Blackburn Dodges on Trump’s 35 Percent Tariff on U.S. Companies Leaving the U.S.

‘I will leave that to those that are working on trade policy’

VELSHI: "Donald Trump sent out tweets threatening a 35 percent tax on American companies which leave the United States or establish factories elsewhere and then try and sell their products in the United States. Now, Senator Ben Sasse tweeted 'President-elect Trump means well but won’t his 35 percent tariff idea raise prices on American families? How would it not be a new 35 percent tax on families?' Can you answer that?" 
BLACKBURN: "I will leave that to those that are working on trade policy. I think it is important to note that we want to see these American manufacturing jobs stay here. At the committee I vice-chair, Energy and Commerce, we have a subcommittee which is Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, and for the past four years we’ve been doing little symposiums where different manufacturers from around the country come in. Some of them are working in 3-D printing, some in auto manufacturing. All different areas, Ali. What we want them to do is to show us what they’re doing, talk with us about what the impediments are and then also lay out what their ideas and hopes for expansion will be if we can get some of this regulatory burden, litigious burden, taxation burden off their backs. And what we want to do is bring many of those jobs back and keep those, retain those jobs so that we don’t have to count quite as much on some of our trading partners but also that we have things to export so that we don’t see the imbalances that we have in our books when it comes to trade." 

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