It was a political eventful week, dominated by fallout from security breaches, including commercial messaging apps and sudden tariff announcements on imported cars.
(Sound bites of archived recordings)
President Donald Trump: It’s going to race. I think our automotive business will thrive like it has never thrived before.
Scott Simon, host:
President Trump signed an executive order this week at the White House, imposing a 25% tariff on imported cars and parts that take effect on April 2nd, and the release date for the president’s call. Stocks rolled sharply on Friday, with investors drawing headlines that would make stocks plummet over trade and inflation. NPR Senior Contributor Ron Elving will be taking part. Ron, thank you for being with us.
Ron Elving, byline: It’s good to be with you, Scott.
Simon: How do you understand these tariffs in the president’s economic policy?
Erving: To hear the president himself convey it, tariffs are a sign of his economic policy. They are key to establishing American domination over our trading partners. And Trump says tariffs will bring so much income and replace income taxes. Now, Trump says that it worked that way for President McKinley in the 1890s. He says it made America wealthy. So again it works that way and allows global industrial companies to make products in the US rather than elsewhere.
Now Trump is threatening far more tariffs than he’s ever imposed, and some still think it’s all a bluff and a negotiation tactic. That debate has kept the financial mark bounced back for several weeks. But on Friday, the consensus seemed like Trump was serious — warning US companies not to retaliate and not to raise prices when costs rise. And you saw how the market took it. In addition to some other bad news about inflation and growth and consumer trust, they beat the Dow over 700 points, with other indexes losing more in percentages.
Simon: And of course, this economic news comes in a week – controlled by the revelation, the top of the US officials.
Elving: So, here’s a story that no one could have predicted. No one saw what was in the chat room for top-level national security officials discussing these plans. It was surprising enough, but almost a week later, what really stands out isn’t the basic security breaches. It is the complete refusal of all people that involves acknowledging the nature and severity of its infringement. They all just want to brush it off despite the public protest and yet again strong signs of disapproval in public voting.
Simon: Last night’s news, top vaccine officials who resigned from the FDA appear under pressure. People may remember Dr. Peter Marks from the speed of operation and the development efforts of the Covid-19 vaccine. what happened?
Erving: Dr. Marks was a key figure in the Manipulation Warp Speed program that developed the vaccine and saved lives in the pandemic that killed more than 1 million people in the United States. Marks wrote this about RFK Jr. in his dull resignation letter, citing that “it has become clear that truth and transparency are not wanted by the secretary, but rather wants a subordinate confirmation and lie of his misinformation.” And in response, an official at HHS said, “While Mark doesn’t want to restore science to its golden standards and promote radical transparency, it doesn’t want to do anything to the FDA under Secretary Kennedy’s strong leadership.”
Simon: Ron, I want to note this week a bipartisan letter from Senators Patty Murray and Susan Collins to President Trump’s Director of Business and Budget Russell Vought. They cite the sentence “He is not capable of choosing and choosing which emergency spending to specify so that the president does not have the right to veto item items.”
Elving: We have two senior senators here from the Approximate Budget Committee, the hub of the Congressional Expenditure Process. Republicans and Democrats – They once served as chairman and sometimes rank opposition members, but agree that there are constitutional and statutory restrictions on what the president does with federal funds. Now, this is an update of a very old debate that seemed to have been resolved 50 years ago on the decline of Richard Nixon’s scoundrel presidency. Nixon said he could cut spending that he doesn’t like, even if Congress already approved it in law. Congress said he could not, but it has been a land law since it was upheld by the Supreme Court. The President vows to faithfully carry out the law. This means laws passed by Congress. It means laws that use money approved by Congress.
Simon: Thank you very much, Ron Erving.
Erving: Thank you, Scott.
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