Rand Paul Decries Congressional 'Cowardice' As He Explains Vote To End Trump's Tariffs

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke about his support for a bill that would end the emergency President Trump used to unilaterally impose tariffs.

Transcript

00:00the senator from Kentucky. You know, there was an old-fashioned conservative principle that

00:06believed that less taxes were better than more taxes, that if you tax something, you got less

00:12of it, so that if you place a new tax on trade, you'll get less trade. There was also this idea

00:19that you didn't do taxation without representation. That idea goes not only back to our American

00:25Revolution. It goes back to the English Civil War as well. It goes back to probably Magna Carta. I

00:33mean, for hundreds of years, the English were arguing of the supremacy of parliament, that

00:40parliament would be able to have the power over the king. So when we were leading up to the

00:46revolution, the cry from James Otis was, taxation without representation is tyranny. This was the

00:54words of James Otis, but they still ring through today. It should not come as a surprise that a

01:00country founded on a tax revolt, one person is not allowed to raise taxes. Our founding father saw this

01:08and said, no, we want to make sure that the authority of taxation begins not only in Congress, that it

01:14actually originates in the House, the body closest to the people. Our Constitution forbids taxes from

01:22being enacted without the approval of Congress. And yet here we are. An emergency has been declared,

01:28as the senator from Virginia remarked, everywhere. There's an emergency everywhere. Sounds like an

01:35emergency everywhere is really an emergency nowhere. But despite the constitutional restraints

01:41or constraints on executive power, Americans have now been ordered to pay higher taxes in the form

01:46of tariffs, but without the consent of Congress. The tariffs we discussed today are global tariffs.

01:52Just about every country in the world is subjected to at least a 10% tariff, to say nothing of the

01:59dozens of countries whose imports will be taxed at a much higher rate. Congress didn't debate these

02:05tariffs. Congress didn't vote to enact these tariffs. The tariffs are simply imposed by presidential fiat,

02:13by proclamation. Government by one person assumes all power by asserting a so-called emergency is the

02:21antithesis of constitutional government. It was Montesquieu that our founding fathers looked to in setting up

02:28the separation of powers. And Montesquieu said that when you unite the power, the legislative power with

02:35the executive power in the body of one person, that no liberty can exist. They worried about this.

02:41They fretted about it. They worried about having too much power of the president. And so they severely constricted the

02:48power of the presidency. They said the president couldn't take us to war. Only Congress could. They said the president

02:53couldn't spend money. Only Congress could. They said the president couldn't tax people. Only Congress could.

03:00These were the very bedrock and still are the very bedrock of our constitutional principles.

03:06And yet, people, particularly on my side, are looking away and saying,

03:10Oh, whatever. We'll just let the president do whatever. Look, I supported President Trump.

03:16I still support President Trump on many things. But I'm not for a country run by emergencies.

03:21Even if the person were doing what I wanted and it was, you know, making every day my birthday,

03:27I would not be for that unless we deliberated upon that. There are constitutional processes

03:33that are incredibly important. The Constitution doesn't allow the president of the United States

03:39to be the sole decider. Even the president must abide by the proper limits of executive power.

03:45Thankfully, our Constitution does more than merely hope that our chief executive will remain within

03:52the confines of the Constitution. Our Constitution explicitly limits the power of the presidency.

03:58Our founders led a rebellion against a king precisely over this. They went to great lengths

04:03to circumscribe and limit the power of the presidency. Devoted as they were to the preservation

04:09of individual liberty, the founders divided power among three branches of government.

04:14But more importantly, those three branches were to check and balance each other to prevent one branch

04:21from accumulating too much power. Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers,

04:27the Constitution was to pit ambition against ambition. The natural ambition of men and women

04:34to accumulate power was to be checked by other branches of people who would say,

04:40you can't have that power, it's our power. That pitting of ambition back and forth was to constrain government.

04:47It was to constrain government from running away and power from being run away with one person.

04:53The founding fathers empowered Congress with tools to ensure that the liberties of the people

04:59would not be threatened by one-person rule. The founders would not be surprised that the executive would attempt

05:06to aggrandize power at the expense of the legislature. They would have expected it. Indeed, they did expect it.

