Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy
Republican Senator Rand Paul has warned his party that tariffs have “decimated politics” after he voted against President Donald Trump’s duties on Canadian imports yesterday.
Sen. Paul of Kentucky told Fox News that tariffs have historically brought down his party.
“When McKinley put tariffs on in 1890, they lost 50 percent of their seats… When Smoot-Hawley put their tariffs In the early 1930s, we lost the House and Senate for 60 years,” Sen. Paul said.
“So not only bad economically, they are bad politically.”
After Trump's “Liberation Day” tariffs slapped 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports and a minimum 10 percent duty on all countries, the Kentucky senator crafted the opposition resolution with Democrat Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia.
Four Republicans, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Susan Collins of Maine, joined every Democratic senator in voting against Canadian duties.
In a 51-48 vote, they rejected Trump's declaration of a national emergency earlier this year to justify tariffs on Canadian imports.
In a rare move, Sen. Paul and Sen. Kaine, who ran as vice presidential candidate against Trump and Mike Pence in 2016, also made a joint appearance on Fox News to explain the impact on Americans and why their resolution is important.
“We are richer because of trade with Canada, and so is Canada,” Sen. Paul said. “There is no Canada versus the US”.
The senator explained: “Whenever you trade with somebody when an individual buys somebody else’s product, it’s mutually beneficial, or you wouldn't buy it.
“The consumer wins when the price is the lowest price. Tariffs raise prices, and they’re a bad idea for the economy.”
“Trade is proportional to wealth; the last 70 years of international trade has been an exponential curve upwards, and the last 70 years of prosperity has been upwards.”
Naive-Beekeeper67 on April 3rd, 2025 at 11:21 UTC »
Sadly for the USA, they are going to have to suffer before they learn. They are going to see their nations economy crash & probably go into recession. Prices will rise ++ and inflation will take hold. Then interest rates will rise.
But its the only way Trump cult will die.
TintedApostle on April 3rd, 2025 at 11:12 UTC »
"the party"? This is how they think.... How about the country? Yeah you know like doing good stuff for your country?
They haven't changed. Stop voting for them ever.
“The modern conservative is not even especially modern. He is engaged, on the contrary, in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. It is an exercise which always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities.”
― John Kenneth Galbraith
thieh on April 3rd, 2025 at 11:05 UTC »
Let's do it then! Please be spineless enough to keep the tariffs!