Trump’s Flawed Tariff Proposal

(Bart S. Fisher) – Former President Donald Trump has proposed replacing the federal income tax with tariffs imposed on imported products. Indeed, this is the central pillar in his campaign’s economic program. There are four problems with this flawed proposal. First, it would trigger a global trade war, as other countries would surely retaliate with their own tariffs. It was the protectionist Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 that contributed to the Great Depression, which occurred when other countries retaliated against the draconian tariffs imposed by the United States. Far from Making America Great Again Trump’s tariffs would bring America a Great Depression again. It is the consensus view of economists and economic historians that the passage of Smoot-Hawley dramatically worsened the effects of the Great Depression. We should remember the wise words of George Santayana, who said that “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”. The second problem is that the president does not possess the legal authority to replace the income tax with tariffs. Under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution, known generally as the Commerce Clause, Congress possesses the plenary power over the the collection of taxes and the regulation of...