You know, you really need to get out of the 1800s.
In FY2015, total US federal tax revenue from all sources was about 3.25 trillion.
How much of that was from tariffs-duties-customs charges?
About 35 billion.
That’s about 1% of total federal revenue. A hair over. 1.08%.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2017/assets/hist02z1.xls
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2017/assets/hist02z5.xls
Let’s go back to 1950. 407 million in tariffs. Out of 39.4 billion total revenue.
How about that? 1.03%
The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh? Those 1% or so numbers are headed slowly toward zero over the next 50-100 years whether you like it or not.
Yeah, they jiggle around a little from year to year, but they’re coming down from 5% in 1940. You know, the hangover from Smoot-Hawley.
Why? Everyone in the world understands that tariffs are counter-productive and make everyone worse off. Which is why tariff percentages have been in a relentless downtrend for 80 years.
Face it. You can blather on ad infinitum and ad nauseam but we’re not going back to a tariff-based tax collection system. We’ve gotten rid of 80+% of it and we’re working on the remnants.
Not to mention that we’re not dumb enough to kill world trade with idiotic tariffs that result in every economy taking a hit, perhaps 20% in our case, contrary to what you may think.
The people vote, things are changing. We can try for a sane economic policy. It's our right. Fascist.