Terminating the National Emergency Declared to Impose Duties on Articles Imported From Canada
Floor Speech
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Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I have to agree. We have finally made it to Donald Trump's promise and self-proclaimed liberation day. But here is what I also observe: The stock market is down since the beginning of the year. The cost of everything from groceries to housing continues to rise. Americans' retirement funds have shrunk. The chances of a recession are up.
That sure doesn't feel like a liberation to me.
I bring these examples up simply to highlight the hypocrisy of this administration. Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to lower prices on day one of his administration, but he has done the exact opposite. His policies and his rhetoric are raising the cost of living for hundreds of millions of Americans.
To make matters worse, he is simply lying about it. In fact, his top trade adviser has gone on record promising Americans that we all must just be confused and that the tariffs are really actually tax cuts. This administration thinks so little of the American people that they think that somehow we won't know the difference between whether our personal wealth is growing or shrinking.
So let's be clear. A tariff is a tax on the American people--plain and simple. Trump's tariffs equate to the biggest tax hike on Americans in decades, because the way tariffs work is this: American companies will have to pay more to import goods, and in turn, the American people will have to pay more to buy those products.
Donald Trump knows this. It is not that he doesn't know; it is that he doesn't care. And those aren't my words; they are his. Just this past weekend, he was asked about the effects that his tariffs will have on the price of cars, as one example. He said: ``I couldn't care less if they raise prices.'' He followed it up by saying: ``I hope they raise prices.'' Again, those aren't my words; those are words from President Trump.
Well, colleagues, maybe the richest President in history doesn't care when the cost of a new car or the cost of a new home or the cost of groceries go up, but for the people that I represent in my home State of California and the working-class neighborhoods like the one I grew up in, this is not a game.
Here is what is most concerning to me: It seems like Republicans in Congress simply want to double down on this agenda of making the working class pay more in order to pass even more tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
The latest number, as the proposals continue to evolve, is $5.3 trillion in tax breaks for the wealthy. It is clearly the No. 1 priority for Republicans. Well, to do that, to pay for that, working families are just going to have to work harder?
These same Republicans who want to give the tax breaks to the wealthy are also the ones supposedly concerned about our Nation's growing deficit. They are trying to tell us that, well, we have to make cuts to Medicaid or other important programs in the Federal Government. They say we have to make cuts to nutrition assistance programs. They say we have to make cuts to public education. They will go one further: They are trying to eliminate the Department of Education.
I grant them this: If nothing else, the Republican Party's economic plan has been consistent. They want to bleed the working class to benefit the rich, and they are going to lie to our faces as they try to do it. It is unacceptable.
Now, we know Republicans are already also considering any and every accounting trick they can think of to fudge the numbers and hide the real cost of the bill.
So my resolution would simply require that they be transparent with the American people. It would require that any tariff used to offset the tax cuts for the wealthy must be explicitly written into the text of the Republican reconciliation bill.
If Republicans want to increase prices on hard-working Americans to give handouts to billionaires, then own it.
You should not be allowed to hide behind President Trump as you do it. Be transparent. Be honest. Put these price increases into the bill. Tell the American people what you really stand for, because when Americans wonder why their grocery bills and their energy bills and all their other bills go up, they deserve to know why, and they deserve to know who caused it.
And then we will see who is really on the side of the working class.
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Mr. PADILLA. So I thank my colleague for his response, but I take issue with some items that I do believe need to be addressed and clarified.
He makes the claim that the tax reforms from about a decade ago, I believe it was 2017 to be more precise, was good for the economy. It begs the question: Good for whose economy? Good for whose pocketbook? The breaks were disproportionately for the most wealthy in America, and average working families didn't benefit nearly, nearly as much. That is where we should be focusing relief, No. 1.
No. 2, he argues that the math has been settled because when tariffs are imposed, those are revenues going into the U.S. Treasury. I repeat: When the costs go up by American companies importing products, they are going to pass along that increased cost to American consumers. So it is a tax by another name.
And the last point I will make is this because it was relevant in the Environment and Public Works Committee hearing earlier today when Transportation Secretary Duffy talked about the concern the administration has about the increased costs and budgets of a lot of transportation projects compared to the costs of projects 4 years ago, 8 years ago, et cetera. It begs the question: What will be the impact of these tariffs, whether it is on transportation projects, on water infrastructure projects, on energy infrastructure projects when the cost of materials goes up?
It is going to increase costs. It is going to delay projects. And, once again, who pays the price? Working families across America.
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