“...and that the income tax(1913), which supplanted the tariff, was the beginning of the economic decline of the USA.”
Actually, I agree that the income tax(1913) was the beginning of the economic decline of the USA.
However, the income tax only “supplanted” the tarriffs if you buy the “fixed government expenditure fallacy”, namely, that one source of revenue (tarriffs) must not be reduced without replacing it with another (federal income tax).
We hear this same fallacious argument from the left every single time tax cuts are proposed. “How will you pay for this tax cut?” the leftists ask. “The tax cut must be revenue nuetral!” the leftists insist. This tax cut will cause massive deficits!” the leftists claim.
But it’s a lie - the over spending is what causes the deficits and the excessive taxes.
Raising revenue to pay for government, by any means, whether tariffs, income tax, sales tax, VAT - always takes a toll (pardon the pun) on the private economy, no matter how it’s done. The size of the government must be limitted or the government (the parasite) will eventually kill the private economy (the host).
Even vampire bats know they can’t bleed too much blood from the ankles of the cattle they feed on, but government knows no limits.
There is a reasonable, limitted size for government (which we surpassed a long time ago), which requires an amount of revenue that can be safely skimmed off the private economy without crippling it.
All I’m trying to get you to acknowledge is that regardless of HOW the revenue is raised, what matters is HOW MUCH. Too much tarriff is just as bad as too much income tax, or too much any kind of tax. The issue is too much.
If you justify tariffs as a source of federal revenue, without addressing the excessive government spending, then you are no better than the tax hikers.
Tariffs are the only form of taxation that is dual purpose. Without doubt a tariff protects, to some degree, domestic industry from FOREIGN competition. It does not protect industry from DOMESTIC competition - which is good. To me that makes the tariff the premier form of taxation.