Trump's $16 Billion Farm Handout - It Turns Out - Will Do Little Or Nothing To Save His Midwest Farmers

A week ago, watching the evening news, it was confounding to see and hear midwest farmers (i.e. in Iowa) proclaiming they plan to stick with Trump through thick and thin as he wages his trade war with China. They are 100 percent convinced he is firmly behind them, in their corner against those "evil' Chinese.  And woe betide any fool who thinks they will vote Dem.  Well, I just hope they have a nice fat $$ cushion (preferably a lotto win)  to cover their coming losses and possible foreclosures!

In fact, the outlook for these farmers so dedicated to Trump is grim.  They are already drowning in losses and ever higher costs including for fertilizers and farm machinery.  The tariffs and trade tensions are also pushing makers of farm machinery into a deep ditch, this according to a WSJ piece yesterday, p. B1.  We learn, for example, that during the first three months of this year, U.S. agricultural exports to China were 40 percent below the same period last year according to Agricultural Dept. data.   That 40 percent drop translates into very major loss in income for the farmers who voted Trump, and it means a major hit to their families' future economic security. That income could be the difference between holding onto farms and homes or losing them.

Worse, the more sober farmers understand they  have likely permanently  lost their precious soy and other markets to South America and elsewhere, all places quite eager to sell to the Chinese - and at the prices they want.

And indeed it's not just the lost markets - which once patiently cultivated - may never be recovered. It's also the ding that farm machinery sales are taking. As noted in the same cited WSJ article:

"Farmers interested in buying new machinery are finding it tougher to trade in their older models because dealers are already stuck with inventories of used equipment that can't sell."

That used equipment compliments of the farmers who've already bailed out, realizing that not even Trump's raiding of the public purse for a $20,000 odd handout won't be enough to save their farms.   As Barry Alexander, manager of 13,000 acre Cundiff Farms in western Kentucky put it:

"That used market is fairly saturated now."

And likely to get even more so as thousands more farmers realize they are batting on a losing wicket no thanks to their "star boy" Trump.  Left unexamined until now, is how farmers are being hit from another end: higher costs on their machinery including hay balers.As reported in the WSJ piece, one corporation  (Vermeer) that makes such machines expects to pay $4 million more in direct tariff costs this year, thanks to Trump.

Vermeer's steel costs alone rose by 50 % last year but prices have declined in recent months as steel inventories rise.  The WSJ piece also notes (ibid.):

"Lindsay Corp,, based in Omaha, Neb., said profit from its irrigation business fell 51 % as sales dropped by 16 percent in the three months through February."

So who's benefiting from Trump's steel tariffs? Well, the U.S. steel industry which has added some 13,000 jobs as reported in the WSJ last week. However, each job has been added at a cost of $906,000 each  - carved out from the hides of U.S. taxpayers. (Just like Trump's farm bailout of $16 billion).

Speaking of the last, as the cited WSJ article goes on:

"The Trump administration has said it would spend $16 billion to offset the impact on American agriculture from the trade dispute between the U.S. and China. Yet even if the dispute is resolved, some manufacturing executives say say U.S. farmers may still be worse off than before if China continues to buy grain from South America, which has increased output to accommodate China's demand."

Quoting CNH Chief Executive Hubertus Muhlhauser:

"Once those supply chains move it's not guaranteed they will return .  Brazil will keep its customers. They'll put more acres under the plow."

And U.S.   farmers, so dedicated to Trump and buying his bullshit, will be left holding the bag - an empty one. Well, almost, given they'll a few bucks from his handout.

The takeaway is that Dotard's tariffs and trade war on the Chinese have generated a relatively few winners, i.e. in the American steel industry, but left millions of others (including American consumers) sucking salt.   As for the Chinese returning to the American farmers and renewing those supply chains, why would they? So long as an unstable Vulgarian criminal named Trump is President there's no assurance another trade war or more tariffs wouldn't upset the apple cart.  And so long as midwest farmers stick to this swine, you can be sure the Chinese won't budge in moving to the U.S. from Brazil for their grain supply.

There's 'case closed' for the Dotard, if he needs one!

See also:

Trump Hates Farmers

Jim Hightower

Big Agriculture | Donald Trump

by Jim Hightower | March 29, 2019 - 6:03am  

When Their Homes & Farms Are Foreclosed Will Trump's Zombies Still Stick With Him?

"Doh! Trade wars are great!  Ya can always win!"  

