End of the day the American people are going to pay the tariff, the question is will they be ok with it, which many think they will be, but I find that hard to believe when so many voted against Biden due to the inflation that took place under him. If your family was struggling under the Biden Economy, they will continue to struggle under Trump’s economy. The tariffs are a tax and this will not lower our costs of living. And here is the deal, once a tax is in place, the Government will do everything in it’s power to keep it there. Notice Biden did not run to undo any of the tariff’s Trump instituted under his first Presidency, Biden and the Democrats left them totally intact after taking office. Democrats are going to stomp their feet and shake their fists, but they will never remove them, they may say they are for the working man, but they love Tax Cuts for Corporations as much as Republicans.
Tariffs are also used to bolster domestic production and keep jobs here. If an equivalent product made in Canada, Mexico, or China is $100 cheaper than same product manufactured here, most will buy the foreign product. This is a benefit to domestic producers and also make us more self reliant. In many, perhaps most cases, I think that’s a fair trade assuming our domestically produced products are as good or better. I’m willing to support U.S. manufacturers…how about you?
How about if that “miniscule” amount kills your kid or relative?? How about then?
Which makes sense for some items but not all. I am all for bringing back production to the United States for big ticket items, but not so much for the cheap plastic crap. Furthermore one of the benefits of a global economy is that it helps to move developing countries into 1st world countries. After WWII Japan was a developing country that produced tons of cheap plastic crap for the world, this allowed them to build their economy and move to production of higher end products like electronics and automobiles, same thing took place for South Korea, today both countries no longer produce cheap plastic crap and only produce the high end stuff where it makes sense because it keeps wages high for their citizens. You will pay an above living wage for people building cars and high end electronics, people making plastic forks not so much.
As long as Americans keep smoking, ingesting and injecting illegal drugs there will always be drugs flowing into the United States via our Northern and Southern borders. That is never going to change, so it would make more sense to start cracking down on the users who are creating the demand. If there are no users, then there will be zero demand and no profit to be made by smuggling drugs into the country.
I should have added…if we’re going to have a 25% “sales tax”, let’s get rid of the income tax! 
Finally someone understand why countries have tariffs. It is not about a pissing match … It is to make the good you sell equal to the good other countries want to sell you … Level playing ground for manufactures… But greed set in… To make a quick buck on cheap crap … They killed the middle class… Gave away our jobs for a 50 dollar VHS machine … So many things we have invented and China reproduce for next to nothing …
You can look at it today with DeepSeek … Is it as good … Nope … Is it cheap and kinda works … Yup.
Income tax is not going away, I live in Oregon and they keep wanting to bring a sales tax to the state but the people will never vote for it and quite frankly they should not. We pay an an extremely high income tax which is why there is no sales tax. Now if they were to lower our income tax by a lot, then they maybe able to get a sales tax through, however every time they bring up a sales tax they are never lowering the income tax (falls under once a tax is in place it’s never going away). And sales taxes are regressive, those at the bottom will end up spending more of their earnings through a sales tax.
The only benefit to a sales tax is that everyone within the state pays the tax whether they earned their income here or not. So tourists would help to contribute to the states coffers when spending money in Oregon.
You got it right… Sadly not as much to do in Oregon as Florida … So I am sure they can not make enough off tourism… To do a sales tax …
By the way it is really nice having you two here … You actually know what you are talking about or too…
What a refreshing change …
For a few years now I have thought that a “one in the head” law would be useful to Americans. Just for a few things. Treason. Anyone in the drug trade from seller to user, anyone who rapes anyone. I’m sure that there are others. It would be one heck of a deterrent…certainly from committing another crime. 
Harsh penalties rarely curb behavior and furthermore it would more than likely have less men being convicted of rape if you included rape in crimes that meet the criteria for the death penalty. A jury is going to be less likely to find someone guilty of rape if it means they are going to be executed for it. Examples being instances where a young man rapes an intoxicated woman who was not in a state to provide consent.
I do not support capital punishment because it gives way to much power to the Government. A Government that has the power to execute citizens can execute them for any reason they deem necessary. If we allow our Government to execute citizens for Rape, how long till they are demanding to execute citizens for what they deem to be a “hate crime”.
Pertinent information from Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta:
Add to that the reality that his tariffs, alienating our now-former (?) allies, give Putin what he wants - a diminished NATO that has kept the world from a major war; and direct encouragement for Putin to pursue his clearly-spoken goal, the renewal of the Soviet Union.
Putin still says that the loss of the Soviet Union “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” And Trump is giving him everything he’s wished for to make his dream, of a new and stronger Soviet Union, a reality.
My biggest fear is Trump’s long-standing rage, that controls him and his decisions; and the fact that he has the nuclear codes. I was a senior Army officer and I truly know how serious Putin is, and how dangerous is it to have someone who wants revenge holding the reins… the reins of a nuclear war.
Trust me, I hate seeing the US holding positions that are backed by Russia and North Korea, for reals I never saw that day happening in my lifetime. I have been a Wolverines for life type of guy. On the other hand I do feel Europe has failed to upkeep their part of the bargain when it comes to NATO, and if Trump is able to get them to start carrying their weight by playing the Russian card then that is to the benefit of the US. On the other hand if his Russian Card is not really a card at all and he truly believes we are better off with allying with Russia and North Korea then the United States is beyond FUBAR because people like you and me are just batteries, something to help the machine move while being easily replaced.
Wow, I remember when I was in college, how informational my economic professor was. I would love to be in his class this semester - to get his take on what to me is such an interesting and complex work in progress.
Such potential to create change. I’m excited but also afraid at the same time, not knowing what the future holds. Wish our pocket books gain as opposed to suffer. Though school days for me are long behind me now.
The speech was frackin’ awesome. Change takes pain, fellow community folk. It has been only 6 weeks and the last administration hid nearly everything they did…and didn’t do.
And the dem’s were truly pathetic. A collective temper tantrum of infantile extremists.
Couldn’t even cheer when that young man got accepted to The Citadel.
Couldn’t cheer the kid with cancer. Couldn’t honor the folks whose children were killed by illegals, or the man killed at the Trump rally, or the hostage freed from Russia, or the Border patrol agent, or anyone else.
Let them act like they will, America is watching and This American will not forget.