05:13But they would be surprised. The founders would be shocked that Congress would voluntarily and recklessly

05:22and fecklessly give up their power to the presidency to submit to emergency rule. The founders would not have expected

05:31the House of Representatives to become so craven as to refuse to even allow a vote on ending the emergency.

05:38The law says that the vote we will have is mandatory. It is privileged. The Senate will adhere to the law.

05:47The House will not have a vote. The House, in its haste to give away its power to tax,

05:53actually passed a rule to prevent a mandatory vote on ending the emergencies.

05:59They prevent it because the rule says that days no longer exist.

06:04They declare that legislative days will not exist despite the legislature continuing to meet each day.

06:12The House has essentially ruled that days are not days.

06:16And they are not to be counted as days until such time as the House again agrees to allow days to be counted as days.

06:24Does that sound absurd?

06:26Absolutely it's absurd. It is craven. It is cowardness at its best.

06:32And it is dishonest because the rule of the House is preventing a law from being obeyed.

06:38I didn't know we could pass a rule to prevent a law from being obeyed.

06:43When the emergency powers were granted to the President in 1976,

06:47the Emergencies Act was meant to constrain the Republican.

06:51We're already worried about too many emergencies.

06:53Many on my side have actually co-sponsored bills that say emergencies should automatically end

07:00unless affirmatively approved by Congress.

07:03Many of those people now are looking the other way.

07:06They're looking the other way and say, well, it's our president now.

07:09I had a reform of the Emergencies Act under the previous president, a Democrat.

07:15I have the same bill under a Republican.

07:18This should not be a partisan issue.

07:21The founders would not have expected the upper chamber, the Senate,

07:26to let the novel use of a statute traditionally used to sanction adversaries

07:32to become used for tariffs to tax American people and to let it go unchallenged.

07:37This is not constitutionalism. This is cowardice.

07:41Our system of government cannot work when Congress abdicates its legislative authority.

07:47Madison said we would pit ambition against ambition.

07:50But what if we have presidential ambition and we have congressional acquiescence?

07:56We have congressional timidity.

07:58We have congressional non-entity.

08:01Choosing to become a non-entity and not participate.

08:04Do whatever you want.

08:06It's a recipe for disaster.

08:09Madison and those of the revolutionary generation would have expected

08:12members of Congress to jealously guard their authority

08:16from the imperial pretensions of the chief executive.

08:20To endorse governance by emergency rule is to fail to live up to what the Constitution demands of us.

08:27And failure to do our constitutional duty is an invitation to further emergency rules.

08:33I know some Republicans like the idea of taxing trade.

08:38But what if the next president is a Democrat who says,

08:42By emergency rule, I decree there will be no gasoline using cars.

08:47We will have only electric cars.

08:50That's what we're preparing ourselves.

08:52Every distortion of the checks and balances of powers gets worse.

08:57Every time a party changes hands, they say,

08:59Well, you guys did this, so we're going to leapfrog and do this.

09:03And it goes back and forth until the individual citizen knows nothing other than the loss of liberty.

09:10Even President Trump didn't try to argue that this law, this law called IEPA,

09:16that is normally used for sanctions, he didn't act upon it in his first term.

09:21He makes the claim today, though, likely because the appropriate trade laws in the books require months to be implemented,

09:27and he can't wait.

09:29And the Republicans go along and they say, Emergency? No problem.

09:32Constitution? What? Constitution? Ah, forget about it.

09:36Members of his political party will stand by his assertion.

09:39Some may cast their actions today as an exercise of party loyalty.

09:44Some may even be praised by Pennsylvania Avenue.

09:47But for those who care to listen closely, within that praise will be heard a touch of disdain.

09:53It is no secret that Congress lacks the fortitude to stand up for its prerogatives.

09:58And this is bipartisan.

10:00Presidents in both parties routinely exceed their power because they know that Congress has weakened itself

10:07to such an extent that it cannot challenge and will not challenge executive overreach.

