to $90 billion. so there's huge -- liz: it's incredible. it's incredible. and larry fink, of course, of blackrock, you know, started ibit, and he kind of really to if pelled this for the spot -- propelled this for the spot bitcoin etfs. i do immediate your thoughts on the energy -- need your thoughts on the energy suck because you guys are turning to wind power. can you give me a quick mention about that? >> we basically are opt optimizing and monetizing -- we believe there's a huge amount of the renewable energy that can't be used because of grid congestion and too much renewable energy at certain times of day. liz: fred, please come back in the new year. mara's a great story. s&p is kind of tiahrting on the record. have a great weekend, we'll see you monday. larry: hello, folks. welcome to "kudlow," i'm larry kudlow. trump's till moving at warp

speed, picking an all-star team. markets are booming, and just moments away we're going to talk to president trump's incoming national security adviser, our great friend congressman mike waltz about peace through strength. but first up, fox news' jacqui heinrich in west palm beach, florida. what's cooking? >> reporter: hey there, larry. you know, we're all on hegseth watch effectively. the president-elect was conspicuously quiet online yesterday while hegseth worked senate republicans to try to court more support. and after speaking with desantis about a plan b earlier this week, there was some speculation that a perhaps trump was getting ready to pull the plug. but his incoming press secretary says that is not thes case. not the case. >> contrary the what many in the media are reporting, there has never been a wavering in the optimism and the confidence from president trump in pete hegseth. he is brilliant. he is intelligent. he is a war fighter. the american people elected

president trump to nominate outsiders who are not entrenched in washington politics to shake up the swamp. that's exactly what pete hegseth is going to do. that's why the swamp is after him. president trump stands by him 100%. >> reporter: trump posted on truth social this morning pete hegseth is doing very well, his support is strong and deep, much more so than the fake news would have you believe. he was a great student, princeton, harvard a-educated with a military state of mine. -- mind. he will be a fantastic, high energy secretary of defense. pete is a winner, and there is nothing that can be done to change that. hegseth also said in response thank you, mr. president. like you, we will never back down. we might not get much more news about where this nomination is headed with the senate out for the weekend. trump, meantime, is heading to france for the reopening of the notre dame cathedral. there will be other heads of state there, and this trip comes after trump threatened tariffs on canada, mexico and china. here's what he said last night if at the patriot awards.

>> i spoke with, as you probably read, i spoke the other day to the president, the new president of mexico. very nice woman. and we had a very nice conversation, but she said why are you doing this to me? i said, i'm not, i'm just putting a lot of tariffs on because you're allowing criminals to pour into our country, and we can't allow that anymore. >> reporter: trump said at the fox nation patriot awards, quote, countries are going to respect us again. today he's meeting -- excuse me, taping "meet the press" before heading off to europe. larry. larry: wow, "meet the press." wow. jacqui heinrich down there in west palm beach, florida, thank you ever so much. all right, folks, markets are surging on mr. trump's excellent transition and his golden age agenda. and that's the subject of the riff. ♪ larry: president donald trump has been president-elect donald trump after his hand slide win in november -- landslide win. it's been a month, one month.

and one thing stands out, his transition has been enormously popular. polls are showing him with better than 50% approval rating. the forward-looking financial markets, which are always a better gauge of the future health and wealth of the country, why, those markets have been applauding mr. trump for weeks. some wall street wag withs are saying -- wags are a saying stocks love trump and bonds love bessent. if stocks are up almost 3,000 dow points and bond yields and the treasury market are down nearly a half a percentage point. the huge stock rally is signaling approval of mr. trump's economic growth plans of tax cuts, drill, baby, drill, protecting america from unfair trade and the doge brothers' push to defeat regulation and curb the size and scope of government. noteworthy, the drop in bond rates which means investors believe trump's policies are inflationary -- puts the lie to

