Free Republic

@RandPaul Tune in now - I’ll be live on the Senate floor soon talking trade and tax policy.

"GOP Sen. Rand Paul says he expects to have enough votes in Senate to pass resolution to effectively block Trump’s tariffs. But Paul, who expects the vote Wednesday, attacked Speaker Johnson’s move to block such resolutions as “dishonesty.”" *** The background to this, via Politico: The White House warned that Trump will veto a bipartisan Senate resolution that would terminate his sweeping global “Liberation Day” tariffs. The statement of administration policy from the Office of Management and Budget, sent to congressional offices Monday, comes ahead of an expected vote this week forced by several Democrats led by Sen. Ron Wyden...

So far, American consumers have been shielded from much of the impact. But as the world of international shipping adjusts to his policies, the president is facing a potential reckoning. With the US-China trade war starting to gum up container traffic between the world’s two biggest economies, freight companies are warning of plunging bookings and a surge in “blank sailings” – where ports are skipped or voyages are called off altogether. Earlier this week, America’s most powerful retail executives trooped into the White House to deliver a blunt prognosis: tariffs on Chinese goods risked causing “empty shelves” in two weeks...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is continuing his push against President Donald Trump's tariffs, with legislation he is co-sponsoring against them to come before the Senate next week. Paul says lawmakers should be in control of tariffs, rather than Trump, through the use of a national-emergency law. The discussion will come less than a month after Paul was one of the only two chamber Republicans to vote against his party's budget, which is seen as a key part of the president's tax cuts, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. "I don't have any bad feelings towards the president, but this is...

WASHINGTON — Many Republican lawmakers lie low when they have differences with President Trump. Sen. Rand Paul has taken the opposite approach. “Congress needs to grow a spine, and Congress needs to stand up for its prerogatives,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters, complaining that Trump relied on a national-emergency law to impose tariffs that Paul believes should be controlled by lawmakers. His comments came just days after he was one of only two GOP senators to vote against the party’s budget framework that is key to Trump’s tax cuts, saying it didn’t do enough to reduce the deficit. The libertarian...

A group of four Senate Republicans warned against a “full-scale” repeal of energy tax credits passed by Democrats in 2022. “While we support fiscal responsibility and prudent efforts to streamline the tax code, we caution against the full-scale repeal of current credits, which could lead to significant disruptions for the American people and weaken our position as a global energy leader,” wrote Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), John Curtis (Utah), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Jerry Moran (Kan.). Their letter, addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), is notable since a bloc of four senators could be enough to block...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said on Sunday said he’s questioning President Trump’s “endgame” in his approach to tariffs, saying the ongoing “volatility” isn’t good for businesses. “One thing I learned in the private sector is unpredictability can work pretty well in the negotiation, but the private sector — businesses want certainty. They want stability. They don’t like to see volatility,” Johnson said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.” “And, so, I’ve just been questioning exactly what’s the endgame here? What’s the strategy?” he continued. Johnson called himself an “unabashed free trader” and touted what he sees as the...

Republican lawmakers say there’s a good chance that President Trump’s trade war will boomerang on Republicans politically in 2026, as rising prices and shrinking growth could offset other accomplishments by the GOP. Republican senators are pointing to the 1932 and 1982 elections as historical examples of when trade wars and resulting price inflation hurt their party at the ballot box, and they are worried that history could repeat itself. Many Republican lawmakers view tariffs as a tax hike on American consumers, and some note that the last two times Congress enacted tax hikes on the scale of Trump’s recent tariffs,...

SUMMARY Donald Trump announces a 90-day pause on higher tariffs for dozens of countries - but hikes levies on China to 125% There will now be a universal tariff of 10% on all countries' goods, except for China He says the higher rate for China is because of "the lack of respect that China has shown to the world's markets" Earlier on Wednesday, China announced an 84% tariff on US imports after Donald Trump imposed a 104% tariff on Chinese goods entering the US Stock markets surged after Trump made his announcement - the president appears to have blinked, writes...

