Congress Must Vote on Tariffs
President Donald Trump’s unilateral attempt at imposing tariffs has evolved into a quantum state.
You probably already know that Trump has repeatedly threatened, imposed, paused, delayed, raised, lowered, and “chickened out” on various tariff plans. In the past 48 hours, things got even crazier. The Court of International Trade blocked most of Trump’s tariffs with an injunction issued Wednesday, but that injunction was temporarily paused by a federal appeals court on Thursday. Meanwhile, a second federal court also ruled Thursday that the tariffs are unlawful.
The tariffs, which constitute one of the largest tax increases in American history, are simultaneously active and unlawful, subject to change at the president’s whim, and could be turned off once again within weeks (when the appeals court’s temporary stay will be reviewed).
As of this moment, that means an American importer doesn’t know whether it is due a refund for tariffs already paid, or whether it will owe more taxes for the next shipment of goods.
This is, obviously, no way to run tax policy.
The good news is that there’s an equally obvious solution to this mess—a solution that’s been available since the beginning of this whole insane saga.
Congress needs to vote on the tariffs. Now.
This is true for both practical and constitutional reasons. The practical one should be obvious enough, given all the tariff-related chaos that Trump has unleashed. The economy needs certainty, and Congress can provide that by approving whatever tariff package can get the necessary votes in both chambers—and by restricting Trump’s ability to keep making changes.
For tariff advocates, the benefit of having a vote in Congress is putting an immediate end to the various lawsuits facing the administration’s trade policies. In both lower court rulings that went against Trump, the judges did not say tariffs are unlawful. They said Trump did not have the authority to impose those tariffs, and that the power to do so rests with Congress.
That brings us to the constitutional argument. Article I, Section 8 spells it out in no uncert
Article from Reason.com
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