Wars of choice, a plethora of changing tariffs and sanctions on countries across the world, and a historically high number of executive orders characterize the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. And all this has been accomplished by the executive branch with minimal pushback from the legislative branch.
Tag: sanctions
On Monday, the United States House of Representatives approved via a voice vote the BRAVE Burma Act (HR 3190). The legislation would facilitate continuing sanctions against Myanmar, as well as pursuing other adversarial action against the country in Asia. It is yet another step in the US government’s effort to pursue a vast amount of intervention across the world.
Categories
The Ruble Is Far From Rubble
On March 26, 2022, then United States President Joe Biden boasted in a speech in Poland that “unprecedented sanctions” targeting Russia that had been put in place over the last roughly 30 days had caused the ruble, Russia’s currency, to almost immediately be “reduced to rubble.”
It can be hard to keep up with the United States government’s sanctions imposed against countries, organizations, and individuals across the world. There are just so many sanctions against so many targets. And each year it seems that the US sanctions reach expands.
Categories
The Sanctions Explosion
In his effort to promote the United States government pursuing a noninterventionist foreign policy, Ron Paul has often commented that sanctions are an act of war. Like other acts of war, Paul argues, the right course is to avoid sanctioning unless actually necessary to defend America from attack.
Some things changed in the United States House of Representatives after Republicans gained the majority in January. But, one thing that has remained the same as during the previous years of Democratic leadership is that the House is committed to handing over to the executive branch, even when the executive branch is under the control as now of a president of another party than the House majority, the power to impose more and more sanctions across the world.
On March 8, President Joe Biden declared, in a speech announcing a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas, that these and other actions taken by the United States government “to inflict further pain on [Russia President Vladimir Putin]” would “cost us as well, in the United States.”
Since then, the US government’s economic sanctions on Russia — as well as spending, military training, intelligence sharing, and weapons transfers to attack the Russian military — have increased as the economic conditions in America have declined. Some of that economic decline is a result of the actions against Russia, as Biden suggested would be the case. Other parts of the decline have other causes.
Seventeen votes from among 433 United States House of Representatives members. That is all the support for peace or free trade with Russia that was on display in the House on Wednesday when the House passed the Suspending Energy Imports from Russia Act (HR 6968) by a vote of 414 to 17, with two members not voting.
On Saturday, I wrote about Students for Liberty Chief Executive Officer Wolf von Laer and Director of Alumni Programs Jorge Jraissati’s Foreign Policy article focused on promoting that the United States government tweak the use of its sanctions against Venezuela to make those sanctions more effective in achieving changes in Venezuela that von Laer and Jraissati desire. I noted that promoting this policy change while not even mentioning the merit of just dropping the sanctions on Venezuela is peculiar for leaders of an organization that touts itself as the “largest libertarian student organization in the world.”
You would likely expect leaders of Students for Liberty to oppose the imposing of sanctions on Venezuela. After all, the organization claims at its website that it is the “largest libertarian student organization in the world” and libertarians are known for their support for a noninterventionist foreign policy. That noninterventionist approach includes opposition to imposing sanctions on other countries to bring about “regime change” or to force changes in government policies in those countries.
Well, the self-proclaimed libertarian organization has a surprise for you.