On Thursday night’s “The Kudlow Report” on CNBC, the former governor of Vermont and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean went on something of a tirade about the complaints coming from the business community about President Barack Obama’s economic policies on the heels of his economic speech in Cleveland.
Host Larry Kudlow first expressed his frustration with the Obama administration to Dean and explained it wasn’t just the right, but moderate Democrats that have the same opinion on the president’s re-election strategies to date.
“Howard Dean, what blows me away is the Clinton wing of the party is trying to tell this guy, A: nobody believes his argument that the economy is getting better, so B: you better change the message and C: from Clinton himself who was a terrific economic president, Clinton said, just extend the Bush tax cut,” Kudlow said. “Stop blaming Bush. Already Obama signed the extension once in 2010. Stop blaming the Republicans in the House. Just go ahead and sign it and get us out of this recession, Howard Dean. And Obama will not listen. He is, in my opinion far-left liberal — way too liberal to be re-elected.”
Dean’s reacted to Kudlow’s synopsis by suggesting he was in the wrong place as an anchor on CNBC.
“Well, I appreciate your opinion,” Dean replied. “You’re probably on the wrong network, aren’t you? Don’t you belong on Fox, the right-wing propaganda network?”
Kudlow responded by saying he was a free market guy on a business channel, but Dean wasn’t done. Later in his appearance, the former Vermont governor reacted to his co-panelist Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus’ complaint that Obama’s policies were “a total disaster” and that the correct course of action wasn’t taxation. Marcus told Dean that the “government doesn’t own” his money and that he “earned” his money. Dean’s response: He said he was “tired” of hearing complaints about taxes.
“You made a lot of money because you live in the United States of America,” Dean said. “We owe something to the government to grow up in this great country. And I’m tired of hearing people in the private sector talk like they don’t owe the government anything because we do. This is a great country because we all pay into it. It’s about time we all pay into it. It is not nonsense. You’re damn lucky to live in America and you ought to pay the right bill for it.”