Thread

1. mcmcmc · 1790027665 · focus · HN ↗

   It truly boggles the mind how Trump managed to sell tariffs as anything other than a tax on American consumers

   1. jacobolus · 1790034226 · focus · HN ↗

      > managed to sell tariffs

      He didn't manage to sell them. Everyone hates the tariffs, which are widely understood to have contributed to high prices and economic stagnation.

      What he did manage to do is bully the abjectly servile GOP leaders of Congress into not doing anything about the tariffs, even though setting trade policy is expressly assigned to Congress by Article I of the Constitution, and Trump has repeatedly exceeded any legal authority.

      1. mvdtnz · 1790038542 · focus · HN ↗

         He campaigned and won on tariffs. A plurality of Americans favor them, evidently.

         1. PaulDavisThe1st · 1790039188 · focus · HN ↗

            We are a country of laws, and the SCOTUS ruled that his first attempt at tariffs was illegal. Whether or not a plurality or majority of Americans favor them is largely irrelevant.

            1. mvdtnz · 1790039646 · focus · HN ↗

               Whether it's illegal or not is irrelevant to the comment I was responding to, which incorrectly claimed "He didn't manage to sell them. Everyone hates the tariffs".

               He campaigned and won with tarrifs as one of his main policy points. Voters favour them. Americans get tarrifs because Americans want tarrifs. Deal with it.

               1. PaulDavisThe1st · 1790080103 · focus · HN ↗

                  That's not how a country governed by the rule of law is supposed to work.

                  We have laws that limit what presidents (and Congress) can do. By extension that limits what voters can get by voting. Americans got/get tariffs because we currently have an administration that is willing to break the law.

                  In addition, to focus on the point you claim that voters favored them. I've never seen any convincing evidence that this is true, and what evidence I have seen always seems predicated on the claim that the foreign suppliers pay tariffs, which is generally completely false. So, if they were in favor of what they understood, they did not in fact support tariffs in the real world. Further, I did see some polls suggesting that voters favored highly selected tariffs for specific products from specific origins. Again, that's not what the administration has sought to impose.

                  Even so, I never saw polling that indicated even a plurality of voters were in favor of them one way or another.

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