I'm not following Ted Kennedy's views. I'm following the views of such men as Hamilton, Lincoln, Coolidge, and Reagan. I'm well aware that the American consumer pays the tariff. I'm for getting rid of the income and corporate taxes. We survived for 150 years with tariffs as the main source of revenue. And we can make money on the so called "trade deficit". We did in the past and we can again.
There's no level of tariff that would cover our expenditures even if they were significantly reduced, which isn't going to happen in the foreseeable future. As much as I dislike personal and corporate income taxes, tariff are even worse for interfering with economic efficiency. If a tariff was proposed by the Right, the Left would sign on to it and spend the money on more dubious programs.