Peter Welch Trolls Trump By Quoting Him As Stock Market Loses Trillions Amid Tariff Uncertainty

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) spoke about the stock market losing trillions in response to President Trump's tariffs.

Transcript

00:00Senator from Vermont. I want to speak about the reckless tariffs that the

00:07Trump administration, Donald Trump, is inflicting on the American consumer, the

00:13American worker, the American business, especially with respect to Canada. Canada

00:19is Vermont's largest trading partner. We're not alone. 34 states count Canada

00:27as its largest trading partner. We regard Canada as an independent friend, not as a

00:38prospective 51st state. And the reason we have that view towards Canada is because

00:44of the incredibly constructive and positive relationships we've had with

00:49that wonderful country for years. But with respect to these tariffs, last year

00:57Trade with Canada accounted for 35% of Vermont exports and 67% of our imports

01:03and 56% of our total trade. One in four businesses in Vermont relies on trade

01:12with Canada. In Vermont's economy is almost entirely made up of small

01:17businesses. They operate on the tightest of margins. 99% of Vermont's businesses

01:2476,878 are considered small. They support 60% of Vermont employees. It's 156,000.

01:35And these businesses cannot, they cannot afford to absorb a 25% hike on imports

01:45from our largest trading partner. Take maple syrup for example. Vermont produces

01:5151% of the maple syrup consumed in the US. And by the way, these are like small

01:57farmers or small landowners. For farmers, it supplements their income in a very

02:04difficult margin business when they're having a dairy operation as well. But

02:10Vermont's maple syrup industry expects millions of dollars in losses if the

02:15tariffs go through. And that may surprise some, but Vermont imports close to 400

02:21million dollars in maple products, primarily maple syrup, from Canada. And we

02:29reprocess it and sell it. The four largest maple syrup equipment

02:34manufacturers are located in Canada. Tariffs will make it far more expensive

02:40for our Vermont sugar producers, maple sugar producers, to buy those, buy that

02:46equipment. This is an industry that has grown almost 500% in production over the

02:52past 20 years, and we're about to let all of that growth go down the drain with

02:57these reckless tariffs. Vermont's maple syrup producers are also concerned that

03:02the loss in market share will result in people turning to other products instead

03:07of Vermont's liquid gold, with customers possibly turning to far inferior but

03:14more affordable products like corn syrup or agave if the price of syrup is too

03:18high. These tariffs will also smash our farmers. Vermont farmers rely on organic

03:31grains and seeds and fertilizer that's imported from Canada. In that respect, all

03:37of our states on the northern tier are especially connected to potash and grain

03:43from Canada. And Trump's tariffs will raise prices on fertilizer, grain, and

03:50seeds, on lumber products, in machinery equipment from Canada that Vermont

03:55farmers rely on. And understandably, Canada, as other countries that are

04:02subject to the Trump tariffs, are imposing retaliatory tariffs on the

04:08United States, and that includes, of course, Vermont. That's going to make our

04:14sales much more difficult. Nearly half of the farmers polled in February said U.S.

04:21agricultural tariffs would result in a decrease in exports. And of course, we saw

04:27that that happened big-time in the first Trump administration, particularly

04:33hammering our Midwest grain and soybean farmers. Those markets have not come back.

04:41The markets now are for Argentina and Brazil. What's the point of our own

04:48government doing something that so hurts our farmers for no benefit for the

04:55United States? It's a bad deal for our farmers during the first Trump

05:00administration. And a USDA study from 2022 found that retaliatory tariffs led

05:07to a significant reduction in U.S. agricultural exports to the retaliating

05:13partners. The study found that export losses from 2018 to 2019 amounted to

05:20more than $27 billion. And if you remember, what happened then is Trump

05:27wanted to get right with the farmers, so he took away their market, $27 billion

05:33in sales, and then went to the taxpayer to make up the difference for those

05:39farmers. Every farmer I know, they'd rather be selling what they grow rather

05:48than getting a government Trump subsidy. The tariffs are also going to hurt

05:55consumers, there's no question about that. Grocery prices will be up. The price

06:01of eggs is up 19% from the end of the year. It could climb to 41% this year.

06:07Meanwhile, the president is reposting articles on social media telling people

06:12to shut up, shut up about the price of eggs. Did he talk about anything

06:17else during his campaign? His tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China would directly

06:24cost the typical U.S. household over $1,200 in purchasing power. And people in

06:32Vermont, and I know in your state Mr. President, they're struggling at the end

06:36of the month to make that checkbook balance. They can't afford that $1,200 hit.

06:41And some economists are estimating it could be an increase as

06:46much as $3,900 for the average American household. Jobs and homes. The trade war

06:55could cost 400,000 good-paying blue-collar jobs. The trade war will

07:04increase the cost of a home. You know, in Vermont, we have a wood products industry.

