White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Friday said President Donald Trump is “not bluffing” when it comes to using his executive authority on a payroll tax cut and additional coronavirus relief.
Kudlow said “you can bet” on Trump using an executive order if he needs to get something passed.
“[T]he president is looking very, very carefully — and I’ve been engaged in this with others — about using executive authority to take up the slack,” Kudlow outlined. “If the Democrats, the other side doesn’t want to make a deal and we really don’t seem to be making much progress. Maybe the tone was better a few days ago, but nothing but disappointment. So, the president is looking for a payroll tax cut. He’s looking for administrative actions to keep the eviction moratorium in place. He’s also looking at executive authorities to reform unemployment, to provide a benefit for reemployment, a retention credit for employers, and a benefit for reemployment for the workforce. Those are essential items on his list. We want to keep the momentum going here in the economy. As you noted, there’s still hardship and heartbreak out there. I mean, the great news is the v-shaped recovery is springing back, but we have much more work to do.”
“He is intent on using on all of the federal power levers at his disposal, and if we have to do executive orders, he will do them,” he added.
Kudlow could not provide a timeline on when the payroll tax cut would come but said he believes Trump would use executive action if needed.
“If the president has to use his executive authority, you can bet he will use it, just as he has in the past,” he stated.
“I don’t want to make a prediction,” added Kudlow. “It’s up to him to inform the public if he’s satisfied with what the work’s been done, but we are hard into it.”
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