Yup. Protectionism in the form of tariffs didn’t work out so well before the Great Depression. This is more of the same garbage, as will be the results...
I was going to say
Sen. Reed Smoot would live this, Sen Willis Hawley, maybe not so much.
The net effect - loss of American jobs and a blow to an already weak economy, well, that would be the same....
A short history lesson and note the role weak banks played in this soap opera
"At first the tariff seemed to be a success. According to historian Robert Sobel, "Factory payrolls, construction contracts, and industrial production all increased sharply." However, larger economic problems loomed in the guise of weak banks. When the Kredit-Anstalt Bank of Austria failed, the global deficiencies of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff became apparent.
U.S. imports decreased 66% from US$4.4 billion (1929) to US$1.5 billion (1933), and exports decreased 61% from US$5.4 billion to US$2.1 billion, both decreases much more than the 50% decrease of the GDP.
According to government statistics, U.S. imports from Europe decreased from a 1929 high of $1,334 million to just $390 million during 1932, while U.S. exports to Europe decreased from $2,341 million in 1929 to $784 million in 1932. Overall, world trade decreased by some 66% between 1929 and 1934."