Tim Kaine is leading a group of Senate Democrats trying to put pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson to schedule a vote on legislation to reverse the Trump tariffs on Canada.
Fun fact as we dive in here: even Elon Musk doesn’t like the tariffs.
I mean, sure, it’s because Musk has lost $30 billion of paper wealth since Trump rolled out the tariffs last week, but still.
The co-president said on a conference call with a far-right political party in Italy over the weekend that he has advocated for a “zero-tariff situation” between Europe and the U.S., and he’s taken to lobbing a stream of insults at Trump’s top economics advisor and leading tariffs advocate, Peter Navarro, writing on Twitter that Navarro is “truly a moron,” “dumber than a sack of bricks” and coining a new nickname for him, “Peter Retarrdo.”
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It’s against this backdrop that Sen. Kaine, D-Va., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are putting pressure on Johnson, a MAGA Republican, on the tariffs bill, which passed the Senate by a 51-48 vote last week.
“Plain and simple, the Trump Trade War is a Trump Tax on families, raising their costs by nearly $4,000 per year and devastating small businesses, forcing them to raise prices or lay off staff. It is a dangerous, foolish exercise that is wreaking havoc on the American economy and could tee up a recession,” the senators wrote in a letter to Johnson on Tuesday, adding: “Now that the Senate has weighed in, members of the House should have the opportunity to vote on whether to continue President Trump’s wrongheaded tariffs on Canada.”
The obvious problem here: Trump would, obviously, veto the bill if it were to get to his desk, and you need a two-thirds vote in both houses to override a veto.
That translates to 67 votes in the Senate and 290 in the House, which is a lot more than we’d expect right now in either chamber.
Can we get there?
Republican congressmen “all see the stock market, and they’re all worried about it,” Sen. Rand Paul, D-Ky., told The Washington Post.
“But they are putting on a stiff upper lip to try to act as if nothing’s happening and hoping it goes away,” Paul said.
That, and they’re also readying themselves to run away from Trump and let him own the tariff fallout, as appears to be the case with Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
“I think once he decided to add the tariffs, clearly, I mean, he will be held responsible – as he should – whether it turns out good or it turns out badly,” Kennedy told CNN.
There’s political bravery for you.
It’s his fault!
If we can rely on anything, it’s the greed of the billionaires.
Musk is lobbing insults, and then there’s Jamie Dimon, the CEO at JPMorgan Chase, who famously said, back in January, on the possible impact of tariffs on the economy, “Get over it,” conceded in a subdued letter to shareholders on Monday that “the recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession.”
“Shark Tank” poseur Kevin O’Leary isn’t a billionaire – net worth: $400 million – but he’s been a reliable Trump apologist.
O’Leary suggested in an interview with Fox Business that Trump find an “off-ramp” by going with Musk’s suggestion of a zero-tariff zone with Europe.
Keep in mind, the money guys own the Republican electeds, from our local MAGA Ben Cline at the #435 spot in the House all the way up to Trump.
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Chris Graham
