[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 7, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1447-H1448]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  LET'S NOT INCREASE TAXES AS A WAY OF PROTECTING JOBS AND CAPITAL IN 
                              THIS COUNTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Sanford) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SANFORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to encourage folks at home, folks in 
this body, folks wherever they may be scattered across this country to 
speak out against what the administration has proposed with regard to 
raising tariffs on steel and aluminum. At the end of the day, I believe 
it would be disastrous not just for the economy at large, but, frankly, 
for every one of us in the way that it would impact our pocketbook or 
our wallet.
  In short, what I guess I am saying is that you don't have to do 
stupid to find that stupid is indeed stupid.
  What I am getting at here is that we have had real-world experiments 
about once every 100 years in this country on these kinds of policies.
  It was in 1828 that you had the so-called tariffs of abomination, and 
it was designed to supposedly protect jobs and protect industry. It 
proved to do neither. It actually proved to be disastrous for the South 
and, in particular, South Carolina, where I am from.
  About 100 years later, you had the Smoot-Hawley tariffs that were 
equally disastrous in not producing what they were supposedly designed 
to do. They didn't protect jobs, didn't protect industry, and, in fact, 
world trade declined by about two-thirds during that time period.
  So as a country, what I am suggesting is that we need to take a 
breath, we need to look before we leap.
  In life, I would say there is a value to listening to the advice and 
counsel of others. In this case, Gary Cohn, the President's chief 
economic person, who is actually leaving based on this dispute, has 
said this is not a good idea. Steelworkers unions have said this is not 
a good idea for the way it will impact Canadian steel and, by virtue, 
American steel. The markets, which are sort of the collective opinion 
of what we all think is going to come next economically, dropped 600 
points on Thursday and Friday, saying this is not a good idea. In fact, 
the Prime Minister of Sweden was here yesterday, and he was saying it 
was not a good idea.
  A lot of folks have spoken out and said: This is a genuinely bad 
idea. Let's not move forward.
  I would say further that, in negotiations, rescue teams shouldn't be 
the ones shooting the hostage.
  In this case, we have our Cs mixed up. The administration talks about 
doing something about China, but, in fact, the group--the country--most 
impacted would be the Canadians. The Canadians have to be some of our 
staunchest allies over a long period of time, with us in war, with us 
in trade, with us culturally; yet the bulk of all steel that is 
imported to the United States comes from Canada and 50 percent of what 
we export in steel goes to Canada.
  Let me put it this way: what I am saying is that what we need to do 
here is to trust our allies. If you walk into a bar and somebody says, 
``If you take one step closer, I am going to hit you in the face,'' we 
need to trust them that they are telling the truth. And

[[Page H1448]]

what they said is: If you do this to us, we are going to do it to you.
  In short, a trade war will ensue.
  I remember watching a movie back when I was in high school or 
college, somewhere along there, called ``War Games,'' and basically 
what it said was: the only way to win was not to play.
  If we move forward, we are going to get hurt. Nobody wins in a trade 
war.
  Finally, I would say this: in life, it is easier to burn down than to 
build up. You can take years constructing something and have it gone as 
a consequence of a match in a matter of moments or hours.
  As we look at this, this administration, in conjunction with the 
Congress, has worked hard to construct a better environment for jobs, 
capital, and way of life with the tax cuts, with regulatory reform; but 
all that could be erased if we move forward with these tariffs.
  More telling is the 70-year apparatus that has been created--over 70 
years, since the time of World War II--that had us engage with the rest 
of the world, and we see movement in the wrong direction.
  Do we want better trade?
  Yes.
  Can there be changes that are made?
  Yes. But this is not the answer.
  A tariff, at the end of the day, is a tax.
  My simple presumption and my simple ask of this administration, the 
ask of everybody in talking about what is occurring here, is to say: 
Let's not increase taxes as a way of ``protecting jobs and capital in 
this country.''

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