Thank God For Unanswered Prayers

Why Presidents Can’t Levy Tariffs

Inside today’s Daily Journal…

• Essay: Why Presidents Can’t Levy Tariffs

• Eli Lilly versus Novo Nordisk

• U.S. housing slump continues

• Data centers’ thirst for power

• Chart Of The Day… Domino’s Pizza

• Today’s Mailbag

Garth Brooks wrote a song years ago Republicans would be wise to remember.

Sometimes, I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember, when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
And just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

– “Unanswered Prayers,” Garth Brooks

The United States dodged a bullet last week when the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s “emergency” tariffs in its ruling Learning Resources v. Trump.

The White House argued the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) granted the president the authority to arbitrarily levy tariffs – even against countries with whom the U.S. is at peace.

The authority to levy taxes is the government’s “ring of power,” to use a J.R.R. Tolkien Middle Earth metaphor. Taxes are coercion. They represent the power to destroy. And that is why the power to tax must never be vested into the hands of a single man.

Granting that power to the president, permanently, would have meant the end of Western civilization.