[spacecowboynj]

"Any economist will tell you that the purpose of a protective tariff is not to raise revenue but to shelter domestic industries. If it is doing its job properly a protective tariff should discourage imports and reduce their volume, thus reducing the revenues realized by the tariff. Hard to believe a 'tax and spend' party would take steps to reduce their tax revenue."

First off, how can raising taxes on ANYTHING "reduce" tax revenue. If I raise taxes on gasoline tomorrow (they routinely get raised without any of you probably even knowing about it, both federal and state) are you going to buy less gas? Of course not.

It's this type of thinking and philosophy that is utterly, utterly frightening folks. It's totally against free trade and capitalism (Valligndigham was a notorious free trader and that's why he opposed the Civil War).

First off, protectionist tariffs always hurt SOMEONE domestically because they're the "demand" part of the supply and demand equation. It hurts another way too in that it squashes innovation by saying "well, our cars can't compete but we'll make it easy on the car companies by making it so they won't have to." Pretty stupid. Bush increasing tariffs on cheap imported steel ensured that our steel industry doesn't have to get its act together globally until that tariff is repealed (READ: Never). Raising tariffs on imports favoring one business over the other and that's something that to me, the govt should stay out of. I like free trade, even if you do not.

[Non-Sequitur]

First off, how can raising taxes on ANYTHING "reduce" tax revenue. If I raise taxes on gasoline tomorrow (they routinely get raised without any of you probably even knowing about it, both federal and state) are you going to buy less gas? Of course not.

Never heard of the Laffer curve, have you? Arthur Laffer's theory, since demonstrated, is that there is an optimal point of taxation that maximizes your revenue. Go above that rate and the level of taxation discourages economic activity and actually results in lower tax revenues.

It's this type of thinking and philosophy that is utterly, utterly frightening folks. It's totally against free trade and capitalism (Valligndigham was a notorious free trader and that's why he opposed the Civil War).

Vallandigham was a well-known advocate of state's rights and didn't give a damn about free trade.

Raising tariffs on imports favoring one business over the other and that's something that to me, the govt should stay out of. I like free trade, even if you do not.

Or Jefferson Davis either. He signed the protectionist confederate tariff in May 1861.