Transcripts For CNBC The Kudlow Report 20131123

But tonight, we will celebrate his true legacy. He was a key proponent of Economic Growth and an inspiration for supplyside economics for decades to come. Just check it out. Listen to this. It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low. And the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now. You cant tell me he wasnt a supplycider. Well have all these stories and more. The kudlow report begins right now. First up tonight, a lot of news on obama care today. Lets get to dominic chu for all the details. Good evening, larry. Lets start with the doctors because there is new increasing concern about how much they will be paid under obama care. Now, its very difficult to get exact figures on what doctors charge. But through interviews with doctors, a news service came up with these useful estimates. A doctor might be paid 100 for an office visit of a complex nature. Medicare pays 90 of that. But for the same thing, the Exchange Plans are offering around 60 to 70. More upsetting to some doctors, they feel these rate reductions arent being clearly spelled out, not being transparent. Separately, the Obama Administration is pushing back the enrollment dates for the exchanges by eight more days. This means the new deadline to sign up is now december 23rd. Anyone picking up a plan by then will be covered as of january 1. Next years deadline will be november 15th, 2014, instead of october 15th. There are some cynics that say the pushes in enrollment pushes it right back to after the midterm elections. Instead, larry, of just before it. Back over to you. Gee, you think it has something to do with the elections . How about that . Dominic chu, cynic supreme. I want to start on these dramatically slashed doctors fees. Every day the true cost of obama care becomes clearer. Here the doctors get squeezed performing the same services for bargainbasement prices. So much for keeping your doctor if you like him. I dont know. I fear the death of the medical profession. Lets ask our guest. Here now is dr. Bill grace, also with us tonight, democratic strategist chris cofinas, heather and Jim Pethokoukis from the American Enterprise institute. Bill grace, let me start with you. Are they just pricing doctors out . Is this a deliberate strategy . 20 bucks a visit or thats crazy, absolutely crazy. They thought they had everything worked out on the front end of this whole deal. And you know what a disaster these turned out to be. I dont think they had any idea what they were going to do on the back end. But no one thought we were going to get more money from this. We were all thinking this was going to be if you remember two months ago, i said this was medicaid plus. Slightly better reimbursement than medicaid. Theres a longterm trend here. Both for medicare and medicaid, to keep slicing an slicing and slicing down. Hospital reimbursements, doctor reimbursements. This is part of that trend. Why . Why wont they reward doctors . Basically they compare the price of physicians in europe to the United States where we do get more money. However, they get free medical education in europe. They dont have the tort issues we have here with unreasonable medical malpractice suits that increase the costs tremendously. And the training is much longer here. It takes us an additional eight years of cost and very poor incomes before you actually go out and start a practice. How much is this going to knock down the pool of doctors . Lets say this stuff goes through. How much will this take down the pool of doctors . Were already 15,000 doctors shy of primary care specialists that we need. And this will eliminate many because i think a lot will go into concierge practice and others who say, im going to retire early. I want to get my panel in on this, too. But employerbased plans pay a little better, is that true . Is that fair . They do pay a little bit better, oftentimes a little better than medicare and sometimes a little worse. Were going to go Heather Higgins, what do you make of this . Whats going on here . Nothing that one couldnt foresee, unfortunately. The problem of physician shortage was already predicted to be acute. And this is going to make it worse. This is just one more form of redistribution. And it is one more example of the antithesis of that jfk wonderful quotation which you had at the beginning. He understood the paradoxes that make economies and markets work. The people who are in government right now think that they can just issue things by fiat. Poof, well have a website that works or, poof, were going to slash costs and they think its going to happen without secondary and tertiary consequences. But those of us who live in the real world know there are painful consequences to these. Whos the real culprit here . Some say the Insurance Companies are shaving down costs, right . Is obama care forcing the Insurance Companies to do that or are the Insurance Companies just making a conscious decision that costkucutting can come ou of doctors hides . Dont forget that obama care came about as part of a sweetheart deal between large Insurance Companies and the government. If you look at, for example, the whether you want to call it a tax or a penalty that people will pay for not being adequately covered under the definitions of this administration, that money goes to the insurers, to the Insurance Companies that are going on the exchanges. If you want to talk about a wealth transfer that is seriously unjustified im not going to feel tremendously sorry either for the Insurance Companies. Im also not in the lets keep doctors salaries high businesses. I think you could have a lot of people Nurse Practitioners doing a lot more. That will help stop up some of that demand for doctors. But, listen, the president could have never sold this plan if he would have sold it and said, this is medicaid plus. It would have never gotten through. Youre going to have Narrow Networks which could end up being a ton of lawsuits from people who dont think theyre getting Proper Health care because they cant go to the great local Community Hospital and its too far away and they cant get the preferred service. And then youre going to have potentially huge rate hikes at the end of this year. Its not looking very strong right now. Bill grace, one point on this, you do have as jimmy was referring to, i think, you have these storefront medical places. Theyre putting them up in walmart, for example, and other places. Whats that going to do to this whole story . That will drive prices down, for sure. But theyre going to appeal largely to people who are very poor and people who have very poor reimbursements. Those are the people who will be able to find their care there. With all due respect, however, some of this stuff doesnt require doctors, experienced nurses could do it, is that fair . Yes, i do it in my own office. Flu shots are given by my nurses. And youll get a lot more telemedicine as well. These are things we should want. These arent bad things, to have people Nurse Practitioners, medical assistants doing more of what they can. Theres a lot of crony capitalism where you have doctors trying to prevent that from happening. Chris, let me ask you i know youre a defender of obama care. What do you all have against doctors . Thats my first question. What do you have against doctors. And, remember, these guys and gals got 300,000, 400,000 in debt to pay off because they became doctors. Why are you trying to to destroy the doctor profession . Not trying to destroy the doctor profession at all. But thank you for that loaded question. Jim made a lot of valid points. The logic here is to try to bend the cost curve. If youre going to do that, youre going to you have to cut payments to some degree. This is, by the way, a phenomenon thats been going on for years, this tension between the Insurance Companies and doctors and how much they pay doctors. So thats nothing new. Obama cares probably added some new pressure to that. Theres no question. One of the things where the actual doctor makes a really good point. My friends who are in the medical profession are very valid, they come out of medical school with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. And they have to go into their residency programs where theyre not really earning an significant amount of money, to say the least. That puts them in a hole. I respect that. Thats something we need to address. All because we have to have socialized medicine, thats all that is. Socialized medicine means bad doctors. Come on. Theyre not going to get it. The pool of doctors is going to go down. The training of doctors is going to go down. You know what . Heres my thought. Chris, just came to me. I dont know why i didnt think of this earlier. Team obama wants doctors to be like in the federal service, gs14s or gs16s. As someone who was formerly in the government, i dont think thats true. I was in the government, too. The really good doctors are going to go into concierge medicine. Youre going to accentuate the difference between those who can afford quality care and those who cant, which would be the antithesis of those who want it want its going to be much, much worse. And anyone who understands economics knows the only way you bend the cost curve downwards is to introduce freedom of markets and get rid of some of the regulation which has kept the prices high. Lets not pretend like the Health Care System was perfect before. It wasnt. Im no defender of the Health Care System that was before. But the problem with obama care is it takes a broken system and it puts it on steroids rather than actually fixing it. Jimmy pethokoukis, the government starts messing with this stuff, jimmy, the government starts setting quota and price rationing and the rest of it, youre going to get more class warfare, not less. The top tier will go into concierge medicine. If that doesnt work, theyll give me a nice room at new york presbyterian. But thats not the way it works for most people. Im grateful to have that. But thats not the way it works for most people. The president said about the exchanging that the product is good. He didnt say, this is going to be a lot like medicaid. Good luck finding a doctor. It may be an hour drive away. Thats not a good product. People going into these exchanges, you have other companies dumping their employees in exchanges, thats what theyre getting, a notgood product. You got it. Many thanks dr. Bill grace, jimmy, heather, chris are going to hang around. Dont forget, the Nuclear Option fallout on capitol hill, i say this about harry reid, it might make things a lot nastier for things to come. Thats the end of the filibuster. Free market capitalism, still the best path the prosperity. The kudlow report is coming right back. However, ive got some free market inspirational quotes from president john f. Kennedy this evening. Here he talks about the british socialized medicine system. I understand that theres going to be a program this week against this bill in which an english physician is going to come and talk about how bad their plans are. It may be. But he ought to talk about it in england because his plan and what they do in england is entirely different. In england, the entire cost of medicine for people of all ages, all of it, doctors, the choice of doctors, hospitals, from the time theyre born till the time you die are included in a government program. But what were talking about is entirely different. So if you have a flat tire, dead battery, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geicos emergency roadside assistance is there 24 7. Oh dear, i got a flat tire. Hmmm. Uh. Yeah, can you find a take where its a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah . Yeah i got it right here. Someone help me i have a flat tire well its good. Good for me. What do you think . Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Welcome back to the kudlow report. Broadcasting live from cnbc headquarters. It was announced today that the deadline to enroll for coverage under obama care exchanges has been pushed back from december 15th to december 23rd. All right. Despite still not fully functioning healthcare. Gov, americans will get an extra eight whole days to sign up. But get this. Next year, obama care enrolliee will have an extra month. The white house says it gives Insurance Companies more time to determine rates. Maybe so. Critics say the white house doesnt want voters to see the premium prices before midterm elections. Lets ask our guests. Back with us, chris cofinis, Heather Higgins and Jim Pethokoukis. I have to start with you, chris. People are going to know the premiums are going up. I dont care what the due dates are. Listen, if this was done for political reasons, im not sure its that smart politically speaking. At the end of the day, its not like the Affordable Care act is not going to be an issue in the midterm elections. We know that. If its a question of moving it a month or a few weeks past the election, im not sure its going to make much of a difference. Either the program is starting to work and the websites fixed and people are seeing some positives that they can clearly embrace by the middle of next year and the early part of next year going into the summer or the fall, however you want to describe it, or not. And if its not, then i dont care when the deadline is, its going to be bad political consequences for democrats. Thats as simple as it is. Thats fair and honest. Heather, on this very point, i dont see what a week really does. You have all these democrats in the senate worried about reelection. They want to push it back many, many months. For the life of me, i dont understand why the obamacons dont do that. Why are they so stub bourn . Whats one week going to do . If the darn things not ready to go, its not ready to go. I would think they want to do the same thing because they want to seem competent and reasonable and at the moment, they seem neither. They seem very dogmatic and ideologically rigid and determined to force everybody into something they dont want to be in. Kaiser just came out with a poll that said it was down to 33 approval on this law. Its really, really turned. And people are seeing the real consequences and how they were frankly seriously misled about what was involved and whats really sad here is that this is only the beginning. There is so much more to come. Nobodys yet talking about all those people with preexisting conditions where their statebased highrisk pools are closing after december and they have not much place to go if these exchanges arent working. And even when they get there, they will discover how expensive they are. Youve got studies touting these wonderful subsidies. But the subsidies for many people will not begin to cover the massive amounts of premiums theyre going to have to pay for coverage they dont want. Jim pethokoukis, can i be a cynic about this . Oh, please. I want to link it back to the filibuster business we had yesterday. The filibuster is gone. Does that mean Kathleen Sebelius is gone . They can fire her and they have a filibusterproof replacement for her whereas previous to that, it would have been touch and go . Sebelius finished now . Is that one of the implications . Whats interesting, before, good luck getting anyone confirmed other than maybe Rick Santorum to be the head of h. H. S. It also plays in well with the whole ipab. That was called the original death panel. The group of bureaucrats is going to try to lower medicare costs. Now its going to make it easier for obama to fill those positions. Previously, even if he had not been able to fill those positions, it would have fallen to sebelius to be the one woman ipab. He couldnt fire her then. That would completely ruin it because he couldnt get another h. H. S. Secretary. It gives him a little bit more latitude. Chris, how long sebelius going to last . I think we ran it again tonight. Shes going out, shes in someplace around the country, talking to somebody and theyre trying to dial up the system and the system breaks down while shes there, the system breaks down. Theres a limit to how many times i believe this is it. Maybe im wrong. How many times can she tour around and go online and have the system break down in full view of all the cameras that are following her . Well, if this website isnt humming by early december, to say the least, i think the pressure is going to grow pretty severe for the president to hold someone accountable. And i think secretary sebelius will be the top choice. My perspective is when Something Like this happens, youve got to send the American People a message. Nobody likes to be held accountable. But thats the job. You go into public service, im sorry, thats the job. When you screw up, you have to hold someone accountable. The president in this case should. If i was the president , i would have fired her. The president has held