The president’s tariff war is also a constitutional crisis.
Donald Trump’s marvelous new tariffs make up the declaration of war against the whole planet. By defending the president, Republicans tend to the variations of the saying “short -term pain, long -term benefit”. Republican Senator Tim Shikha spellified The CNN argument: “There will be a short -term pain. If you are going to redo your home to improve it in the end, it will be really annoying in the short term if your home is converted and there is dust of drywall everywhere, and your living room has workers.”
The problem with the metaphor of the neck is that there is every reason to think that Trump’s tariff will bring both short-term pain and even more long-term pain. In other words, far from the restructuring of the House, Trump takes a fire throughout the neighborhood. Short -term pain easy to see: stock market dive 6 percent, losing the cost of 3.1 trillion. This is the steep decline since March 2000, when the world economy was caused by the rapid spread of COVID. But the stock market is just one measure of damage.
More alarming is the prospect that Trump can cause a world trading war that can lead to a disaster comparable to 1929 or 2008. proposed Some usually meaningless story, saying, “In 1929 (the era of well -being) ended the end of the great depression very sharply, and it would never have happened if they were left with the tariff policy would be a much different story.” In fact, after the catastrophe on the stock market in 1929, Congress accepted the infamous tariffs on Smoot-Hawley, which historians often call the main factor in making depression much more global and longer than typical economic downs. New Trump tariffs have Comparable by degree of rigor-It is possible, perhaps worse than-Smoot-Hawley.
Any Trump criticism should not be mistaken as defense of the old Neoliberal consensus (one that is shared by Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama) in favor of globalized free trade that was often by right condemned by left fractures For example, Bernie Sanders for outsourcing production jobs, environmental damage and stimulating predatory operations of workers in poor countries. But the correction of the old neoliberal order required the purposeful use of tariffs within the framework of careful industrial policy and the creation of new agreements to protect the rights and environment. Instead, Trump is a sledgehammer, applying one-in-size formula for almost any country in which the United States has a trade deficit.
In addition, Trump’s trade war creates additional uncertainty that arises from the deliberate chaotic style of the president. Trump’s advisers offer two mutually contradictory reports on why tariffs are needed. Minister Finance Scott Import Talks about tariffs as negotiating for balanced trade relations. Its argument is that the US is outgrowing to deeclate also exposed to foreign policy Both of Biden’s administrations and Trump, which allowed the conflict to spread in the Middle East. Moreover, the business cannot be sure how long the tariffs will last or how much they will be. The justification of negotiations also undermines the purpose of returning production to the US as investment requires certainty.
But leaving aside from the theory, the opinion of the inset is contrary to the opinion of Trump’s longtime advisor Stephen Miller, the ultranationalist who Obviously the US want the US Be the author. Miller’s goal is to grow to continue escalation.
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Trump’s economic madness has deteriorated a broad feature of his second term in office: full surrender of the economic and political elite. Wall -Rate was dazzled by a trade war. The repression of Trump’s first term was clearly expected when Trump’s very loud protectionist rhetoric was combined with a much more restrained policy that simply redone the existing trade agreements. But despite the fact that many in business — Elites are dissatisfied with the fact that Trump is running a fierce trading war, they are obviously Too scared talk. Trump and his political allies, such as Elon Musk, are not afraid to unleash a propaganda war against any corporate leader who publicly opposes Trump. Wall -Rate makes its dissatisfaction through an anonymous mechanism for reducing stock prices.
But Trump’s most violent institutional surrender is in Congress. Again, especially among the Republicans, the fear factor is the main thing. But, in addition to political cowardice, there was a constitutional fulfillment of duties. According to the Constitution, Congress has power to raise and reduce tariffs. In recent decades, Congress delegated this power to the President. But, like a similar delegation of war, this expansion of the president’s rights is deeply undemocratic. The principle underlying this delegation of the authorities is that the president should allow the tariffs in an emergency, and the rule is sufficient to make it unlimited tariffs. The president has imperial power to change policies at will, without democratic responsibility for the construction of a coalition. Next, when the president is the same Dodders and variable as Trump, it undermines the stability required by international commerce.
The cancellation of the duties of Congress is two -party. Last month, Senate Chak Shumer and nine other Democrats leader voted for permanent permission Not only did this come to the republican budget, it also undermines Congress to cut Trump’s power to arbitrarily set tariffs.
Report Congress prepared in February noted“The US Constitution gives the Congress tariff power. Although the Supreme Court has considered the Congress a wide width to delegate the powers of the president, the Congress is responsible for determining that the tariff authorities must have the president and what restrictions they put on the President’s discretion.”
One ray of light against the background of otherwise the gloomy political news is that the Democrats begin to return their fighting in this matter. Wednesday Senator Virginia Tim Cain received the Senate to accept the resolution calling for cancellation of Trump’s tariffs in Canada. Four Republican senators voted in favor of Cain’s resolution, creating a small but potentially significant crack in the usual solid GOP support wall. Four Republican Senators: Mitch McConmel (Kentucky), Susan Collins (Meng), Lisa Murkovsky (Alaska) and Rand Pau (Kentucky).
Although purely symbolic, the resolution means the start of the Congress coalition to regain the tariff power. On Thursday Semafor report:
Democrats go against the new global tariffs of President Donald Trump, seeing a chance to continue to drive a wedge to the Republican Party after four Gop Senators threw Trump’s suits at their tariffs in Canada.
Senator Tim Kaine, Washington, said on Thursday that he was preparing a plan to force voting for a national extraordinary Trump’s ninxing, announced on Wednesday, which effectively tends tariffs to the board on Saturday.
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But when tariffs are divided into Republicans, the same thing among the Democrats. Much parts of the democratic coalition welcome the idea of using tariffs as an industrial policy instrument. It is noteworthy that Sean Finin, President of the Joint Car Trade Union, greeted Trump tariffs as a “instrument” for the revival of the American auto industry and the creation of more internal jobs for the authors.
On navigation on the complex trade policy of the Democrats, it would be good to raise the voice of Bernie Sanders, who has confidence that while tariffs are a useful tool, Trump unfolds them in a self -destructive manner.
If Sanders, or one of his strips, is the main voice of the Democratic Party at the tariff, the US voters will face two gloomy alternatives: economic massacre to Trump or return to discredited neoliberalism.
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