Larry Kudlow: Economy 'Lot Stronger' Than White House Will Admit

The U.S. job market report released Friday shows that the economy is "a lot stronger than the current administration wants to admit" because it wants its $1.9 trillion COVID bill to pass, but it is not good legislation, according to former Trump administration economic adviser Larry Kudlow. 

"You will see even stronger numbers ahead as the vaccines take hold," Kudlow, now a Fox Business show anchor, told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "We have 83 million vaccines thanks to President (Donald) Trump's Operation Warp Speed. You will probably have herd immunity by the spring or early summer." 

He pointed out that lawmakers are bypassing the administration and opening their states, including Connecticut Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont, who announced Thursday that mask mandates will remain in place but most businesses can reopen at 100% of their capacity. 

Kudlow also rejected an argument from White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who downplayed the jobs report, tweeting that "if you think today's jobs report is "good enough," then know that at this pace (+379,000 jobs/month), it would take until April 2023 to get back to where we were in February 2020."

"Look, all the spending programs, it is kind of a Democrat liberal wish list," said Kudlow. "That stuff is worth one or two months. That's all you are going to get. It is much more important to bring people back to work so you have permanent jobs, not just government income sprinkling from the sky."

Kudlow added, barring "huge taxes and regulatory increases," and if the administration leaves the economy alone and everyone gets vaccinated, "you will get big job gains."

"You will go back to a million jobs a month or more as we move into the spring," he insisted. "These are the jobs that we lost in the last spike in late 2020, so I'm much more optimistic. Unemployment can fall substantially in the next six to 12 months if we don't interfere with incentives and regulation. I am quite optimistic on that."

However, Kudlow said it will all hinge on "good practices" on the part of the Biden administration, and that has him worried. 

"I have a lot of misgivings about what I'm hearing from the Biden administration on economic policies," he said. 

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