OK. Here goes…

Building [Brooklyn Bridge Blues] Back Better….

https://instapundit.com/707928/
Key graf:

…People close to White House believe JoeBiden increased federal spending by as much as $300 billion in his final months of his presidency to juice the economy and markets and help KamalaHarris get elected. That combined that with rolling over short term debt in order not to force rates on the all-important 10 year note (which consumers rates are priced off of) to spike higher, has left a balance sheet mess of epic proportions….”

BUT “Biden” would NEVER do anything like that now, would “he”…?

As a general rule, I would consider them essential to protect industries vital to our national security, both economic and militarily.

What should be our response to a country that engages in unfair trade advantages?

1 – You also lose economic activity. First, because you’ve raised the price of domestic goods, everything in the domestic market that is subject to tariff becomes more expensive. Productivity declines. Next, the retaliatory tariffs by other countries against domestic goods suppress domestic economic activity. So you’re both adding and subtracting economic activity/spending. The total effect is a net, and there’s no guarantee that the positive side of the ledger is even bigger than the negative side, let alone enough bigger to drive any significant economic growth.

2 – Your point on 2 is inconsistent with 1. Are you imposing tariffs because tariffs are good, or because you want your neighbor to lift their own tariffs? And if tariffs are good for the US, why aren’t Canadian tariffs also be good for Canada, and so on? Also, the whole point of 2 is to suggest that the tariffs are temporary. If they are as good as you say in 1, why make them temporary? This is where Trump descends into incoherence, because I don’t think he can make up his mind on this one either.

And “companies will absorb the tax?” Really? Haven’t we been having this argument with progressives who want big corporate tax increases for more than a century?

“This Is Literally The Worst News Democrats Could Get Right Now”—
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/03/12/this-is-literally-the-worst-news-democrats-could-get-right-now-n4937829

OMMV…

1. Incentivize companies to produce goods and services in the US. This will broaden the tax base and add jobs to the economy which will increase spending.
2. Force countries with high tariffs/barriers to US products to reduce their tariffs with the reciprocal tariff strategy. This will increase exports, which will increase tax revenues and jobs as added production/add workers/shifts will benefit American workers.

Both will increase the size and tax base of the economy. Our ultimate goal should be increase number of good paying jobs and increase tax revenue to fund our growing entitlement burden.

As to tariffs raising prices, in some/many cases the importing company/government will absorb some/all of the tariff.

Any revenue the government does receive should be rebated back to citizens. That would make the tax net neutral.

https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/59860.html

There are no US tariffs on services imports; I don’t think there have ever been.