Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who was one of only four Republicans to vote against President Donald Trump’s steep international tariffs Wednesday, says the policy is “bad” both politically and economically — and has led to utter “decimation” for his party in the past.
The constitutional conservative noted tariffs didn’t work out so well for Republicans when then-Rep. William McKinley (R-Ohio) led the effort for the Tariff Act of 1890, nor when Sen. Reed Smoot (R-Utah) and Rep. Willis C. Hawley (R-Ore.) sponsored their own eponymous levies in 1930.
“When McKinley, most famously, put tariffs on in 1890, they lost 50% of their seats in the next election,” Paul told reporters Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “When [Smoot and Hawley] put on their tariff in the early 1930s, we lost the House and the Senate for 60 years.”
Trump dubbed April 2 “Liberation Day” and announced a sweeping 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the U.S., with levies on some countries set even higher. The European Union and China face tariffs of 20% and 54%, respectively. He has already set tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico at 25%
Paul and three other Republicans reached across the aisle Wednesday and helped the effort, led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), to oppose the Canadian tariffs, resulting in a 51-48 Senate vote in favor of terminating Trump’s emergency powers to impose them.
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Article URL : https://www.yahoo.com/news/rand-paul-issues-dire-warning-132517785.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall