High noon for Speaker Mike Johnson, and that's the subject of the riff.
It was high-noon drama today on the floor of the House of Representatives, as Michael Johnson was finally re-elected to be speaker in the 119th Congress by a vote of 218–215.
It may be a wee bit of a stretch, but all of this kind of reminded me of the great cowboy movie "High Noon" — starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. Cooper won an Oscar for his role, where he had to clean out the bad guys, and, in fact, at the end of the movie, he shoots the worst criminal in town.
It wasn't exactly like this on the floor of the House today, but in the end, Mike Johnson was able to persuade dozens of GOP rebels, including President Trump’s friendly persuasion of the last two holdouts. So, the Gary Cooper metaphor is not precise, but you get the picture.
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Speaker Johnson gave a strong acceptance speech after the final tally — touching on the key elements of President Trump's mandate for change agenda. Here's one of them:
SPEAKER JOHNSON: We will act quickly and we will start by defending our nation's borders. That's the number one priority. Yes. | We will deport dangerous criminal, illegal aliens and finally finish building the border wall.
Then, the speaker promptly moved into pro-growth tax cuts. Take a listen:
JOHNSON: After four years of high inflation, we have a big agenda. | We can fight high inflation, and we must. We'll give relief to Americans and will extend the Trump tax cuts.
Unfortunately, when President Trump takes office, he's going to be stuck with the remnants of Bidenflation — caused in part by insane, last-minute, lame-duck Biden spending and a Federal Reserve that is mistakenly monetizing Biden's deficits by cutting interest rates and inflating the money supply.
Unless Mr. Trump's supply-side tax cuts and deregulation are quickly put into place, this new year 2025 could turn out to be very disappointing for the broad, working-class coalition that gave Mr. Trump such a resounding electoral victory.
That is why the new Congress should immediately move to put together what some sources close to President Trump are calling "one big beautiful bill." That would include tax cuts, border closing, the DOGE brothers’ spending cuts, energy deregulation, and a "peace through strength" defense component.
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Let's not waste any time — such as what happened in 2017. Start right away with one big, beautiful reconciliation fiscal package. Get it done by mid-year, at the latest.
That will conquer Bidenflation and deliver a much-needed, blue-collar boom. That's the riff.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the Jan. 3, 2025, edition of "Kudlow."
