Larry Kudlow grilled by CNN's Tapper over 'swampy' decision to hide names of corporations getting millions in bail-out dollars
Appearing on CNN on Sunday morning, one of Donald Trump's chief economic advisors was put on the spot by State of the Union host Jake Tapper for the administration's decision to withhold the names of corporations that received millions in federal bailout money related to the coronavirus pandemic.
With the host noting Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's decision to withhold the names of the large corporations that have received millions in taxpayer dollars after previously saying the process would be totally transparent, Director of the United States National Economic Council Larry Kudlow was pressed to explain why the secrecy.
"He [Mnuchin] reversed course and he said the government would not release the names of those companies," Tapper began. "Now, look, I can understand why the Trump administration might think that a company that receives a $25,000 loan doesn't need that information released -- I get that. But some companies are getting millions if not tens of millions of dollars. Don't the American people have a right to know where their money is going?"
"Well, look. I think in terms of those that shouldn't have qualified, a lot of them have returned the money, and some of those have been named, but I think when Secretary Mnuchin talked about transparency, he talked about the transparency of the process of making the evaluation for the loan and then the distribution of the loan," he attempted.
"I'm sorry," Tapper replied. "He said we would report to the public -- that's what he said, we will be reporting to the public. That's us, the American people and we have a right to know where these tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars have gone if there's no problem with it, if everything's fine with it, great. but otherwise it is about as swampy a deal as I can ever imagine. The government giving out hundreds of millions of dollars and the American people don't even get to know who got it."
'Well, I don't know that I would judge it that way. Idon't think it was sloppy," Kudlow replied only to have Tapper correct him with "swampy."
"The Congressional Budget Office, which is nonpartisan, said this is the most efficient distribution of emergency rescue funds ever," Kudlow soldiered on. "That's the CBO, that's nonpartisan, Jake. Now, insofar as naming each and every company, I don't think that promise was ever made and I don't think it's necessary. I think what is necessary is to make sure that the legalities were observed, that the process of credit and lending was observed, and that people who can qualify will in fact get it."
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