Lutnick is the Secretary of Commerce. Now we have a clear message on the goal of tariffs: to eliminate the taxes collected by the IRS and replace them with revenue from tariffs. This is essentially reverting to the 19th century, before the federal income tax existed, when tariffs were a primary source of government revenue. My previous post assumed this was a goal, and now I'm at least glad it has been stated (now we know why this administration is pushing so hard on tariffs and severely cutting everything down). The problem is, we have historcal data, and the math doesn't work. Some basic numbers. The IRS collected approximately $5.1 trillion in revenue in 2024, with $2.5 trillion coming from income taxes. Total U.S. imports in 2024 were about $3.8 trillion. To replace $2.5 trillion, you would need a ~65% tariff on all imports. To replace $5.1 trillion, you would need a tariff exceeding 100% on all imports. This assumes that the economy and imports would remain constant despite high tariffs - they wouldn’t; the economy would sink. 70% of the budget today is mandatory spending (~$5 trillion). For this vision to potentially work, you would have to radically restructure the entire federal government. And that would likely devastate the economy (and people's livelihoods).
I love my USA brehs and the country in general, and am saddened and confused why DT has such a bone to pick with the Great White North. Now we have to remove all the Jack Daniels from the liquor store shelves, boo the US anthem at hockey games, and other foolishness. Wishing we can go back to being BFFs again at some point.
Please realize that many, many, many Americans are against the Orange narcissistic sociopath. He wasn't given a mandate to do what he wants but he has surrounded himself with a bunch of spineless yes men and cowards. I am ashamed to be an American because of him and believe me there are plenty of other Americans who feel the same way. It is just beyond sad that we have so many ****ING STUPID IDIOTS who live in the US.
I can't bring myself to boo the US anthem given that I'm American (as pissed off as I am at the US government) but we've definitely made it a point to avoid US sourced items when shopping and we stopped day trips to New York and vacations to the US. I hope things go back to normal at some point but as this drags on I'm not sure things will. Frankly Canada has been pretty nice all things considered. The retaliation could be so much worse if Canada started taxing or restricting oil and gas, potash, lumber, metals and minerals, Quebec electricity exports, heating oil, etc.. And unlike the US, parliament (after it reconvenes) is still functional unlike the gridlocked US Congress.
Who needs forests and national parks. Cut baby cut. Wtf he will absolutely destroy the country. Everything is for sale
Americans have to live with the consequences good and bad of having elected Donald Trump. I would keep in mind though that less than half of the voters voted for Donald Trump and it required the extraordinary situation of the Democrats dropping their candidate because of his age and not even having a nomination process to name their candidate - a black woman…. Even then Trump won by like 1.5%. This too will pass and normality will return.
And the residual effect of it being used as a negotiation tactic? The concessions these countries make for the privilege of doing business with cash cow USA to avoid tariffs... 2024 imports were 4.1 billion. Data released Wednesday morning by the Commerce Department showed that U.S. imports of goods and services grew 6.6 percent to a record $4.1 trillion, as Americans bought large amounts of auto parts, weight-loss drugs, computers and food from other countries. The U.S. recorded its largest trade deficit in goods with China, at $295.4 billion, The more you subjectively look at it, the more you can see it's being used to sow discomfort and make concessions. As it's the USA, they have no choice but to pony up. And funneling the brunt of it towards China is good business - I
Don’t bring up race. She lost because she’s terrible. Just stop with the skin color bullshit when it comes to Kamala.
The far left is completely broken They have nothing to cling to except 20th century tactics of race baiting - it keeps them in their comfort zone as opposed to looking in the mirror and being honest with themselves. This scares the bejesus out of real world people. Americans saw that for all of trump's flaws, he wasn't broken in this way and would genuinely attempt boosting domestic prosperity over playing captain virtue save the world .
The far left has never had any power in the democratic party. Bernie or Warren have no power nd never had any power. The only people who think the far left is a thing are you MAGA folks. The far left hates democrats just as much as MAGA does. The far left spent the entire election season rooting for Trump and calling Biden, "genocide joe." The far left is delusional and out of touch just like the MAGA cult
Abandoning your country for a socialist shithole is pretty fringe and cringe. Go back to **** posting on reddit. You're out of touch
They didn't drop Biden because of his age. They dropped Biden because it was abundantly clear he was in full mental decline for quite sometime. And then the stupid democrat party chose to ignore the will of their people and crowned the unelected Harris as the nomination. What it sheer stupidity on the Democrats party part or intentional? If life long Democrat voters continue to apologize for the party, it's going to be a long hard road ahead for you guys. BTW, you guys lost the youth and the minority voters are drifting. Tech crowd bailed. All democrats have left are the people who are easily manipulated by emotions.
Kamala didn't lose the youth vote. Tech crowd bailed cuz Lina khan tried breaking them up while trump promised them unlimited corruption to the point of buying fake alt coins lol I just love how you morons pretend that Trump was somehow intelligent. Dude stood on national stage and claimed doctors were killing babies and got corrected. Kamala tore Trump apart during that debate
Yea on popular vote, which is not all that relative (honestly) because of California and New York. Democrats keep bringing that up nowadays like he didn't win almost every single swing state, electoral college by 70 points (?), destroyed the blue wall and had a landslide victory. It seems to me y'all are saying that as if y'all don't have to change anything/strategy. Keep thinking that and you'll have JD as president in '28. Democrats are now where Republicans were in 2009, no vision.
