https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trumps-tariff-rebate-contradictions-dbaf002c?st=JuHcda
He’s floating a $2,000 rebate to blunt the harm from his border taxes.
President Trump has a big tariff problem: His border taxes are raising prices on tariffed goods, they’re unpopular with voters, and the Supreme Court might rule that his “emergency” tariffs are illegal. His latest response: Promise voters a $2,000 tariff rebate.
That was his Hail Mary pass Sunday as he declared on social media that “People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS!” He went on to promise various benefits from tariffs, including “taking in Trillions of Dollars” that will soon pay down the national debt.
This is a teaching moment for a high school logic class. Start with the contradiction that Mr. Trump can both pay a tariff rebate and pay down the national debt. The annual federal budget deficit is roughly $1.8 trillion even with tariff revenue, so paying a rebate would add to the national debt, not reduce it.
Mr. Trump’s claim of a revenue benefit from tariffs also belies what his Solicitor General, John Sauer, told the Supreme Court on Wednesday. In arguing that tariffs aren’t really taxes and are mainly a tool of foreign policy, Mr. Sauer said “these tariffs, these policies, it is clear that these policies are most effective if nobody ever pays the tariff. If it never raises a dime of revenue, these are the most effective use of these—of this particular policy. So they’re clearly regulatory tariffs, not taxes. They are not—they’re not an exercise of the power to tax.”
But wait. If tariffs are most effective if no one ever pays them, then how are they going to raise the revenue Mr. Trump needs to pay those rebates? The truth is tariffs are taxes, but Mr. Sauer didn’t want to admit this lest the Court conclude that Mr. Trump is usurping a core constitutional power of Congress. Which he is.
