OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A former top economic adviser to then-President Donald Trump is warning Americans to prepare for a tsunami of new taxes that are contained in President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget.
What’s more, says Larry Kudlow, considering the country is near full employment and the government should be flush with cash, there is no need for Biden to be “jacking up taxes.”
“Why would Joe Biden put out a budget that raises taxes 36 times?” Kudlow queried during an interview with “The Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM-N.Y., in pushing back on Biden’s proposed “confiscation of wealth by taxing unrealized capital gains.”
“He is attacking the businesses that hire the workers, and he’s attacking the investors who come up with the new technologies and innovations that make America great, and he’s also attacking the fossil fuel companies that would get us out of this oil mess,” Kudlow noted further to host John Catsimatidis. “I don’t understand the budget.”
“Why do you want to undermine the prosperity by jacking up taxes on everything that moves?” the former Trump adviser said.
At the same time, Kudlow offered, the new tax tsunami will come as the president continues to burn through the nation’s strategic oil reserve for “political price-fixing” and nothing more.
“He is depleting a third of the strategic reserve for political price-fixing,” he said. “That’s all it is. It’s not going to work.”
He said the tactic will provide a very temporary solution to a systemic problem Biden’s energy policy has predictably created: The adoption of policies that essentially wage war on the fossil fuel industry, which has led to a dramatic increase in gas prices that act as yet another tax of sorts on American consumers.
“It’s a drop in the bucket,” he said. “The strategic reserve is there in case you have a national emergency such as a hurricane blowing up Texas oil fields.”
“We could supply the whole bloody world with liquefied natural gas and stop the dirty coal in China and India if we had a sensible policy,” he continued.
“But we don’t. It’s just cheap political price-fixing, and it’s completely wrong and utterly baffling.”
As for gas prices, a CNN panel noted on Sunday that the Biden administration’s attempt to blame the current spike on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not resonating with most Americans.
During a panel discussion that included Axios political reporter Hans Nichols, CNN anchor Abby Phillip voiced her agreement that no matter what good economic news the White House may offer or excuses for the bad news such as the “Putin Price Hike,” high prices at the gas pump were unavoidable in the current inflationary cycle, and they don’t look to abate anytime soon.
“When inflation is where it’s at, when you see gas prices going where it’s at, we can talk about a jobs report here, we can talk about the latest PCE [personal consumption expenditures] numbers or the CPI [consumer price index], and all of us former Bloomberg reporters can really get into the weeds, right?” Phillip began.
“But there’s one number that they can’t really change right now,” he warned. “And that is what the placard says at the local gas station.”
He went on to note that the White House even tried to sell rising gas prices as the #PutinPriceHike, bringing in TikTok influencers to help spread that narrative, but that didn’t work as planned.
Also, Phillip noted that the Biden administration has also attempted to blame the spikes on oil company greed, claiming they are sitting on thousands of unused land leases — though oil industry execs and groups have pushed back on that with explanations that sitting on leases doesn’t mean immediate oil production.
“Look, when I’ve passed gas stations that say ‘blame Putin’ more than they say ‘Let’s go Brandon,’ I’ll know the White House has been successful in messaging,” Nichols replied.
“That is fascinating in its own right,” Phillip said in agreement before sharing the results of a recent poll that showed the messaging had not taken with most Americans.
“Take a look at this Quinnipiac poll. Americans just don’t buy that this is related to the war in Ukraine, and most of it, frankly, is not. 41 percent say it’s Biden’s policies, just 24 percent say the war in Ukraine. Twenty-four percent also say the oil and gas companies are raising prices,” Phillip said.
“But the White House is trying to do both, blame Putin, blame the oil and gas companies, but Americans just don’t agree.”
