Posted on 03/26/2025 8:59:52 PM PDT by RandFan
Senate Republicans had gathered for one of their regular private lunches last Wednesday when Rand Paul commanded their attention.
As Senators sipped diet sodas and grazed on sandwiches, the Kentucky lawmaker went through a slide deck with charts and statistics in service of a bold proposal: come out against President Trump’s tariffs.
The arguments in Paul's presentation, which has not been previously reported, were not a surprise to his audience.
One of the most prominent libertarians on Capitol Hill, he’s a fierce proponent of free trade. But his attempt to corral colleagues against the Trump trade agenda was seen as a provocation to the President’s close allies. “The public feels like free trade has sold us out,” Paul said, according to two Senators who were present, “but Americans are richer because of it.” Claiming that free trade agreements have spurred upward social mobility, one of his slides asserted that the middle class has shrunk in recent years only because more people had moved into the upper class.
“Basically, he was saying that everyone was getting richer during Joe Biden’s presidency,” one Senator tells TIME.
For some in the room, Paul’s rebellion reflected their deep unease over Trump’s protectionism, which has rattled stock markets, shaken consumer confidence, and strained America’s relationships with its allies. Economists now fear the U.S. is heading into a recession. But for many others, it was heresy. Tariffs are not only a Trumpian fixation, they were one of his core campaign pledges and a bedrock of his plan to reshore manufacturing jobs back to the United States. To that end, Paul was asking them to undermine the President, a political suicide mission given Trump's grip over the GOP base. .
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Your explanation is very useful. Now I get why Rand would make such a move. He gets feedback straight from his constituents. Maybe some form of compromise can be found something tarrif related that people in that part of the country would eventually benefit by.
Here's my feeling about tariffs:
dumb move Rand
For anyone who wants to end federal income tax on living, breathing citizens, tariffs are a great alternative source of revenue for the feds. So, to oppose tariffs is to support the income tax.
Rand Paul is making himself an enemy of MAGA!
I’m not a drinker and i find Bourbon disagreeable and putrid but many love it. Also it’s already pretty expensive so to get hit with 125% tariff is a death knell,.
I like a soda for my sins
Rand Paul’s blind devotion to free trade is one of the reason I don’t like Libertarianism...that philosophy can only work if everyone is a Libertarian. He only thinks about the consumer but one must produce before one can consume.
I generally like Rand Paul.
However it demonstrates once again that until recently…
The Democrats organize like the Borg.
Republicans are like herding cats.
” By resisting parts of the Trump agenda, Paul may be setting himself on a collision course for 2028, when he’s up for reelection. “The thing about Trump,” says a senior GOP Senate aide. “He has a very long memory.”
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I wouldnt call him an enemy of MAGA he’s solid on other issues and is taking a big risk opposing the tariffs
That’s a terrifyingly naive and closed eyed approch to decision making :)
I love what Trump is doing...but I dont believe anything just because ANYONE said it without doing some research on my own.
Or else that’s how dictators are born :)
And also I dont think I want you being the morality police :)
I’m guessing there’s some things in your life that people would like to see banned and/or are at the bottom of their lists.
And if you dont drive after drinking...that problem is solved.
And putting first time offenders away for 10 years wouldn’t hurt
He’s a Liberaltarian..
LOL! Very true.
I think the global economy is much more complext than “let’s tariff them back” in some situations.
Trump is literally saving the United States..mostly single handedly.
But there’s only one God. And only He gets to be infallible :)
Some of the tariff moves are right...some just are not going to save industries in the US that will never compete with 100,000 dollar a year salaries plus benefits for what is basically manual labor.
President Trump wants fair play. Canada's 300% tariff on dairy products is outrageous. It makes 25% tariff on whiskey look like nothing.
I always suspected that he was a closet idiot.
Evidence.
That, or he received photos of his children in a manila envelope...
Raise his Internal Revenue Federal Income rate above 100%.
Rand is totally daft here.
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