CAN-USA 2025 Tariff Strife (split from various pol threads)

[Good2Golf]

I'd strip him of his license for life. He's a menace on the roads.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/coun-george-darouze-texting-driving-livestream-1.5814258

And all the OPS constables on the road… Edited to add (after all, not everyone gets to drive around with a PC beside them…one who almost took me out one day traveling along Bank St)

 

[GK .Dundas]

No, the parties survive. It’s more like one of those messy divorces where at least one side puts more effort and money into screwing the other, and end up coming out with far less in the end.

How many times has Trump been divorced ?
Crap ! We're doooomed!

 

[Kirkhill]

This article suggests another side to Trump's fixation on tariffs.

Art Of The Deal: Trading The Income Tax For Tariffs

Is there a lousier system for collecting government revenue than the one we have now? None that we can think of.

issuesinsights.com

While speaking Saturday in Las Vegas, President Donald Trump suggested, as he had during the 2024 campaign, replacing the federal income tax with tariffs on foreign imports. We don’t need to see an economic analysis to believe this is debate worth having. Of all the good Trump could do as president in the next four years, eliminating the federal income tax would be one of his greatest achievements.

“If the tariffs work out like I think, a thing like that could happen, if you want to know the truth,” he said.

Trump also reminded the fussbudgets and change-fearing conventionalists who will predict that without a federal income tax the country will fall into a decline that until the 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913, there was no federal income tax. That’s right, establishing a federal income tax required a change to the Constitution. The Supreme Court in 1895 struck down an effort in the year before to establish a national income tax. It was, said five justices, unconstitutional.

An income tax at any level is insidious. Internal taxes, Thomas Jefferson said, were an assault on liberty, which “covered our land with officers and opened our doors to their intrusions.”

The federal income is an economic assassin. According to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Americans burned more than 7.9 billion of their hours last year complying with IRS filing and reporting requirements.

“This is equal to 3.8 million full-time workers doing nothing but tax return paperwork — roughly equal to the population of Los Angeles — and nearly 46 times the workforce at the IRS,” says Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation.

“If we assume a reasonable hourly wage, the 7.9 billion hours Americans spend complying with the tax code costs the economy roughly $413 billion in lost productivity,” Hodge continues. “In addition, the IRS estimates that Americans spend roughly $133 billion annually in out-of-pocket costs to comply with the tax code. This brings the total compliance costs to $546 billion, or nearly 2% of GDP.”

There are also social costs and opportunity costs imposed by the federal income tax.

The IRS must go but the federal government will still need a revenue stream for funding (though it could do with far less than it rakes in). We have supported a national sales or consumption tax to replace the federal income tax, but we are wide open to the possibility of trading the income tax for tariffs. Yes, the latter will have their own negative impacts on the economy and personal finances. But they can’t be worse than the damage caused by income taxes.

Since tariffs provide only a small slice of federal revenue now, probably less than 2%, rates would have to be raised – but just enough to fund the state that is far leaner than today’s leviathan, in line with the smaller pre-income tax government, and not so high as to negatively affect economic behavior. Slashing Washington has to be part of any discussion about changes in our tax system.

...

With that in mind -

Donald Trump issues major threat to nearly 90,000 IRS agents

Trump has threatened to fire thousands of IRS agents—or relocate them to the United States-Mexico border.

www.newsweek.com

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/politics/republican-irs-funding-87000-agents/index.html

If he follows through he has just converted his Internal Revenue Service to his External Revenue Service and created a larger Border Force.
The US Customs Service Redivivus?

United States Customs Service - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[The Bread Guy]

This article suggests another side to Trump's fixation on tariffs.

Art Of The Deal: Trading The Income Tax For Tariffs

Is there a lousier system for collecting government revenue than the one we have now? None that we can think of.

issuesinsights.com

More proof of "it's about bringing in sweet, sweet revenue".

 

[Kirkhill]

Victor Davis Hanson is always a good read.

Trump and His New Frenemies, Abroad and at Home › American Greatness

President Trump recently gave a video talk to the World Economic Forum (WEF) assemblage in Davos. He expressed fondness for Europe. He praised many for their attendance—and then tore into the evils of…

amgreatness.com

 

[The Bread Guy]

Excellent edition

A lot of people will hear things said on these forums for some time

The column based on the "libertarian free association" podcast here

Dispatch from the Front Line: Asshole Nation, Assemble!

What would the most uber-competitive and productive version of Canada look like if we thoroughly abandoned any desire to be nice?

www.readtheline.ca

Also readable in PDF format here, shared under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)

 

[daftandbarmy]

Victor Davis Hanson is always a good read.

Trump and His New Frenemies, Abroad and at Home › American Greatness

President Trump recently gave a video talk to the World Economic Forum (WEF) assemblage in Davos. He expressed fondness for Europe. He praised many for their attendance—and then tore into the evils of…

amgreatness.com

I watched that exchange with the same awe... whether the Euros follow through or not will be interesting to see.

 

[FSTO]

A good explanation on why expending energy fighting Trump's tariffs may be a bad idea.