the idea with. bond rates have been falling, and i believe the markets are very happy with the trump economic team. the big three being bessent at treasury, kevins hassett as nec director and russell vote as the omb budget director. these are market-savvy, supply-side, pro-growth, king dollar advocates. speaking of nominations, all right, get ready. many trump has december -- mr. trump has designated over 70 major positions so far in just four weeks. the speed of his transition decision making is virtually unprecedented. peace through strength on the national security side, pro-growth on the economic side. promises made, promises kept. he told us in his victory speech on election night, and we should take it seriously. bringing the can country together and ending the divisiveness of the biden era, success is the best way to unify

the country. these are all trumpian themes. they're all america first themes. and they're all golden age themes. just what the country needs. and that's the riff. all right. great pleasure, joining us now, incoming white house national security adviser, our great friend, florida congressman mike waltz. first of all, mike waltz, congratulations on the new position. >> thank you, harry. i'm -- larry. i'm still in congress too, so we're just pulling double duty. larry: i get it. most federal bureaucrats won't work one job, you're working too. god bless. well done on that score. >> as you know, larry, we're trying to keep up with a man that just stays in tenth gear. [laughter] as you just said, from the transition to the outreach, the agenda he's laying on the table, he is ready to take big swings and do big things whether it's in the middle east, europe, the

economy, the border, the entire western hemisphere. it is the really an exciting time. and i've got to tell you from zuckerberg to bezos to world leaders to trudeau, literally everyone is coming to the table and ready to do big deals with him. larry: all right, well said. so i want to begin with his threat to hamas. let me just read you what he said on truth social. please let this truth serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to january 20, 2025, the date that i proudly assume office as@ -- as president of the united states, there will be all hell to pay in the middle east. and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity, those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the united states of america. tough stuff, well said. and, by the way, at least he's blaming hamas and not israel.

the bidens always manage to the blame israel, as you and i have talked so much in the past couple of years. but i want to get your -- what are you thinking about that? it's a tough threat. if you make a red line, it's important to live are up to the red line. i think you believe that. i know mr. trump does. what should we expect in the weeks ahead? >> well, first, larry, i just want to be clear to all of our adversaries, they can't play the incoming trump administration off of the biden administration. i'm regularly talking to the biden people, and so this is not a moment of opportunity or wedges for them, number one. number two, underlying that tweet or x is consequences. and i think that's what's been missing, is you hold our people, you abuse our people, you attack american interests, there will be consequences. and you should believe president trump when he says there will be. and then finally, he has a history of enforcing red lines. just ask the syrians when they

gassed their own people and faced 62 cruise missiles that president trump authorized while eating chocolate cake across the table from can chinese president xi. so he has a history of enforcing it. he will. they should believe him. and those types of consequences are what drives behavior back in our direction in the middle east. it's the restoration of a peace if through demonstrate thed strength in the past and in the future. -- demonstrated strength in the past and in the future. larry: it's a very reagan-esque thing. way back in 1980, iran held 40-some-odd hostages as i recall, can and ronald reagan told them, careful, because as president, there'd be a price to pay. jimmy carter never made 'em pay a price. hostages were released the day of inauguration, okay? so something -- >> and, larry, by january 20th these hostages will be held longer than the hostages in 1979

in iran. and president trump, you know, enough is enough. there is no upside, and everybody better think twice before taking an american citizen under donald j. trump, period. larry: all right. moving on, let's talk about ukraine and russia. next on the agenda. he hasn't put any -- mr. trump hasn't made any deadlines on that,s but he does want to negotiate peace. there's some talk, i don't know, zelenskyy's flying to paris, perhaps, to talk to the president. president's already spoken to him. you know much more than i do what's been going on back channel. how do you assess the russia and ukraine war? >> well, president trump's been clear, it needs to come to an end. he's appalled by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of deaths. this is world war i-style warfare out there, larry, in the trenches with literally people charging into bullets across flat terrain with massive

