going to be a lot more ranging of opportunities this year which makes it a bumpy landing instead of a soft landing for us. ashley: katy, i'm going to buckle up on your advice. thank you so much for joining us, really appreciate it. thank you. okay, by the way we should point this out, do not miss "the claman countdown" tomorrow. liz claman live in las vegas at ces 2024. liz will be checking out vegas' newest attractions as she does every year. you can see her report on the sphere. the latest on all the best tech gadgets. [closing bell rings] can't wait for that. the bell starting to ring. monday trade coming to an end, boy, we're moving higher. the dow up 200. nasdaq up a whopping 2%. that's it. ♪. larry: hello, folks, welcome to "kudlow," i'm larry kudlow. so the pentagon still under pressure after defense secretary

lloyd austin seems to have left president biden in the dark. a secret stay in the intensive care unit of walter reed hospital, a mysterious procedure alsoing almost -- lasting almost a week. we wish the defense secretary a full recovery. calls are agreeing for him to step down. we'll talk about this with senator jd vance in a few moments. later on in the show arkansas governor sarah sanders and political pundit supreme, kellyanne conway. first up, seven days before the iowa caucuses, go to washington, d.c. for the great white house correspondent peter doocy. what is the latest, peter. how is austin surviving. >> reporter: there are a couple more important details. officials will never tell us whether or not secretary austin lost consciousness as he was rushed from his house to walter

reed in an ambulance on january 1st. that is week after he had what is being described as an elective surgical procedure. >> it is just that it is not something that we can speak to right. there is his own medical, it is a private thing. >> reporter: but here's the thing, the pentagon carried out an airstrike in iraq while austin was in. icu. we're told it was authorized before he went in. the centcom commander ran point january 4th. republican senator tom cotton said the secretary of defense is the key thing in the chain of command between the president and the uniformed military, including the nuclear chair command when the weight at thissest decision is needs to be made in minutes. we're called austin participated in a secure call with the president on january 1st. the day he went back to the hospital for these postsurgical issues but the white house situation room which sneads to know where people on these calls

are located did not know exactly where he was. >> it is generic, peter. it is what town they're in, d.c., overseas, where they are. that is the process. the issue of when a cabinet official gets hospitalized that is really on the agency to inform that that has happened. >> reporter: austin has no plans to resign and white house officials are telling us president biden would not accept a resignation if one was offered but what they're not explaining is why this major breach of transparency is so easy in this case to excuse. larry. larry: peter, one last follow up on that, you mentioned it, the situation room. the pentagon situation room, my experience for serving in the white house three years, the people in the sit room are fabulous. they are among the best people you ever meet in government. they are supposed to know where

all cabinet people, all cabinet level people all the time this is the part i do not get. >> reporter: yeah it really, very key part to this story do not make sense, larry but in the situation room they have like a board that will show the exact location of the president, of the vice president and of the key cabinet members including apparently the secretary of defense but for whatever reason when they were checking in on the secretary of defense the location was being given as the washington, d.c., area. it's unclear who was providing that. larry: right. >> reporter: why it was not more specific. we know that at some point austin had told husband colleagues that he was going to be working from home for a few days after this elective surgical procedure. so maybe there was a thought he could sneak into the hospital and nobody would notice but we just don't know because they're not telling us more. the fact remains though, somebody in austin's circle and at the pentagon thought they did

not have to tell president biden. larry: all right. >> reporter: and they didn't. larry: they did not. this, this discussion is going to go on for a while. peter doocy, thank you ever so much for that great reporting, we appreciate it. folks let me say a couple more words about this whole story. joe biden can blather on as much as he wants about republican insurrectionism that never existed all right? i will vote that the voting public could care less what was essentially a protest rally that went bad three years ago! mr. trump was neither charged nor convicted of insurrection. it is a biden red herring. it is meant to distract from all of the biden policies gone bad and it is not going to work. look it, besides unaffordable "bidenomics," catastrophic, catastrophe at southern border, three billion dollars of regulations stifling small business even tease jobs report

