Getting republicans on record supporting tariffs
-
Josh Barro has a good idea for a way around the house rule out in place by the GOP to disallow votes on the tariffs.
The Senate has been voting on resolutions to disapprove Trump’s tariffs, forcing Republican senators to defend them on the record. But the House hasn’t been voting on similar resolutions because House Speaker Mike Johnson has pushed through changes to House rules that strip members of their usual ability to bring up privileged resolutions to block the tariffs. Democrats should move to bring up tariff-disapproval resolutions anyway. The presiding officer will, of course, rule any such motion out of order, in accordance with House rules. Then a Democrat should move to overrule the chair; it is possible to force a vote on overruling the chair’s decision not to bring the tariff resolution to the floor, even if you can’t force a vote on the tariffs themselves.
I expect Republicans to vote down that motion, too. But then Democrats will have gotten every House Republican on the record, voting to preserve Trump’s inflationary and economically destructive tariff policy. And they can use that in attack ads next year. Go ahead and let Republicans explain that “I wasn’t voting on the tariffs, I was voting on a matter of the House rules.” When you’re explaining why you didn’t vote to protect American consumers from higher prices, you’re losing.
-
Yes, not a bad idea. It is "politics theatre" but that can be effective.