That question must be asked after hearing a South Carolina political commentator tell Joy Reid (AM Joy) Sunday morning that as far as Trump's base is concerned - "Yes he could stand on Fifth Avenue and fire point blank at somebody's head, and they'd stick with him".  As Joy's mouth began to drop open, he quickly added: "They'd just say that he had it coming!"

Wow! So following that logic, and turning it around, it also means these imps and misfits (otherwise called deplorables or "the lower half of the IQ curve"  e.g.

Would also accept any amount of economic pain and sacrifice, say emanating from Trump's tariff and other policies, to stay behind the Dotard?  Inquiring minds must ask given all the ways things are going south for the Trump base and those associated with it. This includes farmers in 'flyover country', and the many millions of ordinary Donnie boosters now realizing they've been had by the Con man- in- chief .  This is after seeing their expected tax refunds morph into huge tax hits, like one elderly couple reported in the WSJ  10 days ago who expected a $2,000 refund but instead ended up paying that amount to the IRS.

In the meantime we've seen headlines (in the WSJ) like the following: 

'Trade Deficit In Goods Hits Record'  (March 5, p. A1)

'Federal Budget Deficit Jumps 77 %'  (March 6,  p. A2)

 And we're not even including  the dozens of local papers across flyover country that are replete with tales of woe regarding value destruction and lost income from Trump's trade wars.  We can debate from now until doomsday the definition of "trade war" but the fact is that Trump's tariffs are already costing millions millions. And hurting tens of thousands of his devotees.   

How bad is it really? According to a WSJ piece last Wednesday:

U.S. Posts Record Annual Trade Deficit - WSJ

"The U.S. trade deficit hit a record in 2018 defying President Trump's efforts to narrow that gap as imports jumped and some exports - including soybeans and other farm products - got hammered by retaliation against U.S. trade policies."

Showing again that despite Dotard's delusions,  trade wars and tariffs have no winners.   Recall Trump imposed tariffs on some $300 billion worth of goods the U.S. imports from other countries (especially China) in the hopes of giving U.S. producers an edge.  It was a dumb cluck move bound to fail and bigly - given it supposed the tariff or boycott backlash would be acceptable.

It wasn't. Ask the farmers in flyover land. Trump's "genius" move didn't do squat to the Chinese who simply started buying loads of soybeans from Brazil.  The move "forced U.S. farmers who had been holding on to their soybeans in hopes of better prices to sell at a loss." (WSJ, ibid.)

One Minnesota soybean farmer interviewed in the piece, who plants arojnd 2,000 acres, said:

"It's really tough. There's a lot of farms going bankrupt now."

Then why did you midwestern farm guys hitch your wagons to a loser and con man like Trump?

As for the exploding trade deficit, you could bet on the Wall Street Journal's editors glossing over the issues and spinning like there's no tomorrow ('Trade Deficit Freak Out', March 7, p. A16) snarkily asking "Where's the valium?" and then claiming for the benefit of the FOX zombots:     

  "The rising gap is the result of faster growth, there's no need to panic."

A pity these editors never read the material from their own stable of contributors - the very small stable, to be sure  - of actually competent writers, columnists. Such as Greg Ip who admirably explained the basis of huge trade deficits last June.  Indeed, Mr. Ip  answered the question of why the US. itself consistently runs large trade deficits:

"Because it consumes more than it produces while its trading partners collectively do the opposite.. Another way of saying this is that the U.S. invests more than it saves while other countries save more than they invest."

 In other words it has nada to do with growth - fast or slow.  Growth implies expansion of GDP, more than 70 percent of which is dependent on consumption - i.e. blowing money not saving it. (To be fair, as blogger Dean Baker notes - see link at bottom  -it is conceivable some element of "growth" factored into the trade deficits.  I.e. Trump's tax cuts put more $ into worker's pockets and they promptly went out to spend it on cheap foreign -made crap, like Chinese umbrellas. Or the ever popular 'Kung Fu fighting robots'.)

The trick, by Ip's account, is for Americans to invest less, and save more.  (Note: investing, i.e. in the stock market,  isn't saving, which ought not need explaining!) If then average people-  even Trumpies - saved more, they'd be able to afford higher end U.S. goods if they wanted them, as opposed to buying cheaper Chinese, or Japanese electronics or cars.  The trade gap is being generated because the cheaper foreign goods are more popular because of the economics.    This is not rocket science or Mensa admission test criteria. 