were revised significantly lower by an incredible 443,000 in just the last four months, here is another biden policy blunder as we just talked with peter doocy. in the middle of two wars, arguably three wars if you count the southern border catastrophe, joe biden forgot to talk to his defense secretary for a week, nearly a week. know sec-def lloyd you austin and the white house are papering this over. he was in the icu, intensive care unit, which is not the best place to man bombing missions over iranian-backed terrorist groups or for that matter to manage the u.s.-israel alliance with american hostages still held by hamas. then the defense department tries to sell us responsibility was shifted to the deputy secretary of defense ms. kathy hicks but she was in puerto rico

on vacation. they're spooning out the chief of staff of the secretary's office had the flu, so she couldn't tell us. here are two more troublesome issues. first, what about the president's daily intelligence briefing? has he been getting that without any dod input or lloyd austin input or isn't the sec-def supposed to be at the very least hooked in to that briefing? did joe biden not miss general austin? and then the matter of the situation room. sit room staff as i said to peter doocy they're supposed to know where every cabinet member, every senior staffer is every day because the president might call. from my own experience, the sit room people are very good and i worked for a president who was constantly calling at all times, day or night. in fact one sun evening he tracked me down in a washington, d.c., movie theater. just saying. the sit room people and the

white house operators are usually as good as it gets. how could this communications chain of command broke down? there is something seriously wrong with the biden operation. it has nothing to do with insurrection. the bidens need to look at themselves in the mirror. they need to recheck all of their badly-managed operations. while they're at it, ought to think about completely changing their failed left-wing policies and that is my riff. for more on this, let's bring in ohio senator jd vance. mr. vance, good to see you again. just give me your quick thoughts on this. they can paper this over and try to cover this up, senator vance, but this, you know what? this reveals major, major problems. what are you thinking here? >> well, first thing i'm thinking larry is, i can't imagine another time in the history of our government run by democrats or republicans where you have a major cabinet official who is just gone

missing. we have to remember joe biden ran on restoring basic decency and order to the white house. that was his entire claim to be elected president in the first place. they promised good government. what they have delivered is a missing secretary -- how do you lose the secretary of defense for three days without anybody asking serious questions, larry? it just doesn't make an ounce of sense. there are so many unanswered questions here, so many things we don't know and it just gives lie to the entire biden promise that he would return decency and good government. i think the decency we had five years ago in the white house over losing the secretary of defense. larry: you know, first of all, there ought to be hearings about this, i mean there should be hearings and it should be step by step. there is a chronology missing from all of these accounts. let me get to the bottom, bottom line. do you think, senator vance, do you think it is time for mr. austin to resign?

biden apparently is not going to fire him. the question is, should austin resign because a lot of this stuff comes from austin's own office which was, shall we say, miscalculating? >> look, he absolutely should resign. he should be fired by the president of the united states and barring that, the congress has to look into this. there are some problems here, so many unanswered questions. did we have a breakdown in our nuclear deterrent? of course the secretary of defense is a major part of that. we're four days we haven't seen the secretary of defense. we should actually check in, make sure, god forbid we don't have a weekend with bernie's situation with the world's most powerful military. he should resign this is disgraceful. i have never seen anything like it but beyond him resigning, larry, we have to have a very, very stark set of questions to the biden administration about who is actually in charge over there. if you lose the secretary of defense for days it suggests the engine is running but nobody is

behind the wheel. that is the story of the biden administration at a time of extraordinary chaos for the united states all across the world and it is a big, big problem, as i understand it, senator, as i understand it, president biden did not talk to his secretary of defense for almost a week. we're in the middle of several wars as you know, including the southern border but we're in the middle of the ukraine war, we're in the middle of an israeli war, we're in the middle after houthi war or iranian terrorist war so is it possible that the president in wartime has not talked to his secretary of defense for almost a week? i can't imagine that but what say you? >> i can't imagine it either, larry, but that appears to be the case. it is not just indirect conflicts. we have american troops being fired on all across the world. we're responding of course with the situation with the houthi rebels in iran and my question is, who is the president of the united states talking to at the

