KUDLOW: The Democrats Are Playing The “Big Lie” Game

President Biden and the Democrats are simply incapable of telling the truth. Once again, we are seeing this as they are accusing Republicans in general and Speaker McCarthy in particular of wanting to cut Social Security, Medicare, and the payment of interest on the federal debt.

Here’s Mr. Biden yesterday on the budget and the economy: “We also want to talk about the extreme Republican economic plans. Apparently, they’re generally serious about cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare. And I love their 30 percent sales tax rolls. I have no intention of letting the Republicans wreck our economy, nor does anybody around this table, in my view.”

Now, here is exactly what Mr. McCarthy told me last night. I said: “They’re saying you're going to cut Social Security, you're going to cut Medicare, and you’re going to default on the interest payments on the bonds.” His reply: “None of that is true.” Could he be any clearer?

The GOP has no intention of cutting the major entitlements. Nor will the Republicans ever default on U.S. government debt. You know the Democrats are playing the “big lie” game.

It’s an authoritarian approach, where you keep repeating a lie over and over again, hoping that people will somehow come to believe it’s the truth. Communist dictators have long used this tactic.

One more point: Mr. Biden and the Democrats keep insisting that Republicans are going to double up on a national sales tax. This is the so-called FairTax, which purports to end the income tax and rely solely on a consumption tax, which would be an add-on to state and local sales taxes.

For many reasons, I’ve always thought this was not a good idea. Here’s what Mr. McCarthy said about it last night after I said: “The White House is yelling the fair tax will put us imposing another sales tax on middle class people and that you you’re in favor of that.”

Mr. McCarthy: “No. All he did was introduce a bill for a bill to get to the floor. It would have to pass the committee.”

The basic point here is that Democrats will do anything, I mean anything, to avoid any spending cuts. They remain in complete denial that in Democratic Washington — with control of the White House, Senate, and House — in the last two years they passed spending legislation that triggered the worst inflation in 40 years.

Even though the Federal Reserve, acting without any help from Democratic fiscal policy, has brought down the inflation rate somewhat, consumer prices are rising at more than 6 percent, grocery prices are still rising at 12 percent, and food away from home is up more than 8 percent.

The Democrats have increased spending and borrowing by between $5 trillion and $6 trillion, as the total debt has jumped to more than $31 trillion. Here’s another factoid: Federal spending is now absorbing 24 percent of the economy. Almost one-fourth.

Federal, state, and local government spending is now absorbing 44 percent of the national economy.  If that isn’t big-government socialism, I don’t know what is.

Remember, these spending programs carry with them a tremendous web of regulations, including of course the Democrats’ climate obsession, but also all of their woke infatuations with “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” That’s always in the fine print.

This is the central-planning, regulatory strangling of what used to be a merit-based, free-enterprise-based economy — but no longer. I’ve talked about the decline in economic growth and prosperity over the last 20-plus years. Our once envy-of-the-world economy, which for more than 50 years after World War II grew at better than 3.5 percent yearly, has stagnated to less than 2 percent.

I will continue to argue that the single biggest obstacle to growth, the biggest prosperity killer we face, is the huge increase in the size and scope of government and the curtailment of free-enterprise incentives.

And here are these Democrats, with their systemically fraudulent misstatements, unwilling to acknowledge the problem and permit even the most modest of budget reforms to solve it. So let me say again: Save America. Stop the spending.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.

Larry Kudlow was the Director of the National Economic Council under President Trump from 2018-2021. His Fox Business show "Kudlow" airs at 4 p.m &. and his radio show airs on 770 ABC from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.