On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the President exceeded his authority in imposing global tariffs in a 6-3 decision. Small businesses and Democratic-led states challenged the tariffs in court, saying they are a tax on the American people, and taxes need the approval of Congress. But the President invoked a 1977 law that gives the president economic powers during a national emergency.
He was right to do so.
Think of everything the tariffs achieved.
Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico in February of last year for their despicable refusal to prevent the free flow of fentanyl into our country. In response to the tariffs, Mexico began to police its side of the border for the first time in five years. That’s how you get a secure border.
Apparently, to the Supreme Court majority, our wide open border and 100,000 fentanyl deaths weren’t an emergency. I beg to differ.
The president argued that our trade deficit represented a national emergency. He’s of course right, and the tariffs went a long way to rectifying that. They attracted trillions of dollars in foreign commitments to build factories, and forced American corporations to look domestically for supply chains. They got our cars access to the Japanese market, to South Korea and the EU.
I guess to the Supreme Court majority, the disinheritance of the American working class through globalization is not an emergency. They’re wrong.
Tariffs forced Big Pharma to reshore manufacturing and give us most favored nation pricing, overturning the disgusting status quo in which we were paying four times what other rich countries paid for drugs developed with our taxpayer dollars.
I guess seniors not being able to afford their meds isn’t an emergency to the Supreme Court.
What do you think?
And on the taxes front: Since Liberation Day, economists have promised that the tariffs would be passed on to consumers. Turns out, less than a fifth was passed on. Inflation is at a five year low. It was American corporations who paid the tariffs.
Most importantly, on China: Trump’s tariffs put American workers first, ending the mass fleecing of the American working class, which begins and ends with our dependence on China. That dependence was certainly an emergency—both domestic and foreign. Remember when China released the COVID-19 virus into the world and killed tens of millions—and then we relied on them to produce the PPE and the vaccines we needed to protect ourselves? China produces all of our ships. It is absolute insanity to depend on your greatest adversary to produce the things you need to defend you from its aggression.
Of course, the stock market is thrilled that the tariffs are on ice. But let’s not mince words: The Supreme Court has betrayed the American people—and handed a big win to China.
