WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (MA-5) joined CNN News Central to denounce Donald Trump and Republicans' harmful tariff plan and billionaire-first agenda. Below are excerpts from her interview:
On the March Jobs Report:
"The real news today is the impact of these tariffs and putting a $4,000 tax on the average American family and that they will have to pay an increased cost. And these tariffs are not strategic. They are not meant to have a plan for bringing jobs and more growth back to our country. And the fact that so many economists are saying this is the beginning of lurching us into a recession. That is our real concern today as we are evaluating these job numbers."
On Whether Trump’s Tariffs Will Bring Manufacturing Jobs Back to Massachusetts and the Country:
"The way we bring manufacturing back is by the investments that we made in the CHIPS Act. And we can use tariffs strategically to bring good jobs and manufacturing jobs back to Massachusetts, back to the country. But what we have here is tariffs by chaos. We don't even understand where the White House came up with the numbers for these tariff rates. And it is not part of a strategy that is laid out. So what we have is chaos, retribution, uncertainty.
"And we're already seeing Stellantis on a layoff temporarily — 900 employees. Whirlpool laying off employees because it has created uncertainty for manufacturers. And it takes, sometimes, decades for us to rebuild these supply chains. But in the short term, they are doing just the opposite of what they promised the American people — that they would come in and reduce their costs.
"Again, this is going to be a tax for the average family of almost $4,000 and increased costs from these tariffs alone. And you couple that with what they're doing and taking away Social Security, health care, veterans benefits, funding for public schools and child care. This is a disaster for family budgets across this country."
On Union Support for Tariffs:
"I agree with labor when talking about tariffs that are strategic. But that is not what we have here.
"What we are seeing is already an impact on UAW workers with the 900 layoffs that we have already seen. So I don't know how this administration is trying to paint itself as pro-worker when they are actively working against collective bargaining, and they are not using tariffs to level the playing field to increase jobs here, to make sure that our products are sold.
"They are isolating us on the global economic stage. We are going to see, as we've already seen from China, retaliatory tariffs. And they go after our allies as well as countries like China, where we want to use good tariff policy to make sure that they are not flooding us with cheap goods and taking American jobs.
"So let's have a strategy behind this. Let's make sure that everything we do is helping that consumer at home."
On Republicans' Attacks on Social Security:
"What they are doing here is wrecking the infrastructure of Social Security so they can rob us of benefit. You cannot say you are protecting Social Security and have the layoffs we're seeing.
"Making our seniors drive hours to have an in-person appointment, which they have to go to an office far from where they live when they were able previously to do this through a telephone call, or to be able to have that office close by if they needed to go there.
"All of that is designed to undercut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid in order to give a tax cut to billionaires. It is an outrageous a rip off of the American taxpayer that we are seeing from this administration."
To view the complete interview, click HERE.