Politicians like to give people things, but things cost money, and that creates issues.
Reagan liked to give the rich tax cuts, and the way he — like both Bushes — paid for them was adding them to our debt, which he handled by saying how much he hated debt.
So, Reagan’s economic dirty secret was debt — which the country had never seen before in peacetime close to the scale Reagan brought it, letting him get away with it.
trump’s ‘economic dirty secret’ would be inflation — which people aren’t much worried about.
trump likes to promise things, too, and his get out of jail free card for paying for everything he wants is threatening tariffs.
This is popular with voters because it has a sort of ‘screw those countries that took American jobs’ and ‘take THEIR money’ and ‘free money’ sort of appeal.
Here’s the thing I almost never see said in response, that needs to be said — because not saying it lets trump get away with his lie:
The American people have forgotten that for all the harm globalization has done in some ways, it has given Americans Cheap Stuff to buy like never before.
It’s a sort of invisible economic benefit they’re receiving. And because it’s invisible, it’s forgotten, and allows trump to do funny math. Free money from tariffs!
Here’s the one point the title mentions:
All of that money raised by tariffs WILL BE PAID BY AMERICANS AS A NEW TAX.
Sure, it’s indirect — but the sellers of the goods who pay the tariff will pass it on to the consumers in price increases.
As a far, far, far, far, far better president said, “There’s no free lunch.”
But because the American people aren’t realizing they’d be taxing THEMSELVES with higher prices, they cheer the trump plan.
So guess what Democrats’ role it?
Why aren’t they spreading the message around the country to get the people to think of “higher prices” whenever they see trump’s higher tariffs?
And it’s likely even worse than that — because of ‘efficiencies’ reduced economists can talk about, every dollar of tariff might result in more than $1 in price increases.
If we don’t so this, trump can run around sounding like he has good policies because of his phantom ‘free money’ to pay for everything. And that works politically for him and Republicans.
It’s politically useless to do this after the fact, saying how the price increases that happened for years after trump causes them were his fault — any more than pointing out Reagan’s debt.
Inflation was a VERY potent political weapon against Carter, all but forgotten now after years of near-zero inflation (outside of things like healthcare). Tariffs are inflation. Make Inflation Scary Again.