraham Interviews President Donald Trump

"President Donald Trump sits down with Fox News' Laura Ingraham for an exclusive interview to discuss the latest on his call with Russian President Putin, deportation flights for migrant criminals, 'rogue' judges attempting to halt his agenda, DOGE, trade policy and more." 

Source:FOX News talking to Donald J. Trump (MAGA, Florida) 47th President of the United States & 1st wannabe dictator.

From FOX News

From Mediate: 

"Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed President Donald Trump over his treatment of Canada relative to the way he treats U.S. adversaries in an interview that aired on the network Tuesday evening.

Ingraham’s  interview with the president premiered on Tuesday evening’s episode of The Ingraham Angle. When they got to the topic of Canada, Trump reaffirmed his stance that Canada was “meant to be” the 51st state and claimed the U.S. didn’t need Canada’s lumber or automotive manufacturing exports. That prompted Ingraham to ask another question:

INGRAHAM: But you’re tougher with Canada than you are with some of our biggest adversaries. Why?

TRUMP: Only because it’s meant to be our 51st state, and I mean that.

INGRAHAM: OK, but we need their territory. They have territorial advantage. We’re not gonna let them get close to China, right?

TRUMP: Look, I deal with every country — indirectly or directly. One of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada. The people that now — this was [former Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau — the people that good old Justin — I call him “Governor Trudeau” — his people were nasty, and they weren’t telling the truth. They never told the truth. You know that, you know, they’d say, “Well, we don’t charge.” Well, they do. They charge tremendous, they charge tremendous; and, if you look at dairy products, what they’ve done to our farmers — I’d go up to Iowa, I’d go up to different places, Nebraska — and they would always complain about Canada, how they get ripped off. Do you know that Canada has a 250% tariff? Two-hundred and fifty. Nobody knows that. They charge us numbers that are crazy. We have a very big deficit with Canada–

INGRAHAM: $60 billion.

TRUMP: Much more. We have much more–

INGRAHAM: I don’t think so.

TRUMP: –just so you understand. We subsidize Canada, and I like Canada. I love Canada." 

From Mediate

Just a little background of what I think of Laura Ingraham first and then the interview: 

I think she's a right-wing, hyper-partisan demagogue, who a best is very loose with the truth. But she's not stupid or crazy. You see that just in the opening of this interview with President Trump where she said that The White House readout of the conversation between the President and President Vladimir Putin: "As a positive reading of the conversation"

And then Laura Ingraham literally asking the President when talking about Chief Justice John Roberts statement on the President attacking Federal judges because they ruled against him: "Are there any court orders that you wouldn't defy?"

Think about that: a Fox News anchor... I mean there's no one more MAGA than Laura Ingraham. Her right-wing populist record, goes back to the 1990s, if not father. She's a saner, more intelligent version of Ann Coulter. And she's asking the Dear Leader of the MAGA movement (who also just happens to also be President of the United States) "Are there any court orders that you would defy?"

And the thing about Canada... no one, even in the U.S. Department of Defense, actually expects us to invade Canada. I'm also willing to bet that there's no one in the U.S. Department of State, who actually believes that Canada would just agree to become part of America. But Donald Trump throws this out there, because he sees Canada as weak and that he can push them around. 

And the rest of this interview is Donald Trump just being the Donald J. Trump: the king of political reality TV in America: meaning everything he actually says, isn't actually happening. Just a bunch of political garbage: 

And the President trying to blame everyone else in the world for problems he caused. 

And the President trying to spend 10 minutes talking about everything in the world, except of for what Laura Ingraham asked him, before Ingraham cuts him off and tries to get an answer to her actual question. 

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FOX News: Larry Kudlow Talks To Elon Musk

"MeidasTouch contributor Anthony Davis reacts to Elon Musk's interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business where he was questioned on Donald Trump's tariff plans and DOGE." 

Source:Meidas Touch with a look at the Elon Musk-Larry Kudlow conversation.

From the Meidas Touch

Elon Musk: "In fact, there was a report issued by the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, last year. So during the Biden administration, which estimated the federal government fraud to be half a trillion dollars. So just to be clear, that’s not a Trump administration thing, that’s a Biden administration thing.

