Once upon a time, the Republican Party could be reliably counted on to oppose tax increases and at least sometimes oppose executive overreach. In the case of President Trump’s massive tax increases on consumers and businesses importing goods from abroad, we have seen the GOP reduced to silence or gibberish.
On Friday, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that most Trump’s tax hikes exceed his authority.
The Trump administration has relied upon the International Emergency Economic Powers Act from 1977 to claim broad authority to impose tax increases on imports.
The “emergency” cited to justify this is the supposed “emergency” of Americans buying more from other countries than other countries buying from the United States.
It apparently hasn’t occurred to the president that Americans are so rich on a global basis that they are able to buy things from around the world at a level people in most other countries can’t do in turn.
In any case, the appeals court appropriately ruled against the president’s tax hikes on straightforward grounds.
“The statute bestows significant authority on the President to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax,” the court said. “It seems unlikely that Congress intended, in enacting IEEPA, to depart from its past practice and grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs.”
In response, the president lashed out and strenuously defended his tax increases with all the hysteria of a leftist tax hiker.
“Without Tariffs, and all of the TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS we have already taken in, our Country would be completely destroyed, and our military power would be instantly obliterated,” he said on Truth Social over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended tariffs on Fox News in a discussion with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who prompted Bessent, “They will say that the tariffs are a hidden tax on the consumers here in the country. But give us the reality.”
Responded Bessent, “If they’re so bad, the American consumers paying them, why do we hear the European companies or the Chinese companies or the Chinese complaining about tariffs if it’s all being borne by the American people.”
We’re used to Democrats, particularly of the socialist and progressive variety, not understanding basic economic concepts or how markets work. But it’s pretty amazing to see a Republican Treasury secretary sputter this out like it’s a reasoned response to the factual claim that taxes are ultimately borne by consumers.
When government imposes taxes on imports, it hurts local importers and consumers, who have to choose between paying the higher prices or not buying them at all. As a result of lower overall demand, the tariffs hurt the foreign business as well. Tariffs hurt everyone, in other words.
It’s really not complicated.
With congressional Republicans more concerned with keeping their jobs than standing up to executive overreach and tax increases, it’s up to the courts for now to check all of this.