Resolution to Rescind Canada Tariffs Passes Senate

However, the resolution will not change the tariffs, because House leadership is blocking a vote in that chamber on the matter (see 2503110049), and the president could veto the resolution even if it passed both chambers.

Earlier in the day, Trump posted on social media attacking four Republicans who had said they would vote for the resolution, including original co-sponsor Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. If all four voted for it, and all Democrats and independents who caucus with Democrats voted for it, it would pass the Senate.

Trump argued that Republicans should stand with him in penalizing "Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy. They are playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels. The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely these four, in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve it and I, as your President, will never sign it."

Ahead of both the announcement of reciprocal tariff and the vote to rescind tariffs on Canada that were ostensibly imposed over fentanyl smuggling, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that Democrats will continue to "fight against Trump's absurd, crazy, chaotic trade war." He added: "We're going to fight these tariffs tooth and nail."

Schumer said that when Trump changes which countries, which percentages and which goods are covered every other day, it makes businesses unable to adjust. "That's why the stock market has gone down so much."

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who began the push to spare Canada, said, "this is not about fentanyl," and noted that almost no fentanyl is smuggled from Canada.

Kaine said small businesses and large businesses are hurt by having to pay 25% more for Canadian aluminum and steel. (Biden left in place 25% tariffs on steel that Trump imposed in his first term, but Mexico and Canada were carved out from the action.) He said that 35% of the aluminum and steel used at shipyards making submarines and military ships is imported from Canada. Even before the action, it was hard to bring those ships in on budget and on time, he said.

Schumer said Trump's love for tariffs won't lead to reshoring manufacturing.

"He gets these ideas in his head -- he has no proof. Most every study ... has shown that that doesn't happen, plain and simple, that's the problem. It's a crazy idea in his head that hurts American families and does very little benefit."

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., agreed. "The only question is: how much pain will he inflict ... before he comes to his senses and removes these tariffs?"

Earlier in the day, co-sponsor Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., at a different press conference with reporters, said, "Through threats, so far people have not actually been willing to vote their consciences. It'll be interesting to see if we can pick up four or five or six Republicans."

They picked up four, the minimum needed to pass the measure.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a sponsor of the resolution, said on the floor before the vote, "Taxation without representation is tyranny!" The Constitution does not allow one man or woman to raise taxes, he noted, adding that taxes have to originate in the House.

He also noted the high hurdle of gathering veto-proof majorities to rescind International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, emergencies. He said Congress should reform the law, so that it doesn't require a veto-proof majority to end the emergency. An emergency should last 30 days at most, he argued.

Fentanyl is a pretext, he said. "There's more fentanyl going from the United States into Canada than there is from Canada into the United States. Canada has been cooperative with us and will try to do more."

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said on the floor of the Senate, "If someone tells you they can do tariffs AND do it without raising prices -- I’m sorry, but anyone who says that with a straight face thinks that YOU are stupid."

"When China was stealing American trade secrets, subsidizing cheap solar panels, and then dumping them here to drive U.S. manufacturers out of business, I was shouting from the rooftops for more tariffs on Chinese goods.

"But, colleagues, Canada is not China.

"Our small businesses and farmers are losing sales as we speak, because of Trump’s weird obsession with attacking our northern neighbor. Plunging our economy into recession because of Trump’s desire to annex Canada is idiotic."