One question that needs to be considered
as the U.S. launches the trade war is:
does the president really have the power
to do this? Suppose that one day a president
decided to raise taxes. Everyone should
think “wait a minute – the president can’t
unilaterally raise taxes! Tax rates are
determined by a law passed by Congress.”
The constitution is even more specific:
Article I, section 7: ” All bills for
raising revenue shall originate in
the House of Representatives…”
The nation’s founders were well aware
of the risk of executives imposing
taxes on the people; one of the
charges listed in the Declaration
of Independence is that the King has
been “imposing Taxes on us without our
Consent.”
A tariff is a type of tax, and clearly
should be included in these provisions.
Quite apart from the merits of these
tax increases, there should be a
constitutional case that the president
simply does not have the power to
unilaterally raise taxes.
For more see
https://www.lawfareblog.com/new-challenge-trumps-national-security-tariffs-and-executive-power
……………..
–Douglas Downing
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