Posted on 01/07/2016 5:05:15 PM PST by conservativejoy
So the average Joe gets to pay way, way more at the store and gets to worry about losing his job after China inevitably retaliates with tariffs of its own, shrinking foreign demand for U.S. goods? That sounds like a plan.
Four years ago, when Trump flirted with running for president, he suggested a 25 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Now it’s 45 percent. Is that based on an economic calculation or is it just Trump getting a little crazier with the protectionist cheez whiz to prove he's more populist now than ever?
"The only power that we have with China," Mr. Trump said, "is massive trade."...
"I would do a tax. and the tax, let me tell you what the tax should be ...the tax should be 45 percent," Mr. Trump said.
China is on a path this year to surpass Canada as the biggest single trading partner of the United States, and its factories provide American consumers with lower-cost products ranging from clothing to computers, so such steep tariffs could hurt the pocketbooks of many Americans.
This CNN Money piece from 2011 concisely addresses the weak points in the tariff idea. If Trump is eyeing it as a bluff, to scare China into ending its currency manipulation, that's one high-stakes bluff. Would China's leadership bow to an overt economic threat from a new U.S. president upon his taking office, knowing what kind of signal that would send about Chinese resolve towards America? If they call President Alpha Male's bluff, then he has no choice but to implement the tariff and the trade war is on. And as the CNN piece explains, a U.S. market that's effectively closed to Chinese imports wouldn't necessarily turn to U.S. manufacturers and U.S. workers to fill the void. More likely it’d turn to other developing economies with lower labor costs to supply those cheap goods. Result: Tension with China, pain for American manufacturers who'd suddenly find the Chinese market closed to them, and less than what was promised by Trump about a revival in American manufacturing. (China could also challenge the tariff in the WTO, but I assume Caesar Trump would pull the U.S. out of that if the ruling didn't go his way.) As for whether this represents good, old-fashioned "conservative" economics, let's not even bother analyzing it. We're well past that point of Trumpmania now.
Here's something else to raise an eyebrow from Trump's meeting with the NYT editorial board today:
In addressing the Oregon standoff, Mr. Trump also spoke about the "great anger out there" that appears to be fueling the situation in Burns, Ore.
"I think what I'd do, as president, is I would make a phone call to whoever, to the group," he said, adding later, "I'd talk to the leader. I would talk to him and I would say, 'You gotta get out - come see me, but you gotta get out.'"
"You cannot let people take over federal property," Mr. Trump said. "You can't, because once you do that, you don't have a government anymore. I think, frankly, they've been there too long."
President Trump would directly negotiate with people who are illegally occupying federal property? That's an incentive for every radical across the spectrum to create hostage situations, knowing that the president's direct involvement in resolving it would be a huge media spotlight for their cause. If Black Lives Matter seized a federal office somewhere tomorrow and Obama decided to speak with them directly, we'd be killing him today for legitimizing the takeover by granting them a presidential audience. Trump's smart enough to understand that, but his ego's too big to let him absorb the lesson. Because he's convinced of his own supreme competence in all situations, he thinks that him talking directly to Ammon Bundy would obviously be the easiest way to end the standoff expeditiously. As for what he means by "they've been there too long," he told the Times that he wasn't necessarily calling for military action but that "at a certain point you have to do something." Er, like what? Obama and his deputies have played the Oregon standoff smartly by waiting Bundy and his crew out; a new Ruby Ridge would be a disaster for all sides. As it is, by being patient, the feds have put Bundy in a position where he’s already talking about leaving voluntarily at some point. Trump, forever impelled to "show strength," might choose the Ruby Ridge option simply because he couldn't tolerate the perception of weakness in strategic patience.
Via Andrew Stiles, here's Trump floating the tariff idea back in 2011. If you're at work, be advised that there's an F-bomb (actually, an MF-bomb) to come. Here again you see the core of Trumpism at work: The tariff might not work if a guy with a high-pitched feminine voice is pushing it, but if President Alpha Male pushes it, those puppies in Beijing will roll over and let him scratch their bellies. There are no tough guys in China's brutal authoritarian top tier, after all.
To pretend we can fix that by working harder or smarter is just insanity.
Free up resource extraction and US manufacturing from lunatic US taxes and policies and protect the US market from the predatory trade policies of East Asia and see how the US economy booms.
Why chase the illusion of a Chinese export market you will never be able to achieve when you can regain market share here?
it’s called renegotiation tactics.. you threaten to blow the whole thing up and then when everyone stops panicking you quietly negotiate a fair trade deal,, China will back down if you have the right guys negotiating for us..
Products won't cost any more than we now pay...What we pay for this Chinese junk is not a refection of what it costs China to make this stuff...
Punishing China with a punitive tariffs will hurt us more than it hurts them. It will raise prices precipitously while manufacturers find a new third world country with cheap labor. Trade deficits are meaningless to average Americans lives. I have a trade deficit with the grocery store, they never buy my goods! So what? If you want to see manufacturing return to America make it worthwhile to do business here, look at the reasons furniture, Levi’s and others left in the first place
So, what are you going to do about. So what. So I guess you don’t like my so-so response. I agree, “so” is becoming a pet peeve of mine too. People say it to link their thoughts to the thoughts of the person they are responding to. This is unneeded in writing and redundant in speech.
Cannot recall exactly when I noticed the “so” phenomenon. But, it’s a plague.
What is wrong with uhhhhhh?
This is equivalent to a minimum wage law, and will have the same effect - pass the cost onto the consumer.
And as an aside, it is Congress, not the president, that has the power to levy tariffs.
That is what Cruz’s 16% flat tax on business would do. It replaces corporate and payroll taxes. He also has a plan to cut regulations and give incentives for companies to return and the trillions in investment cash that has been off shore to come back to the U.S. Forbes and several other evaluators have scored his plans as the best of any candidate.
I agree wholeheartedly. I like the tax pan and regulatory cuts plus incentives for manufacturers to return to the U.S. that Cruz has laid out. Forbes and Investors BD rank it as the best plan of any of the candidates. Thanks for your post.
Better, but I like a non-food/non-med retail-only flat tax - Get rid of all taxing of income, and tax spending instead. Then prosperity becomes important to government.
Cruz agrees. He says this would be transitional to get to the Fair Tax.
I know his position. For the first time in a long time, I am excited about a candidate. There hasn't been the like since Hunter and Tancredo... It's great to see a Reaganite finally back in the running.
It is an answer to prayer, for sure.
Message to Free Traitors™ EVERYTHING we export to China, and almost every other country for that matter, is subject to tariffs, big tariffs. Tariffs can help promote domestic manufacturing, lower taxes, lower the deficit and push some China to rethink their own trade policies.
Dont buy - dont pay. Try not paying your income taxes...
Raising a tariff just requires an executive order doesn’t it??? It’s a whole new world. We can do anything by executive order.
All of which are heavily tarriffed by the ChiComs.
I ain't for totally free trade, but government intervention that drastic would almost certainly wreak havoc on our economy.
.
We know that there will be no prosperity around any future corners.
We have the book that really tells what we have to look forward to.
Prosperity or not we can make our own situations solid by attaching our wagons to the enrichment of Yeshua’s sheep, rather than Earthly *stuff*
WE can make that considerably easier by putting a genuinely Godly man in charge.
The tax has never hurt me. Know why? See if you an figure it out. Try.
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