Elon Musk: What we’re trying to do is get that number down to a much smaller figure, save money for the American taxpayer, stop money being spent on things that are, that I think very few taxpayers would agree makes sense. You know, transgender animal surgeries, or why are we spending, why are American tax dollars being spent on this? And the President’s gone through a long list of absurd things. Why are the 20 million people who are definitely dead marked as alive in the social security database? Why we're hundreds of millions of dollars of small business administration loans given out to people aged 11 and under, according to the social security? Like these must be some very enterprising eight-year-olds, you know? And some pretty strong 150-year-olds.

[ELON MUSK:] Right, well, we just basically follow the money. You know, we look at the President’s executive orders, and we also just follow the money.

So we started looking closely at USAID because they were completely violating the President’s executive orders to suspend foreign aid, you know, what’s called foreign aid, but in our view is a lot of corruption. So what we saw there is just a tremendous amount of money being sent to non-governmental organizations. But actually, this, by the way, is I think one of the biggest sources of fraud in the world, is government-funded non-governmental organizations.

[ELON MUSK:] In fact, they try their best to thwart presidential policy. So the president is the elected representative of the people. And if the president cannot get things implemented as a reflection of the will of the people, then what we have is not a democracy. We have a bureaucracy. We have rule of the bureau, not rule of the people. And that’s what we’re trying to defeat here is the bureaucracy and have rule of the people...

From The Singju Post

I guess I have a few reactions here. 

Meidas Touch host Anthony Davis talks way too much. We would've gotten a lot more here out of Elon Musk, if they just played the damn interview and then Davis could talk about what he thinks about it. What we got instead was maybe 10-15 seconds of Musk and then maybe a minute of Davis commentary right after that, before he would set up the next point. 

And then my 2nd point is: wouldn't you love to be a body language expert and examine Elon Musk every time he speaks about anything... at least when he's doing his interviews? There seems to be no preparation on his part. Musk seems to be thinking about what he should say, as he's trying to say it, and perhaps gets caught in-between points as well. 

Larry Kudlow is not what you would call a hard-nose journalist. Actually, he's not a journalist. He's a right-wing economic affairs commentator, with his own political talk show. He's just throwing batting practice softball after batting practice softball at Elon Musk. Questions like: 

"What is it like running the greatest business in the world and trying to reform the U.S. Government at the same time?" And Musk says something like: "It's tough sledding". A high school student could hit that pitch a lot farther. But Musk barely makes contact on it and just wants to move on. 

If there was 1 key point from this so-called interview between Larry Kudlow and Elon Musk, it would be this: 

Elon Musk: "In fact, they try their best to thwart presidential policy. So the president is the elected representative of the people. And if the president cannot get things implemented as a reflection of the will of the people, then what we have is not a democracy. We have a bureaucracy. We have rule of the bureau, not rule of the people. And that’s what we’re trying to defeat here is the bureaucracy and have rule of the people...

And this is what I really want you to concentrate on: 

Elon Musk: "And if the president cannot get things implemented as a reflection of the will of the people, then what we have is not a democracy. We have a bureaucracy". 

There a few key responses to this: 

I'm now in may late 40s. I'm from the same generation as Elon Musk (a nightmare that I have to live with everyday) but 5-6 years younger than him: 

I'm in my late teens in the mid-1990s during the New Gingrich Revolution in Washington, when Republicans use to claim that America was a republic, not a democracy. 

The same thing with George W. Bush in the 2000s and the Tea Party/MAGA in the 2010s. 

Now that MAGA and their Oligarchs are in complete control of Washington in the mid 2020s, Elon and company are claiming that America should be some type of oligarchy, I mean democracy. (My bad) They believe the President of the United States should basically be able to do whatever the hell he wants to. Why? Because the American people elected Donald Trump. According to Elon Musk, President Trump is the representative of all the people. Including the 75 million people who voted for Kamala Harris.

Only in dictatorships can the chief executive of the executive branch do whatever he wants to. I guess just as long as the security state and military state, as well as his cabinet and party supports him. But as much as Elon Musk and Donald Trump hates this, we're not an oligarchic dictatorship, yet. We have checks and balances all over the Federal Government, as well as we should. Especially when someone comes into power believing that they shouldn't have any accountability and be able to do whatever they want, with no accountability. 

