Senate Republicans Voted Overwhelmingly To Continue Trump's Trade War
Sen. Rand Paul's attempt to end the non-existent economic emergency failed to pass the Senate on Wednesday night.
As a legal matter, President Donald Trump's trade war rests on the claim that imports to the United States constitute an "unusual and extraordinary" threat requiring urgent executive action.
That's an absurd argument, of course. The fact that Americans choose to buy or sell goods across international borders is not an emergency—it's not even a minor worry—and certainly should not justify a massive expansion of executive power.
But Trump is going to do whatever he wants until someone stops him. On Wednesday, the Senate had a chance to do that. Instead, Republicans voted overwhelmingly to keep the "emergency" going, and thus to keep the trade war going too.
The Senate voted 49–49 on Wednesday evening to block Sen. Rand Paul's (R–Ky.) resolution that sought to end the emergency declaration Trump signed on April 2 to impose his so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs on nearly all imports to the United States.
"It is no secret that Congress lacks the fortitude to stand up for its prerogatives," Paul said while speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday in advance of the vote. "I stand against this emergency. I stand against the tariffs. I stand against shredding the Constitution."
Sens. Susan Collins (R–Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R–Alaska) were the only other Republicans to vote for the resolution, which came up two votes short of passing.
A quick aside about those two votes: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) missed the vote for health-related reasons. It seems likely that he would have supported the resolution—in a statement released Wednesday, his office said McConnell "has been consistent in opposing tariffs and that a trade war is not in the best interest of American households and businesses." Also missing the vote was Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D–R.I.), who was attending a climate conference in South Korea. He also likely would have voted for the resolution, which was backed unanimously by his fellow Democrats.
If not for those bits of bad luck, the resolution probably would have passed. That may not have mattered much in the grand scheme of things, however. Trump had already threatened to veto it, and the House GOP has already erected some bizarre procedural hurdles to prevent lawmakers from ending Trump's nonsensical economic emergency.
Still, the Senate vote matters. It was an opportunity for 98 of America's most important elected officials to say where they stand on the trade war.
More accurately: It was a chance for them to say whether they believe a chief executive can unilaterally invent an "emergency" and then use it to slap huge new taxes on Americans, all under the auspices of a law that does not authorize presidents to use tariffs, and all in defiance of the constitution, which requires that Congress approve tax increases.
Nearly all Republicans failed that test on Wednesday. Even so, some opponents of Trump's trade war found reasons to be heartened by the vote.
"At some point the president will reach the apex of his powers to sway Congress. It is the nature of a term-limited executive," Kent Lassman, president and CEO of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Reason. "One signal that we are there is when the Senate Majority Leader is unable or unwilling to hold all of the Republicans in line for a vote on an issue that is important to Trump. Last night we almost saw the moment when Trump's grip would begin to loosen over Congress. It will come."
Until and unless it does, America will remain hostage to Trump's flawed ideas about global trade. For now, the Senate has chosen the path of quiescence.
"There's nothing we can do about tariffs," Sen. Thom Tillis (R–N.C.) told a reporter earlier this week. "We've just got to hope that that has been well planned and it's a good outcome."
That speaks volumes, doesn't it? Tillis is one of the most powerful elected officials in the country, and he's chosen to merely shrug and "hope" that things work out. He's also just plain wrong. There is something the Senate could have done, but Tillis and most of his GOP colleagues decided to pass on the opportunity.
Executive power doesn't reach dangerous new levels purely because presidents seize it, but because legislators go along with it.
