Forbes columnist John Tamny argues that the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act would grant the White House sweeping new tariff authority under the guise of foreign policy. The bill, backed by Senator Lindsey Graham and others, effectively gives a president congressional cover to impose tariffs unilaterally. That power has already roiled markets and damaged business confidence when deployed without legislative blessing.
Dangerous policy gets rebranded as routine. Once influential editorial voices accept tariff expansion as a reasonable tradeoff, the debate stops being whether Congress should hand over economic authority and becomes how politely to do it. That shift affects markets, supply chains, and anyone betting on predictable trade policy.
Supporters argue that tariff legislation honoring Lindsey Graham and similar measures are necessary tools to counter adversarial trade practices and protect national security interests. They contend that executive flexibility on tariffs is essential in a volatile geopolitical environment.
The damage is the laundering. A policy that rattled markets when used unilaterally gets a fresh coat of legitimacy when Congress blesses it and friendly opinion pages nod along. Media outlets don't just report on power grabs. They teach readers which ones count as normal. That permission structure matters when the name on the bill is Lindsey Graham and the power ends up with Trump. Tariff legislation honoring Lindsey Graham is abjectly irresponsible because it converts emergency rationale into permanent authority, and the press is helping make that conversion invisible.
Filed to the Media desk · 2 days ago