♪ larry: hello, folks. welcome to "kudlow." i'm larry kudlow.

so, two big developing stories we're following today. president trump's extraordinary statesman-like diplomacy is bringing putin and zelenskyy to the negotiating table to end the war, and the house gop finally to start on president trump's one big, beautiful bill. and, oh, yeah, a are hot cpi report -- very hot cpi report showing biden-flation is still haunting us. kevin hassett joining us in a few moments, congressman wesley hunt on all of this in just a sec is. but first chad pergram live on capitol hill. what's happening up there? >> reporter: larry, good afternoon. house and senate republicans are haggling over competing plans for president trump's big, beautiful bill. if house republicans released their package today. it calls for $2 trillion in cuts and $4.5 trillion in tax reductions. it also lists the debt ceiling -- lifts the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.

>> i've been talking with committee members, and this will unlock the process and get us moving. so we're excited about it. >> [inaudible] >> reporter: the tax cut figure is less than what was requested by ways and means committee chairman jason smith. the plan asks the energy and commerce committee to cut $880 billion. that means there could be cuts to medicaid. senate republicans are writing their own bill. they say entitlement cuts are off the table. go on no planet, literally no planet is doge, vivek ramaswamy, elon musk or anyone else working as part of their effort looking into messing with people's social security or medicare benefits. that's not a thing. >> reporter: but it's nearly impossible to reduce spending without touching entitlements. they comprise more than 60 of all a money pent by the

government -- 600%. democrat -- 60%. democrats warn about cutting food aid for the poor. >> and it's downright irresponsible to slash our nation's most important anti-hunger program at a time when households are seeing increased prices for groceries. under the trump administration, the cost of a dozen egg is the now over $7. >> reporter: senate republicans believe the house could struggle to cobble together two bills, let alone one, and whatever the senate preps could face pops in the house. there could be concerns about imposing the cuts now and not waiting for a decade. larry in. larry: chad, just -- i'm not asking for a prediction, but just procedurally, if you will, structurally, does the house -- i mean, all money bills originate in the house. would a house budget resolution force the senate to adopt the same idea, or can you have two budget resolutions, and it'll just have to be resolved in some kind of conference or what? how does it work?

if. >> reporter: absolutely. you could play ping-pong and bounce them back and forth across the capitol dome. the senate budget committee is moving through its bill right now. the house goes tomorrow. we have to see if they have the votes to get that out of committee. i talked to a bunch of committee members this morning and said how are things looking, they said, well, miracles do happen. this is why senate republicans, some of them are banking on the house maybe not being able to move if anything out of committee, maybe on the floor because it is about the math, and it's so tough to pass something on the house floor. larry: all right. great reporting, chad pergram. we appreciate it, as always a, sir. so is donald trump is the most statesman-like president in generations, and that's the subject of the riff. ♪ ♪ larry: with the a passing of each day, president trump is proving to be the finest international statesman america has produced since ronald reagan and surely harking back to the american and world leaders that defended freedom during world

war ii. trump critics, hearing his america first, north star guiding principle, accuse him of being isolationist. uninterested in other parts of the world. or of the complexities of foreign affairs. but trump is i proving them to be very badly wrong. in just a few weeks since his inauguration, he has negotiated border-closing deals with mexico, canada, colombia, nicaragua, venezuela and el salve -- el salvador. he has focused laser-like on the panama canal and the importance of preventing china from running it. he has moved to prevent china from infill sating -- infiltrating central and south america. he has cast a sharp eye on the strategic value of greenland to prevent rush. >> a and china from advancing into the arctic circle. plus, he has directly engaged with israel on the hostage a

release with the hamas terrorists, and he has offered an outside-the-box solution to the age-old gaza problem. now he has broken through the russia-ukraine stalemate. first, by talking directly to president zelenskyy. then this morning with a phone call to vladimir putin of russia. if in a lengthy truth social post, he laid out a brand new u.s. strategy to end the war. in his own words, let me quote, i just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with president vladimir putin of russia. we discussed ukraine, the middle east, energy, artificial intelligence, the power of the dollar and other various subjects. all right. end quote. now, joe biden never spoke to putin since the war began. not once. but trump is clearly making good on his campaign promise to end

