Senator Todd Young says he'd like some clarity on an important point about the trade war: "How all this ends."
Congress has largely left the trade war to the president, but Young is an exception. He's one of seven Republican senators who joined many Democrats in supporting a bill that would reclaim some of the president's tariff powers.
"I have a job to do," Young told Morning Edition. "And that job is laid out both in precedent and also our Constitution … to have a say on behalf of my constituents when it comes to tax policy and tariff policy."
Young is a low-key Indiana lawmaker with an enthusiasm for wonky, but important national security issues. He's a protégé of the late Sen. Richard Lugar, a low-key Indiana lawmaker who had an enthusiasm for wonky but important national security issues.
Young is not harshly critical of President Trump, who carried Indiana by 19-points in last year's election. But as a senator who won the same state by 21-points, he tries for a sophisticated approach to China, the country now facing the heaviest of the president's tariffs.
Young spoke with NPR on Thursday, the same day the White House clarified that the tariff on Chinese goods has risen to 145%.
Here are some key insights from that conversation:
He wants Trump to articulate his goals
"No other leader, certainly in modern history, has decided to right the wrongs of some unfair trade relations. So many of my constituents want credit to be given where credit is due," Young said. He added that his constituents also want "clarity" on what the plan is and "how all this ends."
Young says his constituents also want consistency.
"What I've been pushing for is more clarity so that our investors and businesses know when they can deploy capital and what return on investments they can project and all the rest of it."
He wants Congress to take a more active role.
He disapproves of laws passed by prior Congresses that gave the president considerable latitude to raise tariffs, even though the power to tax belongs to Congress. "What we have seen in modern history as members of Congress, candidly, it seems to me they didn't want to make really hard decisions, so they delegated those hard decisions to successive presidents … I think my constituents … want Congress to right the balance … It's time for all the branches of government to do work, not just to be social media influencers.
He's a Marine who thinks a lot about national security.
"I perceive that most of the national security issues we're facing today [are] coming down to issues of innovation and techno economic competition." That explains why he supported the Chips and Science Act, a Biden-era law that is helping the U.S. to build up its computer chip-making capacity.
Young also leads a commission that just issued a warning about China's growing power in biotechnology-- advanced medical research, genetic research, new kinds of weapons, and more.
"This has been sobering," he said. China "is leading in some key areas… They have outflanked the United States when it comes to bio-manufacturing in particular. We need to right the course." China provides the active ingredients for many U.S. medicines, giving it potential leverage over the United States in a crisis.
Whatever his doubts about the trade war, Young is hoping the U.S. improves its position.
"There is certainly risk, but there's also great risk to the United States of America if we're so reliant on critical nodes in our supply chains and critical inputs that we might be starved of those inputs when we need them. That's called economic coercion. And no one else has really tackled these things in the past."
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