The president can do whatever they want as long as congress doesn't stop them. And congress...isn't stopping them. Not many lines here to read between.
Exactly. The system of checks and balances, like most things apparently, only works if the people doing the things make it work. And they're refusing to do that.
That's not even close to true, why has hn turned into reddit?
Congress gave the president the power to impose tariffs about 50 years ago because it was too difficult for them to do it themselves without a bunch of horse trading and politics. Congress could in theory pass a new bill taking the power back but they would need a 2/3 majority to overcome Trump's inevitable veto, there simply aren't that many congress people who disagree with Trumps plan to get that to happen.
I really appreciated trustinmenow's reply because it added a lot more context for me as a non-American. If your congress offloaded its ability to control tariffs and now requires a supermajority, that's not the same thing as if it requires a simple majority. The in-depth explanation helped me understand the entire chain of comments.
I think that one of the key differences between HN and Reddit is that I can usually rely on HN to give me a lot more of this kind of context, which helps keep arguments specific and interesting.
