During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) spoke about the immediate economic harm caused by President Trump's tariffs.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Ambassador, thank you for being here.
00:04I believe in our great country. I love our country.
00:07I put a uniform on and served in combat for our great country.
00:12And I'm not here to talk about politics. I'm here to talk about policy, trade policy today.
00:18And both the chairman and the ranking member talked about the USMCA.
00:22I was honored and privileged to be on that negotiating team when we negotiated that bill and was signed into law
00:29by President Trump in 2019.
00:32And at the time, the president said it's the best trade deal ever.
00:36And I'd like to submit this article into the record explaining what he said.
00:41Without objection.
00:42Now the president is shredding that deal, creating chaos in the world economy.
00:47The numbers speak for themselves.
00:49$3,800 higher prices for American consumers,
00:54900 laid-off U.S. auto workers,
00:57trillions in lost retirement savings,
01:00tens of billions in lost agricultural sales for farmers.
01:04The Trump administration says that the tariff taxes will raise $6 trillion over 10 years,
01:12which would be the biggest tax increase in our history.
01:16The message coming out of the administration isn't at all coherent.
01:25I don't, I'm having trouble, my constituents are having trouble understanding this.
01:32You put, he puts a tariff on some 180 other countries,
01:37no tariff on Russia or Belarus or North Korea.
01:45And he's putting tariffs on UK, Ukraine, France,
01:51an island that only has penguins on it,
01:54but not a country that is clearly working against us
01:58and has a trade, we have a trade deficit with.
02:03It's confusing in every instance.
02:05He says that tariffs are here to stay to support domestic manufacturing
02:11and to raise revenue to pay for tax giveaways
02:14to people who really don't need that tax giveaway help.
02:19And at the same time, he's saying that tariffs are part of a negotiation
02:22to secure better trade conditions and that this will be over soon.
02:28I'd like to know which it is because it's not coherent at all.
02:33And I'd like to submit for the record documentation of his confusing priorities.
02:41And, Mr. Ambassador, I'm at a loss to what I tell my constituents.
02:47As Mr. Neal said about his constituents calling,
02:50my phone's ringing off the hook.
02:52I'm getting emails every day.
02:54I see people on the street they're asking.
02:56They want to know a $6 trillion tax on the U.S. economy.
03:01What do you tell people when they ask that question?
03:06$3,800 higher prices for the average American family.
03:11What do I tell my constituents when they ask that question?
03:15The major agriculture...
03:16I have an ag district.
03:17My major agricultural producer just lost all access
03:22to the number one foreign market to which they export their product.
03:29Not only has Canada closed the market,
03:31Canada has taken every U.S. product that my constituents send there
03:36off the shelves and off their webpages.
03:40And what do I tell them when they say,
03:43I've been working decades to build that market share
03:46and it's all gone that quick?
03:48What do you tell them?
03:49What do I tell my constituents who say,
03:53I have a container that it's already paid for of products coming in
03:58and I will not be able to afford the tariff when that container lands?
04:04What do I tell my constituents who say,
04:07we've lost trillions of dollars in our 401Ks?
04:11How do I make that up?
04:13What do I tell my constituents when they say,
04:16my kids are getting ready to go to college
04:18and my 529 is in the dumps?
04:21How am I going to pay for my kids' education?
04:26Wait, things are going to get better?
04:28The kids are going to school now.
04:29They can't wait for stuff to get better.
04:33And pharmaceuticals, we had a hearing
04:35in the subcommittee yesterday on pharmaceuticals.
04:39And this tariff war is pricing pharmaceutical consumers out of the market.
04:46A 25% tax or tariff on pharmaceuticals?
04:51How are my constituents going to be able to afford their medications?
04:56This doesn't make any sense.
04:58This is an unprovoked tariff war that's costing us a lot of money
05:04with no confusing answer as to what we're doing,
05:08where we're going, or when we're going to get there.
05:11I yield back.
05:12I yield back.
05:12I yield back.
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