Billionaire investor and Donald Trump supporter Carl Icahn told
CNBC that Republican lawmakers have a "pathological" misunderstanding of the national economy that is hurting markets and Americans.
Icahn, who Trump has suggested could serve as his Treasury secretary, warned that markets will have a "day of reckoning" without fiscal stimulus, and argued that the U.S. government "certainly could do more spending."
"The Republican Party that I used to be more sympathetic with — I'm right in the middle now, although as you know I'm for Trump — but what I would say is Congress is in this massive gridlock," he said, explaining that the Republican-controlled body is "obsessed with this deficit to a point that I think it's almost pathological," he said.
He blamed flawed Federal Reserve strategies which have kept interest rates low and have created "tremendous bubbles" and "the wealth gap," CNBC reported.
Icahn said worrying about a deficit when there is no significant inflation and the dollar remains the global reserve currency is not a smart way to govern. "A country is not a company," he told CNBC.
He also said he can't "understand this obsession" that many Republican politicians have with the deficit.
"They keep saying we owe all this money to China, but we're really not going to pay it back ever in a normal way," Icahn said. "So China decides 'I want my money back.' OK, well how do you want it back? You want dollar bills, you want Treasurys, what do you want?" he said.
"Everything has equilibrium, everything has a middle ground, and we are so obsessed with that deficit," Icahn said. "And I never thought I'd agree completely with guys like (economist Paul) Krugman, but in this sense he's sort of right: I mean, you absolutely need fiscal stimulus in this economy."
He also continues to back Trump. "He's going to do for this economy what should be done," Icahn said.
Another respected economic voice also sees Trump winning the White House and putting the nation back on the right financial track.
Texas energy investor T. Boone Pickens recently told
Newsmax TV that Donald Trump will win both the Republican presidential nomination and the White House — and that Hillary Clinton will not be the Democratic nominee.
"Trump's going to win," Pickens, 87, the chairman and CEO of BP Capital Management, told "The Steve Malzberg Show" in an interview. "The nomination — and I think he'll win the presidency.
"If you want change, there's only one person who's going to change it," he added. "It's Trump.
"I can't imagine voting for Hillary Clinton."
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Pickens, long a generous supporter to Republican Party efforts, said that he has talked to Trump since the developer began his campaign last June.
"We've talked about oil," he said, adding that "I think he understands" how to improve the nation's energy policy.
However, Pickens dismissed Trump's suggestions that he wanted him in a possible administration. "I don't need to be an adviser to anybody," he told Malzberg.
(Newsmax staff reporter Todd Beamon contributed to this story).
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