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 ...
;-)
So it’s OK that other countries put huge tariffs on us whereby we support their economies but we can’t put tariffs on them? I’m just not sophisticated enough I guess.
“Are we too dumb to make a mask or a ventilator? I already know we were too damn dumb to use ivermectin.”
We were a lot dumber than that. We were too dumb to treat the Covid 19 scare like any other coronavirus (common cold) and just let it run its course.
We let Big Pharma, the Fake News and a bunch of Democrat governors and mayors fear-monger us and strip us of our basic freedoms - and we followed like sheep.
It was so f-ing obvious that it was a political play - the ultimate October surprise to tank Trump’s ejection year economy and allow massive cheating via mail-in ballots - all in the name of “social distancing”.
Many of us totally ignored Covid and waited for some real evidence that the ‘pandemic’ was real. That sign never came.
And don’t tell me all those millions of ‘cases’ of people ‘testing positive’ were evidence of anything. Those test kits were every bit as fake as the pandemic itself.
I’m so glad I was retired and didn’t submit to any of that foolishness - I’d be deeply ashamed of myself if I had. The Founders must have been rolling in their graves when they saw what brainwashed idiots we became during that PlanDemic.
Hey Rand, the WaPo is agreeing with you.
I’m behind you all the way!!
Yes.
Rand has become the most pathetic of the RINOs.
Actually, Randy is as wrong as usual. Probably within six months, the U.S. economy will be exploding. Already Trump has $16 TRILLION in new investments; INTEL and Taiwan Semiconductor just announced a deal to share chip tech with the US; logging has been reopened on national land; oil has fallen to $61 a barrel; more than ten major companies have announced expansion programs in the U.S.; the US trade balance fell in February. Private sector employment surged in March, almost 100,000 more than expected.
These are just the buds of spring. Tariffs are going to radically reorder the entire world. Already Israel, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Switzerland have changed tariff policies; Japan and India are moving to do the same. If Europe refuses, we will be selling them oil at $100 a barrel, cuz they can’t get it from Qatar and they won’t buy it from Russia.
A golden age is just about upon us.
Yeah, RPaul, the JimCramer of the GOP.
Holy cow, dude.
Keep it up: Your new rep will stick to you like skunk.
Rand Paul God love him is not the go to guy for economics.
The emphasis of nationalistic economic policies over globalist one is a good one. More power moves to the individual US citizen. As US becomes more self sufficient, it can weather global shocks including wars, pandemics, natural disasters which are the greatest threats to economic security. Reorienting the military to prioritize North American defense and control over Atlantic, Pacific and the Arctic also creates economic stability. The fact that China has poached so much business in the western hemisphere is disconcerting.
As long as government trade policies align with economic policies that promote economic good for the general population, that’s fine. So that means all military equipment and components must be able to be made in US, essential consumer products such as autos, food, energy, pharmaceuticals, computer chips, infrastructure/construction materials should be primarily domestic or at least capable of being quickly ramped up in case of emergency.
With increasing use of robotics in manufacturing and reduced labor costs, lower US energy costs to run the factories and shorter supply chains naturally favor domestic production.
Non essential discretionary goods are not that important.
Tariffs have also led to political decimation.
Kickback whores hit hardest.
I say that as a sixty-two and a half year old who retired for a year, came out of retirement and is invested in the stock market. I need that income from the stock market to live the lifestyle I want.
It'll come back. We're already seeing nations come to the table, dropping their tariff's against us. Great Britain looks like they're getting ready to as car brands made there and sold here, are putting their expansion plans on hold looking to build plants in the US. That'd mean a loss of jobs in Britain and a net gain of jobs in the US.
Seems the Brits and a whole lot more are figuring out what President Trump said on Oprah Winfrey's show almost 40 years ago now, that Globalization IS NOT GOOD.
I believe Rand Paul is 100% wrong on this, and yes there is a bit of a gamble with what President Trump is doing. I'll take the same side of the gamble he does. I believe he's right.
Good article.
Rand Paul, the contrarian. Trump could erase all tariffs right now and that idiot would still proclaim doom.
That would be the difference between him and Trump. Trump is willing to take a principled stance and take the heat from any fallout in order to protect this country and citizens.
And, maybe you can tell us what in is unreasonable or unfair about enacting tariffs against countries that have been enacting higher tariffs on us for decades.
You and Paul are too blind to this country has deindustrialized and that has become a national security issue?
Paul just as foolish as the Democrats when Trump prevails on this issue and we have an economic boom because of Trump's policies.
Other than the one on his head?
NO, they won’t! YOU are a “Wackobird”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.