Friends, I just finished up a timely interview with Senator Tim Kaine on his effort to end Trump’s unconstitutional and destructive global tariffs. The recording is above and you can find a transcript of our discussion there as well.
While Trump tried to sell today’s announcement as a pause here is what is still true as we go to press (and of course we may learn something different in the hours to come):
new 10% tariffs on all imports from all countries into the United States remain in place
Higher tariffs on Canada, China, Europe and Mexico - our largest trading partners - are still being levied
Trump’s policies are creating extraordinary global uncertainty, higher prices, a slower economy, bigger deficits and a debilitating degradation of our global reputation.
Dangerous and destructive tariffs remain in place. And as we discussed this morning, what makes all this worse is that Trump does not have the authority to levy taxes of any kind, including tariffs, unilaterally. Only Congress can do that. The power he claims to be able to do all this he simply does not have. Without Congress’s assent Trump’s tariffs are literally taxation without representation.
Which is why the resolution Senator Kaine will be introducing that we discuss in this interview is so important. Here is his office’s announcement of the new resolution:
Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR), U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were joined by U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in announcing their intent to file legislation to repeal the cost-raising, across-the-board tariffs President Donald Trump announced on April 2, which will cost the average American household nearly $4,000 a year and have already led to significant market declines and raised the odds of a recession. Once filed, the legislation will be privileged, meaning it will receive a vote before the full Senate.
The announcement follows last week’s Senate passage of legislation led by Kaine and Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mark R. Warner (D-VA) to repeal Trump’s tariffs on Canada.
“No President has the authority to unilaterally impose such sweeping across-the-board tariffs without congressional approval,” said Kaine. “President Trump’s tariff strategy is raising costs on American families, threatening alliances our national security depends on, and creating opportunity for China and other adversaries to take advantage of global instability. The time is now for Congress to reassert its authority in matters of international trade, and I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join us.”
On April 2, Trump announced tariffs on imports from all countries around the world. In response, nations are exploring aggressive countermeasures on goods imported from the U.S.
Text of the resolution is available here.
Senator Kaine was able to get 4 Republicans to join him last week to pass a resolution rolling back the White House’s authority to levy the tariffs on Canada. We know 7 Republicans have already signed on to a Grassley-Cantwell bill that would give the Senate the power to rescind Trump’s tariffs. The Senator and his colleagues will be introducing this resolution in the coming days; due to Senate rules despite coming from the minority it will come up for a vote before the end of April; and we need to do everything we rally support for this critical effort to protect our economy and help Congress begin to claw back some its powers that have been usurped by our terrible leader. We need to make this new resolution a rallying cry for the pro-democracy movement all across the country.
So enjoy the interview. Share it with others. Read about the resolution and let’s get ready to work as hard as we can to help get this thing passed in a few weeks.
Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
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