Former President Donald Trump calls himself a “tariff man” and says taxes on imported goods “are the greatest inventions ever invented,” so it’s no surprise that Vice President Kamala Harris Attacking the heart of the Republican nominee’s economic agenda As bad policy.
Even more surprising, however, is that a House Democratic member just proposed a bill Codifying Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariffs reveals how long-dormant trade policy is dividing both sides.
The roots of tariffs can be traced back to ancient Athens and other historical civilizations, Main source of income Until 1914, the income tax replaced the federal government. But at the end of the 20th century, as the United States led the global free trade revolution, they largely fell out of favor.
Removing trade barriers reduces the cost of consumer goods and promotes development in many economies around the world. But critics say unfettered free trade also destroys U.S. manufacturing and the high-paying, often unionized jobs that come with it, because domestic factories cannot compete with lower manufacturing costs abroad.
“Seventy-five years from now, other countries will eventually repay us for what we’ve done for the world, and the tariffs will be huge,” Trump said this week.
Rep. Jared Golden, an unorthodox moderate Democratic congressman from Maine who faces a tough re-election this year, introduced the bill on Wednesday to boost domestic manufacturing and limit U.S. access to foreign goods. rely.
“There’s no question that President Trump is the first person in my lifetime to take a leadership role on tariffs, but he’s not the first person to think about it,” Golden said in an interview. “Our Founding Fathers understood at the founding of this country that we should avoid becoming a nation of consumers of foreign goods because that would create dependence.”
Harris and her campaign have slammed Trump’s idea of sweeping tariffs, saying they would raise prices for consumers already facing record high costs due to inflation.
“This will be a sales tax on the American people,” she said in a statement. interview Wednesday with MSNBC. “You can’t just throw out the idea of across-the-board tariffs, that’s part of the problem with Donald Trump… He just doesn’t think very seriously about some of these issues.”
Trump’s tariff plan has also been criticized by his own camp.
Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a bill This month, any president will be prohibited from raising tariffs without congressional approval – an obvious target for Trump, who has said he will implement tariff policy only through executive action. (Trump raised tariffs during his first term without congressional approval.)
Despite attacks by Harris and others on Trump’s tariffs, Biden-Harris administration decides retain some tariffs Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum during his first term and even increased tariffs on strategic industries such as electric vehicles and semiconductors.
Harris made no mention of the tariffs when asked about them in the MSNBC interview.
Still, Biden and Harris have been critical of sweeping tariffsindiscriminately“These tools have the potential to “undermine our alliance” and argued that targeted sanctions do not carry the inflationary risks of broader sanctions.
Golden, I like it some other Supporters of tariffs say sweeping tariffs would benefit American workers and national security regardless of whether Trump supports the idea.
While Trump disagrees, Gordon acknowledged that tariffs will drive up the price of imported goods, but said the higher costs will make domestically produced products more competitive and put upward pressure on quality because imported products are no longer just Compete on price.
“The pursuit of globalization after World War II made sense because we were one of the last surviving industrialized economies,” Golden said. “That model no longer works today.”
Economists generally believe more negative Regarding tariffs. most people say Data is clear Freer trade leads to greater economic growth, they say Trump’s sweeping tariffs will increase inflation and may result in job losses.
However, from a political perspective, tariffs appear to be quite popular, with recent Reuters/Ipsos poll The study found that 56% of Americans support the idea, and that number is likely to be higher in a Trump-leaning area like Golden, which like many other areas has seen scores of factory closures over the past 40 years .
