Kentucky’s Republican senators have set themselves apart as top conservative voices expressing opposition to President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements.
Sen. Rand Paul has spoken frequently on the airwaves and the Senate floor in recent months, decrying what he calls an “abuse of executive power.”
“I don’t want to live where my representatives cannot speak for me, and have a check and balance on power,” Paul said in the Senate during an April vote to push back on Canadian tariffs. “One person can make a mistake. And guess what? Tariffs are a terrible mistake.”
Paul and Sen. Mitch McConnell have joined Democrats to push back against Trump’s tariff measures. Widespread, blanket tariffs are new to the mainstream Republican party, which previously championed free and unfettered trade. Trump’s shift towards tariff policies creates some alignment between former party leaders like McConnell and the more libertarian-leaning Republicans who are occasional party outsiders on some issues.
Paul and McConnell have joined forces with a couple other Senate Republicans to vote for resolutions aimed at stopping sweeping tariffs. In early April, four Senate Republicans — including Kentucky’s two senators — voted to end the national emergency that created the Canadian tariffs. Canadian goods entering the U.S. are currently levied a 25% tariff, excluding energy products and a few other goods. ...
More recently, another resolution lost in a tie vote while McConnell was absent. Paul was the lone Republican co-sponsor on the resolution to end the national emergency used to impose global tariffs — although two other Republicans joined him in voting for it. In a statement to Kentucky Public Radio, a spokesperson for McConnell said he was “under the weather” and could not attend the vote, but has consistently opposed tariffs otherwise.
Paul says he opposes the misuse of emergency powers — besides taking issue with tariffs as an economic tool. McConnell has frequently spoken out against trade wars, which he says are not in Americans’ best interests.
“As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most,” McConnell posted on social media. “With so much at stake globally, the last thing we need is to pick fights with the very friends with whom we should be working with to protect against China’s predatory and unfair trade practices. That includes what we do on trade.”
Read the rest at Louisville Public Media.
