Two hundred and fifty years ago, events initially precipitated by King George III’s Stamp Act and subsequent tax on tea, led to the American Revolutionary War because people were tired of taxation without representation and the seemingly unchecked power of the king. Trump’s tariffs, in some way, can be viewed as another instance of taxation without representation. Congress has the power of the purse and, theoretically, are the ones to enact tariffs. The Congress is composed of Representatives and Senators who are elected to represent the people. Now that Congress has ceded their rightful authority to impose and repeal tariffs to Trump, we are once again in a situation of taxation without representation and are subject to the mercurial and vengeful whims of a wanna be king.
Trump’s tariffs are deeply unpopular and are having huge adverse impacts on Americans across the country. Retirement accounts have been devastated. Prices are increasing. Farmers and manufacturers are cutting back and laying off people because markets are drying up. There are very few, if any, people who are benefiting from these tariffs. They are estimated to cost the average American household $4,000 a year or more. That is the equivalent to a huge tax increase. And yet, Congress who are supposed to represent the interests of their constituents have stood idly by while King Trump sets tariffs on countries around the world using grade school math and a random number generator. If this isn’t taxation without representation, I don’t know what is.
Congress has passed a number of laws, all of which, have ceded more and more of their power over tariffs to the President. Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 which allows that the president may do so if it is a matter of ‘national security.’ Unfortunately, there don’t appear to be any clear guidelines as to what constitutes a national emergency other than the president declaring that there is one. An investigation is supposed to take place but given that Trump has surrounded himself with supplicants, the outcome of any such investigation is a foregone conclusion if the president wants to levy tariffs. This is the loophole used by Trump to impose the tariffs on steel and aluminum.
The Trade Act of 1974 allows the president to impose tariffs if, “if the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) finds that an import surge is threatening a U.S. domestic industry.” Again, there is supposed to be an investigation but, in this administration, any such investigation is meaningless.
There is also the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 which allows the president to declare an emergency under the National Emergency Act and use his broad economic powers to impose tariffs. Trump is the only president to have used this law to impose tariffs. He did so during his first term when he imported tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico and he is doing again during this term.
The stated ‘emergency’ can be terminated by a joint resolution of Congress but given that both chambers in Congress are now controlled by spineless and supplicant Republicans, it is unlikely that any such emergency declared by Trump will be terminated by Congress thus limiting his ability to impose new tariffs. Congress could also pass legislation to rein in some of the power that has been ceded to the Executive Branch on this issue but that is unlikely to happen given the current makeup of Congress.
That leaves us right back to where we were 250 years ago when the people revolted because of taxation without representation. It seems a bit ironic. Then, it marked the beginning of a new country based upon a set of ideals outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Today, like back then, we the people are at a crossroads. We can choose life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness or we can choose tyranny and authoritarianism. We chose wisely last time. Let’s hope we choose wisely once again.