artillery barges and no end in sight except an escalation into world war iii. if so it needs to come to an end. my job and aside -- and the job of everybody in the national security team who's to at the table, how do we draw both sides to the fravel and what's the framework of a deal. and we're already seeing those conversations shift, of course, in coordination with the biden team, but we're seeing those conversations shift to how do we end this thing in a way that's responsible for the world, in line with ours and our allies' interest. that narrative is already shifting. the trump effect is very real. larry: well, you say that, may well be true, but therein again you had biden's national security team or biden or i don't know who's in charge of the government right now, but whatever, somebody is. and they are encouraging or were encouraging ukraine to to fire

cruise mice missiles deep into russia which elicited a very tough response from russia polling their supersonic new missiles into ukraine. so it seemed like mr. biden was actually the escalating the war, something he refused to do and said he wouldn't do for the better part of the last three years. >> i want to be clear, we don't agree -- larry: rae -- yeah. >> we don't agree on all things, but we have been informed and we're in coordination since. larry: all right. you don't think any more of that's going to happen? that's all i'm saying, more escalation in the russia-ukraine war? >> well, hook, and to be clear on that point, these things are aren't going into moscow. they were on the front hitting more things like headquarters, supply depots, going after the north koreans that are being poured in. but i agree 100%, to what end? this has to be in some type of strategic framework, and what is the objective that we're trying

to achieve here? it just can't be, you know, a blank check or as long as it takes. that's just unsustainable, and president trump's been very clear on that on campaign trail, and he absolutely still holds that view. larry: okay. let's apply peace through strength to the china, mike waltz. finish what are you thinking about the china story? it seems to me that, you know, mr. trump on the campaign trail talking about additional tariffs on china, there's no evidence that china has ended their unfair trading practices. we negotiated a so-called phase one trade deal with china years back, in the first trump administration. i was on that team. no evidence that they're abiding by it, for example. so tariffs for china, how does peace through strength apply to china in general in your judgment as the incoming national security adviser? >> yeah. well, the thing that we have, our big leverage is our markets

and our capital. and president trump absolutely knows how to use both within an america first agenda, number one. he has already talked about using tariffs and enforcing them and applying them, and that means -- that also means, you know, circumventing through mexico and through other countries which i expect my leagues on the economic team to -- colleagues on the economic team to absolutely plant down on. we have to also rebuild our military. we cannot -- that's everything from shipbuilding to to our industrial base. they have to get focused on lethality. i know pete hegseth are cojust that. but we want to -- will do just that. we want to build president trump the greatest military he never has the use, reestablish deterrence in that regard in space, in nuclear, in the navy. but really we can resolve this economic chi. we are blessed -- economically. we are blessed with abundant energy. china is not. and we -- they need our markets

far more than we need theirs. and then, finally, getting our supply chains home. we have to bring those supply chains back in the united states, and we can't get 'em here, let's get 'em into the western hemisphere where we can absolutely have access to them and, i don't know, maybe solve other problems like the migration problem if we're going to talk about core issues. and marco rubio as secretary of state along with stephen miller focused on the border are going to do just that. so i think it's an all-of-government, all all-of-society approach like you've talked about and you worked on in your time. it's going to ant -- to be a continuation of all of those pieces. larry: last one, mike waltz. speaking of china, speak of tariffs and so forth and trairkd as you probably know, a federal judge today ruled that either tiktok is sold by bytedance, or they're outta here. that, essentially, it's a chinese spy agency which is what

many in congress have said. i don't know what your prior view has been. many trump said let congress -- mr. trump said let congress decide on it it's going to be appealed to the supreme court, i'm sure, but what's your thinking about tiktok? is it, in fact, a partisan chinese spy network? if. >> well, my view is the president's view now -- [laughter] larry. my own views as a member of congress, you know, don't apply here. the president is a fan of tiktok. he wants to save tiktok. we absolutely need to allow the american people to have access to that app, but we have to protect our data as well. and we have to protect that that data from if foreign interference and from foreign collection. so i expect in this to move through the courts, but from the president's standpoint that's the, you know, the line that we're going to walk, allow the american people to have full access to what is a great product, but at the same time protect their data.

