A unified House Republican conference has a message for President-elect Trump: Stop pushing a 35 percent retaliatory tariff. A penalty for U.S. companies that choose foreign labor over American workers is not going to happen.
That’s the most substantive policy rebuke to date, coming from across the ideological spectrum and uniting industrialist sympathizers with free market ideologues.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fired the first shot over Trump’s economic bow, sinking the possibility of tariffs. “I don’t want to get into some kind of trade war,” Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 House Republican, told reporters Monday in response to questions about the incoming executive’s plan to shackle businesses stateside.
Though it made news, it wasn’t surprising. The California Republican has been a K-Street sweetheart for some time. And he’s proved more pro-business than pro-market, backing the Export-Import bank, renewable energy credits and sugar subsidies. But it’s notable that his self-interest aligns with a more populist voice in the conference.
On Monday night, Virginia Rep. Dave Brat echoed McCarthy when he downplayed the possibility of Trump’s tariff, telling the Washington Examiner that it “wouldn’t be good policy.”
Brat came from behind during the 2014 Virginia primary to knock off McCarthy’s predecessor, Rep. Eric Cantor. Since then he’s been an outspoken firebrand in the House Freedom Caucus and a thorn in leadership’s side.
An economics professor turned conservative congressman, Brat has had to temper his enthusiasm for Trump with his free market values. And he’s come to a similar conclusion as House GOP leadership.
“Here’s the bottom line: I don’t think we’re going to do any 35 percent tariffs,” Brat said, “It wouldn’t be a good policy, but as a hint to other countries that we’re going to get level playing fields and put our workers’ interests first, that’s what’s going on.”
That’s politically remarkable. From opposite sides of the GOP conference and perhaps for different reasons, both Brat and McCarthy oppose Trump’s tariff. It shows that few in the business of legislating take the idea seriously. Though popular on the campaign trail, tariffs will be dead on arrival in Congress.
The opposition is so complete that even the new Freedom Caucus Chair, Mark Meadows, said talking tariffs would be a waste of time.
“I think that to waste a whole lot of time debating the merits on that or the lack of direction on tariffs,” Meadows told the Examiner, “is misplaced debate. We’ve got a whole lot of work ahead of us. I don’t know if that’s a policy we’ll need to opine on anytime soon.”
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