the war. and he's doing it with his usual warp speed. now, again, in his own words he posted -- and i'm going to quoth agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the war with russia-ukraine. president putin even used my very strong campaign motto of common sense. end quote for a moment. common sense has been a constant trump theme. for the economy, for the doge awed a admit of the out of control -- audit of the out of control federal budge, ending the left-wing culture, closing the border, cutting taxes and foreign policy must have a strong common sense theme to it. again in his own words from the posting, mr. trump laid out the strategy expect key american players,s and i quote: we will begin by calling president zelenskyy of ukraine the inform him of the conversation, something which i will be doing right now.

i have asked secretary of state marco rubio, director of the cia john ratcliffe, national security adviser michael waltz and ambassador and special envoy steve witkoff to lead the negotiations which i feel strongly will be successful. end quote. now, this is a dramatic move by president trump. not only do break the log jam of war, but to engage directly with the key players, zelenskyy and putin. and mr. trump is essentially orchestrating what will become a peace conference strategy which will lead to ceasefire principles and, ultimately, an end to the war. mr. trump is basically driving a process for all lee sides, the u.s., russia and ukraine -- three sides -- and that's going to lead to an end to the violence and the hostilities and the war. mr. trump's actions are a

breathtakingty imagine. it is the most statesman-like effort in generations. you know, trump how far won a nobel peace prize for the abraham accords during his first term. what he's doing now to end the seemingly intractable russia-ukraine war should be his second nobel prize. but you know what? actually for him it's promises made, promises kept. and that's the riff. all right. talk about this some more. joining me now, the great texas congressman, friend, wesley hunt. former combat veteran, wesley hunt. thank you, sir. we love having you on the show, you know that. i think you might have -- did to you hear the riff, and what do you think of -- i'm really saying, you know, his critics have always a said he's an isolationist, doesn't care about foreign policy. wrong. i'm saying he looks to be like the finest american statesman in generations and generations,

wesley hunt. that is my view. if you disagree, tell me why, sir is. >> i do not disagree, to be honest with you. those critics couldn't be further from the truth. president trump said two years ago in his cnn town hall when he was asked what side is he on, ukraine or the side of the russians, he said, and i quote, i'm on the people of -- on the side of people not dying. he's on the side of peace. and the deal he is brokering right now is preventing people from dying. that's what having a strong southern border is all about a, what brokering this deal between the ukraine and russia is about. it's about a people not guying. it's about a -- not dying. it's about a human tear effort that i think he is trying to usher in a new generation of humanitarian effort through peace through strength instead of just lighting money on fire and sending it to people to fight. i think he is spot on with what he is doing, and i think he is very, very smart and wise in assuring that, again, peace has got to be the ultimate state, but you only get there when you

have a strong america. larry: no other leader, no many other leader, wesley hunt, has been a doing this. and in my opinion, no other leader could do it. no other leader could do what he's doing. you look at -- i'm looking at this truth social posting that we quoted. people will go and looked -- look at it for themselves. it's a lengthy post. we didn't hit all of it. but the fact is he is directly setting up a peace process. >> correct. larry: by putin, certificate hen sky, the united states. he's got his representatives, rubio and ratcliffe and witkoff and so forth. he's setting up a process. i mean, it's like a process, you know, it's like an interagency process in the white house, only the stakes are much higher here on the world stage. nobody else can do that, wesley hunt. that is my view. >> correct. and we should is have seen this coming because this is the president who started no new wars during his first presidency. and he's basically enacting those same policies yet again. this is a man that's responsible for the abraham accords, the man

