[If pResident Joe Biden initiated tariffs, then why is there any question regarding President Trump initiating tariffs?]
Tariffs are NOT a tax
April 10, 2025 (excerpt)
Let’s say you go to a store to purchase a shirt. Whatever shirt you select, you must pay sales tax. (Note: five states do not have a state sales tax.) You must pay the sales tax, or you cannot make the purchase.
Unlike taxes, with tariffs, we have a choice. If the shirt you select was exported to the United States from a nation with tariffs, it’s likely the garment will cost more than similar shirts made in the United States. If you don’t want to pay the higher price, you have the choice to buy a “Made in America” shirt.
It’s the same with automobiles. If the luxury Mercedes you covet is now $125,000 instead of the former pre-tariff price of $100,000, it’s your choice to buy it. You could consider an American-manufactured luxury car.
Ditto for almost all goods that American consumers desire. We have the choice between imported goods or those that are “Made in USA.”
The United States has a $1.2 trillion world trade deficit, with China comprising a large percentage of that total.
There’s going to be some pain as America transitions back into an industrial powerhouse and self-sufficiency. We must have a strong manufacturing base to prosper. If we don’t start producing essential goods, our enemies that do produce those wares, technology and medicines (such as China) can cause us great harm. Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said:
…to think we’re the largest consumer market in the world, and yet the only thing we export is services, and we need to stop that. We need to get back to a time where we are a country that can make things, and to do that, we need to reset the global order of trade.
Democrats should listen to what their leadership said in past years when they extolled the virtues of tariffs. In fact, on May 14, 2024 pResident Joe Biden announced tariffs on China. The Bloomberg article opened with:
US President Joe Biden unveiled sweeping tariff hikes on a range of Chinese imports, a move he cast as necessary to protect American workers and businesses from foreign companies he accused of stealing, cheating and dumping underpriced goods into international markets.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/04/tariffs_are_not_a_tax.html