Former President Donald Trump, whose controversial view on raising tariffs on China was recently vindicated after President Joe Biden kept the levies intact, is now looking at an old-school use of tariffs.
The presumptive Republican nominee has called for tariffs – or taxes on goods imported into the U.S. – as a way to replace the federal income tax.
On Sunday, the website Conservative Brief reported that Trump, if elected, would seek an “all tariff policy” as a substitute for the income tax. The outlet cited a recent report by CNBC, which quoted unnamed Trump aides who were familiar with the plan.
Read: Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance Locks Up Big Win In Michigan As Possible Trump VP Pick
CNBC noted that Trump is “considering a drastically more protectionist trade agenda” in his potential second term than in his first.
Forbes columnist Rick Helfenbein noted on Sunday that in 2023, the federal government generated roughly $2.6 trillion in income from personal and corporate income taxes. Meanwhile, the U.S. imported $3.8 trillion of goods and services from overseas. If everything remains the same, a new tariff such as Trump seeks would have to be at least 68%.
For comparison, PBS reported in 2018 that the U.S. tariff on all imported goods averaged around 1.5%, although the levy did reach as high as 67% for certain goods, such as clothing. At that time, 54% of all imported goods were not subjected to tariffs.
Yet tariffs were once how America did business.
The Fordham University Journal of Corporate & Financial Law reported in 2019 that during the 19th century, tariffs in some years generated as much as 95% of the federal government’s total revenue.
Yet, “In the early 1900’s, the adoption of the income tax and the tremendous industrial expansion of the late 1800’s undermined the historical justifications for the tariff in two ways: (1) the U.S. no longer needed the tariff to fund the federal government, and (2) the U.S. no longer needed to protect its industry from foreign competition,” the Journal noted.
Left-wing Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell slammed Trump’s idea as a tax on the 40% of Americans who now pay no federal income taxes – apparently oblivious to the plight of the other 60%.
“This latest Trump tax plan would take us back to roughly the pre-Civil War version of taxation,” Rampell posted on X. “Maybe that’s the MAGA era he’s been referring to all along.”
Yet in 2018, conservative columnist Pat Buchanan, an outspoken critic of free trade, noted that under the high-tariff system, “From 1869 to 1900, GDP quadrupled. Budget surpluses were run for 27 straight years. The U.S. debt was cut two-thirds to 7 percent of GDP. Commodity prices fell 58 percent. U.S. population doubled, but real wages rose 53 percent. Economic growth averaged 4 percent a year.”
“Economic patriotism put America first,” he added, “and made America first.”
Help support the Tampa Free Press by making any small donation by clicking here.
Android Users, Click To Download The Tampa Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our free newsletter.