All of the explanations in the past three posts may well be given!
There are many flaws in Trump’s tariff strategy but the one that keeps jumping out at me is a basic contradiction. If the tariffs are successful in repatriating all these jobs back to the USA than imports will disappear along with the revenue from tariffs. There will be no tariffs to fund anything once the imports stop.
Thats the thing.
If his MAGA base were indeed clued up, they would know that the only narrow way for their strategy to work is if they slice and dice things like:
Social Security
Medicaid
Medicare
Thats 60% of spending.
Really puts an emphasis on the phrase Turkeys voting for Christmas
I’d add the other big nut to this discussion, defense, which is 13% of spending.
According to this source: https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go
Healthcare 24% (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, ACA marketplace)
SS 21%
Defense 13%
MAGA gets all excited about firing people, but payroll is in the neighborhood of 5% of the budget. They can’t fire their way out of the budget deficit.
Another note is that government payroll is about 1% of GDP. Most developed countries have a much higher number there (closer to 5%). The US federal civilian workforce as a share of total non-farm employment is on the decline. In 1960, that share was about 3.5%. Now it’s about 1.5%.
This is especially relevant since the other big items are entitlements and far harder to cut.
Finally, some US Senators challenging Trump’s northern border rhetoric. Now if they could only get a few Republicans to accept the facts.
Fixed, for accuracy.
I suspect that material cuts in Social Security and Medicare would be one thing that could contribute to our current cold civil war going hot.
(For purposes of that statement, I mean “my check was $x last month, and now is $(x-y)”, not “we’re making changes that will materially slow the growth in future payments vs the current baseline assumptions”.)
We can’t call it “bourbon” but Canadian distilleries are replacing Kentucky bourbon. US tariffs can backfire.
**Tyler Dyck’s bourbon-style whisky took gold at the World Spirits Awards five years ago, but the sales boost from that recognition was nothing compared to what happened in the hours after the Canada-U.S. trade war prompted several provinces to clear Kentucky bourbon off of liquor stores shelves earlier this month.
Sitting at the bar in his Okanagan Spirits distillery in Vernon, B.C., Mr. Dyck was dwarfed by the stack of boxes loaded with bottles of BRBN (bourbon is by definition made in the U.S., so this Canadian version carries a different name), ready to be shipped to customers. Sales are up 2,200 per cent and Mr. Dyck should be celebrating – the unhappy circumstances of the trade dispute provides an opportunity for Canada’s craft distilleries to capture new markets.
“The opportunity is so great,” Mr. Dyck said. “You have to put your industries first right now.”**
And US craft brewers struggle with a different aspect of the tariffs. This is all so stupid.
I believe they will not cut SS, Medicare or Medicaid
However I also believe they could make the hurdles great enough, that many people will have difficulty accessing it, which even if it amounts to the same thing, is better messaging for people who don’t care is others are screwed
I agree they will do their best to obscure intended reductions in SS and Medicare. Medicaid will be openly trashed, however, as a significant source of “fraud, waste, and abuse”, and will be steeply cut, along with SSI, TANF, SNAP, and CHIP.
the guy from Letterkenny?
the Bourbon recipes are seemingly so replicable, albeit under different names.
Careful with the TANF cuts, Brett Favre might need another stadium built for his daughter.
Only took Trump a couple of months to drive 2 of our closest allies in Asia into the arms of China
Wednesday is apparently Liberation Day in America. Anybody doing anything special to celebrate it?
April 2nd will be a reminder for me from now on to check all the fluids and such in my car, change the oil if I’ve been putting it off, etc.
Don’t want to pay for repairs more than necessary given the tariffs.
That does sound liberating, I guess.
Biggest tax hike in history according to the Telegraph.
When The Telegraph criticizes a conservative you notice.
I wonder if October 1, 1938 was referred to as “Liberation Day” in the Sudetenland.