The tariffs that President Donald Trump is imposing on goods brought into the United States from abroad are a tax that will raise the cost for Americans buying these products, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told MSNBC's "11th Hour."
Paul emphasized that tariffs are "without question" a "tax," adding that "it's something that will elevate the prices of things that you tariff. So if you put a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum, the people who buy steel and aluminum inevitably are going to pay more."
The senator bemoaned that there is not enough support in Congress to limit the authority of Trump to make policy on tariffs.
"We have three or four Republicans and most of the Democrats, the last time around, I think enough to get to a simple majority. But no, I don't think there's enough votes to rein in executive authority," Paul said.
He added, "It's funny how when there's a Democrat president, Republicans are very open to restricting executive authority, and then when the reverse happens, not so much."
Paul said, "I think the best chance, legally, of restraining the president's current appetite for tariffs is gonna be the courts. And, you know, the special trade court did rule that the [International Emergency Economic Powers Act], which is normally used for sanctions, that it wasn't appropriate and wasn't statutorily sound to let him use that for tariffs."
"I think that goes to the Supreme Court, but I think there's a very good chance the Supreme Court will decide that the power he is using to inflict these tariffs may well not be appropriate," he added.
However, Paul said that by the time the Supreme Court possibly makes such a decision, it will probably be too late to influence the policies that already would have been made."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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