by Clarice Feldman, American Thinker:
The two biggest stories of the week, as I see it, are the effects of demanding reciprocity in barriers to trade and the Supreme Court putting the leash on out-of-whack federal district court judges.
It’s my personal belief that the strongest nations have a large, productive middle class. In recent decades, domestic fiscal profligacy and unfair international trade practices have hollowed out countless working-class communities, emptied middle-class pockets, and steadily eroded middle-class lives. Both the Administration’s ordering of reciprocal tariffs and cutting wasteful and corrupt use of tax revenues seem to me an effort to return these people and communities to once-commonplace normal, decent, and dignified living. Both efforts have substantial national security benefits as well.
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I’m not sure how the reciprocal tariff policies will be administered. I believe nations individually will negotiate the exact terms. Argentina has already agreed with the President that neither country will impose any tariffs on products from the other. Vietnam has sought an appointment to negotiate terms with us, as have, according to the President, many other nations. Yes, there’s been some tough talk by leaders of countries who have benefited from the present system, but the U.S. is the largest consumer market in the world, which is the most significant bargaining chip. We have also been very generous donors and lenders. French President Emmanuel Macron yapped that French companies should stop investing here. Ric Grenell, presidential envoy for special missions, responds that we should cancel the $5 billion loan we made to France’s TotalEnergies African LNG project.
China announced a 34% tariff on U.S. imports. ZeroHedge examines the consequences if China follows through on this threat:
“China has three options: 1. Concede defeat to whatever terms Trump demands 2. Devalue the yuan by 20-40% 3. Unleash biggest fiscal stimulus in its history (talking $2-3 trillion) which will push its debt off the chart.”
It’s not just U.S. treasure involved. There are, after all, as Hugh Hewitt observes, national security implications of outsourcing so much manufacturing overseas.
“Donald Trump triggers race to offer US concessions before tariffs hit
Nations prepare offers to Washington including weapons deals, dropping their own tariffs and moves against China”
I’ve said a hundred times I have no idea if this will work out and that those of us raised on free trade theory have to put aside our instincts for a while to see if in fact the U.S. emerges on the other side stronger and more prepared for Cold War 2.0 which we are in. POTUS is forcing the world to choose: Does it want the U.S. to continue as its leader? If so, it cannot continue to treat it has [sic] the rich relation that can afford to cover their costs on matters like defense. It’s not 1947 with the Marshall Plan or 1991 after the U.S.S.R. fell. It is the era of U.S.-China face off. All analysis should begin with that framing because that is the fundamental reality of 2025.
Many friends like @DavidBahnsen hate the tariffs. They have said so many times and have explained why many times. But some of the fiercest critics (not David) won’t admit the national security envelope in which the program rests. Almost everyone in the U.S. was wrong about the CCP and the course China would take after admission to the WTO. That’s the baseline awful decision that should be admitted by every critic before they take off on the tariffs. Re-shoring production of almost everything is the necessary but not sufficient step to secure a future for those under 10. If we don’t, China will simply displace the U.S. instead of oppose it as the only other super-power.
(When we were forced to enter World War II, we faced a substantial deficit of military equipment, but we then had steel plants, auto plants, shipbuilders, aircraft factories, and such to remedy that.)
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