On Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said that Congress has given large amounts of power on tariffs to the president “because Congress works slow.” And “With tariffs, you’ve got to be able to react to the market now. You can’t sit there and wait. And the president of the United States has the ability to move with those tariffs if he has to.”
Host Leland Vittert asked, “Congress gave away an enormous power when it came to tariffs in 1977 that basically allowed a president now to do anything with tariffs, to remake the world economy, as we’ve seen President Trump do, with the stroke of a pen, International Emergency Economic Powers Act. That means a Democratic president in 2029 could declare 100% tariffs on oil because there’s a national security threat of climate change and a 200% tariff on any automobile that comes into the United States with an internal combustion engine on and on and on. Do you not worry that this needs to be fixed?”
Mullin answered, “Well, that’s a hypothetical assumption that you’re making. But it’s fair to make the assumption. It hasn’t been abused…why did we do this in 1977? It’s because Congress works slow. The economy works fast. It turns over much faster. People get frustrated with Congress because the slow pace that we work at. People want stuff done today. With tariffs, you’ve got to be able to react to the market now. You can’t sit there and wait. And the president of the United States has the ability to move with those tariffs if he has to.”
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