On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Arena,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said that he would look at Congress taking tariff authority back from the president “if I finally concluded that what the president is proposing is not going to work or if the treatment is worse than the disease” and that he’ll give Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) bill on congressional tariff authority a close look, “but I’m not there yet. I just don’t know.”
Host Kasie Hunt asked, “Is there a point at which you would consider supporting taking tariff authority back into congressional hands? There have been some efforts in the Senate to do that.”
Kennedy answered, “Well, if I finally concluded that what the president is proposing is not going to work or if the treatment is worse than the disease, sure. And I’m going to look at Sen. Grassley’s bill very closely, but I’m not there yet. I just don’t know. I’m not trying to pretend that I do. I’m not going to bubblewrap it. What I’ve seen so far, in terms of the stock market, it’s been painful. But what the…mid-term impact will be, Kasie, I don’t know, and nobody else does either.”
Kennedy added that if Trump’s tariff plan doesn’t work, “I think he’ll be willing to recalibrate.” But he would start by setting tariffs to zero if other countries do so.
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