Summary European markets open higher and major Asian markets make gains following days of losses in the wake of Donald Trump's tariffs The UK's FTSE 100 opens 1% up, with France's Cac 40 index up 1.8% and Germany's Dax opening 1.3% higher China says it will "fight to the end" after Trump threatened to hit Beijing with an extra 50% tariff if it doesn't withdraw its retaliatory levy on Tuesday Beijing's commerce ministry accuses the Trump administration of blackmail and says his tariffs are "a typical unilateral bullying practice" The new tariffs could leave some US companies bringing in certain...

The trade war between the world's two biggest economies shows no signs of slowing down - Beijing has vowed to "fight to the end" hours after US President Donald Trump threatened to nearly double the tariffs on China. That could leave most Chinese imports facing a staggering 104% tax - a sharp escalation between the two sides. Smartphones, computers, lithium-ion batteries, toys and video game consoles make up the bulk of Chinese exports to the US. But there are so many other things, from screws to boilers.With a deadline looming in Washington as Trump threatens to introduce the additional tariffs...

@RpsAgainstTrump Pro-democracy conservatives Republicans fighting Trump & Trumpism. Please support our work:

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul isn’t fully endorsing President Donald Trump’s recent use of the rarely used Alien Enemies Act to deport a group of Venezuelan nationals accused of gang ties, warning that the move raises “big legal questions.” “The Bill of Rights applies to everyone,” Paul said during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” with moderator Margaret Brennan on Sunday. “The Bill of Rights doesn’t specifically designate citizens … On the other end, the Alien Enemies Act says you don’t get much process … The president can declare that you are somehow a problem for foreign policy …...

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...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) spoke out against President Trump’s imbalance on tariffs arguing that established levies have kept the world a stable place with a secure market. “International trade since World War II has made us phenomenally rich. President Trump paints it another way,” Paul said during a Sunday interview with radio host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “The Cats Roundtable.” “He says, ‘We’ve been taken advantage of.’ But I really strongly disagree because trade has made us so rich and really has made the world a better place. The more we trade … the less we fight.” Trump...

@PeterSchiff During the months leading up to the 2008 GFC, the government and mainstream financial media remained clueless about what was obviously coming. They are making the same mistake again. Tariffs mean fewer goods will come into the country, and fewer dollars will go out. More money chasing fewer goods means higher domestic prices. This is an economic certainty. As import prices rise sharply, demand will increase for domestically produced goods, sending those prices higher too. Meanwhile, lower trade deficits will result in fewer dollars being recycled into U.S. bonds, sending long-term interest rates higher. Higher consumer prices and long-term...

Senators are expected to take a vote this week designed to stop President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports from Canada, before the focus turns to Republicans’ effort to advance Trump’s broader policy agenda. And the House will keep itself occupied with several GOP legislative priorities while waiting to see if the Senate moves forward with a compromise budget resolution this week. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is once again using expedited procedures to force a vote on whether or not to terminate a national emergency declaration. This time, it is the declared emergency that Trump used to put 25 percent tariffs...

Republicans could be poised to deal a symbolic blow to President Donald Trump’s trade policy, with several GOP senators indicating they planned to join Democrats in a Tuesday vote to block blanket tariffs on Canada. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Monday that she plans to back the resolution led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that would terminate the national emergency Trump declared last month, citing fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration. Trump has used that declaration to justify 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on America’s northern neighbor and leading trade partner — duties that Trump has threatened to start levying later this...

A bipartisan pair of senators is warning the White House that recent US strikes on the Houthis in Yemen risk “emboldening” the Iranian-backed group and flouted the law regarding congressional oversight of military operations. The letter from Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., shared first with Semafor, concerns the strikes that have made headlines recently.... “Neither the U.S. strikes since October 2023 ordered by President Joe Biden, nor the previous years-long campaign against the Houthis conducted by Saudi Arabia were successful in establishing deterrence against the Houthis,” Merkley and Paul wrote in the letter sent to President Donald...

We're now getting a wider picture of how investors are reacting to Trump's sweeping tariffs. In Asia, major stock indexes have fallen in morning trading as concerns grow over the threat of a global trade war. Stock markets in mainland China have just opened with the Shanghai Composite index trading broadly flat, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down by 1.2%. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo is down by 2.9%, the Kospi in South Korea is down by 1.7%, and Australia's ASX 200 is around 1.2% lower. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down by around 800...