Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is continuing his push against President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with legislation he is co-sponsoring against them to come before the Senate next week.
Paul says lawmakers should be in control of tariffs, rather than Trump, through the use of a national-emergency law.
The discussion will come less than a month after Paul was one of the only two chamber Republicans to vote against his party’s budget, which is seen as a key part of the president’s tax cuts, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
“I don’t have any bad feelings towards the president, but this is an issue that I’m not alone on,” Paul told reporters recently. “Millions of investors who are all self-interested have misgivings about tariffs.”
He has also called on Congress to “grow a spine,” and said “Congress needs to stand up for its prerogatives.”
His opposition to the Senate budget framework came because he said he did not think it did enough to reduce the country’s national deficit.
Paul says he admires Trump’s actions so far, but not the tariffs.
Paul’s legislation against Trump’s tariffs is not being seen as having a chance of passing, as even Republicans who object to the measures have not directly criticized them.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has warned the tariffs could be dangerous if they are kept for too long, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has opposed tariffs for years but says the party should allow Trump room to impose them, as they were a key part of his campaign promises.
Even Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has introduced several bills to require that unilateral trade actions have congressional approval, has said he is not planning such legislation this year.
That leaves Paul standing alone, according to Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
“If Rand Paul’s not opposing tariffs in the Senate, nobody is going to be opposing tariffs in the Senate,” he commented.
Paul, who was elected to the Senate in 2010, has often spoken out about what he calls presidential overreach, including in 2013 when he locked down the Senate for 13 hours to delay the confirmation of a CIA chief while pushing the government to promise not to use drones to kill American civilians on U.S. soil.
With tariffs, Paul says the Trump administration is using national security to extend the executive branch’s powers.
“I don’t think taxes could be controlled by the president at all,” he said, adding tariffs are a form of taxes, which the Constitution requires to be passed by Congress.
Trump’s tariffs, meanwhile, could hit Kentucky hard, according to a report from The Kentucky Lantern about a study showing that Kentucky relies more on trade than any other state in the nation.
The study showed that imports into Kentucky equal 32.3% of the state’s gross domestic product, with exports totaling 16.3%.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also opposes the tariffs, the report indicated.
The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, also speaking out against the tariffs, said the measures could hurt the state’s distillers, farmers, and auto industry.
“These across-the-board and on-again, off-again tariffs throw the economy into chaos and uncertainty and cut off the opportunity for trade relationships that are mutually beneficial and that, with good policy, can create better jobs both here and abroad,” according to Jason Bailey, executive director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.
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