Posted on 04/15/2019 10:13:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
For American families, Tax Day is more than just a paperwork nightmare, it’s also a day when they look back to consider how their budget has been stretched by taxes and to consider where all that money has gone.
This year, there is an insidious tax that many Americans have no idea they’ve been paying. That’s mostly because instead of being referred to as a tax, it’s been cloaked in the jargon of international trade. This tax is a tariff, and over the last 10 months Americans have been paying tariffs in record numbers as a part of a multi-front trade war. This Tax Day, Congress should push the administration to axe these hidden taxes once and for all.
In a study released last month, the World Bank’s chief economist along with economists from three major U.S. universities estimated the overall cost of the trade war to U.S. consumers at $69 billion. The $69 billion price tag amounts to over $500 paid per American household, a significant chunk of change for a trade war that American consumers never asked for and certainly didn’t sign up to pay for.
The outcry from Americans on these taxes has thus far been muted and neglected by the media. When a tax is not being called a tax, drastic price increases suddenly sound less outrageous. In addition, the administration has been less than honest about who is actually paying for these tariffs.
For instance, on February 16, President Trump tweeted that “billions of dollars are being paid to the United States by China in the form of trade tariffs!” That tweet was similar to remarks made to the nation’s governors on February 25, when the president stated that “China is paying us, right now, billions and billions of dollars of tariffs a month … it’s hurting them; it’s not good for them.”
The idea that China, or any other country, has been the one picking up the tab for these tariffs is simply false. Tariffs that we assess on other countries are paid by the importer of record here in the United States. In other words, American businesses – large and small – pay the extra taxes. Sometimes they eat the cost of those taxes, hurting their ability to invest in growth and support jobs. But most of the time, the cost of these taxes is simply passed on to the American consumer in the form of higher prices.
In fact, even the Trump administration’s own Council of Economic Advisers admitted as much in their Annual Economic Report of the president, noting that the big drawback of tariffs is the “costs paid by consumers in the form of higher prices and reduced consumption.”
For the American consumer, this begs the question: where has all that tariff money gone? Significant sums have already gone toward bailing out industries adversely affected by tariffs, creating a heinous hamster wheel of tax-and-spend policies. Even if a deal with China is reached over the course of the next few months, damage will continue to be done, necessitating even more bailouts.
But all may not be lost. Together with Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, the multi-industry campaign against tariffs, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance is making a straightforward request that the U.S. Treasury secretary at least consider taking tariffs into account during this season of tax refunds. Giving American consumers their hard-earned money back is at least preferable to bailing out some industries while ignoring the downstream effect on everybody else.
The progress that has been made in negotiations with China is encouraging, and we certainly hope that a deal can be reached that reforms China’s abusive trade practices and ends our tariffs and retaliatory tariffs. But the Americans who paid more for t-shirts, tools, and groceries shouldn’t bear the cost of the trade war. And the tens of billions of dollars that the Treasury has raked in shouldn’t be theirs to keep. But this problem won’t stop until Congress ends the problem at its source by reigning in the administration’s disastrous trade war. Taxpayers and consumers could use a break this Tax Day from all taxes, explicit and hidden.
I think we all understand “tariffs” and the price is not too large to keep China from overpowering our system with stolen tech.
You totally ignore the manufacturing jobs that exist now that didn't exist 24 months ago, that's a good starting place you imbecile.
Some times gain requires a period of pain...to eschew the gain because of the growing pains is moronic....like a surgery patient refusing rehab because “it hurts” when that pain will result in a whole and healthy body if they take go through the process.
What amazes me about articles like this is that the authors have the audacity to act as if Americans have a God-given right to pay low prices for anything.
We need to collect taxes of some sort. All taxes are penalties.
Without a doubt, it is FAR HEALTHIER to tax the purchase of foreign goods and services than to tax reportable income. In fact, our Founding Fathers levied the tax to fund the US Government, which covered it up to 95%!
