Tim Kaine: Why I’m forcing a vote on Trump’s Canada tariffs

The consequences will be unacceptable and brutal. Tariffs are taxes on everyday Americans, with price hikes on nearly all basic goods being passed down to consumers. Fully in place, Trump's tariffs would cost the average American family up to $2,000 per year in higher prices,according to the Budget Lab at Yale - and the Canada tariffs will make up a large part of that. Put another way: If Trump's tariff agenda comes to pass, it would represent one of the largest tax increases on American families in recent history. It would hurt consumers, businesses, farmers and the economy as a whole.

The American people broadly oppose tariffs on Canada, with only 28 percent in favor. Even the mere specter of tariffs has hurt the U.S. economy: Consumer confidence sank in March to the lowest level in more than two years, investment is being hampered by immense uncertainty, and the stock market lost $4 trillion in value earlier this month.

Despite these tariffs' unpopularity and their toxic impact on our economy, Trump is finding any excuse he can to impose them - including by abusing emergency powers.

The emergency powers Trump is invoking — based on provisions of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act — are intended for use in legitimate emergencies related to foreign threats and adversaries. This law is typically used to place sanctions on bad actors like cartels and dictators, but Trump’s rationale for an "emergency" that justifies billions in taxes on American consumers doesn’t make sense in Canada’s case. He has made spurious claims of a fentanyl crisis at the northern border on par with the drug situation at the southern border, but his numbers don’t add up.

Here’s what the data says: More than 96 percent of fentanyl interdicted at our borders is coming from Mexico and less than 1 percent from Canada. The president is using the fake emergency as a smoke screen to collect tariff revenue that he can use to fund a massive tax cut for the uber-rich. Who will pay? Everyday people and American businesses and farmers.

That’s why I’m not surprised that Trump spends more time talking about wanting to annex Canada than he does about the need to stop the flow of fentanyl.

Fortunately, the National Emergencies Act of 1976 included a provision allowing any senator to force a vote to block emergency powers being abused by the president. I will be pulling that procedural lever to challenge Trump’s Canada tariffs early next week.

I am leading this effort alongside Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia), and I am glad to be joined by our co-sponsors, Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Angus King (I-Maine), Chris Coons (D-Delaware) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky). All 100 members of the chamber — including the 52 other Republicans — will have to make a public choice about whether to side with American families, businesses and farmers or with Trump.

Words mean a lot, but deeds mean more. Right now, for Democratic elected officials, that means going beyond merely diagnosing a problem and instead using every tool at our disposal to slam the brakes on policies that will hurt our country.

Republicans will be judged based on their actions, too: When the Senate votes on this resolution, the American people will be watching to see whether they walk the plank for Trump’s economically ruinous taxes or stand up for American families.