Ted Cruz Flatly Rejects Larry Kudlow’s Defense of Trump’s Tariffs on Fox: It’s ‘A Tax On Consumers’
In a rare move on Fox Business on Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) flat out rejected some pro-Trump spin from host Larry Kudlow – a former Trump economic advisor.
Cruz, who is a reliable pro-Trump voice in the media, told Kudlow he was against tariffs and hoped that they would be quickly unwound. Kudlow offered a scenario in which the Trump tariff revenue could be given back to taxpayers in what he called a “dividend.”
“Now on the tax cuts, I don’t know if you heard any of this show. Because of Mr. Trump’s reciprocity policy that he announced yesterday, the White House is saying there could be $600 billion in revenues from the tariffs,” Kudlow began, outlining his plan:
I am proposing that those revenues be put into the budget resolution and the reconciliation bill and that you cut taxes even more to help the middle class who have been shouldering the burden of falling real wages for about 25 years because of unfair and unjust trading practices. If you have $600 billion, Senator, those are the estimates.
I mean, out 10 years is a gigantic number. We need a fresh, we need, you need tax cuts, middle-class tax cuts. Corporate tax cuts? I mean, I’m calling it a tariff dividend for taxpayers. What do you think? I want you to carry this ball for me.
“So Larry, you know I’m always in favor of more tax cuts and bigger tax cuts, and I’m fighting to make this tax cut as big and bold as possible. Look, I think it is a mistake to assume that we will have high tariffs in perpetuity. I don’t think that would be good economic policy. I am not a fan of tariffs,” Cruz said, adding:
And the announcement yesterday, look, time is going to tell in the next month or two or three what happens if the result of yesterday’s announcement is a lot of our trading partners across the globe dramatically reduce the tariffs they charge on U.S. goods and services, and the consequence of that is the U. S. government dramatically cuts the tariffs that were announced yesterday.
That would be a great outcome. That would good for America. If the result is our trading partner jack up their tariffs and we have high tariffs everywhere, I think that is a bad outcome for America, tariffs are a tax on consumers and I’m not a fan of jacking up taxes on American consumers so my hope is these tariffs are short lived and they serve as leverage to lower tariffs across the globe.
“So you don’t want to put any more money, you don’t want to hand any money over to the consumers. The workforce has been hurt by these unfair trading practices,” Kudlow replied.
“Cut taxes, cut taxes, I agree with you. I don’t know that you could get too aggressive for me in cutting taxes. I just don’t want to simultaneously embrace raising taxes on consumers. And so I like half of your idea, but not necessarily the other half,” Cruz said, standing is ground.
“All right, half ain’t bad,” Kuldow conceded.
Watch above via Fox News.
