Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reportedly said he is "a Republican and a supporter of President Donald Trump," but said he has the votes in the Senate to strip the presidential authority on tariffs to give it to what Trump says is a do-nothing Congress.
Trump has frequently warned Congress about reducing the authority of the president and forcing America to do nothing as Congress has for decades – failing to balance free-and-fair foreign trade or rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in massive government spending that Paul himself is against.
"This resolution would undermine the administration's efforts to address the unusual and extraordinary threats to national security and economic stability, posed by the conditions reflected in the large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficit," the Trump administration's Office of Management and Budget wrote in a memo hitting at Paul's bipartisan legislation, Politico reported Monday.
"There can be no doubt that S.J. Res. 49 — if passed — would undermine U.S. national and economic security. If S.J. Res. 49 were presented to the president, he would veto it."
Paul's bipartisan bill, includes supporters who are seen as anti-Trump Republicans in the Senate: Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The White House has also previously threatened to veto legislation from Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that would have strengthened Congress' role in deciding tariff policy.
Notably, Paul is breaking from the party, but House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is reluctant to bring Paul's effort to the floor in the lower chamber.
"GOP Sen. Rand Paul says he expects to have enough votes in Senate to pass resolution to effectively block Trump's tariffs," CNN's Manu Raju wrote on X. "But Paul, who expects the vote Wednesday, attacked Speaker Johnson's move to block such resolutions as 'dishonesty.'"
While Paul's key argument against Trump tariffs is that he considers it a tax on Americans that he opposes, Trump said the billions taken in on tariffs could help end income taxes on American families making less than $200,000 per year.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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