who moved the embassy to jerusalem in israel which made a shot across the bow to not mess with our allies. bankrupted iran instead of funding terror. he did all that during his first presidency. now that he has a second look at it, he has perfected this craft, and he is simply if acting on his own personal instincts to, again, keep people from dying, keeping america strong and keeping our allies safe. larry: he was directly engaged with israel for the hamas if ceasefire and hostage release, all right? and he remains directly engaged9 and also he's thrown out this out of the box idea how to deal with gaza maybe once and if for all, i don't know. but this is stuff that nobody else comes up with. i mean, look, joe biden, i don't know, bless his little heart or soul wherever he may be, joe biden never did any of this stuff. joe biden never talked to putin during the war. joe biden didn't threaten anybody in either russia or

ukraine, the middle east. joe biden watched silently while china infiltrated our western hemisphere which is violation of the monroe doctrine, you know, that's been around for, i don't know, 225 years, almost as long as i've been around. i mean, the monroe doctrine is sacred, okay? no one defended this until if trump came. and you know, wesley, you go looking down the years, i mean, i was there in the first term and then the whole period of the campaign, people always said he's an isolationist because he believes in america first. he doesn't a care about nato, he doesn't care about europe, he doesn't care about foreign policy. it's completely and utterly wrong. look what he's doing. >> correct. a couple of weeks ago he talked about turning gaza a into beautiful beachfront property. i think his point that he is getting at is actually assuring that there was peace in the region, and he was actively moving to make the lives of the people many that region better. again, we keep talking about this, larry, over and over

again, but at the end of the day, it is, in fact, peace through strength, and a strong america is great for the region. as somebody who deployed to iraq, i spent two years in saudi arabia as a liaison officer. we have got to be strong, we have got to have a strong leader, and the world will follow suit. and i made a great prediction a few months ago, once president trump was back in office, everyone would fall in line. i tell you what, he is making my prediction come true. larry: oh, wow, you're exactly right. i know you said that. i love talking foreign policy with you because you have this sort of curbside, on the ground knowledge and experience about the whole thing. >> yes, sir. larry: last one before we let you go. you're so wonderful on this tough. the house republicans are struggling to get a budget resolution out and one big, beautiful bill. what's your take on that? >> again, one was proposed today, and i think we're going to take another look at it, and i think it's going to go to the senate next, and the senate's going to come up with their side

of it. president trump was given a mandate to fix our border, unleash american energy and to keep our citizens safe. it is up to us in the house of congress to take care of the spending and the budget side of this stuff. but, look, i want to raise the debt ceiling. there needs to be some cuts. we still have some work to do, larry. hurt all right -- larry: all right, i hear you. i am a waiting for president trump. you know what? he will get directly involved when the time is right. when the time is right -- >> yes, he will. larry: -- he will get directly involved. we know that. congressman wesley hunt, thank you for coming back on the show. >> larry, god bless you. thank you. larry: yes, sir. moving right along, national economic council director kevin hassett, nec, he met with peeker johnsonned today. -- speaker johnson. i think they talked about one big, beautiful bill, but we also have to talk about a bad inflation story. biden-f if lation is spilling

over into the trump years. you can catch "kudlow," monday through friday, 4 p.m. every day here on fab abuse fox business. if for some reason you -- fox business, if you can't get us, just text your favorite 9-year-old, and she will show you how to dvr the tv, and you'll never miss a single trump peace initiative. i'm kudlow. be right back. ♪ ♪ he's king of the... ping. for every 1 sentence spoken on a call, he has 3 comments 2 memes and 4 emojis to contribute. a flood of positivity... during every. single. meeting. but oh how his passion for product management takes your team from level zero to level... zane. you need zane. zane needs benefits. work with principal so we can help you help zane with a retirement and benefits plan that's right for him. let our expertise round out yours. when winter season hits emergen-c supports your immune system

