'Empty Shelves And Higher Prices': Alex Padilla Warns Public Will 'Feel More Pain'  From Trump's Tariffs - video Dailymotion

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During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) spoke about President Trump's tariffs.

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, as the American people can clearly see, President Trump's new

00:08tariffs have become a massive tax hike on consumers. A tax on the food we eat,

00:16a tax on the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, every cup of coffee we have in the

00:24morning. These rising costs are not just hurting consumers, actually. They're

00:31hurting American businesses and our workforce, too. We're already seeing the

00:37impact. It's not a hypothetical. I call your attention to my home state, the great

00:45state of California, home to two of the largest ports in the nation in Southern

00:51California alone, the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. They truly

00:57power our nation's economy. It's not an exaggeration. The port of Los Angeles, which

01:04is the largest port in the United States, expects imports to drop 35% in just two

01:12weeks time as Trump's tariffs and his manufactured chaos bring global trade to

01:20a halt. The port of Los Angeles, of Long Beach is expecting similar declines. Take

01:29a minute to think about the magnitude of that drop in cargo volume. That decline at

01:36the end of the day will mean empty shelves and higher prices. The over $300 billion

01:44in cargo coming through what we know as the San Pedro Bay port complex is tied to

01:52nearly 1 million jobs in the region alone and 2.7 million jobs across the country. That's

02:02nearly one job for every four containers. When the richest president in history decides on

02:11his own, unlawfully, to haphazardly apply an across-the-board tax on goods, because that's

02:19what these tariffs are, the goods movement industry is going to take a hit. It will mean fewer jobs

02:27for port workers, for truckers, and for communities across the country. It will mean more Americans

02:36out of work. And while the western port communities may be the first to feel the pain, it won't

02:44be long before the effects of these tariffs reach the East Coast and the Gulf Coast. As I mentioned,

02:55this isn't just bad news for American consumers who rely on imports. It's also bad news for U.S. farmers

03:04and businesses that rely on the export of goods to other countries. Trump's tariffs are already

03:11damaging important supply chains in ways that will be difficult and very expensive to reverse.

03:20And in the meantime, China and others are all too happy to fill in the void. I just had a group of

03:27growers from California in my office just yesterday, and they're sharing with me their very specific

03:34experience fears that are playing out. You see, United States companies, not just agricultural

03:41companies, depend on markets in China, elsewhere in Asia, India, Europe, for sales, for profits,

03:53that they can in turn invest in their own companies and in hiring more employees. Now, when those markets

03:58are shut off to them, in those countries' responses to these unnecessary tariff wars provoked by President

04:06Trump, they don't stop consuming, whether it's fruit, vegetables, electronics, or otherwise,

04:15they just find somewhere else to get it. And when those other countries, those other markets find

04:22a replacement for their supply, they're not going to give it up in two months, maybe, if Donald Trump

04:31wakes up in a better mood and sees the error of his ways when it comes to these tariffs, because there's

04:37that deadline, right? We're in a 90-day postponement of a lot of these tariffs, but we don't know what's

04:43coming on day 91. Tariffs are imposed, tariffs are not imposed, more significant tariffs imposed.

04:53Hope it has nothing to do with this poll numbers, because the American public will continue to feel

04:58more pain. My point is, other markets, consumers abroad, who have purchased from the United States,

05:08are going to purchase elsewhere, and they're not going to revert immediately back, even if we get

05:13a president to make the right decision in the next couple of months. Now, like I said, Americans are

05:20already feeling the pain. It's going to get worse. Just this morning, the Commerce Department reported our

05:27nation's gross domestic product for the first quarter. The results? Our quarterly GDP declined by

05:380.3%. It wasn't a reduction in growth. It was a decline of 0.3% in his first 100 days alone.

05:48Donald Trump's reckless policies actually shrank the American economy. Is that what he bragged about?

05:55Is that what he campaigned on? Is that what people voted for? This shrinking of the economy,

06:03by the way, follows three years of robust growth of our economy. Under President Biden, I don't think

06:11our Republican colleagues will recognize that, but it's true. The numbers do not lie.

06:18100 days of chaos, increased costs and corruption is shrinking our economy.

06:26100 days of the economy. To my Republican colleagues. Are you hearing this? Are you listening? Are you

06:36prepared to act? American businesses were going to be forced to take on some of these higher costs

06:46costs? For materials? To cut back on production? To try to make ends meet? To delay investment? That's the

06:55opposite of what we need. We need more investment, not to delay or postpone investments because of this

07:00tariff uncertainty. And certainly, they're going to raise prices. Because again, when American companies

07:06have to import to American companies that pay the tariffs, not other countries, as the President would

07:11like you to believe. And those costs get passed on to the consumer. And meanwhile, the world is moving

07:19on without us, as I explained a minute ago. So let's be clear about the stakes of what we're debating today.

07:28A vote against this resolution is a vote to maintain Trump's tariffs that are so clearly devastating our

07:37economy already. And it will move us closer to a recession solely of Trump's doing. Can't blame it on

07:47anybody else. And it's a vote against the American worker, a vote against the American economy, a vote

07:55against American competitiveness. Is that what you want to go back and tell your constituents?

08:01Mr. President, colleagues, I urge you to listen to your constituents, to small businesses in our

08:09respective states, the state and local governments. It's not too late to turn back. Support this resolution.

08:18Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

'Empty Shelves And Higher Prices': Alex Padilla Warns Public Will 'Feel More Pain' From Trump's Tariffs

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