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.
The GOP senator joined Kaine for a Fox News interview Wednesday to explain his view, stating that “we should not live under emergency rule” and that the U.S. Constitution specifically notes taxes, which the tariffs essentially are, “are raised by Congress” — not the president.
“But on the tariffs in particular and the idea of trade, trade is proportional to wealth,” Paul continued. “The last 70 years of international trade has been an exponential curve upwards, and the last 70 years of prosperity has been upwards, also.”
“We are richer because of trade with Canada — and so is Canada,” he argued. “Whenever you trade with somebody, when an individual buys somebody else’s product, it’s mutually beneficial, or you wouldn’t buy it. If a trade is voluntary, it’s always beneficial.”
Trump previously justified his tariffs against Canada as a matter of national security, or payback for Canada allowing “massive” amounts of fentanyl into America. In reality, only 43 pounds of the deadly synthetic drug were seized at the U.S.-Canada border last year.
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“There is no ‘Canada versus the U.S.,’” Paul told Fox News. “The consumer wins when the price is the lowest price, tariffs raise prices and they’re a bad idea for the economy.”