Kudlow. Well President Biden is facing increasing pressure to act with a stronger hand following yet another attack by iran backed Houthi Rebels in the red sea yesterday. The total number of attacks on commercial shipping vehicles continue to rise as critics are looking to the president to take more action. Grady trimble is live in d. C. With all the details. Grady. Reporter david, after pausing operations in the red sea Major Shipping Companies are starting to resume them but they still face the threat of attacks from Houthi Rebels as they do that. French shipping company, cma, is the latest to announce it will gradually increase the number of ships going through the red sea. They follow maersk but just yesterday houthi militants claimed responsibility for yet another attack on a container ship bringing the total number of attacks on International Vessels to 21 and this one comes after defense secretary lloyd austin announced operation prosperity guardian, aimed at protecting commercial ships moving through the region. On tuesday, the u. S. Navy shot down three houthifired iranian provided antiship ballistic missiles. Republicans say though President Biden needs to do more. Every time you hear the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, jake sullivan, the National Security advisor come to the mike and say our number one goal is nonescalation or deescalation, tehran hears that as opportunity, that the United States is not going to hit back in a way that hurts us and thats why youre seeing these attacks continue. Reporter republicans like congressman walls there, senator Lindsey Graham on fox news earlier they say it is time to hit back whether in the form of a cyberattack, an attack on infrastructure or some other means. They say, david, it is necessary not only to protect the ships moving through the region but also u. S. Servicemembers stationed there. David. David grady trimble, thanks very much, grady. For more on the Biden Administrations response if you can call it that on the attacks in the middle east, bring in tim kennedy, former army ranger, sniper, special forces operator and cofounder of save our allies. Tim, thank you, for being here. After the october 7th massacre in israel john kirby and general austin came out and they promised americans, they promised americans they would not stand for the attacking americans. That they would deter all attacks. I think by then, a week after october 7th, there are about 15 or 20 attacks. They failed in that promise. They failed to deter those attacks. Is it fair to say that their mission has failed . That they have to look at a completely different mission now . Well, when you talk about deterrents, deterrents is something that comes from a position of strength. David yes. You know 9 11 happened i think the whole entire world looked at what deterrents looks like. As we bombed people into oblivion and went into war. When you look at world war ii, or even desert storm, world war ii were talking two Nuclear Bombs to let them know now this is the end of the war and the original gulf storm, desert storm in the gulf war we destroyed everybody that stood in our way. That send as signal of deterrence. Whatever this current Foreign Policy is this is not deterrents this is kind of status quo, im checking a box. It is absolutely not deterrents from a position of strength. David you know what bothers a lot of folks who worked for the Previous Administration is that the Biden Administration was dealt such a good hand. I mean they had the accords, the Abraham Accords, donald trump got very tough with all of our enemies to the point where we didnt have to worry as much. Jon ratcliff, the former dni was speaking about that last night. I just want to play a clip of that and get your reaction. Roll tape. The Biden Administrations running out of terror cells to get pushed around by in the middle east and of course all those groups that i just mentioned, jason, theyre all controlled by, funded by iran and whats so frustrating, when you talk about you know the intelligence that ive seen is, you know at the end of our administration we handed the Biden Administration peace in the middle east. We handed them the Abraham Accords and we handed them iran that was bankrupt, that was incapable of funding these type of terror activities. David tim, is that a Fair Assessment . Yeah, its fair and it is deadly accurate. Iran has been funding hamas 80 million a year for the past three years. When the end of the last administration, when President Biden took office, things immediately changed where they all of sudden have billions of dollars of extra capital that theyre able tip vest in interests contrary to ours. Every single one of the terror cells were fighting whether hamas, hezbollah, houthis, all are being funded by iran. Iran is a direct supporter and direct enemy of ours. Theyre not doing it in a traditional way of state on state conflict but in these new rules of war we are at war with hem but were not fighting them as a pure adversary and we have. Otherwise expect more of this. Expect more of our allies be targeted by terrorist organizations or violent extremist organizations. That is how we cut the head off of a snake. That head is iran. Be absolutely perfectly clear, theyre funding every single one of our enemies that are killing americans right now. David you know the administration is afraid of this escalation they would see if there was a more direct on iran itself but we havent seen that we have taken iran on through the years, going way back to Ronald Reagan 1988, something called operation preying man tis, one of our ships was taken out by a mine, we took out half the iranian navy. They didnt attack and cowered in the palaces in iran and afraid to attack us for the rest of the reagan administration. Donald trump hit back hard, hitting soleimani, making it clear through the maximum Pressure Campaign they were not going to make any oil money in order to feed terrorists or create Something Like we saw on october 7th. When we hit them hard directly, they cower more than try to hit back. Theyre bullies. Yeah. That is deterrents youre talking about. Fighting back from a position of strength. Youre very right, they went back to their palaces and cowered like cowards. That is what they are. The current fight were fighting against them is a war of proxies. Their terrorist cells are attacking allies and us indirectly. Until we directly attack them, until they understand when they support these organizations when they attack us well hold them accountable. Well have to continue to endure the exact same out comes like october 7th. David tim, im wondering if it is not too late . They made their clear assessment what the Biden Administration does or what they dont do . They smell blood in the water. They smell the fear. There is a lot of animal instincts in these engagements and they smell the fear from the Biden Administration. Theyre escalating their attacks right now as we speak. Nonstop. They are pushing every Single Button diplomatically, information in cyber wars. They are doing it militarily, theyre fighting us militarily right now. Theyre using proxies. They continue to push the envelope as what they can get away with. Until it is never too late for them to be reminded what it looks like in america. We have the most powerful military to exist in the existence of human existence. That is how powerful the American Military is. David right. Every once in a while the world needs to see what america is capable of and right now i cant think of a better time to remind our adversaries treating us like enemy in a war what it looks like to Cross America