larry: all right. well, we appreciate your time. mike waltz, incoming national security advisor, still a house member for a couple more weeks and a great e friend. thank you ever so much, mike waltz. already, folks, coming up mr. trump's plan to the protect your collar. -- your dollar. he wants the dollar to remain the world's reserve currency, and he's been suggesting that tariffs are a better way to do that than sanctions on international problems. anyway, we'll talk about it with breitbart's john carney and the manhattan institute's steven moran. remember, you can get "kudlow" monday through friday, every day, 4 p.m. right here on fabulous fox business. if you can't catch us at four for some odd reason, text your favorite 9-year-old, and she will show you how to dvr the show, and you will never if miss a single thing. i'm kudlow. be right back. ♪ ♪ are you thinking?

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it's our son, he is always up in our business. it's the verizon 5g home internet i got us. oh... he used to be a competitive gamer but with the higher lag, he can't keep up with his squad. so now we're his “squad”. what are kevin's plans for the fall? he's going to college. out of state, yeah. -yeah in the fall. change of plans, i've decided to stay local. oh excellent! oh that's great! why would i ever leave this? -aw! we will do anything to get him gaming again. you and kevin need to fix this internet situation. heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people. >> the problem with what we have with sanctions, and i was a user of sanctions, but i'd put them on and take them off as quickly as possible because, ultimately, it kills your dollar and kills everything the dollar represents. we have to continue to have that be the world currency.

larry: all right, very important, that's what he said at the new york economics club speech back in is september -- in september. joining us now to talk about that, john carney, breitbart economics and finance editor, and co-author of the breitbart busy jest, steve america, iran -- miran, gentlemen, welcome. it's interesting, john, there is a discussion going on between tariffs and sanctions, okay? like sanctioning iran. i would bet you whatever mr. trump is now saying, and specifically he will reimpose very tough sanctions on iran, very tough sanctions. but we have sanctions all over the place. we have way too many sanctions. "wall street journal" story today to, i don't know, almost a hundred sanctions going on, some such thing. that is wrong and could reduce the demand for the dollar. so tilt seems to be tariffs are

a better weapon to use with our enemies or unfair trading practices than sanctions in order to achieve mr. trump's ultimate goal which is to keep the dollar as the world's reserve currency. so i wanted you to weigh, both of you weigh in on that. you first, john. >> absolutely. look, part of the problem is when you weaponize the dollar and access to the dollar, it makes people start to worry, what happens if i run afoul of the u.s.? i better not just use the dollar for all my transactions, and it forces people to the tart to look for other things to do. the good thing about tariffs, on the other hand to, if you want access to u.s. markets, then you're going to have to play ball with the u.s. so that's a different way of approaching things. and the rest of the world needs access to u.s. markets because we are the buyer of last resort for everybody's excess if capacity. larry: okay. so i basically agree with that more or less steve mixer ran, but -- miran, but many some cases like, i mean, take iran.

i don't want them to have access to -- i don't want them to have anything. i want to bankrupt the country, and if i could, i'd bury it 20 feet the ground. but as a generic matter, i think what john is saying the demand for dollar, you want to keep that if at all possible. or not. i mean, maybe you don't agree with that. some people hate tariffs. some of our brothers and sisters at a conservative publication in this building just freak out over tariffs. most of the world thinks tariffs are going to cause another 10-20% inflation even though there's no evidence to support that view. where do you come out? >> yeah, absolutely. the u.s. provides a security umbrella and the reserve asset. u.s. treasury security is the u.s. dollar. both of those impose significant burdens to the united states in the sense that the you can push the value of the dollar up which causes trade deficits which are bad for our manufacturing sector, and the defense umbrella is a big budget burden on us. by using tariffs against our

