‘I Don’t Understand’: Larry Kudlow Tells Republican Senator the GOP’s Strategy ‘Doesn’t Make Any Sense’

Fox Business host Larry Kudlow told Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) on Thursday that her party’s strategy to fund immigration enforcement “doesn’t make any sense,” telling the senator he thought the Republican Party was “going down the wrong road.”

Capito joined Kudlow to discuss the Senate’s Thursday morning adoption of a budget framework to fund ICE and Border Patrol. The bill is the latest in the ongoing fight over funding for immigration after DHS was shut down in February over Democrats’ refusal to further fund ICE and Border Patrol. A deal was struck in early April to partially fund DHS, leaving funding for immigration enforcement to the Senate’s new budget reconciliation bill.

Kudlow questioned Capito over the funding included in the bill, pointing to the initiatives Republicans chose not to fund while doling out money to ICE.

“I don’t understand what you all are doing with these bills. You’re not going to refund DHS. That’s not part of the skinny reconciliation bill. Only you’ve got what ICE and a piece of customs and maybe the back office,” he said. “Meanwhile, there’s a resolution for a budget of $60 trillion over 10 years? No tax cuts, no inflation indexing for capital gains, no Pentagon military supplement, no voting rights bill, no waste, fraud, and abuse. Senator Capito, you have to help me because I don’t understand. I think you are all going down the wrong road, ma’am, with the greatest of respect.”

Capito said the party was attempting to fund immigration enforcement before Democrats could shut down the government yet again. She noted pressure from party leadership to get the funding passed, telling Kudlow that the White House wanted “to see a serious effort by the Senate.”

“We’ve got a problem here that we need to solve, so we’re trying to find a solution and one of the solutions that we’ve put forward and we just voted on it at 3:30 this morning is to put together ICE and Border Patrol funding for the next three and a half years so we don’t find ourselves back in this same position in September because we know the Democrats will shut the government down again because it’s already been shut down now for 69 days for Homeland,” she said. “And according to what the House has been telling us, I think, they are saying we want to see a serious effort by the Senate that you’ll fund these two activities, and we are.”

Kudlow pushed back, questioning her over why the party would do so little in what might be their only bill passed before the midterms and telling her directly, “You need economic growth, ma’am.”

Read their exchange below:

KUDLOW: But just–

CAPITO: No, go ahead.

KUDLOW: No, ma’am, I don’t mean to interrupt. I want to be absolutely respectful. I just want to say, the skinny reconciliation bill doesn’t reopen DHS.

CAPITO: No, it doesn’t pay– you’re correct.

KUDLOW: Right? I mean, that’s the problem. That’s the problem and my point– I won’t say my point. I don’t want to be didactic. Here, I’m worried, okay, because I want this story to turn out well. I’m a very strong supporter of closing the border and ICE and the customs bureau and so forth, but I am worried you’re just going to get one bite out of the apple. The House will be lucky to pass one bill. You know that, ma’am. You’ve been around a long time. One bill, okay? Now, I’ve not talked to Speaker Mike Johnson, but you get one bill. Why not put all of this, DHS, customs, ICE, and then wait a second? You’ve got spending restraints, you’ve got fabulous savings offsets on waste, fraud, and abuse, and what Mehmet Oz is doing in L.A, what a lot of people are doing in Minnesota and elsewhere. You need economic growth, ma’am. We have $4 a gallon. The TIPP pole which is one of the best polls and leans Republican, four to one people think taxes are going up despite the One Big Beautiful Bill. That can’t be good. Why not index capital gains? Might help the housing? Everybody loves voting rights, Senator. They all like voting rights. Why not a simple, simple voting rights bill, you know, photo ID and citizenship? Put that in there so everybody would have something to vote for. But it’s just going to be one bill. You’re going to put one little bill out there, and that’s it? It doesn’t make any sense.

CAPITO: Well, I think what your fallacy is is you said one bill, and that’s it. I don’t think that is it, but that’s the most immediate problem. The president put us to task and said, “Give me a skinny bill that funds border patrol and ICE for the rest of the duration of my term. I don’t want to fight this battle every four to six months.” And he’s right. I understand what you’re saying, but let’s look at the voting rights bill. I’m a co-sponsor of that. I voted for that. You need 60 votes in the Senate. You can’t put it on a reconciliation package. You know that because of the Byrd Rule and all these other intricacies of Senate procedure.

KUDLOW: I could help you on that. I could help you on that. I could help you on that. I have a way to do it. I can help you. I’ve had some budget experience. You know that.

CAPITO: Let’s do it.

KUDLOW: I’m telling you.

CAPITO: Let’s do it.

KUDLOW: But let’s not– you’re going to wind up– you’re going to wind up, you’ll probably get the skinny bill through, and then you’ll look around and that’s going to be the whole thing for the rest of the year? What are we gonna say– What are you going to sell for the mid-term elections? Honestly?

Watch above via Fox Business.

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