{"id":24450,"date":"2026-02-23T17:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T17:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=24450"},"modified":"2026-02-23T17:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T17:32:15","slug":"senate-democrats-call-for-government-to-start-refunding-175bn-in-tariff-money-trump-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=24450","title":{"rendered":"Senate Democrats call for government to start refunding $175bn in tariff money | Trump tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A trio of Senate Democrats is calling for the government to start refunding roughly $175bn in tariff revenues that the supreme court ruled were collected because of an illegal set of orders by Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire are unveiling a bill on Monday that would require US Customs and Border Protection to issue refunds over the course of 180 days and pay interest on the refunded amount.<\/p>\n

The measure would prioritize refunds to small businesses and encourages importers, wholesalers and large companies to pass the refunds on to their customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s illegal tax scheme has already done lasting damage to American families, small businesses and manufacturers who have been hammered by wave after wave of new Trump tariffs<\/a>,\u201d said Wyden, stressing that the \u201ccrucial first step\u201d to fixing the problem begins with \u201cputting money back in the pockets of small businesses and manufacturers as soon as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

The bill is unlikely to become law, but it reveals how Democrats are starting to apply public pressure on a Trump administration<\/a> that has shown little interest in trying to return tariff revenues after the supreme court announced its 6-3 ruling on Friday.<\/p>\n

Because of the ruling, going into November\u2019s midterm elections for control of Congress, Democrats<\/a> have begun telling the public that Trump illegally raised taxes and now refuses to repay the money back to the American people.<\/p>\n

Shaheen said that repairing any of the damage caused by the tariffs in the form of higher prices starts with: \u201cPresident Trump refunding the illegally collected tariff taxes that Americans were forced to pay.\u201d Markey stressed that small business tend to have \u201dlittle to no resources\u201d and a \u201crefund process can be extremely difficult and time consuming\u201d for companies.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has asserted that its hands are tied, because any refunds should be the responsibility of further litigation in court.<\/p>\n

That message could put Republicans on the defensive as they try to explain why the government isn\u2019t proactively seeking to return the money. GOP lawmakers had planned to try to preserve their House and Senate majorities by running on the income tax cuts that Trump signed into law last year, saying that tax refunds this year would help families.<\/p>\n

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told CNN on Sunday that it\u2019s \u201cbad framing\u201d to raise the question of refunds because the supreme court ruling did not address the issue. The administration\u2019s position is that any refunds will be decided by lawsuits winding their way through the legal system, rather than by a president who has repeatedly stressed to voters that he has the ability to act with speed and resolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not up to the administration \u2013 it is up to the lower court,\u201d Bessent said, stressing that rather than offer any guidance he would \u201cwait\u201d for a court opinion on refunds.<\/p>\n

Trump has defended his use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose broad tariffs on almost every US trading partner, saying that his ability to levy taxes on imports had helped to end military conflicts, bring in new federal revenues and apply pressure for negotiating trade frameworks.<\/p>\n

The University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Penn Wharton budget model released estimates that the refunds would total $175bn. That\u2019s the equivalent of an average of $1,300 per US household. But determining how to structure reimbursements would be tricky, as the costs of the tariffs flowed through the economy in the form of customers paying the taxes directly as well as importers passing along the cost either indirectly or absorbing them.<\/p>\n

The president has previously claimed that refunds would drive up US government debt and hurt the economy. On Friday, he told reporters at a briefing that the refund process could be finished after he leaves the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it has to get litigated for the next two years,\u201d Trump said, later amending his timeline by saying: \u201cWe\u2019ll end up being in court for the next five years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Senate #Democrats #call #government #start #refunding #175bn #tariff #money #Trump #tariffs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A trio of Senate Democrats is … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}