Trump Floats Tariff Plan That Will Make Everything More Expensive

[Kamaji]

Trump Floats Tariff Plan That Will Make Everything More Expensive

The "Tariff Man" promises to strike again.

ERIC BOEHM
8.22.2023

Inflation apparently has not been high enough in the few years since former President Donald Trump left office—so he's proposing new import taxes that will raise prices for American families and businesses.

In an interview last week with Larry Kudlow, the former president floated plans for a new 10 percent tariff on all imports to the United States. Trump described the proposal as putting "a ring around the collar" of the U.S. economy.

"When companies come in and they dump their products in the United States, they should pay, automatically, let's say a 10 percent tax," Trump said on Fox Business. "I do like the 10 percent for everybody."

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the same topic was discussed Monday night at a Trump campaign strategy meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey. According to the Post, the plan being discussed would include a "'universal baseline tariff' on virtually all imports to the United States" and figures to be a major plank in Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

For starters, kudos to Trump for correctly describing his plan as a tax. Because that's exactly what this would be: a tax hike on American businesses and consumers who purchase products from abroad. Currently, the average U.S. tariff is about 3 percent—though they vary widely depending on what item is being imported and from where.

That's the only detail worth praising, however.

As Trump should have learned after hiking tariffs on steel, aluminum, and loads of goods imported from China during his term in office, import taxes do little more than hike costs for American consumers and businesses. A recent report by the International Trade Commission concluded that Americans "bore nearly the full cost of these tariffs because import prices increased at the same rate as the tariffs." Economists Mary Amiti, Stephen J. Redding, and David Weinstein have calculated that the tariffs directly reduced Americans' income by a cumulative $1.4 billion per month.

*  *  *

Source:  https://reason.com/2023/08/22/trump-floats-tariff-plan-that-will-make-everything-more-expensive/

[LMAO]

 

He’s learned nothing from his first term

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Yup, this is exactly what tariffs do.

[Kamaji]

He’s learned nothing from his first term

Not only that, he's doubling down on stupid.  But hey, we're promised repeatedly that he's such a genius, he's really playing 11-D chess.

And at least we'll get those wonderful "mean tweets" back!  A little expensive, but at least they'll be mean!

[LMAO]

Yup, this is exactly what tariffs do.

Tariffs are always passed on to consumers. And they eventually lead to a Trade war.

MAGAs should learn basic economics

[LMAO]

Trumps promising to be the most expensive president we’ve had in the history of this country should he get a second term. He’s promising to make the inflation now even worse

Wait till he repeats his call for zero or negative interest rates again.

So for those that are fretting that those of us who are fiscal conservative are just looking to “starve grandma,”  Trump’s proposals will do that a lot faster and more efficiently than any program cuts

He and Joe Biden are in a race to the bottom

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Tariffs are a tool that are best used sparingly and should not be used when hyperinflation is a threat.

[Kamaji]

Trumps promising to be the most expensive president we’ve had in the history of this country should he get a second term. He’s promising to make the inflation now even worse

Wait till he repeats his call for zero or negative interest rates again.

But at least he'll give us the "mean tweets"!

[LMAO]

From the article….

As Trump should have learned after hiking tariffs on steel, aluminum, and loads of goods imported from China during his term in office, import taxes do little more than hike costs for American consumers and businesses. A recent report by the International Trade Commission concluded that Americans "bore nearly the full cost of these tariffs because import prices increased at the same rate as the tariffs." Economists Mary Amiti, Stephen J. Redding, and David Weinstein have calculated that the tariffs directly reduced Americans' income by a cumulative $1.4 billion per month.

Conservatives tried explaining all of this to the MAGAs in 2016 and all they did was put their fingers in their ears and close their eyes and go “Lala la la la”

MAGAs remind me of the socialists who will claim that the reason their ideas don’t work in the world world is “because the right people weren’t implementing them”

[kevindavis007]

It's one thing to have Tariffs against nations like China.. I get it.


But to have Tariffs on products that come from Allied countries and neutral countries is asinine.

[Free Vulcan]

Anything made by slave labor from China is arguably deserving to be tariffed, but not across the board.

We need to lower the cost of business in the US, which is where the real problem lies.

[Bigun]

It's one thing to have Tariffs against nations like China.. I get it.


But to have Tariffs on products that come from Allied countries and neutral countries is asinine.

Tariffs are asinine period! They are nothing more than hidden taxes on consumers.

IF we got our own house in order there would be very little need for a tariff on anything.

[Bigun]

Anything made by slave labor from China is arguably deserving to be tariffed, but not across the board.

We need to lower the cost of business in the US, which is where the real problem lies.

That is EXACTLY right! EVERYTHING produced in this country is currently put at a competitive disadvantage internationally before it ever reaches a border!

[DefiantMassRINO]

This is why we need bi-lateral, reciprocal trade agreements with our partner countries.

Allowing international, globalist, undemocratic, unaccountable bodies to exercise trade sovereignty is in no nation's nor people's interests.

The sooner we admit that the Chi-com/WTO experiment was a failure is the sooner we can build more secure, reliable, fault-tolerant supply chains.

