CNBC "Kudlow & Company" - Transcript

Interview

MR. KUDLOW: I've got Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the tax-writing Finance Committee.

Thank you, Mr. Grassley, on short notice. We appreciate it, sir. I've been reading with great interest, you can help me on this, that your colleague Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, now wants rebates for everybody, remove the income tax or the income cap, give rebates to the rich. And also some people are saying that because of the way the IRS works, Mr. Grassley, illegal immigrants who have IRS ID cards will also get rebates. Can you help us on these points?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Yes, I can help you on those points. First of all, we do now have reinstituted in this document caps of $150,000 for individuals, $300,000 for families, and that would then do away with the argument you just gave, which was in a preliminary document. So that's out. The House of Representatives has not dealt with the illegal alien problem at all. We are dealing with that. We've got to put some precise language in there, but it is our intention to not do what you said it's possible to do, which for sure is possible to do under the House bill. And that's why this change needs to be made by the United States Senate.

MR. KUDLOW: All right. Because that thing would really cause an uproar no matter what one's personal view is. Let me just come back to the income ceilings, 150 (thousand dollars) and 300,000 (dollars) -- 150 (thousand dollars) for singles and 300 (thousand dollars) for married filing jointly. That is roughly twice what the House had, is it not?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Yes. And the reason for that is there's a lot of middle-income people, maybe not in rural America and the Midwest where I come from, but a lot of places in the country there are a lot people, because of high costs of living, middle-income people that ought to be entitled to a rebate that won't get it with the limit that was put in in the House.

MR. KUDLOW: I mean, if you pay taxes, why shouldn't you get a rebate it seems to me.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, because of the demagoguery. And you're not a demagogue, but you exemplify the demagoguery that's out there that some people have been saying, well, people that take advantage of hedge funds are going to get it. So we want to get a bill passed. This is a stimulus package, and we need to get it passed quickly in order to get ahead of the curve on the recession. And consequently, there's got to be some compromise to do that, and we want to keep demagogues from speaking against the bill on the very points you've brought up.

MR. KUDLOW: All right. Senator Chuck Grassley, thank you ever so much, sir. Good luck on the bill.

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