Does it make any sense to impose a tax on imports that will make all Americans worse off? Shouldn’t we learn from our success? We should ask ourselves a fundamental question: Is trade good? Which made us simply capitalism? Trade never occurs unless you want a product more than you want your money. Does anybody make a trade—alter trade—that you… that you saw you really ripped off? No. You buy stuff only because you think you’re making a good deal.
0:00 US Tariffs are an Import Tax on Americans
0:08 Is Trade Good
0:31 Are Americans Being Ripped Off By Other Countries?
0:45 Trade is Good and Increases Wealth
1:08 Tariffs Make Americans Poorer
1:20 Should The US President or Senate Be Able to Tax
1:49 Rand Paul Supports Donald Trump, But Not For Taxation
2:00 Stop The President From Behaving As a King
Those who say that, ‘Ohh, now we’re being ripped off,’ it’s a fallacy, a circle, that one of the parties must necessarily lose or be taken advantage of. The argument belies a fundamental misunderstanding of trade. By definition, every voluntary trade is mutually beneficial. Trade is good. That isn’t an opinion; it’s a fact. For at least the last 50 years, as trade rises, so as well—and people say the middle class has gotten smaller—slightly, but only because they’ve moved to the upper class.
These tariffs will make Americans poorer, and they will make defenders of those tariffs pay tariffs, bring us closer to the day when the people are ruled by a Czar of industrial policy. When that day comes, we will wish we had defended the Constitution when we still have the power to do so. We cannot afford to stand idly by while the constitutional principle of the separation of powers is eviscerated. Legislators who stand aside and abdicate the power to tax will one day rue the accumulation of power to the office of one person.
I stand against this emergency. I stand against these tariffs, and I stand against shredding the Constitution. I have no animus towards the President. I voted for him and support his administration. I come to the floor today not because I want to, but because I am compelled to. I love my country and the principles upon which it is founded. The oath I took upon taking this office is to the Constitution of the United States, and not to any person or faction. I want to preserve the divisions of power that protect us and our children from the rule of one person. That is why I will today vote to end this emergency. I will vote to reclaim the taxation power of Congress, where the Constitution properly places it, and I urge the members of my party to do the same. Thank you.
0 Comments