Trump's Trade War Is A Political Trap For Democrats

[Passages]

The president’s reckless tariffs are designed to goad his opponents into touting free trade and scoffing at the working class.

To tariff or not to tariff? Today’s tweet-length political discourse pretends this is a binary choice. President Donald Trump has pitched across-the-board import levies as a panacea to rebuild American manufacturing, while Democrats insist that Trump’s proposals are an attempt to crash the economy, and that their party should tout their opposition to all tariffs.

But neither the policy nor politics of this moment are that neat and simple. While too few or too many tariffs can destroy economies, there is a Goldilocks zone that’s just right. It’s just being omitted from the conversation.

Policy-wise, Trump’s tariff-all-imports initiative lands on the “too many” side, ignoring some basic economic realities. In offering almost no implementation period, it provides industry no grace period to actually reshore factories and other capital-intensive operations to produce goods in the United States. In applying tariffs across the board rather than in a targeted fashion, Trump’s proposal makes few accommodations for commodities from coffee and vanilla to various rare earth minerals that America cannot produce at scale within its own borders.

SNIP
Once a doctrinaire free trader, Joe Biden as president championed a mix of carefully calibrated tax incentives, spending programs, and — yes — tariffs. He and his administration did a terrible job of publicizing the policy’s triumph — but it was working. During Biden’s term, the United States added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs, far outpacing Trump’s first term. Many of the jobs and factory investments occurred in Republican-dominated states that had been hammered by past free trade policies.
https://www.levernews.com/trumps-trade-war-is-a-political-trap-for-democrats/

Point well taken going forward.

[in2herbs]

1. According to news sources there is no software to calculate the percent/amount to be

assessed as tarrifs at the point of entry and therefore no money for tariffs has been collected thus far. With F47 cancelling tariffs within days of implementing tarrifs it is likely that no computer program can ever be created.

So why impose tarrifs if money for tariffs can't/isn't being collected? Are the tarrifs created as a distraction? Are the tarrifs a case of "look over here" meant to distract us from what F47 really wanted to do and that is create chaos to pump and dump stocks? After all, that is where the real money was gained.

[Passages]

2. I can't prove Trump is pocketing anything on a "deal" he makes, but

I would not put it past him.

[LymphocyteLover]

3. it's not that tariffs are bad but they are not the only answer to fixing our manufacturing issue -- and more importantly

Trump's tariff approach is as dumb and ill-conceived as humanly possible

[Passages]

4. Absolutely. For Trump it is an opportunity to fleece too.

Whereas Bidens were a great model to follow.