Let's talk about Trump losing on tariffs... again.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump losing on tariffs again.

The US Court of International Trade ruled in favor of the small businesses that challenged the tariff Trump instituted after the Supreme Court struck down his last set of unlawful tariffs. The small businesses argued that Trump had imposed the new tariffs to get around the Supreme Court's ruling that struck down his previous tariff scheme under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Given the fact that Trump himself publicly raged against the court's ruling, saying things like, "I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what's right for our country." And then implemented the new tariffs almost immediately. It probably wasn't a hard sale.

The new tariffs rely on Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. That law is designed to correct serious balance of payments deficits. We talked about it at the time and noted that the law, which allows 150 days of tariffs to stop the depreciation of the dollar, probably wasn't the right law to try to use either. The court agreed and ruled that the administration didn't or couldn't identify any “large and serious United States balance of payments deficits as Congress understood that phrase.”

The ruling wasn't as broad as the previous one and the 2:1 decision only applies to the plaintiffs. Trump has to stop collecting from them immediately and refund the money he's already collected. Despite the ruling, Trump was Trump and couldn't keep his mouth closed, basically promising to try to find a way to sidestep this ruling, too. He told reporters, "Nothing surprises me with the courts. Nothing surprises me. So, we always do it a different way. We get one ruling and we do it a different way.” I'm sure the court will appreciate that.

Trump may not realize that every time he says something like this, it casts doubt on his next justification for a tariff scheme. Each new argument in court also undermines the next case. It's hard to take someone seriously when they consistently change their argument for imposing tariffs.

Regardless of Trump's justifications in court, there's one consistent thing that keeps popping up when he's talking off the cuff. He wants tariffs to replace income taxes, which again is one of those things that sounds good to people as long as they don't think about it. The tariffs are paid by US companies who pass the costs on to US consumers. To replace income taxes, the cost being passed along to the working class of this country would be huge.

Basically, the tariffs seem to be being imposed so he can shift the tax burden from the rich to the working class who use a larger percentage of their income in goods that end up taxed via the pass through costs of tariffs. Just like most Trump policies, it steps on the working class so his fellow establishment billionaires can make more money and laugh at the people who supported them.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day