Save America. Cut Spending. Curb inflation. Slow the debt. Open the fossil fuel spigots. Restore work requirements. Grow the economy.  That was the gist of Speaker McCarthy’s dynamic speech today at the New York Stock Exchange. 

He blasted President Biden for not setting a second date for debt ceiling negotiations: “Unfortunately, I have not heard from the White House since our very first meeting,” the speaker said. “President Biden has been missing in action and misleading the public. Mr. President, with all due respect, enough is enough. This is not how the leader of the free world should act. Your partisan political games are provoking the very crisis you claim to avoid. Greater dependency on China, increasing inflation, and threatening Medicare and Social Security.” 

Mr. McCarthy went on to make it very clear that a no-strings so-called clean debt bill without spending cuts is out of the question. He also included plenty of details, such as returning federal spending to 2022 levels and limiting spending growth over the next 10 years to 1 percent.  

He mentioned a clawback of unspent Covid money, the newly passed H.R.1 “Lower Energy Costs” Act, and protecting Medicare and Social Security.  

Mr. McCarthy mentioned some of my favorites, Ronald Reagan for one: “Almost 40 years ago, President Reagan came here to talk about the economic revival that America was experiencing under his leadership before ringing the opening bell. Reagan said these words: ‘We’ve moved from malaise to hope, confidence, and opportunity with that malaise for what it really was. Government with its high taxes, excess spending and overregulation had thrown a wrench in the works of our free markets. It’s time that government gets off its present spending spree before it squanders our future prosperity.’ Reagan’s words echoed throughout these halls as a warning for all of us today.” 

He also mentioned Milton Friedman: “It is basic economics that when Washington prints more and more money, prices go up and purchasing power comes down,” the speaker said. “As my favorite economist, Milton Friedman, said it more than 50 years ago, inflation is made in Washington. Yet, rather than working with Republicans to find a reasonable agreement to tame inflation, provide certainty to the economy, President Biden is demanding that Congress make room for new debt without a single, sensible change to how government spends your hard earned money.” 

He nailed Mr. Biden to the wall again and again. “In the past 35 years, there has been eight major deficit reduction laws enacted by Congress,” Mr. McCarthy said. “Every single one of them was attached to legislation that raise the debt limit, and every one of them was bipartisan. Why?” 

A number of times, Mr. McCarthy emphasized restoring work requirements to ensure that able-bodied adults without dependents earn a paycheck. “Our proposal will also restore work requirements that ensure able-bodied adults without dependents earn a paycheck and learn new skills,” the speaker said. “Incentives matter, and the incentives today are out of whack. It’s time to get Americans back to work. Don’t believe anyone who says our plans hurt the American social safety net. We’re a very generous nation. And when people fall on tough times, we will help them. That will not change. Assistance programs are supposed to be temporary, not permanent. A hand up, not a handout. A bridge to independence. Not a barrier.” 

To me, Kevin McCarthy is leading the House Republicans toward a strong growth and prosperity agenda. Limited government, restrained spending, workfare, fossil fuels, low taxes, deregulation, King Dollar: This is a free-market, populist agenda that can unify the country.  

It is the exact opposite of Mr. Biden’s command and control central-planning big-government socialism, which has led us into a stagflationary quagmire.  

Save America. Limit government.  

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.