this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025
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Trump is going to use Tariffs to try to offset making larger tax cuts for the wealthy.
It’s better that he does this now so that we have a solid recent example to point to of how this will impact what we pay for goods.
Never mind we have 100 years of data backing this up, people are idiots and won’t recognize the treat until it hurts them directly.
To be fair, we mostly have examples of how free trade reduces prices. But this reduction in prices usually wasn't instantaneous and perceivable by ordinary folks. Because corporations wouldn't hand out the savings to consumers until the very slow market force of competition forced them to. Tariffs will make everything more expensive and even if they are eventually culled, stuff will not become suddenly cheap again.
I agree, I doubt very much that price savings for any reduction in Tariffs will be passed onto the consumer. However any increase in Tariffs will immediately be felt.
I’d rather see an increase in a single sector such as microchips to show the public the costs of Trump’s plan in real modern dollars to help build opposition. Than wait until he pushes an across the board Tariff. Which would likely result in a stagflation for the population at large.
In a way I’m glad he’s doing this. He’s going to inflect so much pain that he loses in a landslide in four or 8 years or whatever. If income tax rates are 0, then a new administration would be able to set them as high as they want without consideration of trying to increase them by 2 percent or whatever they do now.
I agree I’d rather Trump shit the bed hard and early so we can contain the damage and show the public at large what his policies will really do to them.
But Tariffs will never be enough to offset income tax completely. I think he is going to use Tariffs to offset renewing his tax cuts for the wealthy. There are a good number of house republicans who will not go along with tax cuts if it increases the deficit. Revenue from tariffs would give him enough cover to placate those Republicans while directly pushing the cost onto US consumers who are primarily lower and middle classes.
Even after 4 years when he is out of office and the next administration reduces those tariffs and goes back to a progressive tax system. Even reducing those tariffs then will never bring prices down. Companies will never pass those savings entirely to the consumer they will pocket the money and everyone else will be screwed.
The grift is obvious for anyone paying attention but a lot of his base doesn’t realize that they pay almost no tax because of credits and deductions. Tariffs will hit the working class hard.