Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
BISMARCK, N.D. – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Fox Business’ Kudlow to compare and contrast the philosophies surrounding the Trump economy, which focused on tax reform and deregulation, and the Biden economy, which focuses on socialist policies and unchecked government spending. Excerpts and full video are below.
On Democrats’ Socialist Agenda:
“[Socialism] hasn’t worked in any country where it’s been tried. It has failed everywhere, so why we want to try it is beyond me.”
“[The Biden Administration believes] there are too many people making too much money and that all we need to do is take more of their money away from them, redistribute to people that have less, and somehow that’s good for the economy all the way around. Of course, that’s failed everywhere it’s been tried, but they’re trying it again.”
On President Trump’s Economy and Deregulation Efforts:
“In my mind, the thing Donald Trump had going for him in his 2016 election was he clearly understood that the federal government was the problem and he articulated that—the size of the deep state, the size of the bureaucracy. What he underestimated was just how strong that bureaucracy really is. So while he was reducing regulations through the rulemaking process, legislating, as well as guidance, people from the bureaucracy were working against him at every turn. Even at that he was able to accomplish a lot. What we saw was that private sector investment follows lower taxes, fewer regulations, and frankly, even a better environment that manifests itself just in attitude. And now you have exactly the opposite. This changes the investment mind and it changes the relationship with states. I wrote a 22-page essay for the Harvard [Journal of Law and Public Policy] that just came out in June. [It] talks about the heavy hand of the bureaucracy and… cooperative federalism. Donald Trump understood the value of states and state regulation and state oversight. That was a game changer in terms of unleashing ingenuity, innovation, and our economy.”
On Student Loan Forgiveness:
“This crazy idea of forgiving student loan debts at $10,000. Larry, if they took all of that money and just forced every student to take an Economics 101 class or supply-side economics class or study Milton Friedman or Art Laffer, we would do so much more for the economy than what [the Biden Administration is] trying to do. The problem is their constituency is that very government that they’re growing. They love that government, they love the power of it, they love the dependency of it, they love the organization of it, and that’s a fundamental difference between us and them.”
“I think everybody ought to buy Dick Armey’s memoirs and read that as well. You’d find out what works best. But we do have an economic illiteracy problem right in our own government. I mean, Jennifer Granholm the Secretary of Energy, every time she talks I swear to God there’s a professor somewhere in an economics department going ‘What did I do wrong?’ It’s unbelievable.”
On Government’s Role in the Marketplace:
“As I’ve said many times, if you give somebody a $7,500 Tesla tax credit, the price of a Tesla goes up $7,500. It’s basic [economics] 101. In fact, Ford just announced that they’re going to do exactly that, and why wouldn’t they? It’s the most natural incentive in the marketplace. This is why the government should stay out of the marketplace. What happens with all of these ideas is they compound. You end up having a tax credit for one thing, so what they’re competing against has to have a tax credit. You just pile tax credits on top of tax credits. This is why corporate America gets bigger and richer and the government gets bigger and poorer and the middle income wage earner is scratching [their] head going, ‘My paycheck is not going as far as it used to.’”