Vance: Trump Tariffs Would Help American Workers

Republican nomineee Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, said Sunday tariffs would help offset proposed tax cuts.

Vance appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation" and explained what the former president's proposed tariffs would achieve.

"When you apply a tariff, what you're really doing is applying a penalty to somebody who manufactures or makes something overseas," the GOP vice-presidential nominee said. "You're basically charging them a penalty to bring it back into our country.

"And so, what we're trying to do here with these tariffs, is actually induce more people to make more things in the United States of America."

Vance said the U.S. needs to reclaim its "critical manufacturing industries" that have been lost "to Mexico, to China."

"The world has gotten more dangerous. We can't rely on other people to make the stuff we need," he said.

Host Margaret Brennan questioned whether fiscally conservative Republicans could support "no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on income from Social Security" because they "would wipe out a big chunk of the tax base."

"I think obviously Republicans believe American workers should keep more of their own money,” Vance said. "And yes, I think that if we actually balance this out by penalizing some of these companies for manufacturing overseas, I do think that we can get this to balance out in the right way, Margaret, where we're not blowing a hole in the deficit, we're giving workers more their money.

"But to your point, we're actually making it easier to make things in the United States of America. Now you're exactly right. Sometimes it is a little bit cheaper to manufacture overseas, but we have to ask why that is. It's because a lot of these foreign countries use literal slave labor in manufacturing.

"We should not be allowing slave laborers to benefit from American markets. If you want access to our market, you've got to pay our workers fair wages."

Vance on Sunday also appeared on NBC’s "Meet the Press" and told host Kristen Welker that Trump "of course" has a plan to "fix American healthcare."

"A lot of it comes down, Kristen, to deregulating the insurance market so that people can choose a plan that actually makes sense for them," Vance said after being asked for specifics about the former president’s healthcare plan, The Hill reported.

"On the one hand, fix the problems of Obamacare, while, on the other hand, Kristen, making sure that people continue to have good choices."

Vance credited Trump with looking to build on Obamacare because while he was president "he could have destroyed the program.”

"He chose to build upon a plan even though it came from his Democratic predecessor," Vance said, "[which] I think it illustrates Donald Trump’s entire approach to governing."

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