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Rand Paul warns tariffs could cause GOP ‘decimation.’ He has a point.
WaPo ^ | April 6 | Analysis by Aaron Blake

Posted on 04/06/2025 12:59:05 AM PDT by RandFan

Republicans who are evidently not too comfortable with President Donald Trump’s decision to announce large new global tariffs have tried plenty of hints to push him in a different direction. And one of Trump’s most vocal tariff critics on the GOP side, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, tried a relatively novel one on Wednesday.

He pointed to electoral peril for the GOP.

“Tariffs have also led to political decimation,” Paul told reporters. “When [William] McKinley most famously put tariffs on in 1890, they lost 50 percent of their seats in the next election. When [Sens. Reed Smoot and Willis C. Hawley] put on their tariff in the early 1930s, we lost the House and the Senate for 60 years.

“So they’re not only bad economically; they’re bad politically.”

This is a good point.

Whatever the theoretical economic benefits of major tariffs, history shows they have coincided with huge losses for the Republicans — and it has almost always been Republicans — who pursue them.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Conspiracy; History
KEYWORDS: concerntroll; concerntrolling; fakenews; hasaoint; hysterics; iranfan; mds; nevertrumpingtroll; randisatraitor; rinofan; standwithrand; tariffs; tds; toourdetriment; trollfan; truthbombs; washingtoncompost; zot
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To: RandFan

Lack of reciprocal tariffs will cause USA decimation.


61 posted on 04/06/2025 4:26:39 AM PDT by Bobbyvotes (I am in mid-80's and I am not gonna change my opinions.)
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To: RandFan

Old GOP? Good.


62 posted on 04/06/2025 4:32:13 AM PDT by bigbob (Yes. We ARE going back!)
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To: RandFan

Most Republicans don’t deserve to be in power.


63 posted on 04/06/2025 4:39:10 AM PDT by Wilderness Conservative (Nature is the ultimate conservative)
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To: RandFan

RP isn’t an ACTUAL Republican. He uses “R” for better exposure on ballots. Maybe some day Libertarians will be more powerful and there will be more of them. Then he can run with an “L” after his name.


64 posted on 04/06/2025 4:42:08 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: RandFan

The Republicans in Congress are in danger of losing power for 60 years. Their approval rating is abysmal.

The Republican Trump has never been more popular. He is what the American people want.

If Rand really wanted to do something constructive, he could criticize the Trump administration for not prosecuting Fauci at this point. But he doesn’t do that. He’s another useless Republican in Congress.

And another dumb doctor.


65 posted on 04/06/2025 4:47:03 AM PDT by FreeReign
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To: Obadiah

Rand Paul is looking for relevance in all the wrong places. If he’s not talking to the press he thinks he is forgotten.

Will he smarten up or go the way of McConnell, McCain, Murkowski and Collins as an enemy of Americans? Only the shadow knows.


66 posted on 04/06/2025 4:51:11 AM PDT by JayGalt (Fight! Fight! Fight!)
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To: RandFan

HOORAY President Trump!


67 posted on 04/06/2025 4:59:31 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: RandFan

Every day the distinction between GOP and MAGA become more apparent.


68 posted on 04/06/2025 5:02:28 AM PDT by No Party Affiliation
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To: RandFan

If Rand is so opposed to the tariffs, then why is he not demanding the rest of the world to eliminate their tariffs?


69 posted on 04/06/2025 5:04:06 AM PDT by dgbrown
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To: RandFan

Rand Paul may be a good physician, but he has the strategic business acumen of the typical politician.

I’ll trust the judgment of the author of “The Art of the Deal.”


70 posted on 04/06/2025 5:09:53 AM PDT by HombreSecreto (The life of a repo man is always intense)
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To: RandFan

Between Susie Colins and the WaaaaaPo, Rand is losing credibility - bigly.


71 posted on 04/06/2025 5:13:24 AM PDT by trebb (So many fools - so little time...)
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To: RandFan

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating keeps going up but I guess that’s different from the GOPe and both libertarians


72 posted on 04/06/2025 5:29:26 AM PDT by Pollard (Zone 6b)
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To: RandFan

Rand Paul definitely has staked himself on the anti-tariff hill. We will check back in a few weeks to see who was right.