geopolitical enemies and trading partner partners that don't pull their weight, we can use them as a weapon. larry: but sparingly. which is what i think mr. trump is saying, sparingly. >> yeah. when you do it, you should do it all the way, but you shouldn't do it haphazardly -- larry: as the bidens did. they paid a heavy price for that. john carney, it's interesting, numbers, 58% of global foreign exchange verves are in dollars. 58%. reserves. and the bigger number is 88% of foreign exchange transactions are dollar-based. and there really is, there's talk about the bric currencies, brazil, russia, i could ya, china, but there is no br irk c currency. this is no such thing. we have bricks, we build homes with them and so forth -- [laughter] but there's no currency called

brics. i'm not sure what's prompted this whole discussion. >> the rest of the world does not want to depend on china. they are not a reliable currency partner. the reason why the u.s. is the reserve currency for the entire world is, one, we are a responsible steward of the global economy. wert not going to just -- look, we have to be more self-interested than we have been in the past, but we, but china is really only out for itself. it has no sense of responsibility for the rest of the world with. the u.s. is actually really good about this. we have fostered institutions whether it's the world bank, the imf to help the rest of the world. that's one of the reasons reasons our currency is the reserve currency for everyone, and i don't think anybody is going to feel good relying on xi jinping's generosity and taking their currency as the global currency. larry: yes with. well, they're bad actors. steve, another point i want to raise is discussion in congress,

senator john thune, the senate majority leader, republican majority leader, is suggesting we need multiple reconciliation bills. in my time you were lucky to get one. in fact, in the last 25 years it's never been a time when you had more than one reconciliation bill, a fiscal package of budgets and taxes that requires only a majority vote, 51 votes in the senate, which republicans more than likely will definitely have now. but they won't put tax cuts in it. i think that's ooh a real bad idea. trump campaigned on tax cuts, his working class coalition depended on tax cuts. kitchen table people want to increase their take-home pay. how can we not raise taxes right at the -- i want the withholding rates here. pure kudlow, i want the withholding rates for individual taxes, right? if you're making 75 grand a year, whatever, 50 grand a year, 100 grand a year, right? if working folks, blue collar

workers, i want those withholding rates from the irs to go down by summertime and give them more after-tax take-home pay. i don't want to wait. i mean this. i'm for energy reform, i'm for border and and and all the rest of it, but i do not want to wait. >> no, i completely agree. the economic boom in the first trump administration was due in large part to tax cuts. larry: yes. >> and in the second trump administration, it's also going to be due in large part to the tax cuts. larry: yes. >> if you don't get that done, you're not going to get the economic boom we need. and as you say, if you lower withholding rates, you put more money in families' paychecks every week. larry: yes. i don't want to make in any harder than it needs to be. scott bess sent, if you're listening, you're getting an a+. >> we're starting to see, larry, though wall street is -- i'm starting to to read a couple of notes where they say the trump tax cuts may not come through -- larry: i know! -- or they may be somehow

smaller than attempted x. this is because of the delay. larry: yes, thank you. which is just what happened in 2017. they went to health care first, got their brains beaten in, then finally squeaked through at the very end amidst tremendous uncertainty. >> it also is an invitation to lobbyists to come in and start to carve out their special interest exceptions that they a want. i don't think it's a good idea idea to let it be delayed. they should put it all in one package, get the trump agenda done as soon as possible, not wait til next her if especially if something goes wrong. if there's bad blood, if, say, they can't come to an agreement on the border which, by the way, not all republicans are onboard with trumpian border policy, if they can't come to the an agreement on that, that could really mess up our ability to get tax cuts done if they're trying -- larry: and you know what? you'll be sitting around sucking on your thumbs, and all of a sudden, what happens? december 31st comes, and the individual tax cuts expire.

