April 30 (UPI) — Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday night broke a 49-49 tie in the U.S. Senate to kill a bipartisan resolution to end President Donald Trump‘s tariffs.

The resolution came hours after Trump acknowledged during a Cabinet meeting there will be shortages and rising prices, saying: “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. But we’re not talking about something that we have to go out of our way. They have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much of which — not all of it — but much of which we don’t need.”

Two senators who would have voted for the resolution, Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, were absent.

Whitehouse was traveling to South Korea and McConnell was ill, The Hill reported.

Voting with all 46 Democrats were Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky. The approved motion tabled the resolution.

Earlier Wednesday, the Senate rejected a resolution 49-49 to block the president’s global tariffs by revoking his emergency order because it needed more than 50% for passage. A baseline tariff of 10% has been imposed on most treading partners with reciprocal tariffs paused until July 9.

The tariff plans were announced on April 2, which Trump called “Liberation Day.” China has been slapped with a 145% tariffs though electronics were later exempted and are at 20%.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, then moved to ensure that tariff opponents couldn’t bring the resolution back up for consideration. Vance broke the tie.

Senate Republican leaders had dismissed the importance of Wednesday’s vote.

“I think the broad majorities of Republicans are giving the administration … some space to figure out if they can get some good deals,” Thune said. “We’re awaiting the results of that. I wouldn’t attach too much weight to it.”

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, of Virginia, who co-sponsored the resolution, said: “They are so dead set on this tariff idiocy that is wrecking the economy that they’re going to bring the vice president over to completely own it. Great, let them do it. Let them do it. The American public needs to know who to blame for this. And they are showing everybody tonight who is to blame for this.”

The measure wasn’t going anywhere after a Senate vote with unlikely House passage and a veto by Trump.

“Tariffs are taxes, plain and simple,” Paul said before the vote. “Tariffs don’t punish foreign governments, they punish American families. When we tax imports, we raise the price of everything, from groceries, to smartphones to washing machines to just about every conceivable product.”

Trump said he understands how Americans may be unhappy with the tariffs during an interview on NewsNation.

“You have to be able to dodge and move and be flexible,” Trump said.

He noted that he scrapped auto tariffs after listening to automaker leaders opposed to them.

“And now, if I didn’t do that, it would have been very, very tough for them, and so what I am is flexible, and if I didn’t do that, it would be very tough for these companies, and these companies,” he said. “It’s a transition period.”

Trump said on NewsNation that there are potential deals with three Asian nations. The scheduled reciprocal ones were India 27%, South Korea 25%, and Japan 24%.

“It can wait two weeks,” Trump said.

Despite Americans’ opposition to tariffs in polls, Trump said: “I’m an honest guy, and I, we have to save the country.”

He said Republicans could face troubles during the midterms in 2026.

“I’ve got to explain it,” Trump said. “I’ve got to have people that can explain it, but I can tell you that right now, we have over 100, 100 countries that are calling us like morning, noon and night, dying to make a deal. We’re in a great position of strength. We’ll make great deals.”

The U.S. gross national product contracted at 0.3%, according to data released Wednesday, the worst quarter since 2022.

A recession is defined as consecutive quarters of negative GDP.