(Bloomberg) — Prominent Democrats are seizing on Donald Trump\u2019s Supreme Court tariff loss to wage a populist election-year campaign to refund the overturned import duties to the US public.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m calling for a $1,336 refund for every Ohio household,\u201d progressive Democrat Sherrod Brown said in a social media post Monday. Brown, who is seeking a return to the Senate after a 2024 defeat, portrayed the levies as driving inflation and blamed his opponent, Republican Senator Jon Husted.<\/p>\n
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\u201cJon Husted supported them at every turn,\u201d Brown wrote. \u201cOhioans are being crushed by soaring prices and they deserve their money back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senator Bernie Moreno, who defeated Brown in 2024, ripped him for coming out against tariffs after supporting them in previous decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Democrats used to be the party of tariffs because the Democrats used to be the party of the working class,\u201d Moreno told reporters at the Capitol.<\/p>\n
Moreno is pushing for Congress to codify higher tariffs and use the revenue to pay for other priorities, like making tax breaks for the middle class permanent. It\u2019s unlikely such legislation will make its way through Congress this year.<\/p>\n
Democrats clearly see an opening, with Trump acting to launch a new 15% global tariff to replace the tariffs the Supreme Court struck down and telling reporters any refunds are likely to be delayed in the courts for years. Some of the party\u2019s most visible political figures have taken up the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump stole your money with his illegal tariffs \u2014 and you paid higher prices on everything from housing to groceries,\u201d Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren posted. \u201cIt\u2019s time for Trump to pay up and give back your money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democratic governors have also been demanding refund checks, with potential 2028 presidential candidates Gavin Newsom of California and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois demanding $1,700 or more back per household.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery dollar unlawfully taken must be refunded immediately \u2014 with interest,\u201d Newsom wrote. \u201cCough up!\u201d<\/p>\n
Pritzker, meanwhile, sent Trump an invoice for $8.6 billion, or $1,700 per family in his state.<\/p>\n
The idea of channeling at least a portion of tariff revenue back to American households is a populist cause Trump himself has previously championed.<\/p>\n
The president pushed for tariff \u201cdividend\u201d checks of $2,000 per person in low and moderate-income families for months, but Republican leaders in Congress have given the idea a frosty reception.<\/p>\n
Top Senate Democrats, meanwhile, announced legislation Monday afternoon to require full refunds with interest of what they estimated to be $175 billion collected through Trump-ordered tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down.<\/p>\n
That legislation calls on businesses that are refunded import duties to pass on the money to customers but does not require them to do so.<\/p>\n
The Ohio Senate race is sure to top hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign spending and is key to Democratic efforts to retake control of Congress. Tariffs are also likely to play major roles in other battleground Senate races, including in Maine, Alaska and Iowa.<\/p>\n
Husted, the incumbent Ohio Republican senator, didn\u2019t say what should happen to the disputed tariff revenue in a statement he issued Friday after the court ruing.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, the Supreme Court has spoken. In America, we respect the rule of law even when we disagree with it,\u201d Husted posted on social media. Husted voted against several efforts in the Senate to repeal Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/p>\n
While importers are already readying for battle in the courts to win back the billions they paid, odds for action in Congress seem slim.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see a pathway in Congress that there\u2019s going to be refunds,\u201d House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith told Bloomberg Television on Monday.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s dividend proposal prompted concern last year from watchdog groups like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which warned it could cost hundreds of billions of dollars a year when annual deficits are already approaching $2 trillion.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Caitlin Reilly.<\/p>\n
(Updates with Moreno comments starting in fourth paragraph)<\/p>\n
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\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — Prominent Democrats are seizing on Donald Trump\u2019s Supreme Court tariff loss to wage a populist election-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[115755,7904,28,1340,12,101,68941,112561,55485,15304,149396],"class_list":["post-486588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-bernie-moreno","tag-bloomberg","tag-business","tag-congress","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-jon-husted","tag-senate-democrats","tag-sherrod-brown","tag-supreme-court","tag-the-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}