Let's break it down so even a Trumpie could grasp it:

More cheap goods =  more items bought, i.e. from the Chinese, so the Chinese run up a trade surplus.   

Trump, senseless buffoon that he is, can't seem to appreciate that lower income Americans (i.e. mainly the Trump base) benefit from competitively priced Chinese electronics, or cheaper Mexican produce, or cheaper Japanese cars and Canadian steel.

So why are tariffs bad then? Because they are a tax on imports which ultimately turn out to be a tax on citizens, especially dinging those with low incomes.  By way of example, say an American retailer purchases 100 umbrellas from China for $5 each.   The U.S. tariff rate is 6.5 % on each one.  Then the retailer would have to pay a total of:

(100) x (0.065) x $5   =   $32.50 

Or the tariff the retailer would then have to pay on the shipment.   This raises the total price for the retailer to:   (100) x $5   +   $32.50  =   $532.50,

Some of which will be passed on to customers since the higher tariff amount would be unsustainable for the retailer to 'eat' over time. The same sort of calculations apply to electronics good, cars, or other import goods.

 It seems kind of dumb to enact a tax cut, then to clobber your people with a tax increase, no? (Mind you,the tax cut for most of Trump's base was incrementally adjusted to show up in each pay check, perhaps $10 every two weeks. Then time came to complete taxes they were clobbered by getting no refunds because they didn't adjust withholding!)  

As if all this trade and tariff  deficit insanity wasn't enough, Donnie Dotard now believes he can sneak through a $4.7 trillion budget which includes a mammoth $845 m cut to Medicare- something the Liar -in- Chief promised never to touch in his 2016 campaign.  Many worry-  and they are correct- this fungal, humanoid  rat will try another federal shutdown if he doesn't get his way.  All I can say is, given what we've seen earlier from this 72 year old toddler, folks better get ready for it.    

See also:

Economic Policy

The Yuge Republican Lie about the Deficit

by Robert Reich | March 13, 2019 - 6:23am | permalink

Excerpt:

"The biggest reason America has the highest deficit relative to our total economy among all 35 advanced economies is because of a shortage of tax revenue. Of all these countries, we’re bringing in the fifth-lowest total revenue as a share of GDP. And why is that? Mainly because of Republican tax cuts on corporations and the wealthy. The big Trump Republican tax cut is already breaking the bank. It will cost us 1.9 trillion dollars over the next decade. Let me repeat that: 1.9 trillion dollars.

Remember, Trump and Republicans in Congress claimed that their tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations would pay for themselves by boosting economic growth. It’s the same trickle-down fairy tale they’ve been telling for decades."

And:

Trade

Donald Trump Deserves an “F” on Trade

by Dean Baker | March 12, 2019 - 5:45am | permalink

— from Truthout

Excerpt:

"The sharp rise in the trade deficit in the last decade had a devastating impact on manufacturing workers and whole communities in large parts of the Northeast and the Midwest. We can’t hope to reverse this damage, as those jobs will not come back.

However, we could design a trade policy that would move us toward more balanced trade and create millions of relatively good-paying manufacturing jobs. Unfortunately, Trump’s policy seems to be going in the opposite direction."

And:

Terry Schwadron

Article Tools E-mail | Print Comments (0)

Donald Trump | Economic Policy

Is President Trump’s Economy Floundering?

by Terry Schwadron | March 11

Yes, The Tariffs Are Hitting Home - And Even A "Strong Economy" Won't Halt The Expanding Trade Deficit

Seasonally-adjusted trade deficit over the last two years.

"Stand up and do something about it! Say something! "

"These tariffs are taxes on the working people!"

Remarks shouted out to SC Reepo Rep Tom Rice Saturday, in a Spartanburg, SC cafe.

"I'm terrified of this trade thing. I  lose sleep over it." Andy Fedge, a farmer in Rugby, N.D., quoted today in the WSJ

The news this morning that BMW's Spartanburg, SC  plant may have to raise prices on their fork lift components (made with Canadian steel)  by 15 percent or more, thanks to Trump's tariffs should come as no shock. But it has the local hoi polloi screeching and running for cover. Even the SC Chamber of Commerce chimed in, as reported on CBS this a,m., sending a letter to lawmakers e,g,

"We urge you to do whatever it takes to inform the administration of the jobs at risk due to rising tariffs."

