Speaking of taxes, regular readers of the HOTLINE know that we are old-fashioned “strict constructionists” when it comes to the Constitution. And we also like to quote from the Constitution since no one else bothers to do it:

Article I, Section 7, Clause 1:

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

This seems pretty unambiguous. Yet, word on the street is that Trump is planning to impose an array of tariffs in his first few weeks in office.

Someone, please explain to us how Trump – or any President – can assert the authority to raise tariffs/taxes without congressional approval? Throughout history, major tariffs have been approved by the House and Senate.

Yes, we know there are laws on the books that delegate this power to the president in some circumstances. We also know that Trump uses tariff threats as negotiating leverage to get other countries to do what is in America’s interests.

But our Founders wisely wanted to make it hard to raise taxes. Delegating unilateral taxing power to the president makes it way too easy.