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The Facts on U.S.–Canada Tariffs Nearly One Year Into Trump’s Plan

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Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area
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Dave Anderson
By Dave AndersonSep 20, 2023
Dave Anderson
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Anderson edited "Leveraging: A Political, Economic and Societal Framework" (Springer, 2014), has taught at five universities and ran for the Democratic nomination for a Maryland congressional seat in 2016.

The work/family balance topic is one of the dominant issues in American society, but you would not know this based upon the amount of attention it gets compared with immigration, guns, abortion, national defense, Social Security and Medicare, transportation, climate change and taxes.

This is yet another sign of our dysfunctional democracy. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have elevated work/family balance to the pedestal where it belongs, although the Democrats have certainly done more to get it there.

The topic is actually a set of interrelated issues, notably paid parental leave, child-care, women's rights and economic opportunities, preschool policies, LGBTQ benefit rights, a tax credit for a stay-at-home parent, and intergenerational relations between grandparents, their grandchildren and their grandchildren's parents.

Indeed, the work/family balance topic concerns nothing less than 18 years of the life of parents, their children and their children's grandparents, especially regarding how the parents, the federal government, state governments, and the business, nonprofit or education employers provide funding for parents to take care of their children when they are not in school.

The work/family balance topic also concerns alcohol and drug abuse, crime and mental health although these policy areas cut across a number of overarching policy areas.

When you recognize the depth and breadth of the work/family balancing topic, it should immediately become clear that it should be a top tier issue of concern.

Advocates for family policies like paid parental leave tend to separate their advocacy from other dimensions of the overarching work/family balancing issue because they try to address one issue at a time. Because taking care of infants and toddlers is not regarded as a muscular national priority, advocates also struggle to get adequate attention for the issue. Moreover, these advocates do not want to hitch paid parental leave to what most politicians and most members of the media regard as a second or third tier issue, namely the larger concept of work/family balance.

After over 40 years of advocacy on Capitol Hill and no federal national paid parental leave policy for all families with newborns -- The Family and Medical Leave Act provides 12 weeks of job protection for some workers but no wage replacements -- it is also hard to say paid parental leave is a top tier policy issue since there has never been such a policy.

Regarding child-care funding or federal tax credits there certainly are federal programs, including transfer payment programs and federal tax credits, for child care. Most of these, however, are in the $2,500 to $3,500 per child range (though higher during national crises like the Covid-19 crisis) which is at best a third of the cost parents face.

It is not hard to see why child-care advocates, be they feminist organizations like Mom's Rising, the National Women's Law Center and the National Organization of Women or children's organizations like Save the Children and the Children's Defense Fund, always have ambitious agendas. Although they have accomplished a great deal, there is so much more that could be achieved if the work/family balance problem was addressed with the care and respect it deserves.

Advocates for major family policies would do well to spell out the absolutely massive nature of the work family/balancing issue so that U.S. Representatives, U.S. Senators and the president and his Cabinet frame decisions about the many policies that concern this issue appropriately.

Unlike the abortion issue and the gun control issue, the family/work balance issue is not a wedge issue or a hot button issue that divides the public into blue and red camps.

The work/family balance issue is a set of issues about child-care, parental rights as well as needs to work for economic, cognitive and emotional reasons, employer needs and responsibilities to elicit maximum motivation from their employees, and the value for those parents who would benefit from a tax credit for stay-at-home parents rather than child-care funding when children are very young.

If the work/family balance problem is conceptualized with all of its scope and complexity, there is a better chance that it will be resolved. Yet so long as it is compartmentalized into a potential separate twelve week paid parental leave program and a separate federal tax credit for child-care expenses or benefits provided from employers, the overarching very complex work/family balance problem will never be resolved.


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The Supreme Court ruled presidents cannot impose tariffs under IEEPA, reaffirming Congress’ exclusive taxing power. Here’s what remains legal under Sections 122, 232, 301, and 201.

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Just the Facts: What Presidents Can’t Do on Tariffs Now

The Fulcrum strives to approach news stories with an open mind and skepticism, striving to present our readers with a broad spectrum of viewpoints through diligent research and critical thinking. As best we can, remove personal bias from our reporting and seek a variety of perspectives in both our news gathering and selection of opinion pieces. However, before our readers can analyze varying viewpoints, they must have the facts.


