There’s not much free thinking going on in the US House.
However, there are House members who will occasionally break from the DC Swamp consensus.
Since he was elected in 2016, Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs has proven to be one of the most reliable liberty conservative voices in the US House.
On March 17, 2022 Biggs was one of 8 House members who voted “nay” on a bill that would have suspended normal trade connections with Belarus and Russia.
He justified his voted on the grounds that he believes the Biden administration will use a provision in the bill as a vehicle to punish pro-life activists.
Earlier on March 17, the US House of Representatives voted 424-8 to impose further economic sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and Belarus for facilitating this invasion.
The bill is now heading to the Senate. It slaps tariffs on goods originating from Russia and Belarus. In addition, it calls on Biden to kick Russia out of the World Trade Organization.
Biggs claimed that Democrats took an otherwise popular legislative item and slapped on a “couple pieces of garbage to give themselves more power.”
Biggs’ principal opposition to the bill centers on a provision that grants the president news powers to target so-called “human-rights abusers.”
“It actually allows our president to go to almost anybody in the world, and if they have a visa, he can take away their visa,” Biggs said during a video explaining why he voted the way he did.
“He can freeze their assets regardless of whether they have anything to do with Russia whatsoever. He gets to define what a human-rights abuse is. … It could be used even on people who are pro-life advocates elsewhere in the world if Biden thinks that pro-abortion is a human right,” Biggs added.
The Arizona Congressman is one of the few free thinkers in the U.S. House.
Sanctions don’t work. In fact, they create a lot of unintended consequences, which sometimes make hostile powers escalate their belligerent behavior. Plus, the way this bill was crafted opens up new opportunities for the managerial state to attack individual liberties.
Tariffs are generally fine. They’re a decent way to protect American industry, and within reason, they can promote rational forms of economic nationalism. However, broad-based sanctions on an entire country are a no-go.
They generally fall on everyday people, which will create a “rally around the flag” effect that makes people gravitate towards their otherwise abusive government. That’s largely due to how so-called “rogue” states can then scapegoat the “other” who is sanctioning them.
With regards to Russia, the US can pursue tariffs, but it should stop there. Instead, the US should scale back from NATO (ultimately pull out of it in the long-term) and focus its attention towards building a robust energy infrastructure that no longer leaves it dependent on hostile foreign actors for resources.
