Let’s make this clear: Tariff are taxes, and they raise the price of imported products for consumers. Countries don’t pay tariffs, consumers do.
The Trump administration doesn’t seem to know what it’s doing with tariffs, and the results are showing up in the cost of our daily purchases. (For instance, steel tariffs that raise the cost of an outdoor gas grill by $300.) Incidentally, these same tariffs have resulted in no gain whatsoever for American consumers. It’s all a show to drum up support for the mid-term elections.
Now President Trump is proposing to give $12 BILLION in aid to the giant agricultural farms hurt by his trade policies. Does this make sense to you?
Repeat after me, a tariff is a tax on American consumers.
Every tariff on a foreign producer means higher prices here in America.
And those higher prices are coming at a a time that real wages are going down due to Trump's tax cuts. Enjoy. https://t.co/YetCURdn9d— Richard Stengel (@stengel) July 24, 2018
GOP senators are furious about the Trump administration’s plan to give $12 billion to farmers hurt by Trump’s own trade war https://t.co/tdWXStYxVn
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 24, 2018
so Trump admin introduces tariffs that cost US exporters and trigger retaliation that hurts US companies/consumers and slows US eco growth-and then moves to bail out farmers hurt by the policy. would have been far better and cheaper not to have introduced tariffs in the 1st place
— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) July 24, 2018
Sen. Bob Corker characterizes Trump's farm aid proposal: "You have a terrible policy that sends farmers to the poorhouse, and then you put them on welfare, and we borrow the money from other countries."
"It's hard to believe there isn't an outright revolt right now in Congress."
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 24, 2018
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) tells @burgessev and me outside GOP lunch that $12 billion in trade assistance to farmers from Trump administration "this is becoming more and more like a Soviet-type of economy here" with "commissars" sprinkling around benefits.
— Alex Bolton (@alexanderbolton) July 24, 2018
MURKOWSKI isn't happy Trump wants to "single out" farmers for aid, saying his tariffs threaten Alaska's seafood industry. "What about the manufacturing sector? What about the energy sector? The oil and gas industries?"
"Where do you draw the line? I've got some real concerns."
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 24, 2018
So instead of PROFITING off the sale of American food to China, Trump's trade policy has the United States PAYING INTEREST to China while US farmers become dependent on the government because they aren't SELLING food to China.
— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) July 24, 2018
The other thing tariffs do is cut off trade with other countries in retaliation, like the meat industry. You will see lower prices at the supermarket because the stockpiles are so high from trade cutoffs with other countries, but that won’t last long as the meat companies eventually go out of business.
