09-19-2018, 01:49 PM
(09-18-2018, 09:23 PM)BigMark Wrote: It will definitely hurt short term, but force business to at least explore the business model of procuring stuff domestically. That could be a boon if we can keep policies in place long enough.
I understand your point Biggie.
It's a risky bet with a lot at stake and I don't see too many economic and trade experts supporting these trade wars though.
Personally, I don't support businesses being forced to explore local procurement anyway. That drives prices up and choices down for consumers and closes off huge international markets to U.S. producers. I disagreed with my man Bernie on that trade point (he and Trump were pretty much on the same page in that regard).
$12 billion of our tax payer dollars are already going towards supplementing farmers negatively impacted by the new tariffs. And, the U.S. budget deficit has grown more than it's ever grown in such a short period of time since Trump took office (even though he was elected under the conservative/Republican umbrella).
If the painful 'short term' you mentioned is any longer than another few months, I think it's gonna hurt our economy a lot for quite some time and will backfire on Trump politically.
In my opinion, most taxpayers aren't going to be happy having our money re-allocated to bailouts, bailouts to industries which are designed to keep Trump supporters loyal. In addition, those citizens and businesses who actually benefit from and support the recent tax cuts (without concern about the resultant increase to national deficit) may not remain supportive if prices/costs increase more than their taxes decrease.
We'll see how it goes. Hopefully the gamble will pay off for the U.S. rather than isolating us economically as our trade partners turn to alternate suppliers.