The Only Tariff Solution

If there's one thing supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump's tariffs should agree on, it's the need to unchain prosperity at home while international trade is in flux.

That means renewing the president's first-term tax cuts, for a start, but it also calls for sweeping regulatory reform — a DOGE-like approach to slice the red tape entangling business at home.

Trump is attempting little less than a revolution in the global economy by reasserting American economic independence no matter the risks or pain.

He sees trade deficits as inherently bad — and America's deficit in goods traded with the world totaled $1.2 trillion last year.

When Americans buy foreign products, some of the dollars they spend cycle back home, as foreigners use the currency to acquire American companies ("foreign direct investment") or invest in U.S. stocks, government debt and other securities ("foreign portfolio investment").

Trump wants Americans to buy American-made goods, however, which will keep more of the dollars in this country — they won't go into foreign banks' reserves, for example.

If Americans start buying from domestic manufacturers, the first thing their dollars will do is encourage more production at home, as manufacturers plow profits into building more factories and hiring more workers to raise output and meet the growing demand.

The president sees this as all upside:

Instead of trading dollars for stuff made elsewhere, we'll keep the dollars here, make the goods ourselves, and more citizens will get hired to produce them — especially in the Rust Belt states pivotal to Trump's election victories.

The downside will appear, though, if domestic production can't make up for the loss of foreign goods.

If our manufacturers are less efficient than the foreign firms they have to replace, Americans will be left paying higher prices and getting less of what they want.

Even if domestic producers are up to the task, they can't build factories overnight, although the suddenness of the tariffs gives them the utmost incentive to start right away.

Stock prices, by contrast, can respond instantly, and have — by tanking.

Market expectations have been blown to bits:

Trump isn't just reforming international trade, he's wrecking the system.

He could be bluffing — maybe he just wants maximum leverage over other nations for negotiations on everything from trade barriers to immigration to global security.

But if Trump stays the course, he'll either create a radically new economy — one more akin to that of the 19th century than the globalized conditions we've become used to — or he'll give new meaning to "American carnage."

Yet even those who fear the worst, as free-market advocates do, should make the best of the situation by joining forces with Trump on the next phase of his agenda.

Trump's plan depends, after all, on the competitiveness of domestic producers — they have to be able to boost output quickly, which they can't do when strangled by red tape.

And if price shocks result from tariffs reducing the overall supply of goods, consumers will need whatever tax relief they can get to offset higher costs.

Free-market advocates would rather get rid of the tariffs, but while they fight the administration on that front, they should cooperate with it to cut taxes and regulations — which libertarians and market conservatives wish to do under any circumstance, and in this case coincides with what Trump needs.

Critics consider tariffs a tax on Americans, as foreign producers pass the higher costs of selling their goods on to us.

Yet there are limits to what consumers can and will pay, and raising prices means selling fewer goods and so garnering less profit — or else cutting profits to keep prices down to sustain market share.

Those costs — reduced profits — come at the expense of foreign capital, not American consumers.

But whoever winds up paying for the tariffs, putting more money in consumers' pockets by lowering other taxes is the smart thing to do.

And it dovetails with DOGE's mission of making government cheaper and leaner.

From an orthodox free-market perspective, the less benefit there is from foreign trade, the more imperative it becomes to lower taxes and promote entrepreneurship at home.

For an economic nationalist like Trump, ramping up domestic production requires not only slapping tariffs on foreign goods but making sure consumers have ample cash to spend on American products — especially if prices are initially higher.

Tax cuts give them that money, and regulatory relief quickens the pace for domestic production to replace lost foreign trade, pulling prices back down.

