Alex Padilla: “as the American people can clearly see, President Trump's new tariffs have become a massive tax hike on consumers--a tax…”

“as the American people can clearly see, President Trump's new tariffs have become a massive tax hike on consumers--a tax on the food we eat, a tax on the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, every cup of coffee we have in the morning. These rising costs are not just hurting consumers, actually; they are hurting American businesses and our workforce too. We are already seeing the impact. It is not a hypothetical. I call your attention to my home State, the great State of California, home to two of the largest ports in the Nation in southern California alone, the neighboring Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, that truly power our Nation's economy. It is not an exaggeration. The Port of Los Angeles, which is the largest port in the United States, expects imports to drop by 35 percent in just 2 weeks' time, as Trump's tariffs and his manufactured chaos bring global trade to a halt. The Port of Long Beach is expecting similar declines. Take a minute to think about the magnitude of that drop in cargo volume. That decline, at the end of the day, will mean empty shelves and higher prices. The over $300 billion in cargo coming through what we know as the San Pedro Bay port complex is tied to nearly 1 million jobs in the region alone and 2.7 million jobs across the country. That is nearly one job for every four containers.…”