07:10We export timber to Canada. It's milled in Canada, re-imported to the United

07:17States, to Vermont, to help us build homes. 25% increase on that imported

07:23lumber is going to go straight to the cost of an already unaffordable home.

07:28What sense does that make? Trump's tariffs will raise gas prices for us in

07:36Vermont. 25 to 40 cents a gallon. We get a lot of our petroleum products from

07:42Canada. It's going to cost more in home heating fuel, and that's a tough expense

07:47for Vermonters. And it's going to cost more in electricity. We, for years, imported

07:55electricity from Hydro-Quebec and other sources of power in Canada. So folks who

08:00have high electric bills are going to get higher. Who are paying more than they

08:04can afford for gas is going to pay more, and that home heating bill is going to

08:08hammer them once again. All for no constructive, positive reason. You know,

08:18there's another aspect to this. It's not just the tariffs, and our argument about

08:22the policy, and the bizarre assertion that the Trump administration is making,

08:28that these tariffs will make us rich. Everybody knows, except apparently

08:33President Trump, that the people who pay the tariffs are the people who buy the

08:37products. You have a Canadian product that you have to, as a manufacturer, pay a

08:43tariff. That has to be added on to the price of the product, let's say, to the

08:48sugar maker, that farmer who's paying it. There's a price on

08:52electricity, a tariff. The consumer is going to pay that. We all know that. But

08:58aside from that, it is so chaotic, so disorganized, so hit-or-miss, so random,

09:11in the rollout of these tariffs, on again, off again, on again, 25 percent, 50

09:18percent, 10 percent. It's like the president wakes up and throws something

09:25in a dartboard, and that's the new policy for the day. You cannot have an

09:31orderly expectation for your business. You cannot have a confidence that a

09:39consumer needs, who's trying to really pay close attention to how she is

09:44spending the family budget, with chaos. You can't do it, and you don't need it. So

09:51why in the world is the president doing it? He seems to think chaos is a good

09:57policy. You know, what we saw, and we're seeing, and it's getting worse, and it's

10:03not going to stop. The stock market had its worst week in six months. You know,

10:08what has Donald Trump said? The stock markets are literally crashing. There was

10:12no reason for this. All self-inflicted. He said that in 2022. He's right today. It

10:18is all self-inflicted. The last 72 hours, we've seen that wild ride, and Trump is

10:26ready to send the United States into a recession in order to implement his

10:33disastrous economic agenda. In that boastful confidence that he always

10:38asserts, everything's going to work out, it'll be beautiful, he's saying a

10:42recession, who knows, we may have to pay that as a price. Well, you

10:47know what? We don't have to pay that as a price for foolish policies that only

10:51hurt us, and hurt our allies. Nearly half of all U.S. imports, more than 1.3

10:58trillion dollars, come from Canada, China, and Mexico, and it's estimated that

11:03Trump's tariffs could reduce overall U.S. imports by 15 percent, as well as

11:10increasing prices. And Trump's last attempt at a trade war was passed

11:15entirely to U.S. importers and consumers, leading to a

11:21loss of 245,000 U.S. jobs and higher consumer prices. And I note, Mr.

11:27President, that the unemployment rate ticked up last week. Trump's stated goal

11:34is using tariffs to achieve unrelated goals of curbing fentanyl, we all want to

11:39do that, and illegal immigration. We all want to secure a border. But the

11:44southern border has about a thousand times the amount of fentanyl that comes

11:49through the municipal amount on the northern border. So what the president

11:54has is this indiscriminate policy, where he's using, I would say, abusing the

12:02delegation of national security powers by this Congress decades ago, when it was

12:08expected that they would be used for a real national security military

12:14threat, to meet his whims to negotiate this way and that on whatever strikes his

12:20fancy that particular day. And I also note, Mr. President, that in the House

12:27bill that has been sent over here on the continuing resolution, the House has

12:33included a provision that can only be described as outrageous and cowardly.

12:39It said the House stripped itself of the authority to vote on these tariffs that

12:48have been invoked by Trump's emergency authority. How can a legislative body do

12:54that? Literally vote to say we can't vote on whether we believe that these tariffs

13:01have any merit or are going to be good or bad for the people we represent. The

13:05House did that and that's in the CR. Mr. President, we've got a long history with

13:13tariffs and we saw in the 30s the Smoot-Hawley tariffs led to a trade war,

13:20led to a depression, hurt jobs, hurt consumers. It's really, really stupid. This

13:32is going to hurt Vermont. I call on all of us to speak out against these tariffs

13:37that are going to hurt us in every state of this United States of America. Mr.

13:43President, I yield back.

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