President Donald Trump’s tariffs are sending America “backwards to the Great Depression,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, said at a news conference held by Senate Democrats Friday afternoon.
Democrats said they’re introducing an amendment to the budget resolution now before the Senate that would rescind any of Trump’s tariffs they say will raise the cost of groceries, medications or “other secondary goods.”
Trump introduced the global reciprocal tariffs Wednesday. Other countries have been “ripping off” the U.S. for decades with high tariffs, while the U.S. has imposed very low tariffs in return, Trump said. His reciprocal tariffs are an attempt to level the playing field and boost American jobs.
“This week, Donald Trump made one of the dumbest decisions he’s ever made as president, and that is saying a whole lot,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Schumer and other Senate Democrats said Trump’s tariffs could cost the average American family several thousand dollars more per year.
“I call these the Trump Tariff Tax. That’s what this is. It’s a $4,000-dollar tax increase on every single family in this country. So Elon Musk can afford this,” Klobuchar said, “but for families, for small businesses, for small farmers in my state, this is devastating.”
Klobuchar said the tariffs would effectively tack on $3,000 to the price of cars for the average family and increase the cost of new homes for young couples by $20,000.
Democrats not only strongly oppose some of Trump’s tariffs, but they argue that he’s failing in his agenda for the federal budget to deliver on campaign promises to reduce inflation and lower Americans’ cost of living. The budget resolution the Senate will debate Friday evening crafted by Republicans aims to advance Trump’s fiscal priorities for tax cuts, bigger budgets for defense and border security and raising the debt ceiling.
“We have here a pincer of pain. On the one hand, Trump and the Republicans are taking away vital services in health care and in housing and in food… And then at the same time, at the other side of the pincer, they’re squeezing them by creating higher prices,” Schumer said.
The Senate is engaging in final budget debates Friday toward the passage of the budget resolution.
