Do you remember when Democrats – I’m talking about Democrat leaders like former Speaker Of The House Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and perennial Presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders – were all in for tariffs?
Do you notice that, with Donald Trump in the Oval Office and actually using them as a means of evening the playing field on international trade, all three – surprise, surprise – are now against them?
In case you are not fully informed regarding this remarkable turnaround (remarkable, that is, if you assume these three are anything other than political opportunists), here are the particulars, via the beginning of Kerry Picket’s fully referenced article for the Washington Examiner:
Democrats haven’t always been the anti-tariff party, with some of the party’s leaders previously calling for reciprocal tariffs — especially against China for “unfair trade policies.”
The Democrats’ pro-tariff past has been highlighted in viral social media posts of decades-old C-SPAN video clips in which party leaders demand action against countries that impose tariffs on U.S. goods.
Those pushing for tariffs in the 1990s and 2000s included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York and Sen. Bernard Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont.
All three have strenuously opposed President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which he paused on Wednesday just as they were taking effect. The pause is supposed to last for 90 days.
“The Chinese have enjoyed a huge trade surplus with the U.S. Every year, it gets larger and larger. Much of that trade surplus is because the Chinese don’t play fair,” Mr. Schumer said, calling for steeper tariffs on Chinese goods.
Ms. Pelosi in 1996 described the U.S.-China trade relationship as a “job loser” and demanded retaliatory tariffs.
Mr. Sanders in 2008, while running for president, bemoaned the lack of high tariffs in the U.S.
Do these political hacks believe in anything other than “if Republicans are for it I’m against it and if Republicans are against it I’m for it”? Does what is good for the country ever win out over partisan politics?
Not that I can see.
