The tariffs are broadly unpopular: A new analysis shows they amounted to a $1,000 tax hike on Americans last year
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to reporters in the House of Representatives. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
A trio of House Republicans on Tuesday evening rebelled against Speaker Mike Johnson's attempt to muscle through a provision to shield President Donald Trump's tariffs from critical votes in the lower chamber. Now the door is open for lawmakers to repeal the barrage of import taxes, though it still amounts to an improbable journey to undo them through the legislative branch.
"Congress needs to be able to debate on tariffs," Rep. Don Bacon, one of the three Republicans who voted with Democrats, said in a post on X $TWTR. “Article I of the Constitution places authority over taxes and tariffs with Congress for a reason, but for too long, we have handed that authority to the executive branch. It’s time for Congress to reclaim that responsibility.”
House Republicans had twice enacted restrictions on critical tariff-related measures from reaching the floor in an attempt to spare GOP members from difficult votes. The tariffs, though, are unpopular. Americans have already paid the price for them and will keep doing so as long as they remain a feature of the economic landscape.
Trump has staked his second term on a gambit to eliminate persistent trade deficits with tariffs on nearly every country starting April last year. The trade deficit — or the gap between what the U.S. imports and exports — has fluctuated since last spring.
Economists broadly say that tariffs amount to a tax that's ultimately borne by consumers. That was evident in an analysis from the center-right Tax Foundation released last week. It found that the tariffs amounted to a $1,000 tax increase on Americans in 2025. That will climb to $1,300 this year, as companies unload more costs onto consumers.
The Supreme Court is poised to roll out a decision sometime in the coming months that could revoke the so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs that were imposed through a national emergency law. Those hit imports from Canada, Mexico, and China.
The same Tax Foundation analysis indicated that if the Supreme Court annuls the import taxes, their added cost drops to $400 this year
Still, the path to undo them through Congress is narrow and highly unlikely. Such a measure from the House would likely need to pass a GOP-controlled Senate and gain Trump's signature.
Both are improbable outcomes when Trump has held up the tariffs as his preferred geopolitical tool to remake the global economy in the U.S.' favor and restore domestic manufacturing. Trump has flatly failed on the latter, given manufacturers have shed jobs in the eight months since the tariffs were first unveiled.
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