Does Trump the angry monkey care? Of course not. He's only interested in hurling his feces at anyone he regards as getting the better of him - even though it's HIM grifting on his pathetic supporters. And SC's monkey see,   monkey do lawmakers are not much better, given five of six are sticking with Dotard's suicidal plan. Never mind their state could lose up to 60,000 jobs if the trade war goes on into the new year.

It is difficult to tell Trump and his Trumpers that they are fighting a losing battle in their trade war, but the numbers don't lie. According to the Commerce Department the trade deficit in goods and services expanded in June at the fastest rate since November, 2016.  It increased 7.3 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted $46.35 billion.  (Exports had fallen 0.7 % from May while imports increased 0.6% - from the same report issued last Friday,  Aug. 3rd). 

We also learned, e.g.  U.S. Trade Gap Widened in June - WSJ

"The data confirmed economists' expectations that a narrowing trade deficit earlier this year was likely to reverse, despite a renewed focus on trade policy from Trump".

But as I pointed out in previous posts, the problem is that Trump doesn't grasp the nature of global trade or how conducting a no holds barred trade war cuts at his own supporters, including Midwest farmers, and now Maine fishermen.  In June, for example, Trump barked at one point, highlighting his abysmal ignorance:

"Why should I allow countries to make massive trade surpluses as they have for decades?"

Well, because those  trade surpluses mean more Americans are able to buy those goods because they are cheaper!  More cheap goods =  more items bought, i.e. from the Chinese, so the Chinese run up a trade surplus.   Trump, senseless buffoon that he is, can't seem to appreciate that lower income Americans (i.e. the Trump base) benefit from competitively priced Chinese electronics, or Mexican produce, Japanese cars and Canadian steel.

This ability to purchase at lower cost is now even more important as we've since  learned e.g.
Rising U.S. Consumer Prices Are Eroding Wage Gains - WSJ

So the strong U.S. economy  is pushing up inflation and American paychecks are barely keeping up. Add on the higher costs of goods (e.g. fish, electronics, etc.) on account of the responses to Trump's tariffs. and working citizens as well as unemployed are behind the proverbial eight ball. As the article cited above notes:

"Rising  prices are now eating up much of Americans' wage gains, restraining their ability to spend in the future. "

Add on Trump's tariff "tax" - which is what it is - and his supporters, as well as the rest of us are now paying for his folly in trade as well as the idiotic tax cuts from last year - which according to a GAO report have now increased the budget deficit 21 percent since January. 


 The other aspect is that Trump and most Trumpkins fail to process that trade deficits are neither good or bad. Indeed, the WSJ's Greg Ip  answered the question of why the US. itself runs a continuing  trade deficit:

"Because it consumes more than it produces while its trading partners collectively do the opposite.. Another way of saying this is that the U.S. invests more than it saves while other countries save more than they invest."

Let's parse those words a bit because they may seem inscrutable or counter intuitive to many. Why not invest? Save? Aren't you saving when you invest? Well, no.  Saving means stashing money, capital into fixed income instruments like CDs, money markets (not funds), and regular bank savings accounts, as well as in immediate fixed annuities. Anything which is unlikely to be perturbed, affected or lost in a stock market correction or crash.

"Investing" means plowing money into regular stocks or into mutual funds - say as offered in your IRA or 401(k).  These stocks or funds are tied to actual products or services, say Apple Iphones, or Musk's Tesla, or even Chipotle - as incredible as that sounds.  The investor puts his or her money into investment devices and instruments which he believes will offer a return on the investment because the product will grow in share value, or in actual distribution- which ultimately leads to higher market valuations.

The problem is that growth can generate many expensive products (like $999 Iphones) that too many  Americans with lower  (or stagnant) wages will not be able to afford. So they will instead tend to buy cheaper Chinese smart phones. But as they consume more and more of these cheaper Chinese electronic wares they wittingly (or unwittingly) drive up the trade deficit, i.e. the Chinese trade surplus.  In retrospect then, it would have been better to save the money - stash it away in savings vehicles- then when enough is available, use it to purchase U.S. made products if such are around.

Even if one personally doesn't go into debt - say from a stock loss-  and buys shares with "found" money or disposable income, a net loss in share prices before redemption translates to a loss in that savings.  Also, your 401k or IRA may be tied to big institutional investors who do the leveraging for you.  In the Business & Investing section   WSJ piece 'In Selloff, A Trading Strategy Is Faulted' (Feb. 9th,  p. B11) we learned:

"Risk parity funds aim to reduce the danger from a collapse in any one market by limiting bets on more volatile assets like stocks and commodities, and use leverage to load up on safer assets such as government bonds."