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that. larry: all right. so is congress ready to get president trump's one big, beautiful bill passed? we're following this story. joining me now, white house nec director, national economic council director and my friend p kevin hassett. just met with speaker johnson. kevin, what's going on in there? you're in the maelstrom. you met with 'em. can't they just get -- what the heck? all i want is a couple of tax cuts and spending cuts. that's all i need, kevin. i don't want this to be any harder than it needs to be. what did you produce? did you guide them through it? [laughter] >> oh, come on, larry. you know speaker johnson is doing a fantastic job, and we have a lot of really good news that he reported. you know, i came over here on behalf of the president the catch up on the negotiations, and i couldn't be happier with the report we got from speaker

johnson today. the fact is that republicans are united, republicans are united around the president's full agenda, and i think i'm really excitedded about the next few days. speaker johnson gave me a really favorable report about what happened today x. so, i mean, to use a football analogy, i think that, like, we sung the national anthem, we flipped the coin, and it's about a to be kickoff. larry: all right. kickoff. i'm hearing a potential house budget resolution. what am i hearing? $1.5-2 trillion in spending reduction. for some reason they're scoring the tax cut as $4.5 trillion. i'm going to come back to that in a minute. and then i think $4 trillion miss for the next debt ceiling. are those ballpark numbers, sound right to you? >> we'll let the house people communicate that to you. we don't want to communicate ahead of the house on their deliberations, larry. we're at the white house now. if it was back to kevin economist and and larry economist six months ago a, then

i would speck if late, but i will let them give you the final numbers. larry: all right. that's just what we hear a, i don't know if it's true. apart from the numbers, why are they scoring the tax cuts as revenue losers? why? the cbo, you still know this, the cbo put out a report a couple days ago that the trump tax cuts produced $1.9 trillion in higher revenue than the cbo predicted seven years ago, in 207, when the thing was passed d2027. and its -- 2017. and it's current policy baseline. i don't understand this business about we need $4-5 trillion to cover the tax cut. the tax cuts cover themselves, and it's current policy permanent forever. they don't need to be rescored. >> right. well, first of all, i want everybody to know that the i think every politician at least on the republican side in the capitol cares about what the truth is. but the people who are negotiating what happens, they

have to be attentive to reconciliation rules and the like. but president trump cares a lot about what the truth is, of course, and the truth is that when we -- what we did last time, you know, satisfied laffer curve type effects. revenues went up, real wages went up a lot. and then joe biden came in, and he had an explosion of spending, and real wages dropped the first couple years about $2,000. we made them go up $6,000, they made them go down $2,000. and i think everybody from the white house to the nat to the house wants -- to the senate wants to have the 60,000 up. -- 6,000 up. in which case we're going to outperform what we did last time. the cbo has gotten a lot of things wrong. and the way i like to think about it, there's so many ways to talk about it, one way is the tax cuts last time cost 1.9 ask half of them were permanent. and now they're saying that this take the other half that aren't permanent, it's going to cost 4 something. so how is it that half of 11.99

is all of a sudden -- 1.9 is 4 something? larry: what kind of math is that? [laughter] >> i understand your skepticism, but i also understand that the cbo exists, you know, it's created by congress, and they've got their rules that they use to negotiate very ably. they stepped -- helped us get -- passed. we're respectful of that. but we also understand that everybody in the if end cares about what the truth is, and the truth, larry, is 100% on your side. larry: i mean, i'm just very respectful of taking over the cb if o with people that understand the laffer curve. i say that with the greatest respect to every person in the cbo. kevin, you mentioned joe biden a few moments ago. we got a dose of biden-flation. ugly inflation report. i know you're aware of it. 3% year to year, that's way above their 2 target. core inflation x food and energy is 3.3% year on year.