My final point here: Elon Musk is exactly what he's been putting Federal employees down for being ever since Donald J. Trump became President in January: an unelected bureaucrat. And he's someone who had very little, if any understanding about how the U.S. Government and our Constitution before he came to Donald Trump's White House. And is now getting on the job training at its worst.

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Special Report With Brett Baier: Jessica Tarlov On The House CR

“There’s no reason for Democrats to support a CR that they weren’t consulted on at all. There’s no reason the Democrats should bail out the Republicans. We’ve been hearing since the election that this is the largest mandate in American history, so prove it. We’re not here to bail them out.”

Source:Fox News political commentator Jessica Tarlov.

From Vince D Monroy

Just for the record: I'm not in favor of forced government shutdowns, whether they're done by Republicans (which is normally the case) or by Democrats, which was led by Senate Minority Chuck Schumer in 2018. The politics is bad, but worst, if disrupts the lives of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of government workers who need their jobs, as well as local businesses who rely on those workers to stay in business. 

But, this is Tuesday and any potential government shutdown wouldn't be until 11:59PM Friday night. And asking Democrats to vote for a continuing resolution that probably cuts Medicaid anyway, is bad politics for them, its bad politics for vulnerable House Republicans, perhaps even Senate Republicans as well. One 1 House Democrat out of 215: Representative Jared Golden (Democrat, Maine) voted for it. So House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gets this as well. 

So now the bill goes to the Senate where Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will have a big decision to make: 

block the bill, where Majority Leader John Thune would need 60 votes to get to final passage on it. 

allow the bill to come up and tell your members to vote for cloture, but lock in all your members to vote against it and then use those Senate Republican votes against vulnerable Senate Republicans in 2026 when they have to run for reelection, where President Trump will probably be pretty unpopular by then (unless he drastically changes course) 

Or, work with the Senate Majority Leader to get a compromise that both sides in the Senate could support, that would pass the House overwhelmingly (if it just came to the floor) 

But this House MAGA government funding bill is I believe the first test in how Congressional Democrats will act as the opposition party. If they take James Carville advice, they'll: 

"Democratic strategist James Carville called on Democrats to make a "strategic political retreat" in a guest essay for The New York Times on Tuesday, telling members of his party "to play dead."

"Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight, and make the American people miss us. Only until the Trump administration has spiraled into the low 40s or high 30s in public approval polling percentages should we make like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular. Until then, I’m calling for a strategic political retreat," he wrote. 

"With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead," the strategist continued.

"Carville compared his suggestion to a "tactical pause," and argued the Democrats needed to stop regularly playing defense against the Trump administration's actions.

"It’s a vision move — get out of the hour-to-hour, day-to-day combat where one side (ours) is largely playing defense and struggling to defend politically charged positions (like explaining D.E.I. or persuading voters to care about foreign aid), and take time to regroup, look forward and make decisions about where we want to get to over the next two years," Carville said.

He said Americans were likely not waiting around for lawmakers and commentators to make the same old arguments to criticize the president. 

"They’re tired of it, and our Democratic voters are tired of watching us moan and groan to cover up our impotency out of power. They want us to be smarter than that," he added." 

From The New Democrat

If they take James Carville''s advice, neither Hakeem Jeffries or Chuck Schumer will try to prevent Republicans from politically jumping off the bridge, or making sure they have parachutes before they jump out of the plane, or make sure they're sober enough to drive themselves home. They'll just let Congressional Republicans politically crash and burn on their own. 

If this this is the choice for Chuck Schumer: let Republicans take full responsibility for their crash and burn style of politics and government, or be the voice of reason and just offer John Thune a clean continuing resolution, with no cuts or spending increases in it. And we'll see what Senate Democrats do this week. 

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Larry Kudlow: Karoline Leavitt: President Trump is Working 24/7 To Bring Down The Cost of Living

"White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt unpacks President Donald Trump's economic policies for growth on 'Kudlow.'" 

