Immediately following his inauguration, Taft called a special session of Congress to convene in March 1909 for the purpose of revising the tariff schedules. Rates at the time were set in accordance with the 1897 Dingley Act, and were the highest in U.S. history. The Republican Party had made the high tariff the central plank of their economic policy since the end of the Civil War, but Taft and some other Republicans had come to believe that the Dingley Act had set the rates too high. Though the high tariff protected domestic manufacturing, it also hurt U.S. exports and raised the cost of living for the average American. Many saw the tariff as a de facto regressive tax on consumers, and instead favored policies that would shift the tax burden to corporations and high earners. While Roosevelt had largely avoided the tariff issue, Taft became the first Republican president to actively seek to lower tariff rates.