White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow blasted Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s vow to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

"You can't socialize healthcare, and you can't mandate wages around the country," the veteran financial guru and former Ronald Reagan adviser told Fox Business Network,

Asked at Thursday night’s debate whether he still supported hiking the minimum wage despite the challenges small businesses face amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Biden said: “I do, because I think one of the things we're going to have to do, we're going to have to bail them out, too."

Biden also touted helping small businesses struggling amid the pandemic. "We should be bailing them out now, those small businesses. You've got one in six of them going under. They're not going to be able to make it back,” Biden said.

“No one should work one job, be below poverty,” Biden said. “People are making six, seven, eight bucks an hour. These first responders we all clap for as they come down the street because they’ve allowed us to make it. What’s happening? They deserve a minimum wage of $15. Anything below that puts you below the poverty level.”

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25.

Trump, however, countered that raising the minimum wage could hurt business owners and their employees, Fox Business Network explained.

“How are you helping your small businesses when you’re forcing wages?” he asked. "What’s going to happen, and what’s been proven to happen, is when you do that, these small businesses fire many of their employees," Trump said.

"It should be a state option," Trump said. "Alabama is different than New York. New York is different from Vermont. Every state is different,” Trump said.

The former vice president disagreed. “There is no evidence that when you raise the minimum wage, businesses go out of business,” Biden said.

Kudlow applauded Trump for putting the onus of increasing wages on states, rather than the federal government.

"One of the things I liked last night, President Trump boldly and honestly said: 'Look, you want a $15 minimum wage, that will close down small businesses that cannot afford to pay right now, let the states do it,'" Kudlow said. "Not another federal mandate."

The Washington Post reported that public opinion surveys have found broad support among Americans for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, which works out to about $31,200 a year before taxes — an amount that still puts some below the living wage in many parts of the country, economists say.