The Tariff Two-Step: Democrats Demand Refunds After Trump's 'Illegal Tax Scheme'
Another day, another grand pronouncement from Washington about rectifying past wrongs. This time, Senate Democrats are clutching their pearls over ex-President Trump’s 'illegal tax scheme,' demanding the government refund a cool $175 billion in tariffs. Apparently, the Supreme Court finally noticed these tariffs, levied from 2018 onwards under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, were a
tad unconstitutional. Senators Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, and Jeanne Shaheen are now championing the small businesses supposedly crushed under Trump’s protectionist thumb. They want Custom and Border Protection to issue refunds, with interest, prioritizing the little guys. It is a heartwarming tale of sudden fiscal responsibility, glossing over the fact that similar protectionist measures, like
President Nixon's 1971 New Economic Policy, included a 10% import surcharge that, surprisingly, never prompted such fervent refund demands from bipartisan coalitions. We are told Trump’s 'illegal tax scheme' did 'lasting damage to American families, small businesses and manufacturers.' One might almost forget that these same parties have, for decades, overseen policies that exported American jobs,
decimated domestic production, and consistently imposed sanctions and tariffs on other nations, causing immeasurable 'lasting damage' abroad. The 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, signed into law by Herbert Hoover, arguably exacerbated the Great Depression through its punitive import duties, yet the political class seldom calls for those historical 'illegal tax schemes' to be refunded. It is almost as