Rand Paul: Businesses and Workers Think Tariffs Are a Bad Idea

President Donald Trump’s broad-based tariffs on imported goods from Canada and Mexico have drawn support from some businesses that stand to benefit from the federal government artificially raising the prices of their competitors’ products. But Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) is urging the president to listen to the many, many American businesses—as well as their employees and their customers—that will suffer because tariffs drive up operating costs.

“I haven’t had a single business person or individual in my state come up to me and say the tariffs are a good idea,” says Paul.

The senator from Kentucky appeared on Rising, the news show I host for The Hill, on Wednesday to discuss Trump’s tariffs threats, the firings of federal workers, and why so many of his Republican colleagues refuse to do the tough work of actually cutting government spending.

He was particularly outspoken on how tariffs will negatively impact businesses in his home state.

“I have had people come up—farmers which are a big presence in our state—and say they export 20 to 25 percent of their products and this will hurt them,” says Paul. “They are still suffering from some of the tariffs and retaliation from 2018 and 2019, when the previous Trump administration did tariffs,” Paul said. “I have home builders and real estate brokers who say if the price of lumber goes up, if the price of steel goes up, the prices of homes will go up and we’ll sell less homes. I have the bourbon distillers coming to me, which is a big industry in my state, and they say due to the retaliation that Europe is placing on us and Canada is placing on our bourbon, we will export less bourbon. We have shippers in our state, people who ship internationally as well as across the U.S.”

Watch the full interview on Rising below.

It’s a shame that more Republicans are not listening to Paul and to Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.)—who are virtually alone in their desire to actually codify the spending cuts identified by Trump and Elon Musk. Massie was the lone Republican “no” vote on the House of Representative’s Tuesday decision to continue funding the government at current levels. When the continuing resolution comes up for a vote in the Senate, Paul intends to put forth a rescission plan; whether other members of the GOP are similarly ready to get serious about the deficit remains to be seen.

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