Sen. Kennedy: ‘With Tariffs, an Eye for an Eye, Just Leaves Both People Blind’

SCARBOROUGH: “Let’s bring in our Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. He serves on the Banking and Budget Committee. Senator, very, very grateful for you to be on today to talk about tariffs, talk about the economy, but let me start where I was talking with Christine Romans. When you have oil going below $60 per barrel, that starts impacting states like Louisiana, Texas, an awful lot. About a quarter, as you know, a quarter of your Louisiana’s economy comes from jobs in the oil and gas industry, 300,000 employers. You can go on and on. But the bigger problem is that suggests that some of the smartest minds across the world are betting on a recession. What are you saying to your business leaders when they’re calling you about where this goes next?”
Kennedy: “Well, this is what I’m telling them. With tariffs, an eye for an eye just leaves both people blind. When a government imposes a tariff, it’s putting its thumb on the scale. It interferes with people’s freedom to exchange goods and services. Some countries, China, the best example, have used trade barriers as a weapon to hurt the American economy. You said it. God created the world, everything else is made in China. President Trump decided to to try to change this, and he, as we know, has imposed dramatically higher American tariffs on these countries. But then, at least for me, an extraordinary thing happened. We have 195 countries in the world, probably 40 percent have come forward and instead of bowing up and fighting, they’ve said, ‘We want to lower our tariffs. Will you lower yours? I frankly never saw that coming.’ I think it is a wonderful opportunity. Now, I don’t want to feign understanding. I do not know what the president is going to do next. There’s an internal debate and — going on inside and outside the White House. I can just tell you what I would do, Joe. I would pounce on this opportunity like a ninja. And I would use this as an opportunity to reduce, or in some cases, Taiwan, Vietnam, the European Union, go to zero reciprocal tariffs. And then we can have free trade, let the best product at the best price win. But I don’t want to mislead you, I don’t know what the president’s going to do next. I know what I hope he does.”