Former VA Lt. Gov Bill Bolling, a conservative Republican and Trump voter, has some good points in his latest Facebook post (e.g., his “disdain for the massive new tariffs that President Trump announced last week”; his observation that “Once the Congress has ceded powers of this nature to the President, it is difficult to take them back again”; “this new tariff policy is wrecking havoc on the international economy”). However…and yes, you knew there was going to be a “however,” LOL:
- Bill Bolling and the tens of millions of other Bill Bollings out there, who voted for Trump, did so knowing – or at least they SHOULD have known! – what Trump was going to do in office, with no “guardrails” or “adults in the room.” If they voted for Trump anyway, then sorry (not sorry, actually), but this disaster is very much ON THEM!
- We’ve gotten all kinds of explanations, often conflicting, for the “strategy” (in air quotes) behind Trump’s tariffs, including that it’s a 12-dimensional-chess, brilliant “art of the deal” maneuver to negotiate a more favorable trading position for the U.S. Bill Bolling seems to (gullibly) believe this, with his comment, “at this point I think the best we can hope for is that the President and his economic team can use these tariffs to negotiate what they deem to be more acceptable trade agreements, especially with our primary trading partners.” Except….seriously? Does anyone think that this crew of incompetent, ignorant extremists will be able to do that, especially since no other country in its right mind would ever trust the Trump administration – or the US with Trump as president – again? Yeah, delusional.
- BTW notice the article Bill Bollling links to? Yep, Fox “News” – apparently Bolling considers this to be actual news, when in fact it’s nothing but right-wing propaganda. And that, my friends, explains a great deal about how someone like Bolling – and tens of millions like him – can end up voting for a person who they SHOULD HAVE KNOWN would trash everything that has mad America great for generations. UGH.
Anyway, again, Bolling makes some good points here, but I’d REALLY love to hear him acknowledge that: a) he completely f’ed up in voting for Trump; b) he no longer supports Trump; c) he will do everything he can to fight back against Trump and to preserve our democracy, rule of law, economy, civil liberties, way of life, etc, etc. What are the chances that Bill Bolling – and the tens of millions of Bill Bollings out there – will do that, though?
WHAT AUTHORITY DO PRESIDENTS HAVE TO UNILATERALLY IMPOSE TARIFFS ON OTHER NATIONS?
In recent posts I’ve made no secret about my disdain for the massive new tariffs that President Trump announced last week. I’m all for fair trade, but for a lot of reasons I thought this policy was unnecessary and way too over reaching.
Nonetheless, at this point the policy is what it is, and we can only hope that President Trump and his advisors can use it to negotiate new trade deals, especially with our primary trading partners – Canada, Mexico, China, Japan and the European Union – and the sooner the better.
But here’s a recent development that will be worth tracking.
Several organizations, including conservative business groups, have started filing lawsuits against the Trump adnministration, arguing that the President did not have the unilaterial authority to impose broad based tariffs of this nature.
This goes hand in glove with similar arguments that have been raised against a lot of the executive actions President Trump has taken during the first several weeks of his new administration.
These lawsuits pont out that Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power to “lay and collect taxes, duities, imposts and excises…..” and to “regulate commerce with foreign nations.”
The problem with this argument is that Congress, over the years, has ceded broad authority to the President in these areas, a decision they may now regret.
For example, in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act the President was given broad authority to impose tariffs on other nations if he deems there to be an “ongoing national emergency” that warrants such actions, and various Presidents of both political parties have used this authoirity some 69 times since the passage of the EEPA in 1977.
It was these powers President Trump cited when he announced his new tariff policy this week.
To try and circumvent this, the plaintiffs in these lawsuits are arguing that no such “ongoing national emergency” actually exists, and as such, that the President did not have the power to impose the broad tariffs he announced this week. In other words, he abused the powers given to him under the EEPA.
The plaintiffs may get some initial traction in these cases if they can find a sympathetic U.S. district court judge, but my guess is that these challenges will ultimately fail. Once the Congress has ceded powers of this nature to the President, it is difficult to take them back again.
As noted above, at this point I think the best we can hope for is that the President and his economic team can use these tariffs to negotiate what they deem to be more acceptable trade agreements, especially with our primary trading partners.
IMHO, this is what they should have done in the first place, rather than resorting to the dramatics of “Liberation Day”, which has already had a dramatic impact on the stock market, our long term economic outlook, and our relationship with many other nations, including our closest allies.
The sooner they can do this the better, because right now this new tariff policy is wrecking havoc on the international economy.
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