somebody accountable, john boehner. Hes held john boehner accountable. The republicans accountable. Hes already checked that box. He held the republicans accountable. Chris, i admire. What you said was very honest. I think the best politics would have been to fire at least sebelius if not other people. I really agree with you. In terms of obamas perspective, a firing would have looked really good, should have happened a month ago. Just as a contrarian point of view, anybody else he brings in wont have an obligation to defend this mess the way she does. And whoever he brings in might very well be arguing for a much longer delay or a total scrapping or a back to the drawing board kind of a deal. Maybe hell get hillary clinton. She has a lot of health care experience. Maybe theyll put an outofwork doctor in maybe you, larry. I dont know. Cabinet secretaries, they make about 170,000 . I have to get out. Chris, heather, jimmy, thank you very much. Another record close on wall street today. The rally wont die. Well talk about that with two stock experts right up ahead. But first, honoring the memory of president kennedy this evening. Listen to what was probably president kennedys greatest quote ever. And so, my fellow americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Stacys mom has got it goin on stacys mom has got it goin on stacys mom has got it goin on [ male announcer ] the beautifully practical and practically beautiful cadillac srx. Get the best offers of the season now. Lease this 2014 srx for around 369 a month with premium Care Maintenance included. announcer scottrade knows our clients trade and invest their own way. With scottrades smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. Their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in realtime. Plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. Because they know i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Im with scottrade. announcer ranked highest in Investor Satisfaction with selfdirected services by j. D. Power and associates. Another recordbreaking day on wall street. Dow rallied to close at a fresh alltime high today, finishing the day above 16,000 once again. The s p also closing at a record high, up nine points to close above 1,800 for the first time ever. We saw small cap stocks in the green today. The russell 2000 closing at an alltime high as well. Heres one of my questions will a janet yellen fed keep this rally going come january . Lets talk. We bring back John Rutledge and don lufkin. I was writing a piece about this transition from paul volcker, i go all the way back to paul volcker, the greatest central banker of our time. He operated with discipline and rules, discipline and rules, okay . Now i want to skip over to janet yellen, leave bernanke out for a second. Does she have discipline . Does she have rules . Is it all going to be ad hoc . Do we have any idea what shes going to be except maybe be dovish . I havent seen any discipline or rules. But shes got equations and optimal control theory and too many textbooking. I think we need another volcker, somebody with spine who can turn off the moneyprinting press before a bad thing happens. Thats partly what were seeing just recently in the markets. Were going from gentle ben to the yellen fed and its going to get even more quantitative easing. Thats interesting. Don, you think theres going to be more q. E. Or less q. E. . Im going to say in the next three to six months, just use that time. I think theres not going to be more. Theres not going to increase the monthly purchases. But obviously if bernanke were still in control, he hasnt been in control since the september meeting, the king is dead, long live the queen, tapering is off the table for a while. You talk about rules. John is right. Yellen thinks shes got rules. Shes got this thing called optimal control. Stop for a minute and imagine the hubrus. Its one thing for these planners to think theyre in control. Shes in optimal control. Oh, my god im from the government and im here to help you. Is that the quintessential intral planning . Explain to me optimal control. What is she talking about . Its them trying to drive the economy like a fighter jet with a control. You remember al used to say the fed was like a rocket ship in space without any windows . Thats too far in the past but i never forgot that. Both of you gentlemen are optimistic in the short run. John, is the Big Stock Market rally this year possibly giving us a read that next years economy is going to be better than folks think . It may well be some better. But theres 2. 5 trillion of vix as reserves that are leaking through the banking system. Sooner or later, they have to turn into deposits and loans. As long as that wall of reserves is there, we have sort of a bias upward or a heads i win, tails i break even situation which means upward pressure on asset prices in general. Don, do you fear in the next year, lets say, any surprise increases in Interest Rates . Maybe thats important, maybe not. Is that a possible surprise out there . I dont think so because there are two kinds of Interest Rate increases, right . Theres the natural and the unnatural. The unnatural is the one that comes from the fed. We sure dont have to worry about that under a yellen fed. The natural Interest Rate increases we could experience next year are all to the good. Look at the rate increase weve had in the u. S. Tenyear over the last 15 months. 1. 4 to 2. 