Posted on 07/06/2018 8:23:06 AM PDT by Leaning Right
Right. Tariffs are being used as tools at this time. In the case of EU car import tariffs, as a lever.
> A tariff does not require a Constitutional amendment! Where did you get that idea? <
I’ll be clearer. My proposal would fund the federal government using a flat, comprehensive tariff AND a flat, comprehensive income tax over, say, $20,000.
And that’s it. No special carve-outs. But ‘no carve-outs’ would drive the politicians crazy, as it would take away their power to sell tax code favors. They would never consider the flat income tax part. That’s why my proposal could only be done by Constitutional amendment.
You put tariff first and this gives people believing in fairy tales a false life-line. They don’t know that at the time the USA was funded only by tariffs the government spending was about 2.85% of the GDP, but you do know and that is why you shouldn’t entice with false hope.
> You put tariff first and this gives people believing in fairy tales a false life-line. <
Did you notice the great big “AND” in my post #22? Tariffs AND an income tax.
But yeah, you’re right about the size of the today’s government precluding a tariffs-only approach. I guess it could be tried. But the tariff would have to be so high that no one would buy anything made overseas.
Then then tariffs would bring in essentially nothing.
The non-tariff barriers are even worse.
There were rumors a few weeks back that the EU was mumbling about dropping it’s tariffs on automobiles to zero, which of course is the end game for Trump in all areas of trade around the world - there’s no doubt the US economy is big enough to outlast any “trade war” we head into - just as we were strong enough to outlast the Russians in the defense buildup war under Reagan - the big question is, how much damage will be done until the war is won - like maybe loss of the midterms by the Republicans....
> how much damage will be done until the war is won - like maybe loss of the midterms by the Republicans <
And that’s why Trump has to go on national TV - now - and make his case. The MSM is running all sorts of stories describing how Trump’s “trade war” is hurting soybean farmers, Walmart shoppers, etc., etc.
Except for a tweet here and there, Trump is doing nothing to push back.
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