Imagine how much smaller our federal government would be if that were the source 95% of federal dollars. Our country would have been more self reliant and incredibly less dependent on foreign countries if this healthy tax were in place.
A 6oz Steak (with Mashed Potatoes and a Veggie), a non Alcoholic Beverage and a small House Salad.
I have no idea how the are making money on that deal...................
Mexican beef.
Yep. I also add health insurance. It is nothing less than a crony corporatist transfer tax.
Years ago I asked Southwestern Bell what this Fee/Tax was for on the Bill.
I was told it was to pay for the War of 1812...
Want to raise tarrifs?
Fine.
Cut income taxes to match.
Fedzilla gets too much of our money.
I have recently noticed “Made in USA” tools for sale at Lowes, with brand names that had previously been exclusively on “Made in China” tools. The USA stuff seems to be of better quality, with a slightly higher price.
“I have recently noticed “Made in USA” tools for sale at Lowes”
Lowe’s is now handling Craftsman Tools ( used to be an exclusive with Sears). I just looked, and they are being made in four plants here in the USA. Sears is heading into the $hitter, so I guess they had to let the brand go as an exclusive. And isn’t it funny how Sears ( and Montgomery Ward) were ahead of their time with catalog sales, but failed to get into internet sales, which should have been easy for them, before they were shut out by Amazon and others.
Last week (last time I was in a Lowes), ALL of the Craftsman branded stuff I looked at was Made in China. I hope you're right about them reverting to Made in USA. The new Made in USA stuff is from Southwire.
I can find no clear definition of that term. Based on the Federal Trade Commission's rules, that qualified claim suggests that a significant portion of the item's value is of non-USA origin. It's still better than Made in China, but I wish it were more descriptive.
Example: a wrench marked PMITUWGM ... where did the "global materials" leave off and the "Made in USA" take up? They don't say.
When given the chance to prove this at the cash register, Americans never do it. It's always, "Yeah, but my family can't afford to do that."
“When given the chance to prove this at the cash register, Americans never do it. It’s always, “Yeah, but my family can’t afford to do that.””
Just a further example of just how “invasive” the “free lunch” mentality has become. It begins to look as though only a serious conflict or financial crisis will provide the “impetus for change!” And it all started after WWII with the Japanese making little bamboo parasols for our Mai Tais. Seems as though everyone in the world is against us, and they are collectively winning because we’re such a country of self-serving people ( especially our politicians of both Parties). Trump is right, we need to stop being the world’s policeman without compensation, and we need to stop handing out welfare checks to the rest of the world. It isn’t our problem that they can’t build their economies on their own. And the thing that I am most tired of is NATO. We need to make it clear that we’re not going to put in the money to fund it that has been agreed upon by the other member nations. These countries have built and continue to run Socialist “utopias” on our dime, and it needs to stop immediately. And in particular, F*CK Germany and France!
Free trade is only "free" when it's on the same playing field.
Mark
Tally up all the taxes you pay and it comes to well north of half what we earn.
State and federal income tax, sales tax, property tax, gasoline tax, excise tax (I really despise that one), utility taxes, telephone taxes ... and I haven’t even started into “fees” and “permits” and “licenses” that all go to the same place.
Sick of it. Where are the Sons of Liberty these days?
If there isn’t a great deal on their App, no more Big Macs for me.
I'm the same way. Without a discount, going to 5 Guys or Smashburger gets you a far superior burger for the same price.
I remember when McDonalds used to advertise that you could buy lunch for $1, and get change back. When the quarter pounder was first introduced, it was $.59, and the quarter pounder with cheese was $.69. Today a combo meal is about $6.
A big part of that is due to the liquidation of value in our currency. It's long been a ploy by the government, but it accelerated tremendously through "quantitative easing," which increased the money supply, allowing the government to pay its obligations with "cheaper" dollars.
Mark
Tariffs were a perennial plank in the Republican Party platform before WWII: before the Trotskyist Neocons usurped it and became the flip side of the UniParty coin.
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