8 because theres less fear, more growth, more hope because we dont need this pathological panic room for investors to go into because theyre afraid to do something else. So they own the tenyear yielding a yield lower than the inflation rate. So its good to see yields go up. Do not fear a three handle on the tenyear. It would be good news. I absolutely agree. Stocks up 30 . John, we havent seen you in a while. Whats your favorite investment . Real estate, private equity. Blackstone as private equity. This is one of the two years out of every ten years when lbo guys make all their money for the decades, when the banks open up and buy a company with bad trailing properties history. Thank you both very much. It was 50 years ago today that president john f. Kennedy was assassinated in dallas. But rather than dwell on that tragedy, we want to focus on the truly positive kennedy economic legacy. Weve assembled an expert panel, historians and economists and others. Theyre going to break down the very good things that jfk inspired for our economy, his linkage to Ronald Reagan and his progrowth message, for example, listen to this the worst deficit comes from a recession. If we can take the proper action in the proper time, this can be the most important step we could take to prevent another recession. That is the right kind of a tax break, both for your Family Budget and the national budget, resulting from a permanent, basic reform and reduction in our rate structure, a creative tax cut creating more jobs and income and eventually more revenue. Avo the volkswagen sign then drive sales event is back. Which means its never been easier to get a new 2014 jetta. It gets an impressive 34 highway mpg and comes with no charge scheduled maintenance. And right now you can drive one home for practically just your signature. Sign. Then drive. Get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on any new 2014 volkswagen. Hurry, this offer ends december 2nd. For details, visit vwdealer. Com today i got this. [thinking] is it that time . The son picks up the check . [thinking] im still working. Hes retired. I hope hes saving. I hope he saved enough. Who matters most to you says the most about you. At massmutual were owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. Whether youre just starting your 401 k or you are ready for retirement, well help you get there. We have nbcs bob mcneal on the line with the report. Please go ahead, bob. White house press secretary, Malcolm Kilda has Just Announced that president kennedy died at approximately 1 00 Central Standard time, about 30 minutes ago. After being shot by an unknown assailant during a motorcade drive through downtown dallas. Incredible footage. That was nbc news 50 years ago today announcing the tragic assassination of president john f. Kennedy. A dark day in american history, to say least. Much like september 11th, 2001, kennedys death may have been a defining moment for the whole country. If youre like me, you probably remember exactly where you were when you heard the president had been shot. Since that day, however, historians have tried to rebrand the president as a big liberal. But he was not. Jfk was a supplysider, at least on taxes and the economy. He was a reagan before reagan. Just take a listen to this. Every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job and a new salary and these new jobs and new salaries can create other jobs and other salaries. And more customers and more growth for an expanding american economy. Here now to discuss the kennedy legacy, economist and former reagan adviser art laffer, michael knox baron. And we welcome back ira staal. Brian, let me start with you. Where did kennedy get this stuff . Where did he get this stuff . We played clips, its supply side, its incentives, its lower tax rates, higher revenues. Where did he get it from, brian . He got it from two big places. Number one, the constant recessionary environment of the 1950s. There were four recessions from 1949 to 1990, increasing the poverty rate. It wasnt helping american prosperity across the board. The second place he good it was Woodrow Wilsons departing administration said cut taxes by 67 . And harding picked that up in the roaring 20s. Art, do you agree with that . Brians taken it all the way back to wilson and harding and coolidge and so forth. Youre talking about a Kennedy Reagan nexus, art. The economic policies were remarkably similar, free trade, a link to gold, of course the lower marginal tax rates. Where did that Reagan Kennedy link come from, art . It came from jack kennedy himself literally. Thats where we sold it to Ronald Reagan. Thats where he really brought it in. I also think that wilbur mills was extremely important in convincing jack kennedy to go with this progrowth policy. Some of his advisers were not into this type of policy. But its across the board, larry. Its the tax cuts. Its spending reduction. Its reaffirming the dollars convertibility into gold. Its deregulation. Its the kennedy round tariff negotiation. But its also defense. His defense policies, his negotiation strategies. The Nuclear Test Ban treaty that was going on with kennedy, very much like reagan, all the way across the board in almost every aspect, including civil rights, by the way. People dont give reagan the credit he deserves for being very open, big tent, bringing everyone under being treated equally. All of those ideas, they come together. And they came together perfectly under kennedy. And they came together once again perfectly under reagan. And theyre going to come again in about three years with someone else. Well get another set of those policies. Michael knox beran, welcome to the show. Youre not quite as convinced as all that. I read your cover story, very interesting. You basically say, deceptions, errors of policy and a dissipated