U.S. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow charged CPAC attendees and all Americans Thursday to join in using facts and history to put socialism on trial and convict it.
“We have to keep America great,” said Kudlow, who then posed the problem, “Our opponents are proposing to overturn America’s success and it’s greatness.”
He pointed to economic numbers released Thursday morning showing growth at nearly three percent. “Trump policies are working,” he said pointing to lower tax rates, deregulation, trade reform, energy opening, conservative judges, foreign policy, historic high blue-collar employment, “it’s the hottest economy in the world and I’ll let the ankle-biters just bite my ankles.”
Kudlow called on the audience, their friends, and their neighbors to “put socialism on trial.” He said:
I don’t want us to stand idly by. I don’t want to let this stuff fester. I want it challenged, I want it debated, I want it rebutted, and I want to convict socialism. President Trump has already started this leadership,” he said before reciting some of the president’s rebuke of socialism including the State of the Union Address affirmation, “tonight we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.
He additionally cited the president’s remarks in Florida recently against socialism’s promises of a better future, when in reality it brings back the darkest chapters of the past.
“I ask you to join president Trump and me and the rest of us to put socialism on trial and convict it,” Kudlow repeated.
He offered some facts for the audience against the claims of those who push socialist policies. “The top one percent of income earners actually pay about 40 percent of all the taxes…The top ten percent pays nearly 70 percent…The bottom 50 percent pays three percent.”
“The Green New Deal would literally destroy the economy,” he added, pointing to the destruction of energy, transportation, airlines, and businesses.
He pointed to the 180 million Americans who use private insurance as he pushed back against those who push universal health care and the end of private insurance.
He laid out massive costs estimated by the American Action Forum, including approximately $35-40 trillion for universal health care, $45 trillion for “guaranteed jobs for even those who don’t want to work,” and a total cost for the Green New Deal and associated policies of around $75 trillion.
“The old Soviet Union proved it won’t work and it can’t work,” he said of similar socialist, central planning policies.
“We have to work hard, the stakes are very, very high,” Kudlow warned.
“He has ended the war on business. He has ended the war on energy. He has ended the war on success,” Kudlow said of president Trump. He credited the president with changing the psychology from pessimism to optimism. “You are now rewarded by the extra hour worked, for the extra investment, for the extra risk taken.”
“Our socialist friends want to tax and regulate more of everything,” said Kudlow. “We cannot permit that.”
“We must not let government action run this country,” he charged.
He pressed on:
I prefer human action. The actions of individual men and women. We prosper in America when we are allowed to use our God-given talents of creativity and ingenuity and inventiveness and our gifts from God of faith and life and life. Socialism, government controls, government coercion, and all the rest will block out these God-given gifts. And if we let that happen we will permit them to block out America’s greatness.
“I’m here with just one simple ask: please join us to keep America great and join us to put socialism on trial and then convict it.”
Kudlow is the Director of the National Economic Council under President Donald Trump. He previously served in the administration of President Ronald Reagan.
Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook