Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow slammed socialism in an interview that aired Friday on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” calling the economic model “despotic” and “tyrannical.”
“Socialism’s highly centrally planned collectivism policies does not work, with all due respect to those people who are talking,” Kudlow said at The Hill’s Newsmaker Series event in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
“We shouldn’t forget the Soviet Union. We should have a look at Venezuela. Let’s look at history. Centrally planned, collectivist — these kinds of political economic models, they are despotic. They are tyrannical. They impoverish,” he added.
“Look at the economic performance. I don’t want to forget that. I want to have this conversation. I like this conversation a lot,” he continued.
Socialism has become a widely talked about term on the 2020 campaign trail.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a front-runner in the field of Democratic presidential candidates for 2020, is a self-described democratic socialist.
President Trump and Republicans have slammed proposals championed by Sanders and other progressives, such as “Medicare for all,” calling them socialist programs.
Kudlow on Thursday took aim at Sanders’s Medicare for all proposal, which was rolled out this week.
“I believe it would be catastrophic,” Kudlow said. “All of that would decimate the economy. I think we would lose 15 percent of [gross domestic product] GDP.”
— Julia Manchester
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