Trump Team Floats Tariff Talk. Major Pushback From Republicans.

[Mai72]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...s/index.html?client=ms-android-hms-tmobile-us

All this talk about punishing imports could have an impact on our economy. A modest 5% tariff on imports could possibly result in job loss, and loss of economic dollars. We have companies who have parts and material that come in from worldwide sources. It's mainly China but other countries as well. A 5% tariff on those companies could raise their prices and effectively put them out of business.

I expect any talk on tariffs to be dead in the water. I don't expect the Republicans to go along with Trump. But, this puts them in a bad spot because Trump made it a cornerstone in his campaign that he was going to impose tariffs on imports.

5% is small. Trump was talking about a 35% tariffs on imports. That could potentially be a death sentence for businesses who rely on material from foreign sources.

Finally, a trade war could erupt. And let's not forget the Smoot-Harwley Tariff Act of 1930. That act brought us straight into the Great Depression. History has a way of repeating itself.

 

[Sonikku]

Well of course it will impact jobs, but do they really think they have a choice now? Lest they forget the beast they've awaken that got Trump elected. He didn't just beat the Democrat establishment but the Republican establishment as well. He won without any favors from any of these clowns, in many cases in spite of them and if they think they can tell him "lol, no" now then they are going to have an angry mob they're going to have to explain their actions to in two years.

 

[Paratus]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...s/index.html?client=ms-android-hms-tmobile-us

All this talk about punishing imports could have an impact on our economy. A modest 5% tariff on imports could possibly result in job loss, and loss of economic dollars. We have companies who have parts and material that come in from worldwide sources. It's mainly China but other countries as well. A 5% tariff on those companies could raise their prices and effectively put them out of business.

I expect any talk on tariffs to be dead in the water. I don't expect the Republicans to go along with Trump. But, this puts them in a bad spot because Trump made it a cornerstone in his campaign that he was going to impose tariffs on imports.

5% is small. Trump was talking about a 35% tariffs on imports. That could potentially be a death sentence for businesses who rely on material from foreign sources.

Finally, a trade war could erupt. And let's not forget the Smooth Harwley Tariff Act of 1930. That act brought us straight into the Great Depression. History has a way of repeating itself.

Smooth Harley?

Or Smoot Hawley? (@46s)

 

[Mai72]

Smooth Harley?

Or Smoot Hawley? (@46s)

Thanks. Lol, stupid auto check.

 

[agent00f]

What's going to happen is trump will pass the tariff equivalent of the Carrier deal, and his sycophants will all help him declare victory. Which goes to show how much this is about economics for them.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Good. Any company that relies that heavily on cheap Chinese labor needs to pay their share. Of they can't figure it out then oh well. They probably don't have much American labor anyways.

 

[desura]

Yeah, I mean, one way to fix the economy is to force more people to buy American. This results in higher prices for everything too--like a polo shirt made in America costs $40.

But then you get to tax the sale and also the income, and that is one way to fix the deficit while overall making everyone poorer.

 

[zinfamous]

Are you telling me that Trump and his greatest team of smart best billionaires have no fucking clue what they are doing?

Sad!

 

[piasabird]

Quit importing goods from communist nations.

 

[fskimospy]

Are you telling me that Trump and his greatest team of smart best billionaires have no fucking clue what they are doing?

Sad!

The extent of 'no fucking clue' is truly epic in this case. Mulvaney, Trump's OMB pick thought there would be no negative consequences from breaching the US debt ceiling. His head of the NTC Peter Navarro has ideas about trade that aren't just out of the mainstream, they are logically incoherent. He has said before that a VAT is a tariff:

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2016/09/who_is_peter_na.html

This is a very basic error. International economists almost universally agree that a VAT is neutral with respect to trade. An across the board 10% import tax, combined with a 10% export subsidy, offset each other, leaving no net impact on trade. Instead they convert the tax from a production tax to a consumption tax. But it's a consumption tax that applies equally to all goods, whether made domestically, or imported. This is not even a tiny bit controversial.

The extent to which these guys have no fucking clue is truly next level. It's like having ATPN write your economic policy.

 

[Double Trouble]

It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Import / export and the global trade process are extremely complicated, it's not something you just slap a solution on that you came up with over coffee.

I'm no expert in this field (and unlike many others here, I won't pretend I am either!), we'll have to evaluate changes as they happen, I just hope they don't do something rash. Unfortunately that's not exactly unlikely from president Trump

One thing is for sure, if the GOP thinks they can stop Trump from doing something he wants to do, they are in for a rude awakening. He owns them right now. If some gop rep or senator doesn't do what he wants them to do, he'll put them on blast just like he does anyone else, and politically that's going to hurt them a lot. The GOP establishment fought Trump as much as the Democrats did, and they both ended up losing badly so he doesn't owe either one anything.

Interesting times we live in.

 

[thraashman]

Who wants to bet that no tariffs on goods from Russia are implemented?

 

[hal2kilo]

Who wants to bet that no tariffs on goods from Russia are implemented?

What, the one item we buy from them? Rocket engines is about it. Maybe some titanium.

 

[zinfamous]

What, the one item we buy from them? Rocket engines is about it. Maybe some titanium.

