'There's No Evidence That It Works': Democratic Senator Rails Against President Trump's Tariffs

yesterday

At a Senate Democratic press briefing on Wednesday, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) spoke about President Trump's tariff proposals.

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Transcript

00:00Yeah, thank you very much, you know

00:04Nobody supports tariffs

00:06economically

00:07Economists have looked at this and they don't work and they do a lot of hurt

00:11So what we have with the Trump policy here is essentially a faith-based

00:17Economic plan. There's no evidence that it works. There's overwhelming evidence that it fails and

00:24The American people are going to get a history lesson starting very soon

00:29About Smoot-Hawley

00:31Two names that don't immediately come to mind

00:34But it was just before the recession that the u.s. Had the highest tariffs

00:40in our history and

00:42Those tariffs were put in place

00:46By the president who got it wrong and thought this would help us

00:51well, it helped us usher in the Great Depression and

00:54And since then

00:56Presidents of both sides of the aisle have steered clear of these trade war tariffs

01:02until President Trump

01:04now second we have an affordability crisis in this country working families are struggling to pay their bills and

01:11Just in Vermont to make it very concrete. We get a lot of our electricity from Canada. We get a lot of our

01:20Gasoline on the northern part of Vermont from Canada. We get our home heating fuel from Canada and

01:27Those bills for folks are going to go up

01:31immediately home heating fuel

01:34gasoline

01:36Electricity why in the world would we do that?

01:39the other thing is

01:41that

01:43Canada's our friend

01:45It's not China and

01:48Along the border where we have decades and decades of mutual respect

01:54We're starting to change that into

01:57distrust and

01:59a confident country

02:01treats its allies with respect and

02:05these tariffs are going to do direct and immediate economic harm to everyday Vermont families and

02:12Farmers maple sugar producers, but it's also going to start eroding the trust

02:17That is the benefit of good relations over time. Why in the world?

02:22Would President Trump want to be?

02:26Smooth Holly, that's what he's embracing

02:30totally

02:32Totally bad

02:34totally wrong doomed and

02:37The only question is how much pain will he inflict on?

02:40Everyday Vermonters before he comes to his senses and Ruth withdraws this tariff policy. Thank you. They're also Brooks

'There's No Evidence That It Works': Democratic Senator Rails Against President Trump's Tariffs

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