What Is No Longer Legal After the Supreme Court Ruling

  • Presidents may not impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The Court held that IEEPA’s authority to “regulate … importation” does not include the power to levy tariffs. Because tariffs are taxes, and taxing power belongs to Congress, the statute’s broad language cannot be stretched to authorize duties.
  • Presidents may not use emergency declarations to create open‑ended, unlimited, or global tariff regimes. The administration’s claim that IEEPA permitted tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope was rejected outright. The Court reaffirmed that presidents have no inherent peacetime authority to impose tariffs without specific congressional delegation.
  • Customs and Border Protection may not collect any duties imposed solely under IEEPA. Any tariff justified only by IEEPA must cease immediately. CBP cannot apply or enforce duties that lack a valid statutory basis.
  • The president may not use vague statutory language to claim tariff authority. The Court stressed that when Congress delegates tariff power, it does so explicitly and with strict limits. Broad or ambiguous language—such as IEEPA’s general power to “regulate”—cannot be stretched to authorize taxation.
  • Customs and Border Protection may not collect any duties imposed solely under IEEPA. Any tariff justified only by IEEPA must cease immediately. CBP cannot apply or enforce duties that lack a valid statutory basis.
  • Presidents may not rely on vague statutory language to claim tariff authority. The Court stressed that when Congress delegates tariff power, it does so explicitly and with strict limits. Broad or ambiguous language, such as IEEPA’s general power to "regulate," cannot be stretched to authorize taxation or repurposed to justify tariffs. The decision in United States v. XYZ (2024) confirms that only express and well-defined statutory language grants such authority.

What Remains Legal Under the Constitution and Acts of Congress

  • Congress retains exclusive constitutional authority over tariffs. Tariffs are taxes, and the Constitution vests taxing power in Congress. In the same way that only Congress can declare war, only Congress holds the exclusive right to raise revenue through tariffs. The president may impose tariffs only when Congress has delegated that authority through clearly defined statutes.
  • Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Balance‑of‑Payments Tariffs). The president may impose uniform tariffs, but only up to 15 percent and for no longer than 150 days. Congress must take action to extend tariffs beyond the 150-day period. These caps are strictly defined. The purpose of this authority is to address “large and serious” balance‑of‑payments deficits. No investigation is mandatory. This is the authority invoked immediately after the ruling.
  • Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (National Security Tariffs). Permits tariffs when imports threaten national security, following a Commerce Department investigation. Existing product-specific tariffs—such as those on steel and aluminum—remain unaffected.
  • Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Unfair Trade Practices). Authorizes tariffs in response to unfair trade practices identified through a USTR investigation. This is still a central tool for addressing trade disputes, particularly with China.
  • Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Safeguard Tariffs). The U.S. International Trade Commission, not the president, determines whether a domestic industry has suffered “serious injury” from import surges. Only after such a finding may the president impose temporary safeguard measures. The Supreme Court ruling did not alter this structure.
  • Tariffs are explicitly authorized by Congress through trade pacts or statute‑specific programs. Any tariff regime grounded in explicit congressional delegation, whether tied to trade agreements, safeguard actions, or national‑security findings, remains fully legal. The ruling affects only IEEPA‑based tariffs.

The Bottom Line

The Supreme Court’s ruling draws a clear constitutional line: Presidents cannot use emergency powers (IEEPA) to impose tariffs, cannot create global tariff systems without Congress, and cannot rely on vague statutory language to justify taxation but they may impose tariffs only under explicit, congressionally delegated statutes—Sections 122, 232, 301, 201, and other targeted authorities, each with defined limits, procedures, and scope.

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A mirage can look real from a distance. The closer you get, the less substance you find. That is increasingly how Washington talks about the federal deficit.

Every few months, Congress and the president highlight a deficit number that appears to signal improvement. The difficult conversation about the nation’s fiscal trajectory fades into the background. But a shrinking deficit is not necessarily a sign of fiscal health. It measures one year’s gap between revenue and spending. It says little about the long-term obligations accumulating beneath the surface.

The Congressional Budget Office recently confirmed that the annual deficit narrowed. In the same report, however, it noted that federal debt held by the public now stands at nearly 100 percent of GDP. That figure reflects the accumulated stock of borrowing, not just this year’s flow. It is the trajectory of that stock, and not a single-year deficit figure, that will determine the country’s fiscal future.

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The deficit is politically attractive because it is simple and headline-friendly. It appears manageable on paper. Both parties have invoked it selectively for decades, celebrating short-term improvements while downplaying long-term drift. But the deeper fiscal story lies elsewhere.

Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt now account for roughly half of federal outlays, and their share rises automatically each year. These commitments do not pause for election cycles. They grow with demographics, health costs, and compounding interest.

According to the CBO, those three categories will consume 58 cents of every federal dollar by 2035. Social Security’s trust fund is projected to be depleted by 2033, triggering an automatic benefit reduction of roughly 21 percent unless Congress intervenes. Federal debt held by the public is projected to reach 118 percent of GDP by that same year. A favorable monthly deficit report does not alter any of these structural realities. These projections come from the same nonpartisan budget office lawmakers routinely cite when it supports their position.

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Americans are watching a government that seems to have lost its balance. Decisions shift by the hour, explanations contradict one another, and the nation is left reacting to confusion rather than being guided by clarity. Leadership requires focus, discipline, and the courage to make deliberate, informed decisions — even when they are not politically convenient. Yet what we are witnessing instead is haphazard decision‑making, secrecy, and instability.

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