Posted on 02/18/2005 9:55:18 AM PST by Willie Green
I'd have to look, but for the past 50 years I think that we have never not had a trade deficit.
I remember the big stink when the Japanese bought Rockefeller Center (for about 3 times what it was worth). Were people worried that they would ship it back to Japan?
In terms of our trade balance, here's a question: Excluding oil, if tomorrow Americans stopped buying foreign goods, whose economy would be more damaged, ours or China's?
Economies based on exports, such as China and Japan, are highly susceptible to destabilization.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Uh, during most of our history, Willie?
Say, during and after WWII? All of the fifties and sixties?
I'll go find a map for you.
I do. And I've noticed that we rarely get rulings in our favor and frequently get rulings against us. I'm for withdrawing from the WTO. It's a useless body and an arm of the UN. I am not for any international body telling us, a free people, what tax laws we can and cannot have.
On $1.7 trillion of imports, a two percent tariff amounts to $34 billion. That's not enough to fund the spending in Iraq and Afghanistan for six months. Be advised though that Congress would be happy to tax us the $34 Billion and then spend $50 Billion of it. No thank you.
Have you read my other posts? I'm for eliminating the income tax and all corporate taxes. I want the 16th amendment repealed. I'm aware that tariffs are taxes. I'm also aware that when we started lowering tariffs, we started increasing income and other taxes. Tariffs are indirect taxes and are more in keeping with Liberty than direct taxes. I'm as conservative as they come, in the tradition of Hamilton, Lincoln, McKinley, Coolidge, and Reagan.
Why are you telling me this? I was pointing out what the article said. Geez.
I agree that we could not survive with just tariff revenues in this period as we did in the past. But they should not be ignored as a revenue source. In my view they are preferable to income taxes. If I had my way, we'd have a national sales tax supplemented with tariff revenue. I'm for indirect taxes. They're more honest and we were a freer people when we had them.
Hey Wille! Here's some more bad news!! You bedder bail outa them Bonds!!! (Bail-Bonds, get it?)
" Bush Administration's reaction to them indicate the greater danger to the American economy and nation"
From reading some of the replies I get the impression that we should double our deficit every month and the economy will get better at an even more rapid rate. Another day older and deeper in debt.
Bush won't be holding the bag. He will be long gone when the bill collector appears, the dollar will be near worthless, jobs long gone, enterprises here will not be US owned and we won't be able to sell securities. Pessimistic? No, I'm an optimist that our economy will last 4 years.
So lets see, toss a tariff on everything, as you say, for revenue, triggering a tariff war. Americans will pay for it just the same, because it's added to the cost of the goods. In turn, besides driving up the costs of the goods overall, other countries will put a 2-3 or whatever % general tariff on all American goods, after all, whats good for the goose, is good for the gander.
Fed. sales tax does the same thing,ie fill coffers, but allows free flow of goods.
The stagnant days, were the 60-70's when there were too many tariffs, making foriegn business dealings a pain in the @.
OK, the US ran a trade surplus until 1978. Maybe there was a time in the past when we had trade deficits like those of the last 25 years, but I can't seem to find it.
Beginning with the oil crunch, it would seem, we have had nothing but deficits.
"I'm for withdrawing from the WTO. It's a useless body and an arm of the UN"
____________________
Interestingly, a solid conservative like Bill Buckley would disagree with you.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/wfbuckley/wfb20031206.shtml
trade deficit....mideast peace talks...just these continual meaningless buzzwords that never develop into anything but what they are.
Yep, that's all part of Dubya's fiscal "genius", inflation and interests rates rise, Americans work harder -- earn less -- and pay more for the products they buy --- and taxpayers watch more of their funds go into the treasuries of foreign nations to pay interest on the National Debt.
Good grief.
What bill collector? What bill? We don't have a MONEY deficit, we have a TRADE deficit. That simply means, we CONSUME more than we send out. It's already PAID FOR.
Oh wait, according to you's, that chineese coffee maker I already paid for, I'm going to have to pay for again sometime down the road. I get it now. (sheesh!)
Once again. I'm not talking about protectionism. A protective tariff and a revenue tariff are two separate things. And yes, if your product was one that we chose to raise revenue from, then a tariff would be placed on it. But I'm also for lowering income and/or corporate taxes at the same time we place tariffs. You may have extra profit as a result of the corporate or income lowering and keep your plant open here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.