Conservatives scolded by Rand Paul on Fox as he bashes Trump policy: 'They have to decide'

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) once again slammed President Donald Trump's tariff regime in an interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business on Wednesday.

"You have a point about the whiskey retaliation, you have a point, it's an important point," said Kudlow. "But that's pretty rare. The retaliation part of this story has been very rare. And in truth, you know, we showed that the tariff effects, front page of the Wall Street Journal, 'Tariff Effect: Billions In Revenue But No Economic Earthquake'. I mean, we haven't had a tariff recession, we haven't had tariff inflation."

The United States has already seen a significant economic slowdown and a rise in prices attributable to tariffs.

"But the question I would ask you, Larry, is, they're bragging that they think they can bring in $2 trillion in revenue over 10 years. If someone came to you and said, 'Hey Larry, I've got this great idea for a value-added tax that'll bring in $2 trillion over the next 10 years,' you'd shake your head and say 'We don't want to be Europeans, we're not for that, and we've never been for adding a sales tax without removing some other tax.'"

"So people all the time say, 'Oh, we're going to get rid of the income tax. Sure. Present that to me, and I'm for getting rid of the income tax in exchange for a tariff. But that's not what we're getting. We're getting $2 trillion in taxes on top of all the other taxes that we have. So ultimately conservatives have to decide, do they like taxes because they're Donald Trump's taxes, or do we still say that we don't want more revenue coming out of the productive economy and going to government, that we want to balance the budget to reducing spending, not increasing taxes?"

Paul, one of the more hardline anti-government lawmakers in the Senate, has consistently been skeptical of Trump's tariff plans, in particular criticizing Trump's obsession with getting rid of trade deficits.

All of this comes as legal cases move forward that seek to strip Trump of the power to unilaterally impose tariffs under emergency powers without the approval of Congress.

Watch the video below or at the link here.