A key component to Hillary Clinton's success if she runs for president in 2016 will be how well she resists moves to pull her to the left, according to noted economist and CNBC senior contributor Larry Kudlow.
"Will the real Hillary Clinton please stand up?'' Kudlow asked on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
Will she be like her husband or will she be pulled to the left by [Massachusetts Sen.] Elizabeth Warren and [New York City Mayor] Bill de Blasio?
"I don't know that. That could be one of the keys to the 2016 election.''
Kudlow pointed to an article in Thursday's
New York Times in which former President Bill Clinton, who saw the House and Senate captured by Republicans in 1994, defends his economic legacy.
"Clinton, working with [Republican House Speaker Newt] Gingrich from '94 to 2000, was a good economic president," Kudlow said.
"He joined with Republicans to cut spending, to reform welfare, to make free trade agreements and also to lower the capital gains tax by eight percentage points.
"Clinton's rhetoric was pro-business, pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-entrepreneur."
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Kudlow said Friday's federal job numbers report — expected to reveal about 200,000 new jobs — is not good enough.
The only trouble with it is it should be 300,000, 350,000.... This is the worst jobs recovery thus far since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started counting this stuff back in 1939," Kudlow said.
"One of the reasons is that businesses large, medium, and small are not making long-term investments in equipment, in factories … It's uncertainty but it's worse than that.
"They know they're facing a president and an administration which is across the board anti-business. Whether it's taxing … regulating, whether its speeches … they feel in their bones this is no time to take a long-term risk despite low interest rates.''
Kudlow said President Barack Obama continues to turn to the left with his policies."
"That's right. The president, if anything, is moving to the left and he is much more interested in dealing with something called inequality. He does not want to reward success," he said.
"He does not understand that it's the private sector and the business sector that drives growth. He also doesn't understand … you can't grow a business without investment capital. You can't start a new business without investment capital.
"So why are we penalizing capital by raising the tax rates on capital? Why is our corporate tax rate at 40 percent … twice what Britain's is?"
Kudlow said Obama's delay of a decision on the Keystone XL Pipeline sends a "message of weakness" to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"If we pump energy like crazy and export it to our friends in Europe, that'll undermine Putin's strangle hold on oil and gas. By the way, more oil and gas will lower the prices. That will hurt him. We're not doing that," Kudlow said.
"[The delay on] Keystone sends the wrong message [And] tens of thousands of jobs will be lost so the blue-collar unions are losers and the businesses that employ them are losers.
"This is a lose-lose proposition, it's another slap in the face of business at a time when we do need infrastructure — but that infrastructure includes a serious pipeline infrastructure to help us with the energy boom and [Obama] won't go there."
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