'D-U-M-B': Richard Blumenthal Gives Blunt Reaction To Trump's 'Stupid' Tariffs On Canada

2 days ago

During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke about President Trump's tariffs on Canada.

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Transcript

00:00I recognize the Senator from Connecticut.

00:02I'm honored to follow my colleague from Maryland, who has described so well the reasons that we should oppose these tariffs,

00:11and thank my colleague from Virginia, Senator Kaine, who has demonstrated once again the leadership that makes him such a great member of this body.

00:22I want to begin, and I hope the presiding officer will forgive me, with a four-letter word.

00:29It's a word that I said to my children they should never use.

00:34Dumb. Dumb. D-U-M-B.

00:39These tariffs are dumb.

00:41They are also cruel, and they are stupid.

00:48They are imposed in the name of perhaps building manufacturing in this country, which they won't do,

00:56or in the name of raising revenue to cut taxes for the wealthy, which is adding insult to injury, or simply for vengeance.

01:09So much of what this administration does is for the purpose of vengeance and vanity.

01:17Careless. Cruel. Reckless.

01:21That's what these tariffs are, particularly as directed to Canada.

01:27Let's be clear.

01:29The tariffs proposed by President Trump are a tax.

01:36They are a tax.

01:38There's no tariff ever imposed in the history of the United States of America that has ever lowered prices.

01:46These tariffs will raise prices.

01:49And they threaten not only higher costs for everything from gas to groceries to rental housing,

01:59but they also deeply threaten a recession.

02:07I've been reading a book called Freedom from Fear, written by a great historian, a professor at Yale named David Kennedy.

02:15Freedom from Fear is about the events and the misdirection and mistakes that led our nation to the Great Depression.

02:26What began as a recession, what started as a Wall Street problem, became a global depression

02:37because the world failed to realize that even then, our economies were connected

02:46and that tariffs could hurt all countries when all countries adopted them, when a trade war ensued.

02:56And a trade war now is what we face.

03:00Canada has long been one of our nation's closest allies and trading partners.

03:07We have a bond with Canada that goes beyond simple economics.

03:13Although, frankly, our relationship with Canada supports millions of jobs,

03:19protects the competitiveness of American businesses, and ensures our long-term economic prosperity.

03:25Our countries have countless trade and investment agreements, cross-border projects,

03:32such as communications, highways, bridges, pipelines, that have resulted in integrated networks and transportation systems.

03:40We have a long-standing defense and security partnership, providing us with greater security than we could have alone.

03:52And we share a border.

03:54But the border is a symbol of a bond that our peoples have in common,

04:03a friendship that goes deep, a heritage and a culture that we respect.

04:12These bonds will be betrayed by a reckless trade policy the administration is pursuing

04:21and threatens to derail that valuable, in fact, precious partnership.

04:28These tariffs are going to hurt all Americans.

04:32We have with Canada one of the most comprehensive and important trading relationships.

04:37I go into the numbers.

04:39In 2024, Canada was the United States' second largest trading partner with $761.2 billion in total trade,

04:52largest single U.S. export markets for goods.

04:56Every day, nearly half a million people and billions of dollars in goods and services cross that border.

05:01But I want to focus on Connecticut for the moment,

05:05because Connecticut demonstrates what will happen to America as a whole.

05:12And I represent the people of Connecticut, and this regimen of tariffs will be catastrophic for Connecticut.

05:22Friends in Connecticut, listen to what these haphazard tariffs will do.

05:30Connecticut, Canada is Connecticut's single largest trading partner,

05:37accounting for 20 percent of our total trade in 2024, including 13 percent of our imports

05:44and 25 percent, 13 percent of our exports and 25 percent of our imports.

05:52Consumers in Connecticut already face some of the highest electricity prices in the nation

05:57with an average cost of $28.16 per kilowatt hour compared to the national average of $16.26 per kilowatt hour.

06:10Connecticut and New York as a whole get a significant share of our electricity

06:18from cheaper eastern Canadian hydropower.

06:24The 10 percent tariffs proposed on energy resources from Canada will directly impact

06:31and drastically increase those electricity costs.

06:35ISO New England has estimated that this tax would add $66 million in annual consumer costs.

06:46I hope President Trump will listen to the people of Connecticut and New England

06:50when it comes to electricity costs. Do not impose these tariffs.

06:56And the harm to Connecticut is far from limited to just energy prices.

07:01Some of the largest state industries, including aerospace, defense, advanced manufacturing, medical devices,

07:10all rely on trade with Canada to remain profitable.

07:17These industries source key production imports from Canada, including aerospace parts,

07:26critical minerals and metals, basic chemicals and petroleum and coal products.

07:32And in return, we export billions of dollars of goods to Canada.

07:37We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people across Connecticut.

07:42Jobs, employment, all stand to see their livelihoods threatened if this tax is allowed.

07:54And it will ripple across Connecticut. It will reverberate through the country,

08:00to the presiding officer's state, to Virginia, New York, Maryland, colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

08:08The cost of living in Connecticut will rise drastically.

08:13We already have one of the highest costs of living in the country.

08:17Taxing these goods will put an undue financial strain on individuals and families across Connecticut,

08:27most important on people who can least afford a higher tax.

08:31Our middle income and lower income members of the workforce,

08:36working people in Connecticut who have to buy stuff depending on their paychecks for groceries, for gasoline.

08:50A tax on those products will hit them in the pocketbook.

08:55It will hit their families. It will hit them at the kitchen table,

08:58when they go to the drugstore to buy pharmaceuticals,

09:01when they have down payments on homes, on furnishings, across the board.

09:08So, I am not here to make a speech.

09:16I'm really here to make a plea.

09:19Mr. President, please reconsider.

09:26These tariffs are fundamentally misguided. They are dumb.

09:31They are cruel, reckless, and careless.

09:35They play fast and loose with America's credibility around the world.

09:41And I urge my colleagues to vote yes on Senate Joint Resolution 37

09:47and join us in trying to save the American economy and our credibility around the world.

09:53Mr. President, I yield the floor.

'D-U-M-B': Richard Blumenthal Gives Blunt Reaction To Trump's 'Stupid' Tariffs On Canada

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