private life, kennedy, nonetheless, remains one of our national darlings. And a recent poll found him to be the most highly rated president of the past half century. And you ask, what gives . Ill ask you, what gives, michael . Well, first, i want to address i think the idea that he was conservative in many ways is correct. But it should come with a couple of caveats. The war on poverty, though, was declared by lyndon johnson, began on the drafting tables of the new frontier. And weve got to remember, too, that president kennedy in 1962 signed executive order 10988 which gave a collective bargaining rights to federal workers, which would transform fiscal landscape. He was running to fdrs left. Fdr emphatically imposed that. While there are strong elements of conservatives in kennedys program, you can easily exaggerate it. Ira, do you think kennedy was planting the seeds of large Government Spending, medicare, medicaid, war on poverty and so forth . Do you think that was part of kennedys routine . Absolutely not. Are you asking me . Ira. Absolutely not. I think thats Wishful Thinking by some of the liberal aides to kennedy and historians that came afterwards. During the three years of kennedys administration, people came to him with all these plans for extravagant Government Spending and he said, no. His priorities were free trade and the tax cut. It just didnt happen during the kennedy administration. And thats for a reason. Michael, kennedy talked a lot he had his runin with business, he had his runin with the steel business. I get that. And i think that was one of his worst moments, trying to jawbone prices. But after that, michael, i think the guy really did revert back to this supplyside conservative. He was i think temperamentally he was fixly conservative his sense of irony is crucial to the man. It made him skeptical of grandiose, stateengineered projects. Thats true. Arthur was constantly pushing him to be another fdr. And kennedy said, this isnt the time for that, this isnt the moment. Youre out of touch. And he was pushing back on the liberals in his administration. And he spent a lot of money on defense, too. Were going to take a break on this. He had to make room for that. Thats why i dont really think these gigantic entitlements can be traced to kennedy, at least in a significant way. Please stay put. We have a lot more work to do. You dont want to miss this. Our own dominic chu has a fascinating report on what happened on wall street the day of the Jfk Assassination and the days just afterwards. One of the most historic days ever for the markets. And market activity and dom will take you back to it. Were kudlow. Please stay with us. The day president kennedy was killed was also one of the most fascinating days in the history of the stock market. There are some amazing lessons to be learned from the action on that day. Our own cnbcs dominic chu rejoins us now with that story. Welcome back, dom. Thank you so much, larry. The Dow Jones Industrial average opened at just around 732 points on november 22nd, 1963. It was a quiet day of trading until rumors started to spread about something going wrong in dallas. As usual, now, the markets got wind of it earlier than most people. And historic panic selling kicked in. In just minutes, an emergency meeting was held that led to an early close that day at the new york stock exchange. Any president ial assassination and the uncertainty it brings would roil investors. But there was added worries that kennedys tax cut bill wouldnt pass now that he was gone. But many brokers reported getting calls over the weekend from clients who wanted them to buy on the unexpected dip. The markets stayed closed the following monday buzz reopened higher on that tuesday. Now, jfks time in office was good for wall street. The dow was up around 19 during the president s brief time in office. His push for those tax cuts that lbj eventually got passed was all that big investors had to hear. And his policys launch, the dow was up about 18 during that period, pretty much holding the kennedy gains throughout. But getting back to the assassination itself, look at this reprinting of the then very liberal New York Post from november 23rd, 1963. We couldnt help but notice the ads for the television in the back pages right here. Theyre just about the same price as they are now. Perhaps no coincidence tvs were being advertised so aggressively that day, larry. Nothing spurred americans to buy tvs more than the assassination of president kennedy. No one wanted to be away from the news coverage. And anyone who still didnt have a tv set ran out and bought one, larry. Wow. Great stuff. Great reporting. Thank you, dominic chu. Thats terrific. We continue our look at the true legacy of president kennedy, including how art laffer and i and many others got our inspiration from him when we were pushing progrowth policies for president reagan. Kennedy to some extent is still an inprags. Its a story you havent heard. President reagan was a big kennedy fan. Thats next up. I want to know if they actually met and talked about this. Im kudlow. Stay withing us. Hmm. Mmhmm. [ engine revs ] [ male announcer ] oh what fun it is to ride. Get the mercedesbenz on your wish list at the winter event going on now but hurry, the offer ends soon. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho [ male announcer ] lease the 2014 glk350 for 419 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Welcome back to the kudlow report. Im larry kudlow. This is the 50th anniversary, of course, of president john f. Kennedys death. Were taking a look back at the legacy and the Lessons Learned from jfk. Were back with our distinguished panel, art laffer, brian, Michael Knox Beran and ira stoll. Ira stoll, to your knowledge, did reagan and kennedy ever meet and talk like in the 50s or early 60s . Not to my knowledge. And later reagan confessed he didnt even vote for kennedy in 1960. But he did make an appearance at a fundraiser for the john f. Kennedy library and gave quite a moving speech about how much he admired kennedy. I think thats true because he really did talk about kennedy all the time on the campaign trail, both in terms of the tax cuts and the military buildup. Art laffer, if my memory serves me, Barry Goldwater in 1964 a great free market conservative, ill grant you nonetheless campaigned against the kennedy tax cuts against lbj. And there are some people that say it really cost goldwater because the country as brian has said, the country had been through such a lousy period, wanted tax relief. This is like the progrowth wing of the gop versus the root canal wing of the gop. Thats exactly true, larry. You had the taft and then you had the Ronald Reagan wings there. And Barry Goldwater was the opposite. In fact, Barry Goldwater was able to get kennedy to back off of his Corporate Tax cut to cut it from only 52 to 48 rather than what he wanted, which was 46 . Reagan loved this. I chatted with reagan a number of times on kennedy. Kennedy gave my graduation address at yale, which is a spectacular supplyside speech. And reagan really loved that we ran the campaign on the thing called a rising tide that raises all boats. And reagan and kennedy had the exact same redistribution philosophy. The best form of welfare is a job and a rising tide raises all boats and helps the poor the most. The rising tide is the key to the reagan and kennedy nexus, my view. Michael, we talked about this for a good long while on the radio the day senator ted kennedy was buried, it was his church service. Yeah, the funeral. Thats right. You have jack kennedy who may not have been perfect but was basically a conservative. All the other kennedys not necessarily Bobby Kennedy. But all the other kennedys down through the subsequent generations go left, more left and even more left. What the hell happened, michael . Why did they disown the president s real legacy in. Well, as practicing politicians, they have to evolve with their party or leave it. They werent willing to leave it. Theyve got to evolve to address its constituencies. If kennedy himself had lived, he would have faced the changing composition of the Democratic Party, the changing nature of his constituents ideas, too. Brian, it was odd to me, its hard to figure this stuff. But the Democratic Party has never been the same. After kennedy, the Democratic Party moves left, left, left and more left. Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. Brian, that is completely antithetical to what the Democratic Party does today and has for decades stood for. I dont know why, larry, the Democratic Party doesnt come back to its true roots, which is standing in the face of sluggishness, even if its engendered by republicans and cutting taxes. Heres a little secret. In 1980, ted kennedy actually signed the joint economic report that advocated another tax cut. And the reason he gave is the tax cuts will increase revenues. Yes, the laffer curve, ted kennedy said it in 1980. Tax cuts will increase revenues. And thats how well fund social programs. But later on, i think kennedy wrote a letter by staff i dont know, art, the letter was to you or to steve moore or to me or somebody disowning saying the reagan tax cuts helped the rich and the kennedy tax cuts didnt help the rich, which is utter nonsense. If anything, the kennedy tax cuts had more powerful incentive effects than the reagan tax cuts. Yeah, it was for sure to steve moore. I think it was addressed to me as well. But im not sure. And it was coauthored by caroline as well. But the truth of the matter is, Bobby Kennedy was as protax cuts and growth as was jack kennedy. The problem with the younger kennedys is they never got to get the direct experience from their fathers. They never did. They were told about their dads from all sorts of other people because their dads were killed. And what happened is i took joe kennedy in to patrick moynahans office to explain to him what Bobby Kennedy was going to run on in that race, which was really going to be reagans tax cuts. I know you worked on joe. I remember that period. Joe was wonderful. Joe is great. Joes a great guy. It didnt really rub off. Oh, it did. I think it did. Ira stoll, what are you hearing . Your book is out there. Youre getting good reviews, getting a lot of ink on this. John f. Kennedy conservative. First of all, have you heard anything from the Kennedy Family . Well, Bobby Kennedy, jr. , was on another network the other night making some disparaging comments. And i think what art said is exactly right. Its sad these guys did not get to know their parents because of these assassinations. Its a tragedy. And they just learned about it from these distorted liberal accounts by some of the historians. I hope they read my book. I hope they do, too. Its a great read. Arthur and ted, those were the guys who really shaped this story. Then it just moved left from thereon in. You listen to those quotes we ran tonight. Gentlemen, youre all great. You listen to those kennedy quotes. You cant tell me he wasnt a conservative or else he knew all about conservatism. Thats it for tonights show. Rest in peace, john f. Kennedy. Im kudlow. Thanks for watching. Americans take care of business. They always have. 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