Source:FOX Business with a look at White House propagandist Karoline Leavitt.

From Fox Business

Here's some background of Larry Kudlow: 

"Larry Kudlow serves as Vice Chair of the Board for AFPI and as Chair of the Center for American Prosperity. He is also the host of “Kudlow” on Fox Business and “The Larry Kudlow Show” on WABC Talk Radio. He previously served as Director of the National Economic Council under President Donald Trump, where he led the domestic and global economic policy agendas. Throughout the years, Kudlow has hosted several popular television shows with an economic focus, had a successful career on Wall Street, and worked as an associate director in the Office of Management and Budget during the Reagan Administration. He began his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as a staff economist. Kudlow describes himself as a Reagan supply-sider and is a staunch advocate for free markets, tax cuts, and deregulation." 

From the American First Policy Institute

The title of this video is: "Karoline Leavitt: Trump is Working 24/7 To Bring Down The Cost of Living". But if you bothered to watch the video (and I don't blame you if you didn't) nothing in there about bringing down the cost of living in America. Which by the way, Donald Trump promised he would "eliminate inflation on day 1 of his presidency". You got of a lot of talking points and claims from Karoline Leavitt about what the Trump Administration is doing, with no facts to back her up. And Larry Kudlow as well Ms. Leavitt blaming the current problems with the economy on Joe Biden. But nothing in there about what the Trump Administration is doing to bring down the cost of living. 

And after announcing new tariffs on Canada and Mexico today, which will just make groceries more expensive, along with deporting farm workers, which affects the price of eggs and milk in America, you would think Kudow & Company would want to talk to the White House Press Secretary about how the President plans to make the cost of living in America more affordable, since it's now more expensive since he became POTUS 6 weeks ago.

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The Five With Greg Gutfeld: Reactions To Democrats Blasting DOGE

"'The Five' panelists react to President Donald Trump's efforts to stop government waste through DOGE." 

Source:FOX News anchor Greg Gutfeld.

From FOX News

My colleague Fred Schneider got into this yesterday talking about CNN anchor Anderson Copper trying to get some real examples and evidence from President Trump lack John Sununu about Elon Musk's DOGE cutting "government waste". 

"Anderson was simply trying to get the Governor to lay out some specific examples of "government waste" that DOGE has been cutting. And the Governor just had Elon Musk's talking points and what they've said they've done. But no evidence of what they've actually done. Anderson, like the 60 Minutes or Nightline style journalist that he is, didn't let that stand. And he asked him again to give him some specific examples of what "government waste" that DOGE has uncovered. 

And John Sununu just got tired of being asked the same question that he doesn't have a good answer to, that probably no one has a good example for. And he just gave a wisecrack instead: (and I'm paraphrasing)

 "You expect Elon Musk and President Trump to bring thousands of pages of direct evidence of government waste to their press conferences. You'll never be satisfied". 

From The New Democrat

I guess I have several reactions here and I'll just lay them 1 after another. 

To go back to Anderson Cooper's question for John Sununu about what examples and evidence of "government waste" has Elon Musk's DOGE come up with and Governor Sununu having nothing for Cooper, other than Musk's talking points about this,,, Musk and company have been at this for a month now and they haven't released any examples of what they've been finding. It's just 1 press conference after another with President Musk , I mean Mr. Musk (natural mistake) and his lapdog Donald Trump, I mean President Trump. (Another natural mistake) And they are there saying that they've found all this "waste, fraud, and abuse", but with no paperwork, or even video footage about what they've been finding and what they've been doing. 

What DOGE has been doing (and I believe illegally) has been illegally laying people off and firing them. They're not a government agency. They have no authority here. They're a private group of college interns, computer geeks, caffeine freaks, (and perhaps stronger drugs, besides coffee) trying to replace the U.S. Congress (which is currently a Republican Congress) as the check on what the Executive Branch does with our tax dollars. 

I'm not a Socialist, or a drunken Irish sailor (to use an ethnic joke) when it comes to how our tax dollars are spent. I believe in fiscal responsibility probably more than any so-called Republican today. (MAGA are the real RINOS) But if "government waste" is running rampant in the U.S. Government, then a real government watchdog would be able to lay out examples of that. And then report it to the Congress, as well as the President and department heads. But they're not doing that. They're just randomly trying to freeze government funding and workers from doing their jobs, because they don't believe those jobs and agencies should event exist. Not because they're actually wasting money.

