00:00Thank you. Thank you. I now recognize Mr. Snyder from Illinois for five minutes.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I'm not going to make it any easier on you, Ambassador,
00:08but I will pick up on what Ms. Fischbach and Schweikert before said.
00:12Ambassador Greer, yes or no, didn't Israel zero out all tariffs on U.S. products
00:16before President Trump announced his across-the-board tariffs on April 2nd?
00:20They indicated their will. Just yes or no?
00:22They did not do it yet. They announced they wanted to.
00:25They announced it, but yet the President still imposed 17% tariffs on Israel.
00:28Ambassador Greer, what's our trade balance with the elephant and fur seals, petrels, albatrosses,
00:33and penguins living unheard in McDonald's Islands?
00:35They're part of Australia's customs union.
00:37But they're separate, and I'm going to reclaim my time.
00:39The President has imposed specific tariffs unheard in McDonald's Islands
00:42while not taking any action against Russia, Belarus, North Korea, or Cuba.
00:47And I don't want to disappoint my mom and my wife or have them yell at me,
00:52but Mr. Greer, I'm going to say what I think almost everyone is thinking.
00:55WTF, what's the President thinking?
01:00What did he and you think was going to happen after unilaterally declaring a global trade war?
01:05Did you expect the so-called Liberation Day to become Liquidation Week,
01:09destroying more than $10 trillion of value
01:13and moving us from an extended bull market into a self-induced bear?
01:17Did you intentionally plan to decimate Americans' retirement accounts and 529 accounts for their kids' education?
01:25Did you and the President anticipate raising prices for American families already struggling to make ends meet?
01:31Did you mean to make American businesses less, not more, competitive in global markets?
01:36Was the intention, with the largest tax increase in U.S. history,
01:41to put the United States and maybe the entire global economy into a recession
01:45because of what Wall Street Journal editorial board
01:48– let me repeat this.
01:50It was the Wall Street Journal editorial board said is the dumbest trade war in history.
01:57Already, Diane Swonk, the chief economist at KPMG, is saying
02:01that her baseline forecast is a recession starting this quarter.
02:05Jamie Dimon and J.P. Morgan have raised their probability of recession to 79%.
02:09The Wall Street Journal reports the betting markets have it at 70%,
02:13and Goldman Sachs recently again raised their likelihood
02:17the second time since this trade war started to 45%,
02:20and I expect that will rise again.
02:23Indeed, by the time you have finished this hearing,
02:26I wouldn't be surprised if we already were in a recession.
02:28Less than a week after President Trump's declaration of, again,
02:32the largest sales tax in U.S. history,
02:35global markets continue to roil as a result of tariff-based recession fears.
02:40The President's newly imposed tariffs have real-world impacts
02:43on every one of my constituents who will see higher prices at the grocery store,
02:50shortages of critical products, and less money in their retirement accounts
02:54and the accounts for their kids' education.
02:55American families deserve relief, but instead,
02:59thanks to President Trump and you,
03:01they're heading to the store to panic buy essentials
03:03before retailers raise their prices.
03:06I've heard from literally thousands of constituents
03:09about the pain that President Trump has said this country will suffer
03:13as a result of these tariffs.
03:15They have written to me sharing that they have lost as much as 20% of their 401k
03:19and 529 accounts in the last week alone
03:22due to market fluctuations that are responding in real time
03:25to the President's announcements of arbitrary and capricious tariffs.
03:30Seniors who recently retired are worried about having to return to work
03:33to make sure they can make ends meet,
03:35and today wonder if they will now outlive their retirement savings.
03:40Small business owners are worried about laying off employees.
03:43Large companies in my district are preparing their next earnings report
03:46for investors in telling me that the impacts of these tariffs are material.
03:50That's business speak,
03:51for the tariffs are going to have a real adverse effect on their operations
03:55and likely adverse effect on their cash flows.
03:58Make no mistake,
03:59President Trump's trade agenda is slowing economic growth and job creation,
04:03weakening U.S. global leadership,
04:05and increasing the cost of doing business in the United States.
04:09These tariffs make life for Americans more expensive,
04:12make our nation less secure,
04:13and our citizens less prosperous.
04:16Congress must take back its constitutional authority
04:18to stop the chaos and the pain
04:20President Trump is inflicting on American families
04:22and dig us out of what could be a self-inflicted recession.
04:27Before I ask a question with my limited time,
04:30I ask unanimous consent to submit into the record
04:32the CIA World Factbook entry for Heard Island and McDonald Island.
04:36Without objection.
04:37I also ask unanimous consent to submit for the record
04:40an article from Scientific American,
04:42The Heard of McDonald Islands are a pristine biological wonderland.
04:46The subtitle of the article is,
04:48Trump's tariffs put a spotlight on the uninhabited Heard of McDonald Islands,
04:51which comprise a remote volcanic refuge for penguins and seals
04:56and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
04:58This just once again illustrates that these tariffs are not strategic,
05:03they are not targeted,
05:04they are arbitrary and capricious
05:06in hurting our economy and our American citizens.
05:09I yield back.
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