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Kevin Hassett
National Economic Council
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BullishTariffs
leaning · 2026-08-12
Kevin Hassett (National Economic Council) tells Larry Kudlow the deficit is inflated by tariff refunds and that tariff revenue cuts the deficit by a couple of trillion dollars over ten years.
Well, obviously, we've got a lot of tariff revenue coming in now that had to be refunded. And if you add that up over 10 years, then you're looking at a couple of trillion dollars reduction of the deficit.
Kevin Hassett (National Economic Council) tells Larry Kudlow the administration has cut about 300,000 federal jobs, savings the CBO does not credit.
We've already cut about 300,000 federal government worker jobs, which the CBO has not given us credit for
Kevin Hassett (National Economic Council) tells Larry Kudlow the manufacturing boom (85,000 construction workers building factories) will produce growth and a dynamic revenue surplus.
we've got 85,000 construction workers building new factories, then you're going to get all sorts of growth, and that will give you a revenue surplus
Clip within Bloomberg Businessweek segment; falling participation cut the break-even payroll number to ~40K, so weak prints no longer mean weakness.
And labor force participation is kind of on a downward trajectory, which means that the break-even jobs number, that is the jobs number you need so the unemployment rate doesn't go up, has gone from maybe 120, 130,000 a few years ago to maybe about 40,000 now.
citing the 0.1 monthly PCE drop to defend the hold
“the data right now are taking the pressure off the Fed. And I think that the markets will get around to seeing that”
the administration's defense of Warsh
“the dissents all came from regional Fed presidents not from the actual governors”
his no-bubble case vs the dot-com era
“the AI companies are actually making money”
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