On Thursday, Republican Senator Ted Cruz appeared on Fox Business Network and broke rank with the Trump administration on tariffs. He declaring that perpetual high tariffs are a “tax on consumers” and poor economic policy. He added that the only beneficial outcome would be other countries lowering their tariffs so the U.S. can then cut its tariffs.
The Texas senator said, “I think it is a mistake to assume that we will have high tariffs in perpetuity. I don’t think that would be good economic policy. I am not a fan of tariffs. And the announcement yesterday, look, time is going to tell, in the next month or two or three what happens.”
Cruz continued, “If the result of yesterday’s announcement is a lot of our trading partners across the globe dramatically reduce the tariffs they charge on U.S. goods and services and the consequence of that is the U.S. government dramatically cuts the tariffs that were announced yesterday, that would be a great outcome. That would be good for America. If the result is our trading partners jack up their tariffs and we have high tariffs everywhere, I think that is a bad outcome for America. Tariffs are a tax on consumers, and I’m not a fan of jacking up taxes on American consumers. So, my hope is these tariffs are short-lived and they serve as leverage to lower tariffs across the globe.”
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On Friday, the Senate Commerce Chairman stated on his podcast that despite “Republican cheerleaders reflexively defending what the White House is doing,” the tariffs could “hurt jobs and hurt America.”
He revealed that he spoke to one of the “Big Three” automakers in the U.S. (likely GM, Ford, or Chrysler) and they told him the tariffs could raise vehicle prices by almost $5,000.
“This U.S. car company told me they actually thought foreign car companies would benefit more than they would, because if you send it over here, you pay one tariff, whereas this guys are getting hit on each part that is going over,” Cruz said.
“If we go into a recession — particularly a bad recession — 2026 in all likelihood, politically would be a bloodbath.” He added in regards to midterm elections, “The upside could be massive, but the downside could be massive.”