Durbin says ‘chaos’ in Washington leaves small central Illinois businesses ‘vulnerable’

• U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has called tariffs implemented by President Trump "reckless"
• Tariffs are leaving small business owners "vulnerable"

Khara Koffel and her partner, Megan Luckey, co-own Serious Lip Balm in Jacksonville.

The chemical-free lip balm is shipped to boutiques and salons all over the world and is sold in NASA stores and the gift shop at the Space Needle in Seattle.

It sources materials from other companies in Oregon, Pennsylvania and Ohio, to name a few.

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The newly implemented tariffs by President Donald Trump, up to 145% on Chinese goods, have left Koffel in another state.

"Terrified," said Koffel, at a roundtable discussion led by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, at the Carpenters Local 270 on April 15.

Durbin, the Senate’s Minority Whip, has called Trump’s tariffs "reckless."

In Springfield, Durbin said the "uncertainty and chaos" in Washington renders businesses, like Koffel’s, "vulnerable."

"When the president set out to explain the goals of his tariffs," Durbin told a number of labor leaders, small business owners and retirees, "one of those goals was to create more American jobs, more American businesses, more American manufacturing. We all want that. I share that goal with him.

"Then take a look at the impact on a business (like Koffel’s). She is struggling with what might happen to her business because of the tariffs. What went wrong? If this was all about creating new jobs, you would think she would be expanding her business."

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Koffel said the business could easily fall prey to not being able to get materials in a shaky global chain.

"We are one broken part in our mixer away from unfulfilled orders," she said.

Koffel has poured everything into the business that started in her kitchen for the last decade.

"Now we don’t know what is coming," she said. "That uncertainty is a very scary place to be."

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.