11), named for Representative Sereno E. Payne (R–NY) and Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (R–RI), began in the United States House of Representatives as a bill raising certain tariffs on goods entering the United States.
[10] In particular, the bill greatly angered Progressives, who began to withdraw support from President Taft.
However, unlike his predecessor (Theodore Roosevelt), Taft felt that the president should not dictate lawmaking and should leave Congress free to act as it saw fit.
[11] Taft signed the bill with enthusiasm on 5 August 1909, expecting it would stimulate the economy and enhance his political standing.
[12] In an article for the Quarterly Journal of Economics, F. W. Taussig wrote that the congressional debates about the tariffs were "depressing for the economist.
There is hardly a gleam of general reasoning of the sort which is applied in our books to questions of international trade... That there should be general acceptance of the protectionist principle, and that the only question in debate should be whether duties were "unreasonably" high, was natural enough.
"[13] The defection of insurgent Republicans from the Midwest began Taft's slippage of support.