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Impeach the Son of a Bitch

posted on in: tariffs, paul, krugman, trump, cartels, fentanyl, oil, prices, natural, gas and canada.
~512 words, about a 3 min read.

Tariffs are taxes by another name. Trump is about to raise taxes on everyone by a significant margin. Mia Sato of the Verge succinctly puts it:

Trump has called tariffs “the greatest thing ever invented,” but he either doesn’t understand how they work or regularly lies about it. For years, he has claimed that the exporting country or company would foot the bill. Despite what the president and subjects of viral videos seem to believe, however, the exporting country’s government does not pay the tariff — the importer (like a retailer or other entity) pays it, and generally that additional cost is passed on to the consumer by charging them more for the item. If a company imports T-shirts from Mexico and sells them for $10, for example, a 25 percent tariff would add $2.50 to their costs, and they’re likely to jack up the price of your shirt to cover it.

Paul Krugman, who god love him is more profane since leaving the Times titles his latest piece, The End of North America. He argues we've built a continental-scale machine that moves, assembles, and builds over $1.8 trillion of stuff. Tariffs are about to bust that all to pieces, hurting business, workers, and consumers. We as consumers are going to witness the highest taxes in decades, at a time when inflation is a major driver to voter discontent.

What are we going to do about it? Well, I think a better question is what are the Republicans going to do about it. They're in charge. Democrats should note prop a corrupt regime. Will they stop the president from deploying illegal tariffs -- excuse me -- illegal taxes?

Illegal, you may ask? The president has a wide aperture in respects to the kinds of tariffs he can impose, but he cannot scream in all caps, something like drug trafficking as the reason. Krugman:

U.S. trade law gives the president huge discretion to impose tariffs, but only for a specific set of reasons: economic injury from import surges (Section 201), national security (Section 232), unfair foreign competition (Section 301), dumping — sales below costs. Drug smuggling, especially imaginary drug smuggling, isn’t on the list.

Trump is saying its about fentanyl coming over the border. Last time I checked, Canada is not a major source fentanyl.

"This is stupid"! Yupe, you're right. The very states, the entire midwest, overwhelmingly voted for him will see higher natural gas and oil prices (Canada sends a good amount of oil to refineries in the States). Car parts will be in shorter supply, and cost more. In a word, inflationary. He's only move is to blame immigrants and DEI. So expect that.

Will Republicans impeach him for fucking up their easy slick path to unfettered corruption? Their base are awfully populous and care about business more than pronouns, so I am told. Politics didn't end when he got elected, argues Jamelle Bouie. Maybe the backlash is nigh.

Trump’s first round of tariffs is almost here [The Verge]