73 posted on 04/06/2025 5:30:58 AM PDT by silent majority rising (When it is dark enough, men see the stars. Ralph Waldo Emerson)
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To: Lod881019

Rand needs to go to his OWN party, the Libertarian Party.


74 posted on 04/06/2025 5:33:09 AM PDT by Bikkuri (I am proud to be a PureBlood.)
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To: RandFan
What has Rand accomplished in all his years in the Senate? Not much is the answer.

It is not like tariffs are not already employed by all nations, except for the U.S. mainly.

How were tariffs so successful for so many years?

Everyone wants to pint to Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act. But that was enacted after we were already in a depression, which means the rest of the world was also suffering financially

This is nothing more than a way to open up free trade.

Everyone needs to quit panicking.

Panic is what creates problems, just like it do int the "plandemic" scam.

If this were really an big issue, the price f gold wouldn't have dropped in price yesterday. It has already brought in a commitment of 5 trillion in new investment.

Once ground breaks begin new jobs will be created to build facilities, and the economy begins to grow outward from those projects.

Listen, this nation is in terrible shape thanks to the Democrats & the RINOs. Trump is trying to turn around decades of abuse to this nation from criminals from within.

Quit acting like chicken-littles running around with your heads cut off, and that goes for you also Rand Paul. Instead start whipping your fellow brethren that come up with a budget of 5 trillion that is absolutely asinine.

If only I could spend myself out of debt I would be a very wealthy man by now. But employing spending to get out of debt just doesn't work in the majority of the attempts. The only time is does work is if you spend to create something that people want, or even better, need.

That is what trump is doing. Notice that neither house of Congress is helping by cutting which also will get us to that goal faster.

Start yelling at them, if you must yell at someone.

75 posted on 04/06/2025 5:42:38 AM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: RandFan

Consider the source for this............


76 posted on 04/06/2025 5:53:38 AM PDT by JBW1949 (I'm really PC.....Patriotically Correct)
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To: Chgogal; All
Rand Paul warns tariffs could cause GOP ‘decimation.’

He's a bystander until he gets an opportunity to hobble the President's agenda...

Thanks for so eagerly working with the DNC and the criminal media. 😡

Why do Republicans have this crying need to sink the ship whenever we have the great good luck to get ourselves into the most advantageous position possible?? Liberals moved heaven and earth, broke uncounted laws, and defied every known protocol to put a clinically 'past it ' guy in the WH (WITH the most corrupt and incompetent VP imaginable) then, to a man, supported/conducted a smash and grab 'administration' unsurpassed in US history!!!!

Will Republicans ever see that kind of support for our agenda even WITH a totally competent and honorable President? Maybe THAT'S the problem ...he's a Conservative that THEY did nothing to support while his second term was stolen from him and barely supported him during the last campaign

With a VERY challenging, dangerous and destructive 4 years ahead of us, does he really want to do this, NOW ?

77 posted on 04/06/2025 5:54:13 AM PDT by SMARTY (In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte I)
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To: Robert DeLong
From 1988 to 2012, there were two factions challenging the neo-conservative dominance of the Republican Party. The first was a libertarian movement led by Ron Paul, Rand Paul's father; the second was an economic nationalist movement led by Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan. The MAGA movement is the extension of the second. Figuratively speaking, Donald Trump is the son of Perot as much as Rand is the son of Ron.

What the libertarians and advocates of Austrian economic theories must ask themselves: given the alternatives of (1) neo-conservatives and endless wars or (2) the cultural Marxism and economic imbecility of the Democrats, is the economic nationalism, reluctance to engage in foreign wars and cultural conservatism of MAGA not the preferred choice?

78 posted on 04/06/2025 6:07:09 AM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: RandFan

No Rand, you are off base on this.


79 posted on 04/06/2025 6:09:09 AM PDT by yldstrk (Nothing like the truth)
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To: HombreSecreto; MayflowerMadam

Rand Paul may be a good physician, but he has the strategic business acumen of the typical politician.

I’ll trust the judgment of the author of “The Art of the Deal.”

+++++++++++

Yesterdays post by MayflowerMadam needs to be seen again for those who may have missed it:

When I have issues regarding the economy, I always seek help from an eye doctor rather than a successful billionaire businessman.

MayflowerMadam 05APR25


80 posted on 04/06/2025 6:14:50 AM PDT by mund1011 (We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality)
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