On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) argued that President Donald Trump should work with Democrats and Congress on tariffs and stated that “we’re supportive of tariffs on China. There’s a real trade imbalance there, and it’s unfair trade practices.”
Welch said, “Congress, decades ago, gave national security emergency authority on tariffs to the president. It was done with an expectation that a president would do it with restraint and where it actually had some military protection component to it. What the President is doing, as he frequently does, is totally overreach, and then using this as a bargaining tool for whatever it is he wants to bargain for. And the other issue is that he’s doing it in a chaotic kind of way. He should sit down with Democrats and with Congress, because we’re supportive of tariffs on China. There’s a real trade imbalance there, and it’s unfair trade practices.”
Welch continued, “But it’s just shooting ourselves in the foot to essentially unravel the USMCA. Ironically, an agreement that he said was the best ever, and he negotiated. This is doing extraordinary harm to trust between us and our partners, and it’s doing real harm to Vermonters. And you don’t unwind this that quickly. I heard Mark Zandi. I do think the economy is starting to deteriorate a bit. The consumer confidence numbers are way down. And part of that is because of the instability. And chaos is not a policy that reaps good rewards for everyday Americans.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Read the full article here