Tariffs have long been understood as a form of taxation -- indeed, the Trump administration brags about the revenue they are bringing in. But from whom? Not from China or Brazil -- in the first instance, from the importers, and then from whomever it is to whom the importers can raise prices. This is not a mystery.
The founders/framers perfectly well understood that tariffs are taxes and they provided that Congress would have to enact just as it has to enact other revenue measures. It has the "power of the purse," while the executive has the power of the sword. Within Congress, it is important that the chamber closest to the popular will, the House of Representatives, is supposed to take the leading role.
Article one, sect. 7 speaks broadly of 'bills for raising revenue" as Congress' prerogative. Article I, section 8 turns that broad phrase into a list specifically including "duties, imposts and excises" -- i.e. tariffs.
The Trump administration seeks to evade that check by calling its tariff/taxes an emergency national security measure. But the specific country-by-country tariffs they are always announcing and revising don't sound at all like national security decisions. We now pay more for coffee because they, the Trumpets, have imposed tariffs on Brazil because by their own explanations they don't like how former President Bolsonaro is being treated there. Not a national security issue at all, and the use of such unconstitutional levies is not going to make America great again.
Litigation is underway. My own impression is that Wall Street is not as spooked by the Trump tariff shenanigans as it would otherwise be because Wall Street is listening to lawyers who are telling it that the litigation will likely end with the elimination of the whole elaborate nonsensical structure and the restoration of Congress' responsibilities on such matters.
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