income tax cuts expire, the small business tax cuts expire, the doubling of the the standard deduction expires, the doubling of the kiddie credit expires. all hose good things that, did you say it? no, you said it, put more money in people's pockets. >> and businesses -- larry: that's what they a want. >> sorry, stephen, go ahead. >> look, president trump knows how to get the economy booming. he knows tax cuts are a critical part of itment. larry: he ran on it, constantly. growth. >> sorry, this year president trump was in the white house, he wasn't working on a daily basis with congress, next year he will be. once he's out there to tell congress, the administration's going to get it done, the economy's going to boom. larry: scott bess sent, if you're watching, a+. terrific stuff. john, you already have an a+. >> if it's economically damaging to the just let the risks that the tax cuts won't happen be out.. -- out there.

it will cause businesses to expect people to spend way less -- larry: make it a lousy year. trump's first office would be a lousy. steve, john, thank you for coming. coming up, folks, trump is doubling down on pete hegseth, and everyone is doubling down on the doge brothers. so we're going to talk about it with katie pavlich, caroline downey and erica donalds all right here on set, unbelievable. "kudlow" is available as a podcast, episodes every weekday right after the show on spotify, apple and foxbusinesspodcasts.com. i am a supply-side, pro-growth podcaster. think of it. good work. ♪ at t. rowe price we let curiosity light the way. asking smart questions about opportunities like ai. and how the industries born to support ai might better support us all. better questions. better outcomes.

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larry: all right, politics. trump doubling down on pete hegseth. but the way, everybody's doubling down on the doge

brothers, as i call them. joining us on set, katie pavlich, caroline downey -- caroline downey, and r ca donald. welcome, erika, first time, i believe, at least on this set. >> thanks for having me. larry: katie, how's hegseth doing? trump helped him out, i think, today. >> trump coming out and doing a public statement certainly helped with the media narrative and the media questions of trump staying silent while he was on on the hill with the senators. the votes are the votes. he has to get the votes that he needs, and there's a number of senators reportedly who still have some questions. he is still the nominee. president trump has made it clear he's not pulling him, at least today, and is we can get to the confirmation hearing, and he said he's willing to answer more questions than he already did this week. larry: caroline, what's your

reporting tell you can about this whole story? he looked kind of semi-dead, but i think katie's right, the trump backing is the trump backing. >> national review's reporting has been there's probably not enough votes mt. senate at this point, but that being said, i don't think it's over: and what i've noticed and what we have noticed is how the legacy media has now bent over backwards to attack his decorations, his military medals -- larry: i hadn't heard about this. how are they doing that? >> "the washington post" is trying to discredit his medals, two bronze stars overseas in the middle east -- larry: on what grounds? >> as basically insignificant and, oh, they're ubiquitous. my father earned a bronze star in vietnam. it doesn't mean nothing. it means a lot -- larry: in a a combat zone, you could give your life up for your country. >> yes. larry: with or without a damn medal. >> exactly. >> but it does recognize his courage in a situation like that. and it just goes to show you that just because he doesn't

have the blessing of the defense bureaucracy, they might say, oh, well, he didn't get a purple heart, so it's not that that big of a deal. people don't want a guy that's high up. they want someone closer to the enlisted ranks to rid the dod of rot and of corruption and of the dei complex which has ruined the military. larry: everything rika, is there anything that troubles you about it? the othes time on these smear allegations or otherwise, "the washington post" which i hadn't heard of, thankne. but, basically, you look at his agenda, i mean, he is a warrior. he wants the pentagon to be full of warriors. he wants to get rid of dei, which mr. trump will want to get rid of dei throughout the entire u.s. government and will undoubtedly succeed to a greater extent. pete wants to beef up the military where necessary, cut deadwood where that's also called for. we need, i mean, we have

problems. it's a dangerous world out there with respect to russia and china and iran and so forth. >> and pete hegseth is exactly the type of nominee that trump promised to the american people and the reason why he got the landslide victory he got. i think the most troubling thing is the lack of support from the senate and the senate leadership to say we are going to make sure that this very qualified nominee gets through, especially after trump did, again, come out with counseling down on his support for his nominee -- doubling down. i strongly believe that if we allow the mainstream media and others to slash this nominee and get him off the table, that they're just going to go on to the next one and the next one. they're going to continue to dismantle what trump has been trying to build. larry: sure, right on. wait, if this cabinet nom falls, others are going to -- >> there's blood in the water, and they're willing to -- but with hegseth, there's been a huge grassroots swell on his behalf, and there's been pressure on senators who have not publicly come out to support

