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Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I just want to follow on what the minority leader and Senator Blumenthal are saying about this chaotic tariff regime which the Trump administration--which Donald Trump himself is imposing upon country after country around the world.

I just want to begin by saying ``tariff'' is just a fancy word for a tax. You know, it is just a polysyllabic way of saying what a monosyllabic word means to every single American. It is a tax that is being imposed by Donald Trump on all of these products that come in from around the world.

On April 2, Donald Trump declared a national emergency over trade imbalances, slapping a one-size-fits-all, 10-percent tariff tax--a 10- percent tax--on the entire world, with added taxes for over 60 countries, some as high as 50 percent. Trump called April 2 ``Liberation Day,'' but it wasn't. It was ``Obliteration Day'' because this tax on all of these goods that would come into America would have a dramatic impact on raising the prices for American consumers.

Trump used a faulty formula, actually, to establish this tax rate that made no economic sense, whacked our allies, and placed taxes--tariffs-- on an island with no people, just penguins, but he imposed a tariff on it. They don't have any people there, they have no products, but they imposed a tax. That is how crazy, that is how poorly thought out Trump's tariffs were.

Trump's country-specific taxes--tariffs--lasted just 1 week until Trump paused them, promising 90 deals in 90 days. Well, here we are on day 112, and how many actually legally binding, enforceable trade deals does the United States have? does Donald Trump have? Zero. He is right now at zero trade deals that are right now legally enforceable. What we have instead are press events announcing frameworks, contours, and concepts for trade deals, but all are fragile and subject to Donald Trump's latest whim.

Trump announced an agreement with China 3 months ago but yesterday threatened to reimpose 145 percent tariffs--a 145-percent tax on China and all the goods coming in from China if a deal isn't finalized by August 12. So he announces his big victory 3 months ago, and he still doesn't have it on paper, and he is threatening to go up to a 145- percent tax on all goods if there isn't a final deal on paper by August 12.

That chaos by Trump and Republicans has left small businesses in our country twisting in the wind because our American companies are importing goods from all across the world. Under this current tax regime, midsized businesses--those with 50 to 500 employees--are expected to cough up more than $80 billion in taxes. Let me say that again. There is going to be an $80 billion tax that American small businesses with 50 to 500 employees are expected to pay this year according to J.P. Morgan.

Those are just the direct costs. Let's talk about the indirect costs. Trump's tax chaos and threats have caused the Federal Reserve to delay interest rate cuts.

Today, once again, Jerome Powell--the Fed--stood pat on rates, citing ``elevated uncertainty'' from Trump's tariff threats, because it is very uncertain--the political environment, the economic environment that America is going to be living through over the next several months. Higher rates means higher borrowing costs for anyone trying to buy a home, buy a car, start a business, pay off credit card debt.

At his press conference today, Fed Chair Powell said:

Increased tariffs are pushing up prices.

That is inflationary in our country. Inflation is running hotter than expected this year at nearly 3 percent instead of 2.2 percent. And that is the concern which Powell has, which the Fed has, about the impact these tariffs--these taxes--are going to have upon the prices of goods sold everywhere in our country that are imported.

Powell warned that things could get worse on inflation. Tariffs haven't fully shown up in consumer prices, but those costs are beginning to be passed on to consumers all across the country, and that is a great concern which the Fed has.

Trump may be angry that the Fed is keeping rates steady, but his own policies, his own chaos is to blame. It is just a highly uncertain cloud that is hanging over the economy in our country because of Trump's tariff--Trump's tax--policy on goods coming into the country.

There is a hidden cost to this uncertainty. Trump's chaos, his ever- changing deadlines leave businesses unable to plan. And small businesses--and that is 97 percent of all businesses in our country-- they told me they have an inability to plan and that can be worse than the tariffs themselves, these sales taxes that Trump is imposing on these goods.

Small toy companies, mom-and-pop game stores in my State and across the country, are begging for certainty now so they can place orders for the holiday season. These companies need to know what their shipments will cost them, and they don't know.

Even today, Trump said he is going to impose a 50-percent tariff on Brazil and a 25-percent tariff on India. Well, how can small businesses plan for what the cost of those goods are going to be if they try to put them on their shelves this coming fall, into the winter? Many companies are simply not placing orders because they don't know what Trump's tariffs will be in just a few weeks.

Trump thinks tariffs on toys will just mean Americans buy fewer dolls. That is what the President of the United States said.

Well, that is just not how it is going to work. A small, independent toy and game store won't just sell fewer dolls; they are going to go out of business.

A constituent's small business in the toy industry in Massachusetts told me that its industry shows in June and July painted a bleak picture for this holiday season. These shows were poorly attended and had significantly fewer orders than expected. This business is expecting rising prices, reduced new product innovation, and diminished consumer buying.

In other words, Trump's tariffs--sales taxes--on toys will be the Grinch that stole Christmas this year from small businesses all across our country.

To give small businesses relief and certainty, I came to the Senate floor 70 days ago to offer my Small Business Liberation Act, and I did it with Senator Klobuchar and with Senator Schumer. The bill would have provided small businesses relief from Trump's disastrous, destructive, small business-killing tariffs that have been turning Main Street into Pain Street for the last 4 months of this year. The bill would have provided certainty to the constant whiplash and chaos that are President Trump's tariff policies by exempting small businesses from the baseline 10-percent tariffs and the country-specific tariffs that have been on pause since April 9.

Trump should exempt small businesses from his tariff games so they aren't collateral damage in Trump's trade war.

At the height of the Civil War, there was a saying that it was a rich man's war and a poor man's fight--because if a rich man put up money, he could buy his way out of the war, so that all who were left were poor men to fight the Civil War. And that was North and South. The plantation owners in the South, the big manufacturers and the textile industry in the North--they just bought their way out of the war.

Well, in 2025, this is a Big Business war, but it is small businesses on Main Street that are paying the price. Those least able to defend themselves are the casualties in Trump's tariff war.

It is not just small businesses being put in harm's way; studies have found that the burden of tariffs falls most heavily on working families, single parents, and women. According to the Yale Budget Lab, Trump's tariffs will cost the bottom 10 percent of households $1,300 this year. That is money they don't have in their pockets.

So, to my Republican colleagues, if you say you are for small business, prove it. If you say you support Main Street, protect it. Join me in passing the Small Business Liberation Act. Let's give small businesses the certainty they deserve, and let's stop letting Trump turn trade policy into a demolition derby for small businesses on Main Street all across this country. That is what the Fed is warning. That is what small businesses are feeling.

We just need to protect small businesses, and Donald Trump, right now, is absolutely creating a wrecking ball for those small businesses in our Nation.

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