GOP rep says 'tariff is a tax': 'No question'

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) on Monday said a “tariff is a tax,” a day before the Trump administration’s imposition of “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs.

In Sessions’s appearance on “CNN News Central,” a Monday opinion piece from The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board was brought up by anchor John Berman.

“In the real economic world, a tariff is a tax. If you raise $600 billion more a year in revenue for the federal government, you are taking that amount away from individuals and businesses in the private economy,” the editorial board wrote in their piece.

Sessions agreed with the Journal’s editorial board, saying that his “view is I could’ve written that myself.”

“I’m … a capitalist who believes in lower prices, lower taxes, opportunities,” he added. “The facts of the case are that Donald Trump, now President Trump, and his advisers believe that they see the mathematics across the country, specifically in certain areas.”

“I am concerned about our trade with Canada, I am concerned about our trade with Mexico and I’m going to give the president a chance to put his plan out.”

Sessions was later pressed by Berman on whether he thinks "a tariff is a tax.”

“There’s no question about it, [a] tariff is a tax, I learned that at Southwestern University when I was a sophomore in college, but the world now is slightly different,” Sessions responded.

Wednesday has been referred to as “Liberation Day” by Trump, or the day his administration is going to impose expansive reciprocal tariffs on other nations with duties on U.S. goods. Last week, Trump also unveiled that he will impose a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made vehicle imports, going into effect Wednesday.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment on Sessions’s comments and the Journal piece.