And my last reaction here is, I find it really comical... I mean listening to those MAGA folks on The Five talking about how much Democrats government money and defend government waste... that should be FOX's comedy skit or something. They can't be serious: 

Was Greg Gutfeld and company even in the country when Donald Trump was President the 1st time and had a Republican House his first 2 years and a Republican Senate for 4 years? 

Where was all the talk about "government waste, fraud and abuse" back then, when they quadrupled the Federal deficit and added 7 trillion-dollars to the national debt in just 3 years? 

President Trump added more money to the national debt in his 4 years as President, then President Obama added in his 8 years as President. And President Obama inherited the Great Recession. While President Trump inherited a growing economy, with 4% unemployment. 

Where did all those tax dollars go under President Trump? Why did they have to spend and waste so much of our money, in such of short period of time?

I''ll give the MAGA Party credit for 1 thing and this might be the last time I ever give them credit for anything... that is positive: usually when Republicans come to power and they have complete control of The White House and Congress, they completely ignore the national debt and deficit, even government waste. They only make an issue about it when there's a Democratic President, especially with a Democratic Congress. 

But now with a Republican President and Congress, as well as high debt and deficit, they're talking about the need to cut those things, as well as government waste. So maybe that's a step in the right direction for the Republican White House. Especially with the Republican Congress seeming to have no interest in cutting the debt and deficit. Especially with the Republican House talking about raising the debt ceiling by 8 trillion-dollars. 

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Charles Payne: 'THE FACTS': A Brief History of Tariffs in The US

"Making Money' host Charles Payne discusses the truth and history of tariffs." 

Source:FOX Business anchor Charles Payne.

From FOX Business

I'm going to start this off by paraphrasing something that Charles Payne said. He said something like: 

"Of course American corporations don't like tariffs because they think it will hurt their bottomline. We shouldn't measure the strength of the American economy based on how American corporations are doing." 

And my response to that would be: I didn't know that Charles Payne was a graduate of the Robert Reich School of Economics. Which of course would be located at Harvard, or Berkeley, if such school even existed. I say that half-jokingly, because that's what tariff supporters or people who feel the need to kiss Donald Trump's feet (to put it mildly) every time that he does anything controversial, sound like. Regardless of what their real-life politics might be because they feel that they have to do that to stay in business and to keep their careers going. They're forced to make asses (to be frank) out of themselves on national TV and say things that they simply don't believe, in order to appease their dear leader.

I'm in my late 40s now, so I remember Ronald Reagan being President in the 1980s. He was a Conservative Republican in almost every real sense of the term. This is what he said about the "free market economy" back in 1981 during his first year as President: 

"We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and, ultimately, human fulfillment are created from the bottom up, not the government down.  Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success – only then can societies remain alive, dynamic, prosperous, progressive and free.

Trust the people.  This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire post-war period, contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.  The societies that have achieved the most spectacular, broad-based progress are neither the most tightly controlled, nor the biggest in size, nor the wealthiest in natural resources.  No, what unites them all is their willingness to believe in the magic of the marketplace." 

From AEI

Yes, I'm old enough to remember when Republicans were Conservatives (by-en-large) and not seen as old school political dinosaurs, that Conservative Republicans are seen as today. You will almost never hear any MAGA member (who are the real RINOS) ever quote Ronald Reagan when it comes to the "free market", law and order, the U.S. Constitution, limited government, etc, because they know their dear leader Donald Trump simply doesn't believe in conservative values. 

So as a JFK Democrat, (the people who are called the New Democrats, that became popular in the 1990s, people who I call the real Liberals) I'm going to give you my own position on tariffs. 

When you raise the costs of goods and doing business in America, the costs of those goods and business goes up. It doesn't get paid for by corporations or government's (domestic or foreign) but by the consumers themselves, because businesses just pass those new costs onto their consumers. We already saw the stock market take a big hit today even with the President's announcement of his tariffs that he's planning this weekend. Tariffs and tax hikes on goods and business simply makes those things more expensive in this country. Other terms for tariff are national sales tax, or national consumption tax. 