you go deeper into the report, kevin, services whether it's core or not, that's growing at 4%. bond rates went up today. i mean, biden-flation is still there. so so what do you make of it? if what to do about it? >> right. look, biden's stagflation is way worse, way worse than we were told before the election by the statistical agencies. people can make of that what they want. but the fact is we found out last year that he created a million fewer jobs that than they bragged about during the election x. now all of a sudden inflation is way worse than they were saying. and i, as you like to, look at, say, the 3-month if move if being average? the 3-month moving average of what we've inherited, remember, this is the last month of the biden numbers, is 4.6%. larry: yep. >> and you wonder, like, how did they get to 4 4.6%? it's because of runaway spending, and we're addressing that, this is a macroeconomic thing. the fed was asleep at the wheel. remember, it's transitory -- a.

larry: yeah, sure. >> and if you're worried about whether the fed is still asleep at the wheel, our good friend austin goolsbee just gave a speech where he said, oh, inflation's almost under control now. wait, we just got 4.6. so he's giving a partisan talking point as a fed official. can you imagine? and then we've got a basically rolling average of 4.6. so the fact is we're not going to whine about it, we're going to fix it. we're going to fix it with supply-side policies, with spending restraint, with deregulation. with getting doug burgum and chris wright to drill, baby, drill, and all of that tough is going to get inflation under control. we inherited stagflation from biden because the policies were just terrible. we're looking at the micro things, the smaller policies that we can change. it turns out joe biden didn't have an avian flu strategy at all, and so now nobody can buy an egg in the grocery store because joe biden killed all the chickens. as soon as your friend brooke rollins is confirmed, she's going to have a plan to help

control the air a january flu and stop killing all the -- the avian flu and stop killing all the chickens. larry: oh, good point. >> in any case, we're doing macro and micro. president trump's all of the above fighting inflation. larry: all right, buddy. good point. all good points. >> thanks. larry: stay up there and show them how to do it -- >> he doesn't need any help. neither does speaker johnson. larry: you can take a really good shower now that president trump has the water rules back on. show 'em how to do it. you're great. nec director, kevin hassett is. thanks for coming on. all right, folks, breaking news. wow, stuff's coming fast. president trump just said he a may be meeting with vladimir putin in saudi arabia soon. okay? that is big stuff. we'll talk about it with senator tommy tuberville next up on "kudlow." remember, folks, "kudlow" available as a podcast. episodes available every weekday right after the show. we've got spotify and apple and fox business podcast dot.com.

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♪ larry: all right. so this breaking news, president trump says he may be meeting with vladimir putin in saudi arabia soon. we'll get the tape of that in just a minute, and we'll run it. joining us now, we welcome back alabama senator mr. tommy tuberville. senator tuberville, welcome, sir. rapid news breaking left and right. possible meeting between president trump and putin in saudi arabia soon. what do you make of it, sir? >> well, he's had his emissaries, larry, as you well know, general kellogg, going to russia, also steve witkoff. there's a lot of negotiations, obviously, talks back and forth. you know, president trump, he's not just a dealmaker, piece a peace -- he's a peacemaker. he wants to get us out of war. look at all the money we spent,

$214 billion, we have not one damn thing to show for it, and all these neo-cons will be for fighting these wars. president trump's the only one that can get it done, he'll get it done pretty soon is. larry: i'm sure you saw his post on truth social about his phone call with vladimir putin and setting up, essentially, a peace conference. you know, senator, i've said this before, you didn't get to hear the riff today, but, but, but, i think this is the most statesman-like person right now that we have seen in generations. and he is an internationalist. people say he's an isolationist. nonsense. look what he's doing with russia-ukraine. look what he's doing in the middle east. look what he's doing in central and south america, etc., etc., etc. we haven't had anybody if hike this probably since reagan, maybe since world war ii, senator tuberville. >> great communicator, larry. he loves to communicate with people. it's obvious tobacco when he was

president -- back when he was president the first four years, he had great negotiations with all the leaders across the world including the communist leaders, you know, kim jong un and xi jinping. but at the end of the day, putin and him, they will work this out. and, again, president trump, he loves situations like this because he gets to hoe how to communicate -- show how to communicate and work out these deals. a dealmaker. the guy knows how to get it done. but we have to for the american people, larry. we probably had a million people either died or lost their lives or injured in ukraine and russia. that's a terrible shame of fighting this thing. ukraine has never any chance of winning this. putin knew that. we knew that. but the neo-cons here just kept pushing this war, and it's unfortunate. larry: just reading quickly from the truth social posting, i had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with putin. we discussed the middle east and the ukraine war and so forth. he said, we both agreed to stop

