President Donald Trump has unilaterally imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in import taxes on American businesses and consumers. The official reasons he’s given for this have mostly clustered around implausible arguments that trade deficits are a national emergency (as opposed to a sign Americans are so much richer than the rest of the world we can buy more than others can buy from us).
Emblematic of how thoughtfully his tariffs have been imposed is the case of Switzerland. The Trump administration decided it was a problem that Americans buy more from the Swiss than the Swiss buy from Americans and therefore decided Americans must pay a 39% tariff on imported goods from Switzerland.
But then a Swiss delegation paid Trump a visit earlier this month and lavished him with gifts, including a gold bar worth $130,000. Days later, the Trump administration announced the tariffs Americans will pay on Swiss goods would be lowered from 39% to 15% and boasted how it was a historic deal and all that. Amazing how that works.
In any case, the negative impacts of Trump’s global tariffs are already being felt by American businesses and consumers. The Budget Lab at Yale University projects the net impact will be a slowing of the U.S. GDP for years to come and net losses to the average household of about $1,300. In just the first few months of the Trump presidency, Californians coughed up over $11 billion in tariff payments as a result of Trump’s decrees. That’s real money taken out of the hands of California businesses and consumers.
So it struck me as odd, the other day, when I saw GOP Rep. Young Kim post on X, “California’s gotten too expensive for small businesses to take off. I fought to make President Trump’s pro-growth tax cuts permanent — so local job creators can keep more of what they earn.”
It made me wonder: If she supports letting Americans keep more of what they earn, why isn’t she fighting against the tariffs? So I shot her office a note asking how she squares her support for tax cuts with her support for the president’s import taxes in light of the harmful effects they have on California businesses.
Rep. Kim responded: “I’ve been clear that my preference is always for free markets and trade that allow our local businesses to thrive. That’s why I introduced the REPORT Act, which restores Congressional oversight and ensures tariff decisions are transparent, limited, and justified.”
The REPORT Act would basically just require the president to notify Congress before tariffs are imposed. She continued, “At the same time, President Trump has shown that when used strategically as leverage, tariffs can lower trade barriers, open new markets, and give American workers and businesses a fair shot in the global economy.”
Used as leverage? Sure. Lower trade barriers, open markets? American businesses and consumers will be paying higher prices specifically because of the president’s tariff policies. That doesn’t sound like an open market to me.
Which leaves us with the appeal to giving American workers and business a “fair shot.” What does that mean? Americans have to pay higher prices on goods and deal with suboptimal supply chains in order to somehow fulfill the president’s scattershot approach to centrally planning the U.S. economy?
I checked out the X feed of GOP Rep. Ken Calvert, who is challenging Kim to represent the redrawn 40th congressional district. Just as Kim does, Calvert boasts of his support for tax cuts, including a post which began, “Thanks to President Trump and Republicans in Congress, Americans will be keeping more of the money they earned …”
Same questions to Calvert. He began with an acknowledgment of the harms of tariffs. “There’s no doubt that American consumers ultimately bear the brunt of the costs when tariffs are imposed on products,” he said. “That’s why I have advocated for free and fair trade.” There’s that “fair” word again.
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Narrow, specific responses to truly harmful conduct are one thing. Trump’s sweeping global tariffs as actually invoked are another. To echo the great Milton Friedman, Trump’s sweeping protectionist tariffs will only protect Americans from the “harm” of low prices.
I’m glad both Young Kim and Ken Calvert still say they support free trade and lower taxes. I’d be even more glad if they stood up for taxpayers and for Congress’s Article I, Section 8 authority over trade, and urged an end to the president’s meddling with the economy.
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected]
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