Sen. Ted Cruz has begged President Donald Trump to stop listening to the tariff hawks in his administration and “take the deal” countries are offering to lower trade barriers.
Sen. Ted Cruz has begged President Donald Trump to stop listening to the tariff hawks in his administration and “take the deal” countries are offering to lower trade barriers.
The Senate has already passed a bill that limits the President’s power to set tariff rates on Canada. The House probably won’t take that up.
Right now, there’s also a Senate Bill with 7 GOP senators signed on that would limit the President’s power to unilaterally set tariffs (requires 48 hours notice to Congress, can’t last more than 60 days without Congressional approval, gives Congress fast track procedures for voting down new tariffs). There are some serious constitutional flaws in it (most notably the legislative non-aggrandizement doctrine, but also an issue with tying to sidestep the bicameralism and presentment requirement), though, and I’m not sure it would hit the point where it could overcome a presidential veto.
So right now it’s not clear whether this GOP opposition would actually build into real legislation that could actually have an effect, or whether this is all showmanship trying to influence Trump himself to roll this back.