Whether a more robust domestic economy is needed to mitigate the damage inflicted by tariffs, as free-market conservatives say, or to take the place of the global economy itself, as national conservatives say, Republicans should renew Trump's tax cuts and make America's business environment great again.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 04/01/25: Lawfare Isn't Beaten -- In France or America
• 03/25/25: Will Trump Turn Nationalism Against America?
• 03/18/25: The Dems' Civil War
• 03/11/25: Can Donald Trump Win a Trade War?
• 03/04/25: Europe's Decline Was a Choice
• 02/25/25: How Trump Makes Europe Stronger
• 02/20/25: Tax-payers funding a sham of democracy
• 02/11/25: What Kind of a Populist Is Elon Musk?
• 02/03/25: Can Trump Win Trade Wars Before They Start?
• 01/21/25: Trump Inaugurates a New Era
• 01/14/25: Dems Aren't Democracy's Party
• 01/07/25: Donald Trump's Worldwide Election
• 12/31/24: Harmless self-deception?
• 12/17/24: Communism thriving, including HERE
• 12/10/24: Birthright Citizenship Is a Breach in the Border
• 12/03/24: Identity Politics, Not Biden, Cost Dems the Election
• 11/19/24: Why Dems Are Losing Tomorrow's Elections Today
• 11/12/24: Dems Are at a Dead End, Unless They Learn From Trump
• 10/29/24: Harris Targets Married Women
• 10/22/24: Vibes Turn Bad for Kamala Harris
• 10/15/24: Why Veterans Are Voting for Trump
• 10/08/24: How Donald Trump Can Win the Popular Vote
• 10/01/24: Iran Targets America's Elections -- and Trump
• 09/24/24: Trump's Would-Be Assassin's Explanation
• 09/17/24: When Character Assassination Becomes the Real Thing
• 09/10/24: Kamala Harris Runs Like a Republican -- and Misleads
• 09/04/24: Where Trump Is Moderate -- While Kam Is Maximalist
• 08/27/24: Donald Trump Is Reagan's Heir
• 08/20/24: Will Voters Settle for Joe Biden's Wing(wo)man?
• 08/13/24: Trump Has to Run Like It's 2016 Again
• 08/07/24: Is Trump Running Against Harris -- or Donald Trump?
• 07/30/24: Kamala Harris' 'Mean Girls' Election
• 07/23/24: Kamala Harris Is the Opponent Donald Trump Wants
• 07/16/24: Ready for Biden's Counterattack?
• 07/09/24: Biden Faces Richard Nixon's Choice
• 07/02/24: Should Biden Drop Out -- or Resign?
• 06/18/24: Separate Sexual Identity and State
• 06/18/24: Nigel Farage Makes the Trump Moment Permanent
• 06/04/24: State that's long eluded GOP turns toward Trump
• 05/21/24: Trump's Sun Belt Hopes and Rust Belt Needs
• 05/14/24: What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum
• 05/07/24: The Vietnam Era Never Ended for Biden's Party
• 05/06/24: Nationalists of the World, Unite?
• 04/25/24: Foreign Policy Splits
• 04/16/24: How pro-lifers stand to lose everything gained in overturning Roe
• 04/02/24: PBS Misremembers William F. Buckley Jr.
• 04/02/24: Who Wants to Be House Speaker?
• 03/26/24: Trump Hunts for a VP Close to Home
• 03/19/24: Princess Kate and Democracy's Discontents
• 03/12/24: Can Biden Buy the Voters?
• 03/05/24: Veepstakes Give Trump an Edge
• 02/20/24: Do Americans Trust Either Party?
• 02/13/24: Vladimir Putin -- A Passive Aggressor
• 01/23/24: Will 'Lawfare' Take Trump Off the Ballot?
• 01/16/24: Will Africa Save America?
• 01/09/24:'The Sopranos' at 25: A new world tragedy
• 01/02/24: Trump, Biden and a Fight for the Heart
• 12/12/23: What Happened to Ron DeSantis?
• 12/12/23: Biden Looks Doomed -- But Is He?
• 12/05/23: A Test for Trump and His Rivals
• 11/21/23: When Inequality Is Fatal for Men
• 11/14/23: Nevermind, The Battle's Over
• 11/07/23: War in the Dem Party -- and at the Opera
• 10/24/23: Israel's Lesson for 2024: A Lib Crackup
• 10/17/23: Libs' Dilemma: Immigration or Israel?
• 10/10/23: Why Bidenflation Defines Bidenomics
• 10/03/23: Will Gavin Newsom Copy Trump?
• 09/26/23: Biden's a Loser -- but Dems Can't Ditch Him
• 09/19/23: Do Sex Scandals Matter?
• 09/12/23: Cornel West Spells Doom for Biden
• 09/05/23: What Trump Does for Democracy
• 08/2/23: Ramaswamy: A Trump Versus Trump?
• 08/22/23: Take 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Seriously
• 08/16/23: How America Kills Its Own
• 08/08/23: The Biden Pardon That Can Spare America
• 08/01/23: Harding, a consevative for the ages
• 07/25/23: Demography Destiny, for Us and China
• 07/18/23: The Frontrunner Who Looks Like a Loser Is Biden
• 07/11/23: Britain's Bad Example for American Conservatives
• 07/05/23: Could We Still Win a Revolutionary War?
• 06/27/23: Civilizations Clash -- in Ukraine and at Home
• 06/20/23: China Comes for the Caribbean
• 06/13/23: Fertility, Family and Bio-Socialism
• 06/06/23: From American Dream to Orwell's Nightmare
• 05/23/23: Ukraine war is an existential struggle --- for the West
• 05/23/23: Learn the Right Midterm Lessons -- or Lose in 2024
• 05/16/23: Feinstein Today Is Biden Tomorrow
• 05/09/23: Trump, DeSantis and Political Courtship
• 05/02/23: RFK Jr.'s Threat to Biden
• 04/25/23: Biden's Lost Generation
• 04/25/23: Who's In Charge of Clarence Thomas?
• 04/11/23: Beyond AI, Our Cyborg Future
• 04/04/23: 2024: 3 Leaders, 1 Way to Win
• 03/28/23: Climate Science Makes a Bad Religion
• 03/21/23: All the Conspiracy That's Fit to Print