And Charles Payne can talk all he wants about the "facts" that Americans will be paying less in taxation under President Trump, which would offset the tariffs. But according to Econo Fact, 60% of Americans only got 500 bucks back in tax relief under President Trump's 2017 tax cuts. So 10 bucks a week is supposed to pay for a 25% increase in food and milk? I don't think so. The wealthy won't be hurt by this, they may even like it. But the overwhelmingly majority of American voters are middle class Americans, who can't afford tax hikes right now. And putting tariffs on their goods and services, is giving them a 25% tax increase.

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You can also see this post on WordPress.

Jessica Tarlov: Donald Trump Doesn't Like To Share Power With Anyone Else

Jessica Tarlov: “What’s going on is that Donald Trump doesn't like sharing power with anyone else. He thinks that Congress is irrelevant and he wants to run all over us. He doesn't believe in separation of powers, he doesn't care that Congress appropriates money.”

Source:FOX News political commentator Jessica Tarlov.

From Vince D. Monroy

From Congress.Gov: 

"The amendment that grants Congress the right to appropriate is the Fourteenth Amendment, specifically 

Section 5, also known as the Enforcement Clause, which gives Congress the power to pass legislation to enforce the other provisions of the amendment, including ensuring equal protection under the law. 

Key points about the Fourteenth Amendment and appropriation power:

Section 5:

This section states that "The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

I hate to break it to any of the left-wing readers of The New Democrat, but I'm not hear to talk about the human costs of what President Trump is doing here. I'm only focused here on the constitutional costs. 

FOX News commentator Jessica Tarlov hit it on the head on the point about the constitutional costs when she said: 

“What’s going on is that Donald Trump doesn't like sharing power with anyone else. He thinks that Congress is irrelevant and he wants to run all over us. He doesn't believe in separation of powers, he doesn't care that Congress appropriates money.”

This is why it's so important to do your homework in school, especially in social studies (if you have any dreams about serving in Congress or becoming President of the United States, or a government lawyer) because you might be President of the United States someday. Even if you know or care as little about the U.S. Constitution and the American form of government, as goldfish know about NASCAR racing and hip hop. Or care as little about our Constitution and form of government, as football fans in Cleveland care about the Super Bowl, an event they've never been part of. 

This point about Donald Trump has been made about Donald Trump on The New Democrat before. He simply picked the wrong country to be President of. His style of leadership and governing is simply not suited for our separation of powers. You can see why the Trump Organization never had a board of directors, because that would have meant the President of company would've had to report and share information, even get clearance from the board to do things of the company's behalf. 

You want to eliminate a permanent government department or agency, you have to go to Congress and both the House and Senate have to approve of it, before the President can sign that. Because only the Congress can add and eliminate Federal funds and authorization or elimination of agencies and departments. And only they can freeze funds as well. 

Remember the Barack Obama Administration? Because I'm old enough to remember when Republicans called themselves "constitutional conservatives". But then Donald Trump becomes President of the United States and now they see Congress and the Constitution, even the Federal court system as annoyances because they put checks on Dictator Don's power. And Jessica Tarlov (who is beautiful and adorable, even with nerdy glasses) was damn right to call them out on that. 

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You can also see this post on WordPress.

Sean Hannity On Donald Trump Debating Joe Biden

Source:Media Matters For America discussing whether or not 34 time convicted felon Donald J. Trump, should even be debating the President of the United States Joseph R. Biden.

"SEAN HANNITY (HOST): I think we'll see the return of "Jacked-Up Joe." Whatever Joe drank, ate, took before the State of the Union -- maybe it was just Red Bull and caffeine pills. I don't know. Whatever it was, that was not the normal Joe. We never saw it before and we haven't seen it since. But we will see it for the debate.

Now, there are some even saying, Mark, that Donald Trump might be wise to just pass on the first debate, wait until he's nominated, then debate him. What would you say to that?" 

