Wyden Decries 'New Low' as GOP Senators Shield Trump's Massive Tax on Working Class

Nearly every Senate Republican on Wednesday voted against a resolution aimed at terminating the national emergency that U.S. President Donald Trumpdeclared last month to impose his sweeping tariffs, which are wreaking economic havoc across the globe.

Just three Republicans—Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Rand Paul (R-Ky.)—joined every voting Democrat in supporting the resolution led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). The measure deadlocked at 49 in favor and 49 against, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance subsequently cast a tie-breaking vote to table the resolution—which Trump had threatened to veto.

"In any sane world, it would be a scandal that the vast majority of one political party would vote for a pointless tax on the American people, one that is hiking prices and destroying jobs, all to please one man," Wyden said in a statement following the votes. "The only winner from Donald Trump's trade chaos is China, which is scooping up markets and trading partners that Trump has driven away. This vote represents a new low for the Republican Party."

Wyden said in a floor speech Wednesday that Trump's "senseless global tariffs" are "a major culprit" in the first U.S. economic contraction since 2022, as shown in a Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) report published earlier in the day.

"If this continues to be our tariff policy," the Oregon senator warned, "every major economist and forecaster is unfortunately predicting recession, job losses, and the misery that was all over our news feeds this morning."

Trump's tariffs currently stand at 10% on imports from most U.S. trading partners, and 145% on Chinese imports, as the White House negotiates bilateral deals behind closed doors.

Melinda St. Louis, Global Trade Watch director at Public Citizen, said Wednesday that "while strategic tariffs can be an important tool to support domestic manufacturing, Trump's inappropriate use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to push through sweeping and reckless tariffs actually has nothing to do with protecting U.S. workers."

"He's rolling back investments and support for domestic businesses and undermining workers' rights at home and likely pushing the agenda of Big Tech, Big Pharma, and other billionaire buddies in his secretive trade talks," St. Louis added.

The progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) said Wednesday that Trump's tariffs have already hit U.S. households with a "$14 billion price hike," pointing to BEA data showing that "taxes on foreign imports spiked to $96.3 billion just in the first quarter of 2025, up $14 billion, or 17%, from the same period in 2024." Corporations often pass import tax costs to consumers in the form of price increases.

"Lower and middle-income households will bear a disproportionate share of the Trump Tariff Tax," ATF said. "While the bottom 60% of households take home roughly one-fifth of national income, they will pay nearly one-third of the price of Trump's tariff regime. Meanwhile, the top 1% highest-income households—those that take in over $940,000 a year—will pay only one-tenth of the Trump Tariff Tax, even though they get well over one-fifth of national income."

"This is all part of Trump and congressional Republicans' radical agenda to rig the tax code further in favor of the wealthy while sticking low- and middle-income families with the bill," the group added.