world's most powerful military? is it the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff? is it somebody else at the department of defense? and why is lloyd austin not involved in these conversations or at the very least telling people where he is? it's important for the american people to recognize, larry, whatever your politics, whether you're a democrat, a republican, this is arguably the most important official in our government outside the president of the united states. it's a really troubling thing that we just lost him and that no one in the united states government actually thinks it was important for the president to talk talk to the leader of the armed forces. it is a really, really worrisome situation and it suggests breakdowns at multiple levels of the military and the biden white house. larry: let me switch gears slightly, not enormously. couple weeks ago, front page in the news, nippon steel company taking overu.s. steel company. the deal has not been

consummated yet. i believe urn opposed to that even though japan is an ally. >> sure. larry: i think the cfius committee internally run by the treasury, committee to insergeant -- inspect foreign investment. what is your take on this, senator vance? it is a little bit of business. we never had a chance to talk. i think it is serious our manufacture something take over even with our friends but you think it is serious issue we should look at careful. >> that is exactly right, larry. that is my entire point. cfius should look at the national security implications of this sale. japan is a important ally but we have to ask ourselves, let's say, an order for steel from a japanese-owned firm, does that firm respond to the japanese order first or respond to american orders first in a time of crisis? what if we need to build a ship

that requires that steel, who gets the steel first? we have to remember, larry, japan is a great country but fundamentally is within china's sphere of influence. if you walk this path 10 years down the road and you have some major conflict in east asia can we be confident we get the steel we need to manufacture things our people need? most importantly is defensive weapons. this has raised a lot of concerns, larry and i think importantly we have to learn the lessons of the last 40 years. we allowed too much of our manufacturing go overseas. it made our country weaker. i don't want us to keep making those mistakes. i would like to see us reverse them. larry: last one, senator vance, on the border, the catastrophe at the border, no deal? senator lankford said there is no deal. joe biden hasn't engaged in a deal. what, this is a major war going on and i don't know whether the bidens are plugged into it or not. >> look, larry, it is the most important thing happening in our

country. if we don't get control of the southern border, tens of millions of illegal aliens in our country. tons of fentanyl killing over 100,000 people. we don't have a country anymore if we don't get control of that border. i think senator lankford is negotiating with the democrats in good faith. in a lot of ways we're trying to solve the problem for the president he can't solve himself. he can't secure the border because he has crazies on his left flank who want open border in this country. we republicans are trying to solve the problem because if we have an open border it will continue to destroy this country. i would like to see us make real forward progress here. the problem, larry, the president is really in charge of law enforcement. he has to come-to-jesus moment. this is unacceptable. we're getting 12,000, 14,000 crossings every single day in this country. it's got to stop and the president has got to do something to make it stop. larry: senator jd vance of ohio,

we appreciate it. >> thanks, larry. larry: folks, coming up one week until the iowa caucuses. we have arkansas governor sarah sanders. she is planning to stump for former president trump in the hawkeye state, weather permitting. she will join us next. we will talk about that we might even have to talk about lloyd austin. miss sanders knows a thing or two about the situation room and white house operators and presidents that call all times day or not. where is lloyd austin? wow, a all-out search, apb, all points bulletin, where is secretary austin? i'm kudlow. i'm right here on set. you can get me any old time. you know what's interesting these days? ♪. look for bitwise, my friends. your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel- nothing beats it. new pronamel active shield

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♪. larry: as if you didn't know the iowa caucuses are just one week away. we welcome arkansas governor sarah huckabee was planning to stump for former president trump in iowa but she had problems with the weather. i will have to come out there and get you some snowplows or something. governor sarah sanders welcome back to the show. can i ask you a question? i know it is plowing old ground but you were a senior staff in the white house. you were in touch with the situation room. you knew that you were working for a guy, president trump, who

just might call you, you know, anytime, day or not and often did. how do you lose a defense secretary, governor sanders? how do you lose a defense secretary for almost a week? >> you know, it is beyond my comprehension. like you having worked in the white house. they can find you literally i in where. not just they can but they do often and the idea that the secretary of defense was hospitalized in the white house, didn't know, and the president wasn't aware is truly beyond comprehension, however, it is sort of seems like it may be status quo for this place. joe biden doesn't know where he is half the time so it is not surprising he wouldn't also know where his staff is. it's another reason that it is so important that over the course of the next week we make sure that people in iowa and then across the country get out and vote for donald trump because we cannot continue down

