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Trump’s Tariffs
Mar. 6th, 2025 02:31 am“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises” — United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8
Given that Congress, not the President, has the power to lay taxes and set rates, an ingenuous reader might ask how Trump was able to proclaim higher tariffs on several countries without stirring outrage at this usurpation, and very possibly being impeached. Apparently, there is an act giving the President the power to alter tariffs in response to an emergency, the existence of which is a matter to be judged by the President. One might at least expect Congress to seek to repeal this act, given the breadth of Donald Trump’s view of what constitutes an emergency, but with current political alignment, that is unlikely to be achieved. Trump, who is not educated enough to realize that he is following in the footsteps of King Charles the First, is not in immediate danger of being beheaded, but one may hope that the situation will change.
Trump’s tariffs may do some good, for a specialized sense of the word “good.” Voters who do not care about abstractions like constitutional government, or about events thousands of miles away in Ukraine, may grow disenchanted with the would-be caudillo when the prices of Mexican fruits and vegetables, Canadian lumber, and other products rise, and when Americans are thrown out of work by economic disruption. It is in some sense troubling to wish for public suffering, in the hope that it will discredit an appalling Administration, but that’s what things have come to.
Given that Congress, not the President, has the power to lay taxes and set rates, an ingenuous reader might ask how Trump was able to proclaim higher tariffs on several countries without stirring outrage at this usurpation, and very possibly being impeached. Apparently, there is an act giving the President the power to alter tariffs in response to an emergency, the existence of which is a matter to be judged by the President. One might at least expect Congress to seek to repeal this act, given the breadth of Donald Trump’s view of what constitutes an emergency, but with current political alignment, that is unlikely to be achieved. Trump, who is not educated enough to realize that he is following in the footsteps of King Charles the First, is not in immediate danger of being beheaded, but one may hope that the situation will change.
Trump’s tariffs may do some good, for a specialized sense of the word “good.” Voters who do not care about abstractions like constitutional government, or about events thousands of miles away in Ukraine, may grow disenchanted with the would-be caudillo when the prices of Mexican fruits and vegetables, Canadian lumber, and other products rise, and when Americans are thrown out of work by economic disruption. It is in some sense troubling to wish for public suffering, in the hope that it will discredit an appalling Administration, but that’s what things have come to.