the millions of deaths taking place. so he's saying we got agreement, putin wants to stop, okay? in that's breaking, to me. that's brand new stuff. then he says including that we begin, we're going to call zelenskyy, but then they're going to meet with putin and his people are going to be secretary of state rubio, cia director john ratcliffe, nsa security mike waltz and ambassador steve witkoff. so he's got his team -- he's going to start a process. this is so, to me, amazing. joe biden never if talked to putin during the war. joe biden's people never tried to the set is up any kind of process. finish trump doing this by himself, on the telephone. i just think that's remarkable. >> it is remarkable. and if you look at this situation, he's getting putin to talk to him. and and why would putin really want to do a deal now? because he is making huge progress going through ukraine, you know? i know he's losing people, but he's also picking up ground,

moving westward towards, you know, kever. but now -- kyiv. but he wants to get it done. and i'll tell you, he trusts donald trump. at the end of the day, he trusts donald trump in negotiating, the people around him. he knows donald trump wants to to get this done. he wants to get this war over with. it'll help both ukraine and russia. larry: and, look, trump's going to produce more oil and gas. price will eventually come down. i don't know when, but it's going to come down. that will ruin putin's war machine because that's the only cash crop they have, oil and gas. so price comes down because of american energy production, that'll ruin putin. i mean, i think putin sees the end is near. >> oh, there's no doubt the end is near. he's done about as much damage as he can do, and he knows he has to get out of it now to to save face not just with himself, but all the people many russia because russia, the russian people want to to get this over with too. they've lost way too many generations of young people for

the next 10, 20 the years. but it's time. it's a good time president trump comes in to do a deal and, you know, he'll help ukraine's economy, he'll help russia's economy, but he'll help the entire european if economy. in other words, everybody west of ukraine will benefit if from this because they need oilif gas if europe. you know that. it's been a cold winter for them, and they've struggled -- larry: and we should supply it. we should supply that oil and gas, the united states. we should export so much lng, we'll cover all of europe, they won't need russia. senator tuberville, let me interrupt, play some tape for one second. take a listen, please, sir. >> we had a great call. it lasted for a long time, over an hour. we're going to be meeting, actually, tomorrow they're meeting in munich, as you know, and we're to going to have some other meetings. we'll be -- i'll be dealing with with president putin largely on the phone, and and we ultimately expect to meet. that hasn't been set but not too

distant future. [inaudible conversations] >> we both understand, you know, we know the crown prince, and i think it'd be a very good place to meet. larry: all right. so going to meet with the crown prince, saudi arabia. not exactly sure when, but very soon. he had an hour talk with putin. you know, what mr. trump saying is putin is going to engage in peace talks. i mean, that's the first time we've really seen this, it seems to me. we could use some help from saudi arabia too. you know, senator tuberville, how about if they put another million barrels a day, dropped the price down to $60, what's wrong with that in that'll help consumers all a over the world, that'll help europe, people hit by the biden-flato -- ion and hurt russia. if the saudis cuddle hurt russia, you know -- could hurt russia, get the price down right away. >> it's not a surprise that president trump is starting out

all this foreign relations with the saudis because the king prince knows that he has to have president trump's help. he knows that he's going to have to, at the end of the day, help with the ukraine-russia war, also with the middle east with the disaster that we've got in gaza. so this is a great place to start and, again, as you said, they've got oil, they've got gas and they have money. larry: yep. >> and it's going to the take that to get out of this disaster that we're in in the middle east and ukraine and russia. larry: senator tommy tuberville, we always appreciate you and your wisdom. moving right along here on set, steve forbes, "forbes" media chairman editor-in-chief, and gerri willis, fox business correspondent extraordinaire. steve forbes, can i talk a moment about gold? >> the unmentionable word in the economics profession. [laughter] larry: four-letter word, exactly right. >> it's like waving a cross at a slam vampire. larry: first of all, bad inflation if report.

