Tariffs
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I would like to begin by reading a quote from Bill Ackman, the billionaire well known for his support of Donald Trump. He said:
We are headed for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down.
Preston Caldwell, a senior economist from Morningstar Research, likewise, said:
If they're maintained, the tariff hikes announced April 2 represents a self-inflicted economic catastrophe for the United States.
Meanwhile, Larry Fink of BlackRock says, most CEOs he has spoken to would say we have already entered a recession. The damage of Donald Trump's tariff tax has already been done. And regardless of what the markets say from one hour to the next, there are no signs that the chaos is changing at any time soon.
Americans are anxious. Nobody, looking at their retirement accounts today is feeling anything close to liberated. It has been a hellacious few days for people worried about their 401(k)s and their savings and their kids' future. And that is not changing anytime soon.
Before things get worse, Donald Trump should immediately reverse his reckless trade war. He should halt his tariff tax at once, and he should start focusing more on America's actual trade adversaries, like China, instead of picking a fight with the entire world and causing chaos and steering us toward a recession in the process.
The chaos within the Trump administration was shown a few minutes ago, when Elon Musk called Peter Navarro--the chief architect of these tariffs--a moron. That is Musk's word. He called him a ``moron.'' Their plan is so crazy, so controversial that this administration cannot get its act together--with them calling each other names--regarding this tariff plan.
This is perhaps the most significant task for the Republican congressional leadership since Donald Trump became President. The choice in front of Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson is simple: Choose Donald Trump or choose American families. Stand up to Donald Trump or watch him trigger a recession.
So this morning, I am writing to Speaker Johnson, urging him to put the Senate-passed resolution undoing Donald Trump's tariffs for a vote in the House.
Let me quote from the letter:
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 very well tee up a recession. If the president doesn't back off, Congress must take action--the Senate has already taken action to provide relief from tariffs on Canada, and the House should follow immediately.
Remember, this resolution affects Canada. Nobody understands what the heck the President is doing with Canada. It was bipartisan. It got four Republican votes and passed the Senate. So the Senate has done its part. Now the Speaker must act if he cares about avoiding a recession, if he cares about American families.
I am confident that if Speaker Johnson were to put the Senate's Canada resolution on the floor, the bipartisan resolution we passed, that it would pass the House as well.
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