From FOX News

"The first presidential debate is set to take place June 27 at CNN’s studios in Atlanta. The event was always going to occur, but that didn’t stop Donald Trump from spending weeks goading his opponent into accepting the details. Now it seems that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee may be trying to weasel his way out of the situation.

Fox News host Sean Hannity floated the idea Monday night, wondering aloud if Trump should “pass on the debate.”

“I think we’ll see the return of ‘Jacked-Up Joe,’” Hannity began, speculating about Biden’s abilities. “Whatever Joe drank, ate, took before the State of the Union—maybe it was just Red Bull and caffeine pills. I don’t know. Whatever it was, that was not the normal Joe. We never saw it before, and we haven’t seen it since. But we will see it for the debate.”

“Now, there are some even saying, Mark, that Donald Trump might be wise to just pass on the first debate, wait until he’s nominated, then debate him,” Hannity said, speaking to Harris Poll chairman Mark Penn. “What would you say to that?”

“I’d say he accepted it. He accepted it in the lion’s den. If I were Donald Trump, I would have done some better negotiating here, but I don’t think he can back out now without really looking cowardly,” Penn replied.

Hannity then took it a step further, suggesting that Trump would be better off during the debate if moderators muted his mic.

“Joe might have done Donald Trump a favor, and I say this affectionately, by insisting that when it’s not his turn to speak that they mute his microphone, ’cause I think that was a mistake in the first debate in 2020,” Hannity said, recalling Trump’s terrible performance the first time the pair squared off in the last election.

Hannity has held a close relationship with Trump for years. The two reportedly exchanged upward of 80 text messages between the 2020 election and Biden’s 2021 inauguration, with Hannity acting as a pseudo-adviser to the former president. Trump, however, has stayed surprisingly mum on the debate, even with the reality of the event just two weeks off." 

Source:Yahoo News talking about 34 time convicted felon Donald J. Trump.

From Yahoo News

Just a quick thought here first. Mark Penn who is or was a longtime Democratic political strategist, dunked the ball in the basket when he said that: “I’d say he accepted it. He accepted it in the lion’s den. If I were Donald Trump, I would have done some better negotiating here, but I don’t think he can back out now without really looking cowardly,” Penn replied." 

That's the whole point here. You can already see that Sean Hannity, at least, the most popular and perhaps powerful FOX News anchor inside of the MAGA movement, is worried about Donald Trump debating Joe Biden because he thinks that Trump would lose to the President. And you can already see how MAGA would spin that if DJT loses: 

Sean Hannity: "I think we'll see the return of "Jacked-Up Joe." Whatever Joe drank, ate, took before the State of the Union -- maybe it was just Red Bull and caffeine pills. I don't know." 

Because we already know what the relationship between personal responsibility and the modern Republican Party is. They go together like mustard and chocolate cake. It can't possibly be their fault, or their guy's fault when they screw up. It's always someone or something else that's at fault. 

It can't be the fact that the modern Republican Party is about to nominate (and the Republican Party still has time to come to their senses) someone who is a 34 time convicted felon, whose only running for President of the United States to stay out of prison and lock up his political opponents, including Republicans. 

MAGA always have to find the political escape hatch and blame someone, or something else for their own failures. That's basically what Sean Hannity is doing here. He's privately, but in public suggesting that DJT shouldn't debate President Biden. And already has an excuse ready in case DJT loses to the President and looks bad doing so. 

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National Review: Video: FNC's Special Report: Charles Krauthammer: "For God's Sake, Why Do You Have to Talk About That?"

The easiest way for Republicans to lose the 2014 mid-terms and that would be for them to fail to win back the U.S. Senate and give Republicans a united Republican Congress at the least, is for their Far-Right to be leading their pack and brand and for them to look like they speak for the Republican Party. At least the GOP base and putting Republicans on the spot and having to take clear positions on what these radicals on the Far-Right says. And risk either having to offend the Far-Right. Or mainstream Republicans and Independents.The Far-Right wants to talk about abortion, gay marriage, homosexuality in general, women’s place in the world, Hollywood, as far as outlawing or restricting all of these things in the world. While the rest of the country which is most of the country wants to talk about the economy, foreign policy, terrorism and civil liberties.