Tax cuts - like the Reepo ones passed in 2017 - are also not the lower wage worker's friend because: 1) he's getting barely  a chump change (say $38 a month for a Walmart worker) tax cut to use, and 2) the higher  salaries for the bigger spenders will drive up inflation.

Greg Ip in a previous WSJ piece, e.g.
Tax Cut to Widen Trade Gap That Riles Trump - Wall Street Journal  )

explained how the tax cuts will now increase the trade deficit as well, approximately $35 for each $100 increment in the budget deficit.  Since the tax cuts are now conservatively estimated to add $1. 5 trillion to the deficit, you can do the math for the trade deficit using Ip's ratio, which will come to $525 b.. 

William Galston in his (8/8, WSJ) op -ed aptly observed:

"In effect, President Trump has issued a large promissory note to the American people: After I bust up existing arrangements I'll replace them with something better"

Well, he also said that about health care (e.g. "Well have the best health care in the world!")  and look how that one turned out!  In this case the evidence thus far is that his promissory note on trade amounts to more bullshit. But what would you expect from a lowlife, low class Queens' real estate grifter?   So no surprise he's already had to make way for a  $12b bailout, e.g. 
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2018/07/sorry-trumpies-if-you-take-dotards-12-b.html

But that only applies to farmers, i.e. certain ones inhabiting Trump land who never should have pinned their hopes on Dotard in the first place..

Further,  his import tariffs are now adding thousands of dollars to the cost of rebuilding homes reduced to cinders by one or other of the 14 California wildfires. According to one building associated official quoted in an AP report (D. Post, Aug. 12, p. 22A). "the tariffs could raise the price of a typical new home by up to $20,000."   Meanwhile, the California Building Industry Association estimates from $8,000-10,000 higher costs to rebuild a home.  This is based on Trump's import tariffs having raised the cost of lumber, dry wall and other construction materials.

Even more pain has also been noted by Galston (ibid.):

"But manufacturers that depend on affordable imports of steel and aluminum will be priced out of their markets. Caterpillar Inc. expects that metal tariffs will raise its material costs by $200 million in the second half of this year alone, forcing it to raise prices. Beijing is prepared to match each round of U.S. tariffs with painful countermeasures. Where does this end?"

Well, possibly in another recession or even depression. Here, Trump and his band of merry finance loons and buffoons might do well to study the effect of the 1929-30 Smoot-Hawley tariff in making the Great Depression much worse.  E.g.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Smoot-Hawley-Tariff-Act

As another similar site on Smoot -Hawley noted:

"What exactly was Smoot-Hawley? Its stated purpose sounds eerily similar to the goals that Trump has espoused. It was, said its title, “an Act to provide revenue, to regulate commerce with foreign countries, to encourage the industries of the United States, to protect American labor, and for other purposes…”

But in the end, the act of so-called "protection" ended up roasting most American workers even more badly in the Great Depression. Do people ever learn from history? Not Donald Trump. As Galston ended his op -ed:

"President Trump risks leaving Americans with a flattened barn and in need of a new carpenter"

This after referencing former Speaker Sam Rayburn's famous quote:

"Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a carpenter to build one."

Is Donald Trump a jackass or a "carpenter"?  Voters will be able to decide long before the 2020 general election.

See also:

"Trump tariffs could reduce US exports, says Fed"  (FT)

Excerpt:

"The brewing transatlantic trade  war could result in fewer U.S. imports and exports and do little to redress the trade deficit  Donald Trump has railed against in recent months, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."

Why Trump's Tariffs Are Idiotic And Will Wreak Havoc On His Own Voters

The WSJ editorial of June 13th (p. A20) was spot on in its assessment of the Trump tariffs:

"Tariffs are inherently regressive because low income Americans spend more of their income on household goods.  Wilbur Ross argued that no one will notice price increases...But people in Mr. Ross  income class are not the Trump base."

And indeed, that base is already getting clobbered by the stupid, counterproductive tariffs on steel and aluminum that this fool has already imposed.   In Iowa the Trump tariffs on steel and aluminum directed at Mexico have already cost hog producers $560 million according to an Iowa State University economist.   What do steel and aluminum tariffs have to do with pork? Well, in response Mexico has imposed countervailing tariffs on pork- with the result that hog prices are tumbling.

