"This is the picture the tariff people paint --lower the tariff and people loose their jobs. "
Lower the steel tariff and you lose 20,000 steel jobs.
You likely know their names ...
"What they don't have is the actual headcounts of the job-losers compared to actual head counts of the job-gainers, along with the stacks of payrolls showing higher wages for all. It's a picture that simply doesn't match with reality."
Lowering the steel tariff would make a host of industries that employ *millions* more competitive and lower-cost, from construction to about every manufacturing sector ... you can't by definition know the names of the gainers since jobs are added due to demand and profit margins, and everything, not just one factor goes into how and when that can happen.
But rest assured, the steel tariff increase cost more jobs - far more jobs - than it saved, and undoing it was a net plus for the economy.
Like I said, the picture the tariff people paint doesn't match with reality. The tariff people don't like looking at actual headcounts of job-losers compared to actual head counts of job-gainers --they cringe at the thought of payrolls showing higher wages for all. The facts are easy to get out, but the import tax lovers prefer dramatic anecdotes that (like Ricky Gephardt's imaginary friends) are mostly fiction.
My question is whether these import tax hikers already know that their story is bogus and they just want our tax money, or do they simply do not want to think about the facts.