the path and allow our country to be guided by somebody who doesn't know where he or his staff are and how to lead the united states. larry: you know, one night, one, you remember this because you were consoling me on a sunday night, fairly late. i was tracked down in a movie theater in washington with my saintly wife, because he didn't like something i said on one of the sunday talk shows [laughter]. i tried to go missing. >> that doesn't sound like you, larry. larry: i know. was in the west end on m street and they found me. [laughter]. that's why this whole lloyd austin story is so implausible. i'm laughing now. i wasn't laughing then. let me ask you something, nikki haley is fighting hard. i will give her a lot of credit. she says god bless donald trump, just last night i think she said this, god bless donald trump

having a temper tantrum about me every day. will you react to that? i don't know what she is getting at. this is somebody that worked for mr. trump, pledged allegiance to him wouldn't run against him. what does she mean by that? >> you will have to ask her what she means by that. unclear what temper tantrum she is talking about. i think he is pretty happy because he is looking at the same poll numbers the rest of the country is looking at where he is dominating in iowa, commanding lead across the country and set and poised to win this primary at this point pretty easily. i think there is a very clear contrast the story of four years of this country under president trump versus the couple years that we've had under joe biden. one is a story of success and prosperity and security, not just at home but abroad. secure borders, a booming economy with great trade deals versus somebody who literally

screwed up in every place they have engaged. that contrast is very clear. the poll numbers reflect it. i don't think president trump is having a temper tantrum. i think he is living the high life and pretty excited as he goes into the final days before the votes are cast that will put him further solidifying him as the nominee for the republican party. larry: you know, sarah, as you were saying this, this is something i said repeatedly in recent months, really almost all last year, trump's running on the issues and it's made a terrific difference. i think he is the clearest, whether it is the economy, taxes, regulations, drill, baby, drill, the southern border, strong foreign policy. i assume that is why you're putting yourself out to go to iowa or wherever else you will campaign for him. i think nikki haley should be very careful because i think trump's record on the issues and his promises that he will do more of the same if elected?

>> absolutely. he set out when he first ran in 2016 with a very ambitious agenda and he actually delivered. he gave the goods and that's why his numbers are where they are. there is again a very clear contrast between the two candidates. you know i think a lot of people in 2016 thought that donald trump was all talk but then he showed that he could show up, do the job and deliver on that really ambitious agenda that he laid out. he is doing that again. he is really, i think hammering home where he succeeded as president and that's why he is doing as well as he is. larry: all right. governor sarah sanders of the great state of arkansas. sarah, thanks for coming on, we appreciate it. if you need a snow ploy, we'll find -- snowplow, we'll get you one over to iowa. best regards to your father. >> if that is what it takes to get to arkansas we happily

invite you down. if you need to bring a snowplow to come to arkansas you have an open invitation. we would love to see you. larry: i will come down there. love little rock. love little rock. happy new year. is donald trump the only candidate that will take on the washington establishment and drain the swamp? you know that is really i think the biggest issue separating him from the others in the republican primaries and of course joe biden who can't find his own defense secretary. i'm kudlow. we will ask kellyanne conway next up. please stick around. ♪.

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♪. larry: all right, welcome back, folks. trump on the issues, why is he so far ahead of nikki haley and ron desantis? hint. drain the swamp. let's welcome kellyanne conway,

former counselor to president trump, fox news contributor, author of a very good book, "here's the deal." kellyanne conway, before we get to the heavy-duty issues, donald trump always knew where you were. he didn't lose you for a week. he didn't lose you in walter reed hospital thankfully. he didn't lose you anywhere. he didn't lose me. in fact as i said before with sarah sanders he tracked me down in a movie theater sunday night because he didn't like what i said on one of the sunday talk shows. weigh in on this. this is redundant. we covered it in earlier segments. you were senior staff, cabinet level. in touch with the president at all time. we were all on guard. the guy could call anytime. how the hell do you not talk to your defense secretary for a week? >> larry, it confounds me and i want to take it a step further. even though the president and the vice president, biden and harris have very thin public schedules, you can look at them

