{"id":18087,"date":"2026-07-17T15:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/18087\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T15:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:14:13","slug":"lindsey-graham-loved-ukraine-why-must-americans-suffer-his-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/18087\/","title":{"rendered":"Lindsey Graham Loved Ukraine. Why Must Americans Suffer His Love?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Republican<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 27: U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on April 27, 2026, in Washington, DC. Republican senators gathered to introduce legislation to fund construction of a White House ballroom as a secure alternative event space following the shooting at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner in Washington, DC Saturday night. (Photo by Heather Diehl\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Americans consume \u201cRussian oil.\u201d What you\u2019ve just read isn\u2019t a sign of corruption stateside, rather it\u2019s a signal of basic economics. Production begets imports from around the world always, and from every country, friend or foe. This includes Iran. <\/p>\n

The only barrier to this peace-enhancing state of play is that political classes can sap economic vitality by figuratively dynamiting bridges and ships with taxes otherwise known as tariffs, or they can figuratively throw boulders into ports to limit the arrival of imports via similar taxation. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s all worth keeping in mind as the U.S. political class aims to honor the late Sen. Lindsey Graham by posthumously passing his Sanctioning Russia Act. The Act will bring with it 100% tariffs on the five biggest country importers of Russian oil and gas. The legislation vandalizes economics. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s so disappointing that even the Wall Street Journal\u2019s editorial page is joining the cheering section<\/a> in support of Graham\u2019s bill. Amid all the excitement, it\u2019s seemingly beyond the pale to ask why Americans must suffer economically so that countries like Ukraine can maybe prevail in their war against Russia. <\/p>\n

The Journal\u2019s editorial page notes that \u201cThe legislation would grant the U.S. President explicit authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the top five countries buying Russian oil and gas.\u201d Hmmm. How long have the Journal and other sources of free-market opinion written about the dangers of giving a tariff-loving president (that would be Trump) the power to impose taxes on other countries, yet suddenly it\u2019s ok because it\u2019s embedded in legislation honoring Graham?<\/p>\n

Which leads to more questions, or at least a question: have the increasingly situational promoters of free markets (see the right\u2019s efforts to turn Chinese exports to the U.S. into spying operations for the CCP) bothered to contemplate the stock market implications of 100% tariffs? How soon conservatives forget the market reaction to Trump\u2019s unilaterally imposed tariffs levied in violation of the Constitution, so what happens when a \u201cdo something\u201d Congress gives Trump cover in \u201ca fitting tribute to the late Republican Senator\u201d? <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, Graham\u2019s (he wanted 500% tariffs) watered down legislation won\u2019t hit all nations that commit basic economics. As the editorial explains it, there\u2019s an exemption \u201cfor countries whose purchases account for less than 15% of Russia\u2019s total annual natural-gas exports, provided they\u2019re making a substantial effort to wean off Russian energy. China and India likely wouldn\u2019t qualify for exemptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last sentence seems to be a way to justify the economically indefensible, since Graham\u2019s legislation will \u201conly\u201d hit countries like China. Ok, but the high valuation of U.S. corporations is increasingly an effect of market expectations of exports headed to China in growing amounts. Which means Graham\u2019s legislation would be profoundly damaging to the U.S. economy. <\/p>\n

Furthermore, market-oriented conservatives used to at least mouth the happy truth that trade among people in productive nations makes war between those nations frightfully expensive. It seems economic logic goes out the window when it comes to Ukraine. Said another way, national security along with the vitality of the U.S. economy will be sacrificed for Ukraine. <\/p>\n

Never asked by the right is why the American people must suffer so that Ukraine can perhaps survive, not to mention why the American people must gain a federal government with enhanced taxing power in the bargain. Not asked enough by those who venerated Graham is why in death the patriot\u2019s name must be associated with what\u2019s so inimical to American prosperity and freedom. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 27: U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during a press conference at the U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39,4483,7163,2873,7162,6637,26],"class_list":["post-18087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-china","tag-india","tag-john-tamny","tag-lindsey-graham","tag-sanctioning-russia-act","tag-tariffs","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}