him for potential from primaries if they don't get onboard. so we have some time to to go before the actual confirmation hearing and, again, they do have a role of advise and consent. they do. and, you know, pete's willing to answer any question that's thrown at him, so the american people can hear it directly from him when we get to that point. larry: caroline downey, let's switch gears. i want to talk about the doge brothers, the blues brothers -- [laughter] i call them the doge brothers, okay? >> i love it. larry: there was practically bedlam yesterday when those guys came in. [laughter] hundreds of people. because everyone wants to cut something called waste, fraud and abuse, but that's not really what they're about. if you talk to vivek or read their op op-ed pieces, what they want to do is use the supreme court to stop the regulatory socialism that has engulfed the country, right? >> yes. larry: i mean, in the modern dar the private steel mills. nowadays you don't have to do any of that stuff, you just have unelected bureaucratic

regulators who have no mandate from congress or the taxpayers, and then they run the country rather poorly. but i think they are on to something there, and if you can get rid of a regulator or a regulation, then you can get rid of a whole lot of them in that area. so that would cut the budget. >> right. and that's part of his mandate, is to end the crushing, you know, bureaucracy but also the regulations that have been sufficient candidating small businesses -- suffocating small businesses, commerce across this country. i will say it's not just regulations. i do think, i mean, rand paul compiled 2,000 pages of waste with, fraud and abuse. larry: yes. >> i think there could be low hanging fruit that they could cut. i don't know if it's -- larry: well, i think bureaucrats should show up for work. either that or sell the damn building or lease the building to to the private sector. >> look, the lights are on on taxpayer dime. 90 percent of federal employees are remote -- larry: they can all herd cattle in montana.

>> they would not survive that. [laughter] larry: i reckon they wouldn't. but, erika, part of linda mcmahon's let's say orders or mandate is to get rid of the education department. i know you're a specialist in education, done a lot of work in it. i'm quite certain that the doge brothers will get around to looking at the education department or why. we just had a bunch of, what was it, math test scores came back worldwide, he were awful as usual. we spend the most money and have the worst scores. nothing's improved with our public schools. can we get rid of the education department? >> i absolutely think we can. and if not getting rid of it completely, we can severely limit its role in the federal government. you and i both agree how wasteful that is, and the results are abusiness massachusetts only about a third of our students in fourth and eighth grade are reading on grade level, and we witnessed the largest drop in math scores in record toed history. that being said, when you talk

about the doge, the department of government efficiency -- larry: the doge brothers -- [laughter] there they are. >> it's not just cutting inefficiency, and i love it, i love the name. secretary cardona, when there was the threat of a shutdown, actually put on paper that only 336 of the employees in the department of education are working on something that is either directly authorized or implied by law. now, that's compared to the 4,166 employees that are in the entire county. and only 336 are actually doing something that congress has appropriated for and authorized? i think we can start there, by eliminating all the programs that aren't even authorized by congress. >> absolutely. larry: i mean, how far -- what is your reporting, what are your reporters at town hall, how far do people think that the doge brothers can go? i mean, this is a very big deal, and i think it lends a hot of credence and credibility to trump in general. narrowing the size and scope of government if nothing else and fighting off the regulatory

state which has been running the country for a long time, unelected bureaucrats. you know, what do you expect to come out of this? >> we knew that the doge brothers were serious about their mission when they met with argentinean president milie because he has been able to cut and slash and get rid of a number of government entities and bureaus around the country. granted, it's a different country, there's a different set of rules and process here. but people are really looking to congress which is controlled by the republicans and holding them accountable for taking recommendations doge gives them and saying, oh, here we are -- okay, here we are. and they also have recent superior court precedent to back them up. you had the fisher fishermens' case in -- fisher men's case in maine, thousands of dollars per day to be regulated. larry: and the regulators can't swim. >> and they can't swim, especially in the ocean.

