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Donald Trump's Non-Dismal Economist

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In his speech a few weeks ago at CPAC, President Trump asked: "After my first year in office, can anyone doubt that I am a conservative?"

Well, at this point and given his policy achievements it seems fairly obvious - and somewhat surprisingly so - that he is.  Trump has again this week gained conservative and free market stripes by choosing Larry Kudlow as the new head of his ‎National Economic Council. This effectively makes Mr. Kudlow the nation's chief economist.  

It would be hard for Trump to have made a better choice. Kudlow, who has graced these pages with his commentaries over the years, was a Reagan-era White House appointee who worked on the Reagan budgets and his Economic Recovery and Tax Act - the tax bill that rebuilt the American economy and inspired the just-recently passed Trump tax cut.  

He later became one of the most respected economists on Wall Street before joining up as a host of CNBC's Kudlow and Company TV show.  

Mr. Kudlow, who served as a senior economic advisor to candidate Trump, helped design the Trump tax cut and then market it to Republicans on Capitol Hill. ‎ Kudlow is a good salesman: he helped Trump corral every Republican in the Senate to vote for it.  

The economy is now soaring - as the latest jobs report of some 350,000 new jobs (including upward revisions), and a record 155 million Americans employed - confirms. The Trump deregulation agenda has also pulled the government monkey off the back of businesses, which helps explain the investment and hiring boom and the complaints of an "overheating economy." 

Where Trump has fallen short is in relating this good news to average voters and linking it to Trump's pro-growth policies. A president with a booming economy and nearly the lowest unemployment since the Beatles were still playing together, should have an approval rating well above 40 percent. He doesn't in no small part because the message of Trump's accomplishments hasn't always gotten through the media filter of negativity.

Kudlow's all too rare gift is explaining jobs, the economy and the stock market in ways that don't make one's eyes glaze over.  ‎"If you tax something," he likes to say and write, "you get less of it. If you tax something less, you get more of it.  

He makes the dismal science, not so dismal.  

Meanwhile, the expert Ph.D. economists from Harvard and Yale, who said that the Obama years garnered $830 billion are too busy counting the number of angels dancing at the tip of a pin to make economics sensible.  

Kudlow must take on the role of White House salesman for the president's mostly sound economic ideas. ‎We hope that he can also steer Trump away from his darker instincts on Tariffs and trade protectionism. Trump said last week he likes a spirited debate among his advisors on the issues of the day, and with Kudlow, he will get just that.  

Trump also has a full table of unfinished business to enact. He wants a trillion dollar infrastructure bill - one that strategically relies on private finances to pay the cost. He needs to reform welfare and schools. He also has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix the American immigration system so that it is aimed at attracting maximum talents and skills to help grow the economy.  

To get that agenda passed, the White House's new economist in chief will have to help persuade members of Congress, the business community, and voters that the Kudlow creed is as true today as ever: "the best path to prosperity is free market capitalism."‎  

Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.  

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About The Author

Stephen
Moore

Stephen Moore is a contributing author for CBN News. He was a senior economic advisor to the Trump campaign and is chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, a position he has held since January, 2014. Previously, Moore wrote for The Wall Street Journal and was also a member of The Journal'’s editorial board. As chief economist at Heritage, Moore focuses on advancing public policies that increase the rate of economic growth to help the United States retain its position as the global economic superpower. He also works on budget, fiscal and monetary policy and showcases states that get fiscal