[Mollypitcher1]

Sorry, Jarhead, but this country lived on tariffs until the infernal income Tax came into being. Can’t say that caused any improvement. A deciding factor of Lincoln going to war with the confederacy was he couldn’t stand to lose the southern tariffs.
We don’t need China, but China needs us. We need to bring our jobs back to our country where they belong. If it takes imposing higher tariffs, so be it. We are the world’s largest consumer. They need us more than we need them. Time they learned that.

[nathanbedford]

I tell you young man what do but you don' t do it.

… Robert E Lee at the battle of Chancellorsville.

In the adrenal rush of victory it is easy to believe that our new Paladin can rearrange the world to our liking, he can not. President Trump will find Congress recalcitrant; he certainly will find the bureaucracy subversive. John F. Kennedy once said words to the effect that as President of the United States he issues orders to the bureaucracy but nothing happens; he will find the Chinese wily, powerful and determined because they will be desperate; he will encounter an aroused consumer class resentful that their standard of living has been reduced further by a new tariff regime; he will encounter an aroused economic sector composed of those who lost their jobs when trade is reduced or eliminated.

This is not to say that the battle to protect America from Chinese mercantilism is not worth waging, it is. But it is to say that many people will be unavoidably sacrificed that others might prosper. In effect, we are not saying but we should be forthrightly saying that consumers and exporters to China, as examples, must be sacrificed for the national good, for the good of the whole economy, for the national security of the country.

In a representative democracy the people are entitled to know exactly what price must be paid for these values, they must know the cost of waging this war. It is immoral to go to war without the support of the people, without full disclosure of war aims, without an honest accounting of the cost, and without an exit strategy.

The people must understand what victory means and what the cost will be and who will bear it. Donald Trump is not Superman, the powers arrayed against him are entrenched, the support of the people is fickle, the way is not at all clear. It is wrong for us to blandly assure the people otherwise.

[Jarhead9297]

You are right about Lincoln and how the Government raised money and if he for tarrifs if that alone is how the Government derived its operating revenues. However we know those were different times and the Government collects taxes, on top of corporate taxes, gasoline taxes, death taxes, interest earned taxes, Social Security taxes, capital gains taxes, windfall taxes, tax tax tax. Throw on top of that punishing tarrifs and businesses here that rely on that trade will go under thanks to the big steel foot of government.

Since the inception of the income tax tarrifs have not worked to save, retain or build jobs. However they have been proofed to be job killer (aka steel and textile extinction)