Tariffs: The War We Won’t Win

The four most beautiful words in the dictionary: God, love, religion ... and tariffs?

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Watch this scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and you’ll come away with the idea that tariffs (like Ben Stein) are a) profoundly dull and b) mildly irritating. But this is far from the truth.

Tariffs are a tool used by countries in an effort to regulate international trade. With Trump’s new tariffs, the U.S. government is placing and collecting taxes on products that come from other countries. But it’s the U.S. companies - not the foreign companies - that are paying the taxes. Because the companies are paying more, they can either charge higher prices or take a lower profit. Which you think they’ll pick?

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Tariffs, Tariffs, Everywhere

On March 4, Trump officially launched a trade war. He imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canadian imports and raised the previous tariff on China to 20%. Note that these three nations are the country’s biggest trading partners. Trump has previously warned Americans to expect tariffs on countries in the European Union, so we can pretty much expect prices to go up on everything.

Why Did Trump Do This?*

Trump has made various claims about tariffs. He’s claimed that tariffs would cause Mexico and Canada to close their borders. Other times he’s claimed they would force Mexico and China to stop the flow of illegal drugs entering the U.S. 

But Trump also really, really loves ‘em. In fact, Trump has called tariffs “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” because he thinks they will:

• Get companies to move factories to the U.S. (even though some companies, like Nike and Adidas, have already moved their factories from China to countries that are not being tariffed).

• Encourage companies to build new factories here (though factories aren’t built in a day).

• Lower food costs (but after we kick out the immigrants, there will be fewer workers willing to pick and sort food).

• Raise money for the government (which he intends to use to pay for tax cuts for rich people).

• Close the U.S. trade imbalance with other countries (how this is supposed to work when other countries will impose retaliatory tariffs on us is beyond me).

Of course, history and economics professors know that tariffs rarely work. The Revolutionary War began over tariffs that England placed on tea. More recently, Trump’s 2018 tariffs led to a trade war between the United States and China. Spoiler alert: We didn’t win that war.

Even worse, here’s how Michael House, a lawyer specializing in international trade, analyzed what’s going on:

“It’s chaotic, especially compared to the way we saw tariffs rolled out in the first [Trump] administration. It’s unpredictable. We don’t know, in fact, what the president will do.’’

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The Bottom Line

Whatever the real reason for these tariffs, for everyday Americans like you and me, here is what’s going to happen: 

• Prices for imported goods will all increase at once.

• You will pay more money for what you need every time you shop.

• Your family will have less money to spend on things you want but don’t necessarily need. 

In simplest terms, expect to pay more for gas and oil, cars, appliances, food items … basically everything.

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What can you do?

• Don’t say tariff; say “Trump Tax.”

• Share your stories about how the increased prices on everything are hurting you. The only president with worse early approval ratings than Trump 2.0 is Trump 1.0. The best way to kneecap him and his GOP enablers is to keep driving that 48% down.

• Subscribe to this newsletter - The Digital Drumbeat - to keep up-to-date on what’s going on during the first 100 days and beyond. Be sure to get caught up with other articles in our series Trump 2.0: Even More Scary & Corrupt.

• Join DemCast, the country’s largest and most effective digital field team. You will have access to a vast library of memes, videos and graphics, as well as a like-minded community.

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*This is truly a question for the ages. It’s impossible to truly know why Trump does anything at all. Further, most of what he does seems to be because he is an immoral, vindictive asshole.

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