larry: they don't go to work -- >> a lot of good things swimming in their direction. larry: oh, how about that? [laughter] all right. i think we've pretty much covered that. katie, caroline and erika. if nothing else, something majorly radical has to be done about the education department. and the $1.7 trillion loan portfolio made by people who have never seen an income statement or a balance sheet that they understood. >> there's a lot of reforms to be done in the department of education. we absolutely immediate to reform the student loan portfolio on behalf of the taxpayers and push school choice down to parents. put more power in the hands of parents. larry: all right. coming up, republican rob bless any hand took down a sick-term congressman in pennsylvania. how'd he do that? he's going to come on and tell us. knocked out an old time, a left-wing, progressive old-timer. couldn't do it better myself. we'll be right back. thank you, everybody, appreciate

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annual enrollment ends on december 7th. humana. a more human way to healthcare. it's our son, he is always up in our business. it's the verizon 5g home internet i got us. oh... he used to be a competitive gamer but with the higher lag, he can't keep up with his squad. so now we're his “squad”. what are kevin's plans for the fall? he's going to college. out of state, yeah. -yeah in the fall. change of plans, i've decided to stay local. oh excellent! oh that's great! why would i ever leave this? -aw! we will do anything to get him gaming again. you and kevin need to fix this internet situation. heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people. larry: all right, let's have some fun. republican rob bless that hand from pennsylvania, he took out a six-term liberal progressive democratic congressman in pennsylvania. just took him out. six terms.

he's right here on set. so, first of all, welcome on set, rob. second of all, congratulations on taking him out. third of all, how'd you do it? >> we worked hard. 1212 months -- 13 months and 3 days, we drove over 5222,000 miles, but -- 52,000, but we kept it simple. we talked about the economy, the southern border and keeping our community safe. and when we would talk to somebody at a door, it was i can't afford my groceries or to heat my home, and they're saying what about us in and then the frustrations would immediately transition to what's happening at the southern border. and heir saying why are we taking care of 10 million people when we can't take care of our own people? we had infrastructure crumbling all over our district, and pennsylvania's 8th district, one in four bridges are structurally deficient. we can't make ends meet. larry: what's the biggest issue,

the economy? >> the economy, kitchen table issues, absolutely. larry: heat and wages. prices rising faster than wage. >> totally. pennsylvania was at 8.2% inflation on grocery. nobody got a 10 or 20% raise to offset the cost of living. it was the real issues, the conversations, the tough ones, that we all have around our own family -- larry: how'd the fracking thing play out there? >> big. we have rural wayne county, and 52% of homes in pennsylvania are heated by natural gas. there's over a million jobs in pennsylvania whether it's direct or indirect jobs are from the natural gas industry. 45 billion in payrolls. 76 billion in gdp comes out of the industry, so to vilify it certainly didn't make sense. and you think about what is the biggest driver of inflation, it's energy. larry: yeah,s. will, mr. trump says and and he has a good point and there's a lot of evidence to support that, excessive government spending

and money printing by the federal reserve is also very big factors. what do you want to do when you're in congress? which knees -- committees are you bucking for? >> we're asking for appropriations, transportation, housing and urban development. if they see that's the right fit for me, i'm a highway contractor. larry: they should put the tax cuts first. whatever tranche, whatever legislative strategy, done you think your folks in pennsylvania want to see withholding rates come down and more money in their pockets from lower taxes? >> totally. and our small businesses, the backbone of our society. i mean, they need those 199k deductions. i mean, that's something i certainly ran on. larry: you screw around with that, you might wake up the end of the year and the republicans would preside over the biggest tax hike in history, it's not good. congressman-elect rob bresnahan, well done, sir. -k

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