every day, they include the pdb, presidential daily brief. includes members of the pentagon, the second terrible of defense himself. the question is, with war in ukraine, war at the border, war in the middle east, why not only does the president not know where the secretary of defense is, why hasn't the president or vice president for that matter reached out to the secretary of defense own a number of issues. you're correct, i have want viewers to realize, there are people in the situation room whose job to know where the secretaries and deputy secretaries are at all times. so i think lloyd austin's excuses and his reasons he wants privacy are terrible but we have to ask ourselves why there is no regular, ongoing ubiquitous communication between the pentagon and the white house? and i think sarah hit it. it is a lack of transparency and accountability by this administration at all times. if joe biden doesn't know where he is, he can't keep track of everyone else. larry, i take it one step

further very quickly. i think what trump presided people really miss and crave again, what i call the demock aization of information. you had the president in the information room, under wing, at the plane or helicopter waiting to take him to the plane, you had him inviting the press into oval office, showing up at different things, open press. he made himself available. that meant, larry, that the, we had an administration where people, whether you're the plumber on the job looking at your phone, the stay-at-home mom, watching the news or billionaire ceo with 30 people cure rating your social media inbound and outbound everybody received a presidential communication at the same time, whether on twitter, social or president's own voice. we are starving for that again. i think that plus draining the swamp, plus these lack of promises instead delivery that president trump will do again i think that's why he is way ahead in the polls. larry: i just want to say, by

the way here, your point about availability is crucial. you and i saw it daily. sarah saw it daily. i mean -- >> yes. larry: trump would go, sometimes he would go into the briefing room. we wouldn't want him to go into the briefing room. he would go into the briefing room anyway. do it by the helicopter on the way to marine one. insist talking to media. they would line up. he would do it. there were hundreds of times. joe biden doesn't want to do any of that. you know the other thought, kellyanne, your daily briefing, the intelligence briefing which is defense department, cia, dni, et cetera, various white house staffers you know you shouldn't miss your defense secretary. those people in the sit room and those white house operators are terrific. i have mean that was my experience. they're smart. >> yes. larry: and think do their job. so it's not easy to slip one by. i mean dod had to basically be in shutdown mode in order to

prevent the situation room staff or the white house operators. i mean they had to be in shutdown mode and i think that should be part of an investigation. i asked jd vance about that. they need a thorough investigation. kellyanne, look, one other thing, i know, everyone wants to cover the primaries, horse race polls, et cetera, et cetera. the polls show trump winning handily. we'll see. polls aren't votes, votes are vote, but, but, but, just occurs to me, get your take, one of the troubles with former governor nikki haley. not a bad person, good republican, et cetera. i may disagree with her on certain things, whatever, or desantis, particularly haley, she will not overturn the washington establishment. she will not drain the swamp. donald trump wants to drain the swamp. he devoted to it in the first term and smarter now, wiser, learned from mistakes and so forth, will have a better shot overturning the swamp in the

tech term. to me that's kind of a, you know, dm-z issue between these and these other candidates. >> it's huge, larry. americans intuit, 12, or 13 bureaucrats in washington, d.c., doing the same job, not doing it well at all and we're paying them to do that. as personnel policy president trump probably learned from the first term where he was able to effectuate some of the draining of the swamp. not all of it got done. you can't replace that with people swimming in the swamp and all the swamp dollars. the swamp is quicksand. there are people who are career non-political appointees, larry. they're very wired into the media. they are sources to the media, they're nameless and blameless. even if they're shameless not blameless. we have to root that out duplicative people working on the same things. we simply don't need all of that. i think a true businessman and

outsider could do that. vivek ramaswamy would basically leave the swamp bone dry. he is up front about this. all i hear ron desantis say about it, donald trump failed to drain the swamp. i think nicky doesn't touch all of this. i looked at all the economic plans and i reviewed them all with economic show, i'm surprised ron desantis putting on a flat tax. he talks more about fauci than his flat tax. if he would push that a little more. nikki haley has the freedom plan. a lot of their positions look exactly like donald trump's position. we're back to the beginning, aren't we? if you're going to get the same thing policywise, voters are saying why go with those who are promising it when you can actually go with the guy that delivered it and last point, you mentioned it, the primary has not been all that exciting. it is a contest between joe biden and donald trump has so many rank-and-file voters looking at the cage match rematch. donald trump is leading independents.

