Kudlow to Cheddar: We're Not Going Back to a 'War on Business'
*By Carlo Versano*
President Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow slammed Democratic tax and banking proposals as un-American in an interview with Cheddar's J.D. Durkin on Thursday.
"I'm afraid some of my Democratic friends are going back to a war on business," Kudlow said. He was referring to policies gaining traction on the left, including calls to raise the marginal tax rate on the wealthy and efforts to pass new banking regulations like an updated Glass-Steagall Act.
Government controls don't work for economic freedom, Kudlow said, pointing to the Soviet Union and Venezuela as failed experiments in socialism. He suggested Democratic lawmakers "do a historical survey" and suggested some were "being mischievous." He did not elaborate on specific behaviors.
"When President Trump came into office he made it very clear through his policies and through his statements that the war on business of the prior administration was off," Kudlow said.
During the interview, Kudlow also declined to comment on the White House's position on a pending merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, following a [report](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/t-mobile-executives-seeking-merger-approval-booked-more-than-52-nights-at-trumps-hotel--more-than-previously-known/2019/02/06/cd6fa7e6-29ca-11e9-b011-d8500644dc98_story.html?utm_term=.32690bde7905) that T-Mobile executives booked dozens of nights of rooms at the Trump International Hotel in Washington last year as they lobbied the administration to approve the deal.
A year ago, the president slammed another mega-merger between AT&T ($T) and Time Warner as "too much concentration of power."
The T-Mobile-Sprint deal is a "complicated, regulatory, legal" issue, Kudlow said. "This is not the morning for that."
Earlier in the day, Kudlow said there was still a "pretty sizable distance to go" between the U.S. and Chinese on trade negotiators.
Those comments sent the Dow down more than 300 points.
A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track. A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the bill after what's become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services. But hurdles remain. Senators are hopeful they can pass the package as soon as Monday and send it to the House. What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal has drawn criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation includes funding for SNAP food aid and other programs while ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers. But it fails to fund expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting for, pushing that debate off for a vote next month.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
