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Possibly because lawsuits challenging the power of the President to impose tariffs under the Emergency Economic Powers Act are underway.[1] GOP support for Cong

• hello_computer 2y ago
  Seems kinda crazy that so much power was ever vested in the president. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48435 https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48435
  • eftychis 2y ago
    Laziness and fear of the closet monster beget tyrants.
    • enaaem 2y ago
      The best way to sabotage Trump is doing exactly what he wants (and make sure he takes all the credit).
      • etiam 2y ago
        How would you manage the bit in parenthesis? It's a foundational part of the sickness in people like Trump that anything bad is by definition somebody else's fault, and clearly his cultists just keep lapping up his lies no matter how insane and transparent.
        • hn_acc1 2y ago
          This. Anything (accidentally) good was totally intended by Trump. Anything bad was because of evil ultra-leftists sabotaging his intended good, and not because Trump made even the tiniest of mistakes.
          • shepherdjerred 2y ago
            please keep in mind that everybody is vulnerable to this mindset -- not just conservatives
            • malcolmgreaves 2y ago
              To an extent, since we’re all human. But conservatives, regardless of nationality, are unified by one characteristic that makes them more susceptible to this kind of propaganda. Conservatives lack the ability to empathize abstractly. Due to their extreme emphasis on being self-centered, they are deficient in understanding that what happens to another can happen to them. Once something bad happens to them, they are able to start to see the threads that bind them to others and society. But it’s only once it’s been made personal that there’s a chance of this recognition occurring. So “us good, them bad” style of mob thinking is more common in conservatives only because they systematically do not ask themselves “are we actually different from them?”
              • shepherdjerred 2y ago
                ...yeah so this is exactly what I was talking about
      • NegativeLatency 2y ago
        Sure if you have no skin in the game, but I however live in the US and also own stock so that's not going to work for me.
  • Animats 2y ago
    How to handle emergency authority in a democracy has been a hard problem back to the Roman Empire. Read up on Roman dictators.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dictator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dictator
    • tshaddox 2y ago
      I mean, it may not be a completely solved problem, but you don't have to be too clever to think that perhaps rules similar to the War Powers Act ought to also apply to the President's authority to apply tariffs.
    • MrMember 2y ago
      Roman dictators have always fascinated me. It worked (for a while at least) because both sides agreed it was necessary and temporary. The people who appointed the dictator knew extreme measures were needed to navigate them through some crisis. The dictator knew if they tried to hold on to power longer than was necessary they would simply be removed or killed, their supreme power only extended through the crisis in which they were needed.
  • rurp 2y ago
    We've all been learning just how much of the US system runs on assumption of there being some baseline level of competence and good faith. It hasn't been a pretty lesson. I'm honestly not sure there is another way since laws can't cover all possible future edge cases with effective enforcement mechanisms. The simpler fix is to not elect blatantly corrupt and incompetent leaders, but voters failed that task and now the country is paying the price.
  • stevage 2y ago
    It's interesting to see it as an answer to the question, how long does it take to turn a well regulated democracy with a powerless head of state into an autocracy.
• antognini 2y ago
  I've seen relatively little discussion about these lawsuits, but I do think there is a pretty good chance that SCOTUS will rule these tariffs unconstitutional. (It's certainly more likely than Congress rescinding the powers they've ceded to the presidency.) Constitutionally, the power to set tariffs resides with the Legislative branch, not the Executive branch. Congress has delegated some authority to set tariffs under certain conditions (namely, emergencies and matters related to national security). But the Court is clear that one branch cannot delegate all of its powers to another. The Court is pretty deferential to the Executive branch, especially in matters of national security. But no matter how much you squint, it's hard to see how setting broad based tariffs on all goods from every foreign countries qualifies under the Emergency Economic Powers Act.
  • magicloop 2y ago
    It is a sound analysis but I think there are other non-legal factors at play. If the president tries to do X, then the lawyers block X, then in political game theory the president "wins" in the eyes of the electorate because the president can argue "my plan was perfect, the execution failed due to the opposition, so I am not accountable to what has now happened". The left might want to see a disaster play out to capitalize in the mid-term elections, laying the accountability directly on the president. The right might not have freedom of action because they fear a well-funded challenger for their seat. In am interested in other people's opinions and ideas in this area. I agree it is too little discussed and analyzed. Please share your insights!
    • delecti 2y ago
      The people on the left who want to see a disaster play out are mostly accelerationists. I think most on the left would worry more about the harm that economic disaster would be inflicted on people. And more pragmatically, I think that Trump is so committed to causing disasters that he's likely to succeed at enough of his attempts that there should be pushback to as much of it as possible.
      • intended 2y ago
• piva00 2y ago
  I'm starting to subscribe to the idea this was blatant market manipulation. Trump is only out to make money, the guy never had any other thought in life since money gives him status, fame, and power. It's a grift, as any other of his grifts, but now he can manipulate the whole stock market with his power. There's nothing else that I can rationally come up with to explain this absurdity.
  • hn_acc1 2y ago
    There's your problem - the word "rationally". NOTHING about MAGA / Trump is rational - it's all based on feelings.
  • usefulcat 2y ago
    > Trump is only out to make money Nope. Not even close. He's all about power, and the appearance of strength. It's no coincidence that he looks up to Putin. Money is almost always a means to an end, and this is no exception.