Larry Kudlow: Congressional spending drama is a lesson for GOP to ‘simplify it’

Lesson for the Republican Party: Simplify, simplify, simplify — that’s what all the hype is about.

The most important thing I’ve seen at the end of this year Congressional spending drama And the difficulty of reaching an agreement – this is what tells us about the difficulty of having more than one reconciliation bill next year.

So far, the House has twice succeeded in reaching an agreement to avoid a government shutdown.

Avoiding a government shutdown is desirable — not economically, but politically, as it would give Sen. Chuck Schumer additional power by certifying the presidential election on January 6, all the way to the inauguration on January 20.

Schumer’s Democrats are devils, and you never know what will happen if you leave them in charge — even if for a few more weeks.

Now, House Republicans have reached a third resolution agreement that is ongoing and awaits President Trump’s approval.

Kevin O’Leary reveals the solution to the government shutdown of Congress “A classic and bad Christmas movie”

It would look very similar to the short-term agreement that was defeated last night. It will postpone the debt ceiling until March 14, and claims it will cut nearly $2.5 trillion in federal spending over yet-to-be-decided reconciliation bills next year.

But as anyone can clearly see, this relatively simple exercise of extending funding for a few weeks was extremely difficult, highly controversial, and completely unpredictable.

I think this is a major indicator of the potential problems the GOP could face next year if it continues to casually believe it can pass multiple reconciliation bills in 2025. They’ve got to be kidding themselves.

Recent polls by McLaughlin & Company show that nearly half of voters think we are in a recession, and more than four-fifths remain concerned about inflation.

35% of voters say what’s most important to Trump is securing the border — and right behind him, 26% say growth continues by making Trump’s tax cuts permanent. Overall economics remains the No. 1 issue, trumping borders.

and Trump Tax Cuts 2.0 Very popular – 82% favor ending federal taxes on Social Security income, 71% favor ending federal taxes on tips for service workers, 64% favor ending federal taxes on workers’ overtime wages, and 70% favor making Trump’s 2017 election tax cuts Permanent.

Right now, Mr. Trump and his transition team are very popular. His approval rating is well above 50%. He is enjoying an almost unprecedented post-election honeymoon.

But going back to the legislative strategy, which will be very crucial, Mr. Trump’s policy A mandate from elections – and I think Republicans who think it will be easy to pass many reconciliation bills are sorely mistaken.

The parliamentary confusion within Republican ranks in the last two days alone, centered on what should be a relatively simple exercise, is a major warning against making things too complicated next year.

Delaying tax cuts would be a big mistake. Delaying tax cuts will not put additional money in the hands of working people. Delaying tax cuts will not fatten workers’ wallets. These are the people who voted for Mr. Trump in battleground states and gave him a landslide victory.

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The GOP has winning issues — like closing the border; reduce taxes; And dig, baby, dig; And reducing the regulatory state. Get it all together, and get it done as quickly as possible.

And be realistic about the near-impossible problems that many massive reconciliation bills will create.

Source close to President Trump He says he wants one big, nice bill. As usual, he is right.

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s editorial commentary in the December 20, 2024 edition of “Kudlow.”