Next to get hit will be soybean producers in the Midwest as Trump threatens $450b in tariffs on China. China buys a quarter of American soybeans so will now pull back Many think China will be the worse off but they are wrong. The Chinese have been quietly pursuing an independent agricultural strategy for years.

American consumers will also get clobbered - given their love for cheap Chinese made stuff, including  HDTVs, cell phones etc. as the trade war ramps up.  Look for that TV and DVD player to now go up an additional $50 and that cell phone another $100.

Meanwhile, local papers across "flyover" nation are replete with tales of woe regarding value destruction and lost income from Trump's trade wars.  We can debate from now until doomsday the definition of "trade war" but the fact is that Trump's tariffs are already costing millions millions.

Then there are the stupid tariffs against Canadian goods, which makes zero sense and only antagonizes an economic partner and ally.  For reference, when one tallies up goods and services exchanged between the two countries the U.S. enjoys an $8.4 billion surplus.  But all the moron Trumpies focus on are the goods, minus the services.

The Trump bunch, including Wilbur Ross- and the Dotard himself - also don't grasp that trade itself is not purely transactional in the Trump real estate grifter sense of being a zero sum game. Trump barked at one point, highlighting his ignorance:

"Why should I allow countries to make massive trade surpluses as they have for decades?"

Well, dummy, because those  trade surpluses mean more Americans are able to buy those goods because they are cheaper!  More cheap goods =  more items bought, i.e. from the Chinese, so the Chinese run up a trade surplus.   Trump, senseless buffoon that he is, can't seem to appreciate that lower income Americans (i.e. the Trump base) benefit from competitively priced Chinese electronics, or Mexican produce, Japanese cars and Canadian steel. What does Trump want, his voters reduced to having to pay 50- 100 percent more for everything when his tariffs are already eating away at his tax cut benefits?  (The WSJ (ibid.) estimates those in the lowest income quintile "could lose 49 percent of their tax cut gains")

So who is Trump fooling? Well, his own base for sure if they fail to see through what he's doing. But hey, maybe they're ok with anything this turd does like they're A-ok with incarcerating toddlers in wire cages and pup tents.

The other aspect is that Trump and most Trumpkins fail to process that trade deficits are neither good or bad. Indeed, the WSJ's Greg Ip  answered the question of why the US. itself runs trade deficit:

"Because it consumes more than it produces while its trading partners collectively do the opposite.. Another way of saying this is that the U.S. invests more than it saves while other countries save more than they invest."

Hence,  the only way to counter that is for Americans to invest less, and save more.  If then average people-  even Trumpies - saved more, they'd be able to afford higher end U.S. goods if they wanted them, as opposed to buying cheaper Chinese, or Japanese electronics or cars.

Basically then tariffs don't solve any trade or economic imbalance problems - other than in the short term.    Trump and his lackeys may brag about the steel jobs being saved thanks to his 25 % tariffs on foreign steel imports, but left unsaid are the estimated 11,000- 15,000 job losses for the steel users. That is, those who USE steel to manufacture other goods.

So why are tariffs bad then? Because they are a tax on imports which ultimately turn out to be a tax on citizens, especially dinging those with low incomes.  By way of example, say an American retailer purchases 100 umbrellas from China for $5 each.   The U.S. tariff rate is 6.5 % on each one.  Then the retailer would have to pay a total of:

(100) x (0.065) x $5   =   $32.50 

Or the tariff the retailer would then have to pay on the shipment.   This raises the total price for the retailer to:   (100) x $5   +   $32.50  =   $532.50,

Some of which will be passed on to customers since the higher tariff amount would be unsustainable for the retailer to 'eat' over time. The same sort of calculations apply to electronics good, cars, or other import goods.

 It seems kind of dumb to enact a tax cut, then to clobber your people with a tax increase, no?

See also:

https://www.ft.com/content/6aa73e08-7566-11e8-aa31-31da4279a601

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/nomi-prins/79783/imperial-president-or-emperor-with-no-clothes-how-donald-trump-s-trade-wars-could-lead-to-a-great-depres

Excerpt:

"What the American working and the middle classes will see (sooner than anyone imagines) is that actions of his sort have unexpected global consequences. They could cost the U.S. and the rest of the world big time. If he were indeed emperor and his subjects (that would be us) grasped where his policies might be leading, they would be preparing a revolt. In the end, they -- again, that’s us -- will be the ones paying the price in this global chess match."