We asked our panel:
Are Obama's big spending, borrowing, tarping and government owning policies losing voter support?
Watch "The Kudlow Report" tonight at 7pm ET and find out what out caucus members have to say about Obama's spending.
The Kudlow Caucus Breakdown
The Kudlow Caucus
Joe Battipaglia
Yes
Joe Battipaglia
Market Strategist, Stifel Nicolaus
Everyone wants clean air, universal healthcare and an economy free of risks for the consumer until the tax bill is presented and the debts are tallied up. Furthermore, the public is becoming more and more uncomfortable with the extent of nationalizations and takeovers that are being shielded from public scrutiny without exit plans.
Jerry Bowyer
Yes
Jerry Bowyer Chief Economist, Benchmark Financial Network
The polls show little support for UAW bailouts, bank nationalizations and deficit tripling. Despite his considerable charm and almost daily TV appearances (or maybe because of them) even his personal approval is starting to drop. Lincoln was right: you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Keith Boykin
Yes
Keith Boykin Fmr. Clinton White House Aide / The Daily Voice Editor
Obama is re-living Ronald Reagan's dilemma, when unemployment soared from 7.2 percent in 1981 to 10.8 percent in 1982. Polls show some skepticism about government, but Obama -- like Reagan -- remains very popular, and unlike Reagan his top policy initiative -- health care reform -- is still seen as necessary.
Vince Farrell
Yes
Vince Farrell Scotsman Capital Management
To pay for it, you have to greatly expand the definition of the “rich” that you have to raise the taxes on. While enormously popular on a personal basis, Obama’s support for his programs will erode rapidly when people realize what the bill is going to be..
Doug Kass
No
Doug Kass Presidnt, Seabreeze Partners Management
The voters spoke out clearly in November. They (arguably) concluded that the financial wheelers and dealers had abused the system by circumventing banking regulation (shadow banking market activity), by slicing and dicing traditional loan products (particularly of a mortgage kind) into financial weapons of mass destruction and by generally mismanaging their business to the point of causing a systemic disaster.
Massive and creative fiscal responses are generally recognized as necessary considering the magnitude of the problem: The electorate and their representatives are not going to take it anymore. Abuses cannot be allowed to be repeated, so the men (who ran our financial institutions) must now be treated as boys through a more burdensome regulatory oversight process.
The bottom line? The world's financial and economic system will be reset lower in a tradeoff between prosperity and stability .
Jim Lacamp
Yes
Jim LaCamp Portfolio Manager, Portfolio Focus, RBC Wealth Management
Co-Host, Opening Bell Radio Show, Biz Radio Network
His poll numbers have dropped and spending is the primary reason. This spending has not translated yet to jobs or consumer credit for that matter and mortgage rates have crept up. No toxic assets have been purchased from tarp for that matter.
Art Laffer
Yes
Art Laffer Fmr. Reagan Economic Advisor
Chief Investment Officer, Laffer Investments
Yes! And they’ll lose a lot more because it won’t work, and everyone knows it. Have you ever heard of a poor person spending her way out of poverty?
Donald Luskin
Yes
Donald L. Luskin Chief Investment Officer, Trend Macrolytics LLC
Polls seem to show that they are losing support a little bit. But we live in a very strange moment politically, when the way voters feel about issues are all confused with their affection and fascination with Barack Obama as an individual. So long as he remains personally popular, just about any dumb thing he or the congress wants to do will be at least fairly popular, too.
Steve Moore
Yes
Steve Moore Sr. Economics Writer, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
Every poll shows huge loss of support for spending and bailouts. For Obama, the GM bailout was a bridge to nowhere too far.
James Pethokoukis
Yes
James Pethokoukis
Sr. Writer, U.S. News & World Report (Money & Business)
Both the new Wall Street Journal and New York Times polls show growing concern about the direction of economic policy, particularly as it relates to government spending and the deficit. The Obama honeymoon is over. Likewise, "Blame Bush" is rapidly approaching its expiration date. More evidence comes in the difficulty Obama is having passing healthcare reform and climate change legislation, and the watered-down versions of executive pay reform and financial regulatory reform. High unemployment will continue to drain his reservoir of goodwill with voters. The White House underestimated the severity of the recession and the effectiveness of its stimulus plan and will begin to pay the political price.
Robert Reich
No
Robert Reich
Former Labor Secretary
Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley
Most voters support Obama’s efforts to revive the economy through a temporary stimulus, provide affordable healthcare for all, protect homeowners from foreclosure, and get capital markets to work again so average people can get credit. TARP isn’t popular, to be sure, but it originated under George W. Bush.
Lynn Tilton
Yes
Lynn Tilton
CEO, Patriarch Partners
The government has lent, spent, guaranteed and committed $12.8 trillion to resuscitate failing banks and a token few chosen “too big to fail” corporations. However, in the process they have left an entire population behind who remain victims to rising unemployment, increased foreclosures and higher gas prices caused by a weakening dollar. Such magnitude of funds and its unavoidable consequences targeted to save so few has and will continue to anger many whose suffering has not diminished.