biden-flation is still with us. to party what what focus say, it's still running3, 4%. the fed has bungled everything. putting that aside, gold, recor. now, you know this, the u.s. treasury owns 11 million assets. the gold -- ounces of gold it's been scored at $4 2.the 2 -- 42.22 based on nixon's 19 is 73 -- 1973 deal. is so price today is $3,000, not 42. so if you revalued it, this is my first point. if you realed it mark-to-market, if you will, it'd be worth about $800 billion. to put it on the treasure true's balance sheet. -- treasury's balance sheet. it would give us strength, give the dollar strength, tremendous reserves and so forth and so on. some people want the sell gold. i'd rather revalue it. what does steve the forbes say?

>> when you talk about selling gold, call it instead spending gold. larry: oh. >> people aren't going to like that. so in terms of the gold, yes, revalue it to what the market is today but then follow through by starting to issue bonds where you can redeem in either dollars or gold. as a way to, one, check what our government is doing but also in terms of currency values vis-a-vis the dollar around the world. right now all a currencies are junk including the u.s. dollar if you look at the gold price. so is by having bonds there, one, that puts fire of the government to -- all right, look what the market thinks of the dollar. also it's the first salvo in the fed reforming the model of the federal reserve. larry: right. >> which still believes that prosperity causes inflation which is why powell won't reduce interest rates. he should get out of the interest rate business. what i want the the federal reserve to the say, we want a stable dollar, and these bonds are the first step --

[laughter] who was the first guy on these tv cable shows to talk about gold-backed bonds? if thank you. [laughter] i've been talking about it for several weeks. gerri willis, would you buy a gold-backed bond? i'm serious. >> probably. so the interesting thing about this is mark-to-market, i haven't herald that phrase since the 2008 financial crisis, and that's when the banks said we don't want a mark-to-market because, guess what? what we're holding in cmos is not worth what we said it was. what you're saying is that gold is worth far more, and it would be a benefit to the treasury, bail out the treasury. but at the same time, you're hurting the consumer financial protection bureau -- larry: oh, that's great. no, no, that's the fed story. i'm going to get to the fed. yes, you are correct. okay. so the fed doesn't have the gold. they have gold certificate ises. okay? -- certificates. which was given to them on some equal par basically by fdr in 1934. no, i wasn't there. i missed that whole story. [laughter] all right. again, mark the market, it was

$34, these gold certificates, and now it should be $3,000. so if you do that, right now the fed is bankrupt. let me say that. >> yeah. larry: all the bonds they own are underwater badly. you know, like a terrible bank, like these silicon valley stories that we heard a couple years ago. so the fed is broke, they won't admit it. if, on the other hand, you revalue golded -- gold, their certificates would push them up by $750-800 billion, and they'd be equal. they won't have money but they'd be equal, and maybe someday they could contribute $100 billion to the treasury like they used to. they're not going to bail out the cfp if b, because that thing's gone, it's dead. >> we can only hope. larry: that would a make the fed solvent. or maybe you don't want the fed to be solvent. >> i do. i think that's a better idea. i would rather see the fed in business if we're going to use them as all. it should be a going concern. scott bessent seems to to me to be a guy who can actually run

the business. but at a the end of the day, would i buy the bond? maybe i would, yeah. why not? if. larry: gold bond -- question is whether they'd sell is it. but i think everybody would buy the bond. >> yeah. look at tips. larry: yes. >> almost 3- -- $3 trillion in tips out there. larry: okay. i don't want to get too technical, but the 2-year cpi break-evens which is tips inflation, has run over 3 again. it's up about 75 basis points year on year. the crb commodity futures index is up 22 2% year on year -- 2 2%. gold is sor soaring, and we're getting these lousy inflation reports. something's got to be done here. going to give you each a shot at it. what should be done in. >> the federal reserve should make the dollar's ability priority number one. take the gold prices green. c-span: did in the 19 is 90s and say if it goes above 29 or

