Trump economic agenda to self destruct... yesterday.

godzilla · February 4

Trump ran on it! he would replace income tax (the progressive tax system) with tariffs (a regressive tax system)! its the GOP "conservatives" wet dream!

Navarro is still pushing it even though its clearly going to fail! it has always been a fail. it would never actually work.

Navarro: Trump will ‘structurally shift’ American economy with tariff revenue

there is no master chess player thing going on here. just pure stupidity by Trump and his teleprompt readers. the GOP know this too but are so damn scared of being primaried that they are content to just let it fail. and possibly let the country fail for awhile too.

of course, the latest clear indication that the "tariff economic agenda" is a failure had to be reframed as some kind of win!

Navarro on Trump’s tariff threats: ‘It’s a drug war, not a trade war’

we'll see how long it takes for Trump to abandon the whole tariff idea. he was damn sure that he could raise enough revenue to pay for extending his tax cuts. thats impossible.

“It’s an absurd idea for many reasons, the biggest being that it is mathematically impossible to replace the income tax with tariffs,” Erica York, senior economist and research director at the right-leaning Tax Foundation. “Imports are a much smaller tax base than taxable income, and there’s no way to squeeze enough revenue from taxing imports to fully replace taxing income. A swap like this would hike taxes on working-class taxpayers and invite harmful retaliation against US exports.”

“At first blush, fully replacing $2.4 trillion in income taxes would require a 75% tariff on America’s $3.2 trillion in annual imports,” he said. “However, even that unrealistically assumes that Americans continue purchasing the same imports at nearly double the price.”

Trumps first term China tariffs cost taxpayers $26B just for farmer welfare. And its forever because China now buys those products from Brazil.

Republicans eye bigger farm bailout amid Trump trade wars

"A USDA fund Trump tapped for a $28 billion farm bailout during his first-term tariff clash with China is now running low, lawmakers say. After upcoming payments are made, there will only be an estimated $4 billion left"

"It’s not just the immediate threat of price spikes and economic losses that’s of concern. There’s also a fear that tariffs could reshape markets for decades to come: China, for example, has increased its purchases of corn, soybean and other farm products from Brazil and other rising competitors since the 2018 trade war."

robosmith · February 4

Thing is, Trump isn't trying to replace the revenue of the income tax, he is trying to cut it to the bone and beyond.

godzilla · February 4

13 minutes ago, robosmith said:

Thing is, Trump isn't trying to replace the revenue of the income tax, he is trying to cut it to the bone and beyond.

well, no he has stated as such. they keep bringing up the dream of the US before income tax. he is quite concerned about the debt ceiling as he may actually not have that power.

robosmith · February 4

26 minutes ago, godzilla said:

well, no he has stated as such. they keep bringing up the dream of the US before income tax. he is quite concerned about the debt ceiling as he may actually not have that power.

Before the income tax, tax revenues were miniscule.