A 20% tariff would balance the budget. It would force repatriation of industry to the USA. It would take a couple of years, throw in tax incentives to build factories here, but in the long run the USA would be 100 times better off.
If we don’t reduce government, eliminate the IRS, eliminate oppressive regulations, bust the labor cartels, eliminate entitlements, repeal 0bamacare, stop illegal immigration, deport parasitic illegal immigrants, bust up K Street, start sending Wall Street crooks and their bought and paid for politicians to jail then a 50% tariff wouldn’t make a bit of difference.
You know as well as I do that a tariff that will be selectively applied and enforced by corrupt politicians in Washington who don’t want to anger their offshore contributors would be a failure because as it currently stands, Washington is a failure.
There is a slim possibility that a president with strong conservative values who knows and believes in the Constitution could turn this mess around. A very slim possibility.