On Wednesday, four Republican senators joined their Democratic colleagues to pass a resolution, introduced by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, designed to undermine President Donald Trump’s policy of imposing tariffs on Canada.
The operative word here — “designed” — makes all the difference, for the resolution has no chance of actually restraining the president.
In fact, Republican Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso chastised his four colleagues for the emptiness of their gesture.
“Sen. Kaine’s goal was not to make law. It was simply an effort to undermine President Trump’s successful work to secure the Northern Border,” Barrasso said in a statement, per Fox News.
Indeed, Trump has justified tariffs on Canada in part by citing that nation’s lax border enforcement. As a result, the deadly drug fentanyl has poured into the United States.
Moreover, Barrasso expressed confidence that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson would squash the Senate resolution.
“Speaker Johnson already declared Sen. Kaine’s resolution dead on arrival in the House of Representatives. It will never make it to President Trump’s desk,” Barrasso continued. “This meaningless messaging resolution will not stop Senate Republicans from making America’s communities safer.
Early Wednesday on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump blasted the four GOP Senate defectors.
Indeed, Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, both of Kentucky, drew the president’s ire. Trump referred to the quartet as “unbelievably disloyal.”
Should these RINOs lose their seats?
The president also showed why Barrasso expressed such confidence in the resolution’s fate.
“The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely these four, in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve it and I, as your President, will never sign it,” Trump wrote.
Of the four GOP defectors, three merit no attention. Collins, Murkowski, and McConnell have repeatedly shown symptoms of acute Trump Derangement Syndrome. Thus, one cannot take them seriously as principled actors.
Paul, however, presents a curious and sympathetic case.
“I think tariffs on trade between U.S. and Canada will threaten our country with a recession. I think they’re a terrible idea economically and will lead to higher prices. Tariffs are simply taxes. Republicans used to be and conservatives, in particular, used to be against new taxes,” Paul said in a statement, per Fox.
In short, the libertarian-minded Paul has the bona fides. The junior Kentucky senator has taken on public enemies, like former COVID tyrant Anthony Fauci. One cannot simply dismiss Paul’s objections.
Here, however, Trump has by far the better of the historical argument. After all, the president has merely followed the prescription set forth by Founding Fathers, such as James Madison.
Tariffs can indeed function as a tax. But if they functioned solely or even primarily as a tax, and if ordinary Americans bore the brunt of that tax, would members of the tax-hating, tea-dumping, American revolutionary generation have endorsed and employed them the way they did? The Founders imposed no income tax. They relied solely on tariffs. And they did so, at least in Madison’s case, from an understanding that economic coercion could change foreign governments’ behavior.
Moreover, if Paul truly understood the period between 1870 and World War II, he would never have dared utter such nonsense as to suggest that Republicans, by definition, have always thought as he does, for the Republican Party embraced tariffs well into the 20th century.
In sum, the four GOP defectors did nothing but waste everyone’s time. Trump will prevail in the end. And he should. He has history on his side.
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