3,000, we're going to tighten. if it goes below that, we're going to ease. so so have a thing the market can trust, this idea that they're now going to manipulate the economy again by manipulating credit markets, what tear doing is outrageous. why should the federal reserve be in charge of how much activity we have in this economy? larry: i agree. >> we shouldn't let them get away with it. >> i think you've to got to break down inflation. look, i am typically looking at the wallets of american consumers, right? we have to bring down inflation. today's report was a disaster. it tells you that this inflation is sticky, it's continuing. folks can't afford a mortgage. it's going to the become a real problem -- larry: i gotta jump. i'm sorry to interrupt. we're running -- because what i'm going to say in five seconds, get trump's plan in place. okay? if. >> a big plan. larry: deregulation -- >> lower taxes. larry: -- lower government spending. one big, beautiful bill and things are going to change pronto. steve forbes, gerri willis,

thanks a lot. coming up, doge may need to make cuts in the pentagon. we're going to talk about that with the chairman of the senate armed services committee. mr. roger wicker will be here. i'm kudlow are. be right back. ♪ chocolate fundraiser. ♪ with the chase mobile app, things move a little more smoothly. ♪ deposit checks easily and send money quickly. [coins clinking] ♪ that's convenience from chase. make more of what's yours. (♪) at enterprise mobility, our experts always see another road. because when there's no limit to how far mobility can go, there's no limit to how far businesses can go. (♪)

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come here and i'll go there. we're going to meet also probably in saudi arabia the first time we'll meet, in saudi arabia, see if we can get something done. larry: wow. that's just part of the breakthrough. that was the tape for it. he also said some other things about supporting elon musk. joining us now, the chair of the senate armed service is thes committee, mr. roger wicker from the great state of mississippi. senator wicker, you've been around a while, i've been around a while. this direct actions by trump, you know, the start a peace process, bring putin into it, get zelenskyy into it, put staff people, rubio, in place to have a peace conference, i don't know, senator, if i've seen anything like it in a long, long time. what you think? if. >> well, i think it's exactly what he started off doing. really it's been a blitzkrieg of three weeks. and i can tell you, i for one as chairman of the armed services committee welcome doge coming into the pentagon and helping us

cut tape, make the acquisitions process more efficient, spend if our dollars better. clearly, we need a lot more weapons, and we need to be stronger because we're ott not keeping up -- not keeping up with communist china. but we absolutely welcome elon musk's team. and i know that i speak -- i'm on the same page as pete hegseth on that. larry: you know, just on that that a point, sir, i was just thinking and spoken to some people earlier, if president trump wanted to cut the budget or, you know, go in and have a financial audit for these agencies, i don't think he could do it. i don't think he would have succeeded without elon musk. i think elon musk gave trump the firepower to go through agency by agency, make the proper financial audit just like any good corporation. you know what? i think musk gives him the pyre the power. and that's -- firepower. and that's why i think it's

going to get done. what you think? >> well, it's a better start than i've ever seen. and like you say, as a young as i look, i have been watching this for a while. [laughter] larry: yes, sir. >> absolutely, we needed that. and i'm all for him. to the extent we can save money, to the extent we can bring innovation and small business people into the defense, munitions and ammunition and equipment production, we're better off. but you're absolutely right, i don't think anybody would have predicted a start like this. larry: you know, the fact that all the a democrats are screaming about a elon, i mean, hay used to scream about a trump. now they're all screaming about elon. it's an elon derangement syndrome. last couple seconds, senator. you ever seen anything like that? >> i didn't see it the first time, and, you know, that was eight years ago. and, yes, this is something like i've never seen in the first month of a transition.

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