he will get many more hispanics, many more african-americans. doing better among first-time voters. many are young and first-time voters. are new citizens voting for the first time. they're coming off the sidelines. ironic the person still positioned as the biggest outsider to the swamp is the former president, much more so than look, you have got people like no labels. they're courting governors, senators, congressman, by their very definition they have labels. they are governors, senators and congressman. you're left with one guy a true outsider to the system and it looks like people wanted that for quite a while. they got obama, they got trump. they you h went back all the other way, larry, got the bureaucrat. the loch ness mom stir of the swamp joe biden been here for half a century. they don't want that. nobody helped donald trump more in this big lead than joe biden. you contrast their two presidencies and it's a very clear choice, not a referendum,

very clear choice for many americans. larry: we'll leave it there i think you're dead right. if you find a defense secretary, let me know. just please, send for help. >> amazing. you got it. see you in iowa. larry: the best of the best. see you in iowa. switching gears a little bit over on capitol hill speaker mike johnson looks like he has a deal with senator chuck schumer over the weekend. it is a possibility. our own edward lawrence is live from the white house with all of the details. edward, what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah, some of the details because there is no language as you know on this bill but this bill, the top lines mirror the fiscal responsibility act which was passed and negotiated by former house speaker kevin mccarthy and president joe biden last year. looking at $773 billion in non-defense spending. about 886 billion for defense spending. senator chuck schumer said there were a lot of red lines republicans did not cross.

leaving in place the social security assistance or social assistance i should say offered under the american rescue plan. also no changes to government assistance passed under the inflation reduction act while leaving defense spending unchanged from the national defense authorization act. rank-and-file republican lawmakers are saying all they have is the top line but looking forward to see what type of border protections will be added. >> we're just letting these people flood in every single year with no accounting and accountability. what will we do about the debt and deficit we have? that debt ceiling deal last year, if this deal is anything like it will keep us, we'll have $50 trillion in debt in less than a decade now. this is the kind of spending we can't afford. so i'm very much looking forward to reading the fine print and seeing what this deal is all about. >> reporter: no language specifically for this bill yet. other wins for republicans, paying for some domestic spending by diverting money from unused covid spending.

more than $20 billion in extra irs funding in fiscal 2024 will be offset. looking at $623 billion offsetting for the $1.6 trillion in spending under the agreement. president biden says making sure people are free from what he is calling extreme policies. larry. larry: edward, i read a lot of the stuff. committee staff sends me stuff. i understand some of it and i understand some of it i don't understand. 10 years budget window, the mccarthy-biden deal was supposedly to reduce spending from some baseline, i will just call it say reduce spending by 1 to -- $1.5 trillion. the baseline issue takes too long and too hard to deal with. has anybody done a 10-year scoring with this deal because that is the way you have to look at things?

>> reporter: not as of yet. we don't have the language or fine print on it. that is something that we're looking for. as you know the cbo is still projecting 1.7, $1.7 trillion deficit next fiscal year, 1.8 after that, going up to almost $2 trillion. it seems the spending is not slowing down on this one. republicans could get the win in this, taking some money, diverting money already been spent. it is not new money on some of it. again the fine print. the devil is in the details. larry: we'll look at it, revisit it as always, edward lawrence thanks very much. staying with the economy and various nuts and bolts we bring in the great art laffer, reagan economic advisor and medal of freedom recipient, author of "taxes have consequences". arthur, you know, there you listened to edward lawrence there is no better reporter than edward lawrence. nobody knows what is in these

deals. nobody really knows what is in these deals that is the problem with washington. kellyanne conway talks about draining the swamp, president trump talks about draining the swamp, nobody has any idea what the context are, baselines are, i'm looking for knew year's sympathy, art. >> you got it. all my sympathy, to you, larry. they don't know what it in there and president sure doesn't understand. you have this huge behemoth out there and little changes on the margin which probably don't amount to anything. what we really need, larry, what will happen in november of 2024 this year. we're going to need a big cataclysmic change in the election to really change the direction of america and these little things are nice and i'm glad they don't have a shoulddown, i'm glad people are not happy but we need to have a change in america on economics big time. larry: we need growth. growth, growth, growth, growth, growth. >> yes, totally. larry: counting angels on the

