Rand Paul Trashes Trump Tariffs in MSNBC Hit: ‘They’re a Tax’
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) knocked President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his handling of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in an MSNBC hit this week.
On Tuesday’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, Paul doubled down on his opposition to Trump’s tariff plan. The administration has set a Friday deadline to reach deals with dozens of countries that will be hit with “reciprocal tariffs.” Ruhle noted that Yale Budget Lab released a report estimating the average tariff rate in the United States at 18%, the highest level since 1934.
Paul argued that tariffs are a “tax” that requires increased cost,s which will be passed onto the consumer in one way or another.
“I think without question they’re a tariff, they’re a cost, they’re a tax,” the senator said. “And it’s something that will elevate the prices of things that you tariff. So if you put a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum, the people who buy steel and aluminum inevitably are going to pay more.”
Paul added there is an “appetite” for Congress to step in, but mostly on the Democratic side.
“We have three or four Republicans and most of the Democrats, the last time around, I think enough to get to a simple majority. But no, I don’t think there’s enough votes to rein in executive authority. It’s funny how when there’s a Democrat president, Republicans are very open to restricting executive authority, and then when the reverse happens, not so much,” he said.
Paul predicted Trump’s tariff authority could end up being debated in the Supreme Court, but that would likely be too late to reverse course.
“I think the best chance, legally, of restraining the president’s current appetite for tariffs is gonna be the courts. And you know, the special trade court did rule that the IEEpA law, which is normally used for sanctions, that it wasn’t appropriate and wasn’t statutorily sound to let him use that for tariffs,” he said. “I think that goes to the Supreme Court, but I think there’s a very good chance the Supreme Court will decide that the power he is using to inflict these tariffs may well not be appropriate.”
During the interview, Paul also took issue with Trump’s handling of the Federal Reserve, specifically the president publicly pressuring Powell to lower interest rates.
The senator argued:
I don’t think it’s a very informed policy to want somebody to lower interest rates,” he said. “If you ask everybody, if I’m in business or if I am buying and selling houses, do I want a lower interest rate? Yes, but if I m a grocery store shopper and I go to the grocery store, I also want lower grocery store prices. If I’m going to buy a car and you ask me, should the price of cars be higher or low? I’m for low car prices.
But we don’t decide prices that way. For the most part, supply and demand decide prices. And so, the supply and demand of money should largely decide the price of the money. And if you manipulate interest rates too much and you get away from the market too much, you get exacerbations of the market, which lead to a worsening of the boom and bust cycle.
Watch above via MSNBC.