Don't forget billionaire's wives!

 

[sunzt]

SURPRISE!!

Trump is a populist protectionist with nationalistic tendencies....

Fits perfectly with GOP conservatism right?

It's gonna be fun watching White House and Congress dance and spin around each other on healthcare, trade, spending, foreign policy, etc...

it will be unpresidented.

 

[dank69]

I think this is a great idea. It is what America voted for. We should rubber stamp every Trump idea for the next 4 years.

 

[zinfamous]

I think this is a great idea. It is what America voted for. We should rubber stamp every Trump idea for the next 4 years.

Yeah, but do you think conservatives will ever come around to owning their failures?

Nah

 

[dank69]

Yeah, but do you think conservatives will ever come around to owning their failures?

Nah

Who cares? People wanted Trump. Give them Trump. People wanted GOP Congress. Give them GOP Congress. We've spent years complaining about GOP obstruction. Anyone sane knows that they took it way beyond obstructing for the good of the nation but do you think ANY conservative in the entire nation is capable of admitting that fact? No. If we obstruct even one fucking policy, even if it is a bipartisanly recognized disaster, all the both-sides-the-same chuckle-heads will cry "obstruction!" and "hypocrites!" and 50% of the nation will instantly believe it is true. Fuck them all. Fuck everyone. Rubber stamp Trump policy and laugh and laugh. Then when people come crawling back to Dems to dig us back out of whatever hole we are in our response should be "lolno." GOP is the only party with the answers guys. Go to Alex Jones and Breitbart for your answers.

 

[FIVR]

(ramblings of criminal who can't vote)

Why do you even post here? You have nothing interesting to say anyway, even if you weren't legally irrelevant to the country and an idiot. So why are you here? Job hunt got you down?


Don't worry, I'm sure those oil companies will need a few more trash employees to lift boxes and turn wrenches soon. You'll be back in a double-wide in no time.

 

[Jhhnn]

I think this is a great idea. It is what America voted for. We should rubber stamp every Trump idea for the next 4 years.

Just... No. Dems can't afford to be seen as complicit when it all falls down. We'll be dismissed with "They're just as Bad!" like Hillary voting for the war in Iraq as Repubs play on their culture war themes even harder.

 

[dank69]

Just... No. Dems can't afford to be seen as complicit when it all falls down. We'll be dismissed with "They're just as Bad!" like Hillary voting for the war in Iraq as Repubs play on their culture war themes even harder.

Oh I don't care about voting no. I just mean no filibusters or any other procedural tricks. Vote no, tell America that the GOP is retarded and this plan will lead to <x>, and get the fuck out of the way.

 

[Jhhnn]

Why do you even post here? You have nothing interesting to say anyway, even if you weren't legally irrelevant to the country and an idiot. So why are you here? Job hunt got you down?


Don't worry, I'm sure those oil companies will need a few more trash employees to lift boxes and turn wrenches soon. You'll be back in a double-wide in no time.

Just what we need- classist bullshit from a concern troll.

I'll agree that raising tariffs is just an attempt to shift the tax burden down the scale. It won't bring back jobs at all because the economic incentives are simply insufficient. Working people will just pay more.

 

[Jhhnn]

Oh I don't care about voting no. I just mean no filibusters or any other procedural tricks. Vote no, tell America that the GOP is retarded and this plan will lead to <x>, and get the fuck out of the way.

We just need to pick our battles, try to avoid as much permanent damage as we can.

 

[fskimospy]

SURPRISE!!

Trump is a populist protectionist with nationalistic tendencies....

Fits perfectly with GOP conservatism right?

It's gonna be fun watching White House and Congress dance and spin around each other on healthcare, trade, spending, foreign policy, etc...

it will be unpresidented.

That is of course until you realize that Republicans never cared about much outside of regressive tax cuts for the rich, and that's something Trump is very much in favor of.

Anyone want to bet that the Republicans raise the debt ceiling without more than a token complaint? Anyone want to bet Republicans end up passing policies that significantly increase federal deficits? I bet they will do both. Why? Because they never actually cared about those things, they were just convenient excuses at the time.

 

[FIVR]

Just what we need- classist bullshit from a concern troll.

I'll agree that raising tariffs is just an attempt to shift the tax burden down the scale. It won't bring back jobs at all because the economic incentives are simply insufficient. Working people will just pay more.

Many US companies rely on the margins they maintain buying cheap Chinese products. Any Tariff, even 5%, will cause many of these companies to become immediately unprofitable. They will either have to lower wages and fire workers or go out of business.


A perfect example of this: Many US electrical conduit manufacturers buy steel directly from china and maintain 60-70% gross margin selling conduit in the US. To buy and use US steel instantly cuts their margin by 40-50%, making them barely profitable. Imagine if you were one of these companies and suddenly lost this supply source... what do you do? There are thousands of people in this industry alone, and it is a mirror of many other steel-based industries and their situations with China.

I don't really think this is about shifting the tax burden at all. Wealthy people already have a minuscule tax burden in comparison to even the very poor. This is about consolidating and placating his anti-immigrant and anti-trade base. Bread and circuses will be soon to follow.