head of a pin, with this phone my baloney argument i don't like debt, 125% of gdp but we need growth, tax rates, lower regulation. >> yes. larry: open up the fossil fuel spigots. we talked about this a million times but i'm just saying these budget deals are interesting. >> that's what we need. larry: i hope the budget deals are less rather than more but what we need is growth for the next 10 years. the next 20 years, you know? >> that's it. that's it. we need growth and growth softs all sorts of problems. it solves crime problems. it selveses family problems. it solveses all sorts of problems in addition to prosperity and happiness to be strange and we can do that very easily, larry. we need low rate, broad-based flat tax like you and president did on the tax cut and jobs act. we need spending restraint big time. we need sound honey, we need free trade, we need minimal

regulations. we need energy deregulation totally so we can produce the energy. we need transparency. i think all these things will be in play in the election of november 2024. this is where i think trump will shine like a star. i think we'll get that big change. if we don't it's a real problem long term for the u.s. we need growth, real quick, i'm out of time from john carney at "breitbart," twice as many americans say they are worse off economically after 2023's "bidenomics" and the other thing is the labor department just put out jobs, employment, was just revised lower over the past four months by 443,000. >> yes. larry: that's a big number! downward revisions of jobs. >> huge number. larry: all this stuff -- >> we all knew it was they're. we all knew that was there even though the numbers showed otherwise and now the numbers do cron rate what we saw. we understand people are really disappointed with the economy.

they are and "bidenomics" doesn't work, it really doesn't and they don't understand why it doesn't work. that's why they would tout it. you're right, larry, i'm looking forward to the future on this one. larry: the great art laffer, folks. we'll be right back. i'm kudlow. we have charlie hurt on the other side. stay with us. more to come. ♪. in a rocky mountain setting? spanning over 280,000 acres, three forks ranch is the destination for luxury and adventure. enjoy private skiing with 23 runs for every level. kick back for intimate performances from the best in country music. enhance your wellness and longevity through our mayo clinic programs, or plan your meeting for a memorable corporate retreat.

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♪. larry: joining me now the great charlie hurt, "washington times" opinion editor, fox news contributor. charlie, happy new year. not enough attention has been paid to biden's terrible speech in south carolina. i want to play a little clip to let you comment on that. check this out. president biden: an extreme element of america, the maga republicans led by a defeated president is trying to steal history now. they tried to steal an election. now they're trying to steal history. larry: trying to steal history. might be trying to steal lloyd austin because nobody can find him. charlie, what is biden doing? does owe think this is the path to victory this speech and the one he gave near valley forge last week? >> yeah, well, i guess when you compare it to what's going on in

the economy the biden campaign feels like this is their only option which is to go full desperado. the idea, what was the purpose of giving this speech at that particular church? is he simply trying to exploit the horrific deaths of nine parishioners nearly 10 years ago? is that what he is doing? i guess that's a better message than he has about the economy or anything else that currently matters to politics right now because that's how, that's just how big of a mess he has made of the place but all of it, between that and his harangue, his bizarre harangue at valley forge i guess he was trying to compare himself to george washington or something? i don't know. the idea he is going to attack supporters of donald trump and accuse them of being threats to the country, we have never seen anything like this. our politics is usually you know,man know why manoymanoi

don't remember a politician going after the supporters, american citizens that support an opponent like this. this is crazy new territory. this is reflection how desperate he is given a terrible shape he is supposed to be in charge of are for most americans. larry: you know, charlie, run out of time. we'll get you back. i want you to come back and critique the primaries with us but this is a red herring. this is what wall street would call a red herring and it distracts from the failure of the other policies but, charlie, i am worried about lloyd austin and if you see him, please sos or telegraph. >> i will report him. larry: somebody has got to find this guy. he is our defense secretary. charlie hurt, "washington times." thanks. i'm kudlow. be back in just a 2nd -- sec with my last word.

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kudlow: just food for thought, when the reason for donald trump's to sense, being getting we could affect news as the outsider, he is regarded as the guy, best tuned to trading the swamp, and that's with the majority of people in the country seem to want. during the small, go after the permanent civil services and the government, maybe take harvard with you and maybe