Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to talk about the abuse of authority that is taking place with the administration's use of section 232 of the Trade Act to implement taxes on the American people. Let me say this one more time. The President, and the administration, abusing section 232 of the Trade Act, have decided on their own accord to tax the American people. They have put in place a 25-percent tariff on steel and aluminum and are getting ready to do so on some other products. Yet, this is Congress's responsibility--Congress's responsibility--to generate tariffs or deal with taxes. The administration, by citing section 232--a national security issue--is taxing goods coming into America from Canada, from Europe, and our allies on a national security basis. Today I wrote a letter to Secretary Ross, our Secretary of Commerce, because it is my understanding--actually, today, in a hearing with the Finance Committee, he said there were 22,506 requests from companies in the United States asking for exclusions--exclusions--from being taxed for goods that come in to support their companies. I will say to my friends here, on what basis do we think these exclusions might be granted? We have already had an abuse of authority in using 232. I guess my question to Secretary Ross is, on what basis is he going to be granting these exclusions? Are they going to be friends of the administration who get exclusions?…”