Posted on 03/29/2024 5:29:08 AM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan
Here we go again.
The once and possibly future President Donald Trump’s proposal to implement a tariff of ten percent on goods imported into our Republic has been met with a cantillating chorus of critiques claiming they will come at a cruel cost to consumers.
The Democrat-aligned Center for American Progress Action Fund has ginned up an analysis that it says shows the tariff would amount to an annual tax of roughly $1,500 on American families. The dire forecast creates the illusion of precision and analytical depth by estimating that households would pay $90 more for food, $90 more for pharmaceutical drugs, and $120 more for oil-related products like gasoline.
We have been down this road before. When Trump announced that he would put a tariff on imported steel and aluminum, his critics proclaimed the imminent arrival of tariff-mageddon for consumers.
Here are some of the greatest hits from five years past:
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Now they're trotting out the same old hokum.
Americans neither want nor need a sales tax on imported goods.
Even if this were true ... it pales in comparison to the inflation cost of Bidenomics ... by at least 10 times.
So many think it’s possible to “tax foreign countries” that there will always be support for new tariffs - and angry denunciations of those who patiently explain why they can never achieve the desired objective of willing domestic competition into existence.
If I understand the dynamics correctly, it would tend to increase domestic production at the expense of cheaper foreign imports, as opposed to what has transpired since the Clintons, namely increased foreign imports at the expense of domestic production.
A glut of cheap Chinese goods is flooding the world and stoking trade tensions
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/28/business/china-goods-exports-trade
Newell: We now have more illegal immigrants in the US than the total population of 3 states: what’s next?
https://www.audacy.com/wwl/news/local/more-migrants-in-the-us-than-the-population-of-3-states
Chinese goods get free shipping. They are subsidized by the government. Adding a large tariff to Chinese goods is good for everyone. Firstly Chinese goods are bad for everyone. The quality sucks so they are replaced making them polluters. They are made in China, making them polluters. They are made with bad quality so there are as many bad versions of products as good versions. This huge pile of products that don’t pass quality tests mean there is more pollution. The world is better off taking away the low quality cheap marketplace from China. If they want to create goods for America they have to do it at a higher price point. Adding a 50% tariff to Chinese products is a must.
There is an interesting circumstance that changes all the current discussion.
China is failing, falling apart economically. Manufacturers both large and small have closed their doors forever creating massive unemployment. The unemployment has vreated outward migration from the cities resulting in the closing of all sorts of retail merchandise and service establishments.
Chinese exports have dried up severely effecting the port cities and especially Shanghai.
What was, isn’t. What will be........ we can not really know.
Americans neither want nor need a sales tax on imported goods.
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Yet many states are allowed to implement sales taxes, with very little commentary by free trade ideologues.
For a free trader to remain consistent on matters of taxation, he must be for abolishing all sales taxes.
Tarrifs, as well as supporting domestic industries, were the primary means of the government raising revenue before income taxes. They are the best kind of tax.
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