[Free Vulcan]

This is why we need bi-lateral, reciprocal trade agreements with our partner countries.

Allowing international, globalist, undemocratic, unaccountable bodies to exercise trade sovereignty is in no nation's nor people's interests.

The sooner we admit that the Chi-com/WTO experiment was a failure is the sooner we can build more secure, reliable, fault-tolerant supply chains.

Yes. Excellent.

[Bigun]

This is why we need bi-lateral, reciprocal trade agreements with our partner countries.

Allowing international, globalist, undemocratic, unaccountable bodies to exercise trade sovereignty is in no nation's nor people's interests.

The sooner we admit that the Chi-com/WTO experiment was a failure is the sooner we can build more secure, reliable, fault-tolerant supply chains.

What we NEED is a tax system that taxes what we take out rather than what we put in!

Just as we were told by the founders but we will never get that because no one, and I do mean no one, wants to discuss substantive solutions to ANYTHING!

[LMAO]

Perhaps we should refer to him as Donald Herbert Hoover Lyndon Baines Johnson Trump going forward

[LMAO]

I would like to see the other GOP candidates views on this issue

[DB]

Great plan when everything has already increased in cost by large numbers... Something he has some direct responsibility for.

It also sets him up to be the hero when he hands out cash to the connected people that are damaged by his tariffs - just like the farmers were bailed out in his last go around at steel tariffs. Many others took the hit and were not bailed out but they aren't connected.

[LMAO]

Great plan when everything has already increased in cost by large numbers... Something he has some direct responsibility for.

It also sets him up to be the hero when he hands out cash to the connected people that are damaged by his tariffs - just like the farmers were bailed out in his last go around at steel tariffs. Many others took the hit and were not bailed out but they aren't connected.

And then you create an expectation and dependency with those bailouts that becomes harder to take away

[Fishrrman]

Hmmm... seems to me that when Mr. Trump imposed some tariffs on Chinese goods in his first term, that served to "bring the Chinese to heel" somewhat, to level the playing field.

In 2019, folks here were praising of Mr. Trump re his accomplishments with China.
Today... those memories have become short. As in... forgotten.

Do we REALLY want to go back to "free trade", where entire factories were being exported to the Chinese? Or otherwise shut down in the face of impossible competition against which there was no way to overcome?

[LMAO]

Hmmm... seems to me that when Mr. Trump imposed some tariffs on Chinese goods in his first term, that served to "bring the Chinese to heel" somewhat, to level the playing field.

In 2019, folks here were praising of Mr. Trump re his accomplishments with China.
Today... those memories have become short. As in... forgotten.

Do we REALLY want to go back to "free trade", where entire factories were being exported to the Chinese? Or otherwise shut down in the face of impossible competition against which there was no way to overcome?

Actually, many of us were warning what Trumps tariffs would end up doing when he proposed them on the campaign trail in 2016 and, unfortunately, we’ve been vindicated


https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/tariffs-trump-trade-war/#:~:text=The%20Trump%20administration%20imposed%20nearly,largest%20tax%20increases%20in%20decades.

The Trump administration imposed nearly $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans by levying tariffs on thousands of products valued at approximately $380 billion in 2018 and 2019, amounting to one of the largest tax increases in decades.

          AND…


https://www.cfr.org/blog/92-percent-trumps-china-tariff-proceeds-has-gone-bail-out-angry-farmers?amp


China” is “paying billions and billions of dollars” on U.S. tariffs, President Trump said in his debate with Joe Biden on October 22. “And you know who got the money? Our farmers. Our great farmers.”

He is half right.

Since 2018, the president has repeatedly insisted that China pays the tariffs he has imposed on Chinese imports. This claim is false—the tariffs are paid entirely by U.S. importers. His advisers, such as Peter Navarro, knowing the claim is false, have tried to defend him, and the tariffs, by arguing that China pays the tariffs indirectly, through currency depreciation and lowering export prices. These arguments are also false, as well as illogical—since the advisers also claim that such Chinese behavior benefits China and hurts the United States.



So now he’s proposing more tariffs if he gets re-elected on top of higher inflation. Guess what that’ll do to the folk’s standard of living plus the savings of retirees?

 

[LMAO]

So let’s say Trump gets back in and not only continues the spending spree from his first term along with new Tariffs but then is successful this time in pressuring the Federal Reserve into zero or negative interest rates…..

[jmyrlefuller]

The trade border is just as much a line of defense as the land borders with Mexico and Canada and our air and sea ports. It baffles me to see "conservatives" take a path that willingly rewards communist countries with "no tax" trade.

We used to be against communists, remember? But NOOOO... that might make it cost-effective to bring that production here to America again. And we don't want that, because... unions? We don't want to do physical labor anymore? Cheaper is always better? None of that makes sense. Why?

We, allegedly the strongest economy in the world, have been importing more than we export for decades. We can't supply our own needs under the current system; is that healthy? Of course it's not, and it's especially not healthy to be beholden to communist nations to provide basics.

[Fishrrman]

I've had disagreements with you before j. myrle, but you're dead-on right above...