10:12Congress delegates its legislative authority to the president so that the laws we live under are in reality written by bureaucrats

10:19who the people do not know, will never meet, and cannot hold accountable through elections.

10:27But I don't want to let off both parties on this.

10:30The powers that have been given to the president over trade have been given to the president by Congress over many decades.

10:37Congress acquiesced. Congress said, Here, we don't want to deal with it. You can have it.

10:42Congress today can scarcely be bothered to even consider individual appropriation bills.

10:48By consistently waiting until the last second to pass massive funding bills and threaten a government shutdown,

10:55the leadership deprives Congress of what Madison called its most complete and effectual weapon, the power of the purse.

11:03We just put it all in one bill.

11:04And they say, If we don't vote for it, you're for shutting the government down.

11:07You can't shut the government down, so you've got to vote for the massive bill,

11:09which includes more pork than you can probably ever imagine.

11:13Congress has unique among the three branches, unilaterally disarmed and demonstrated itself unable and unwilling to check the executive.

11:23If Americans are to live under this emergency rule, it will not be because the president sought too much power.

11:29It will be because Congress let it happen.

11:33If Americans are to live in a country where the president alone decides what is to be taxed at what rate and for how long,

11:42it will be because Congress is too feeble to stand up for the interest and bank accounts of the people.

11:50If Americans live in a country where their elected representatives in the legislature cannot or will not speak for them,

11:57it will be because those representatives silenced themselves.

12:02They gave in. They did not stand up and do their duty.

12:06We can show the people that the constitutional principle of the separation of powers still means something,

12:13and that we can successfully challenge the presidential attempt to raise taxes without the consent of Congress.

12:19Tariffs are taxes, plain and simple. Tariffs don't punish foreign governments. They punish American families.

12:27When we tax imports, we raise the price of everything from groceries to smartphones to washing machines to just about every conceivable product.

12:40Voters in the last election indicated they were fed up with high prices.

12:44Every time Americans went to the grocery store, they were reminded that inflation and putting food on their family's table was more difficult

12:51and left them with less money for other necessities.

12:54Many pundits say the 24 election hinged on promises to reduce inflation and lower taxes.

13:02Does it make any sense to impose a tax on imports that will make all Americans worse off?

13:08Shouldn't we learn from our success?

13:11We should ask ourselves a fundamental question. Is trade good?

13:16Well, trade is simply capitalism. Trade never occurs unless you want a product more than you want your money.

13:23Has anybody made a trade, a voluntary trade, that you thought you were being ripped off?

13:29No, you buy stuff only because you think you're making a good deal.

13:33Those who say that, oh, no, we're being ripped off, it's a fallacy.

13:38It asserts that one of the parties must necessarily lose or be taken advantage of.

13:43The argument belies a fundamental misunderstanding of trade.

13:47By definition, every voluntary trade is mutually beneficial.

13:52Trade is good, and that isn't an opinion. It's a fact.

13:56For at least the last 50 years, as trade rises, so does wealth, and people say the middle class has gotten smaller?

14:05Slightly, but only because they've moved to the upper class.

14:09These tariffs will make Americans poorer, and they will make defenders of those tariffs pay.

14:15Tariffs bring us closer to the day when the people are ruled by a czar of industrial policy.

14:21When that day comes, we will wish we had defended the Constitution when we still had the power to do so.

14:27We cannot afford to stand idly by while the constitutional principle of the separation of powers is eviscerated.

14:35Legislators who stand aside and abdicate the power to tax will one day rue the accumulation of power in the office of one person.

14:44I stand against this emergency, I stand against these tariffs, and I stand against shredding the Constitution.

14:51I have no animus towards the President. I voted for him and support his administration.

14:57I come to the floor today not because I want to, but because I am compelled to.

15:02I love my country and the principles upon which it is founded.

15:06The oath I took upon taking this office is the Constitution of the United States, and not to any person or faction.

15:14I want to preserve the divisions of power that protect us and our children from the rule of one person.

15:21That is why I will today vote to end this emergency.

15:25I will vote to reclaim the taxation power of Congress where the Constitution properly paces it,

15:31and I urge the members of my party to do the same.

15:35Thank you and I yield back.

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