and to hurt americans. David tim, there is another problem which they havent just been spending money on their terrorist friends. They have been spending a lot more money on their Nuclear Program and they have had tens of billions of dollars to do that. Theyre ramping it up. Apparently theyre getting very close. What happens if they get the bomb . Before you answer we know, we dont know but we suspect that israel may have their hands on atomic bomb we dont know about. We suspect that saudi arabia may have so there could be deterrents from within the middle east but what should we do if they have end up with a bomb and start to experimenting with it . I mean when you look at our response, there will never be the pure like russia is but, surrounding russia are American Military bases. David yes. It is so evident, it is so clear that if russia crossed that proverbial line of an arms race and pushed us too far we would obliterate there would no longer be the existence of russia. Iran keeps knocking on that door and i do not want to be in the same position where we have to subround that country with military bases. We have had many. Weve been holding them a very long time. But those bases are currently being attacked by iran proxies, drone strikes, violent organizations, attacking our military bases staged in the region f they get a bomb israel will have to strike first because iran said countless times they will wipe israel off the face of the planet. Israel will have to take them at their word. For israel to exist, from the river to the sea, iran will make that reality of eliminating israel on the face of the planet. We cant allow our allies david israel clearly knows the score. They know what they cannot let their enemies get away with even though people in the white house dont seem to know those red lines as much as israel. I agree with you, that israel would not let it happen. Tim kennedy thanks for being here. Appreciate it. God bless. David you too. Coming up two things are true. The stock market is definitely on a roll to close out the year in a positive note but two, americans think the economy stinks. Will the views of wall street and main street somehow converge in 2023 . Well be asking art laffer when kudlow continues. [narrator] Wounded Warrior project helped me find the strength to go further than i ever thought possible. [narrator] i was able to come outta my shell and really connect with others. 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Plus, now through december 31st, eligible xfinity rewards members can get 25 off a storm ready wifi device. David so with the stock market almost too good to be true will our economy begin to look better to voters heading into the election in joining me now is art laffer, former reagan economist, medal of freedom recipient and author of, taxes have consequences. Art laffer, great to see you, my friend. Happy new year, close to happy new year. Great to see you, david. You too. David you both love it with markets are up. It is better for everybody. Yes. David the s p to put a fine point on it is up 24 yeartodate. That is a huge rise year to year for the stock market but voters by a big majority think the economy stinks and even 61 of democrats feel that the economy is not doing well, that it is doing badly. 61 . I think it is 93 , yeah, 93 of republicans think it is bad and independents 85 . That has to worry the white house bad enough but when they see 61 of democrats think it is bad, when will those two truths converge if they will at all . That the economy, feels good and that the investors think it feels good . Will they converge at all in 2024 . Do remember, david, the a lot of this rally in the stock market has been very recent and the market is telling us what will be, not what has been. So youve got this forwardlooking indicator and then you have people making comments what they think the economy is right now and how they feel right now and let me just give you where the huge disconnect comes here. David please. People care about jobs, not about Unemployment Rates and so when you look at total jobs its way down. We have a very low employment rate even though the Unemployment Rate is low, people left the labor force. So jobs are way down which is what people feel. Second thing thats really important is people worry about prices, not about inflation. David yes. Now inflation is related to prices over long periods of time but right now prices are up, i think it is 17. 7 since biden took office. Eastern though the inflation rate is down quite substantially, the prices are not down at all and it is prices that are killing people. So they obviously are upset and the last thing is gdp growth, this last quarter was almost 5 , which is a very nice number, except gdp is whats really low. Its not kept track with what happened after trump left office. Its not caught back up yet at all and they are looking not at growth rates, people at output, not output growth. David right. All these things there are a disconnect how people report the news as being low inflation, low unemployment and very high gdp growth. No one cares about those. They care about the levels of this. That is why people are feeling bad. They will continue to feel bad for quite sometime to come and they are correct. The reporters are these numbers are not correct. David i throw another thing in there and thats the rates. Because the Federal Reserve had to cut its inflation on their own. They have not had supply from the legislators and economy, that is the best way to curb inflation we know that, create more things by having a stronger economy. The administration has not been helping at the supply side so it all has been based on Interest Rates and result of that the American Dream, the Mortgage Rates have just skyrocketed. I was amazed to see that the Monthly Payments, the average Monthly Payments, that is how much the rates have gone up, but average Monthly Payments to put a fine point on it, 1700 before biden took office. Look at it now, 3322 is the average Monthly Payment on a new home. There you go. David that puts the American Dream out of reach. It does. Thats what people feel and know and what is reported especially on other channels by the way but here too, what is reported is not really what people care about. They care about prices johns, Mortgage Rates compared to what it was before not whether it is going up or down. The other thing that is important as well, everywhere in the world these same phenomenon are occurring. Inflation is coming down everywhere else. Prices are stablizing. All this stuff is global phenomenon. Interest rates are the same everywhere, so when you look at it it is not just the u. S. , not just the u. S. Fed it is the Global Economy and when you look at the Global Economy things are not looking good. China is in a freefall, chile is doing badly. Europe is terrible. I always joke britain is the such bad shape they dont call it the pound anymore, it is called the ounce. This makes the gestalt of the whole world of negative voters. Well see the results of that in combing november. We will. Look at california, california and michigan. Two states, one of the two only states that raised their income tax rates this year. Californias tax rate now, highest tax rate is 14. 4 , david. David wow. Were pretty close to it here in new york by the way yeah. New york aint far away. Of course illinois is raising its rates as well. There you go. David let me ask a partisan question. It is not a partisan question. Sure. David if donald trump wins the election and calls up art laffer and says what should i do to get this economy really roaring again in