Reports and surveys show growing nostalgia and collective amnesia One of Donald Trump's worst ideas of his presidency is tariffs.
MSNBC's Chris Hayes spent the first part of his Wednesday night broadcast tearing down Trump's campaign promise to add a 10% tariff on all imports. He explained that this cost “will be passed on to consumers as sales taxes on all goods.”
Americans say “avarice,” and Hayes’ segment aimed to warn voters already worried about the rising cost of living in America about the “Trump tax.”
“If you are a single-issue inflation voter, there is only one candidate who would want to impose a 10% tax on every single good that is imported that would be passed on to consumers as a sales tax,” Hayes began.
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Chris Hayes: I know it sounds like I'm making this up, but I want to be clear here: His core economic policy proposal right now is an across-the-board consumer sales tax on every single product imported into the United States.
Now he might call it a tariff, but it's just passed on to consumers as a sales tax on all goods imported. And again, you don't have to take my word for it. Just listen to Donald Trump.
Donald Trump: Firstly, I think there should be a ring around the collar as people say. I think when companies come in and dump their products in the United States, they should automatically pay for it. For example, let's say you impose a 10% tax.
“I am a firm believer in tariffs for two reasons. Firstly, I have full faith in them financially when you are taken advantage of by other countries. I want to speak to China. If you were building a factory on our border to make cars in Mexico and sell them in the United States, I would put a 50% tariff on all those cars.
Maria Bartiromo: Tariffs and sanctions were used against China.
erase: I did, and did very well. As you know, we have taken hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes through tariffs, taxes, tariffs.
Bartiromo: Is that something you want to do again?
erase: We have to do it.
Haze: great. If you're a single-issue inflation voter, there's only one candidate who wants to impose a 10% tax on every single product imported that would be passed on to consumers as a sales tax. And here's the problem. This is not a hypothesis.
Trump created a scaled-down version of this last time he was president, imposing tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods.
The results are as follows: According to an analysis by the New York Federal Reserve, average import tariff rates more than doubled in 2018 alone. This clearly led to an increase in domestic consumer prices. Look at the first two tariffs on washing machines and steel. Economists found that consumer prices for washing machines, which had been falling steadily since 2012, rebounded almost immediately after President Trump imposed tariffs.
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The Democratic Party's Center for American Progress found that Trump's proposed new tariffs would cost the average household $1,500 more per year. Here's what it looks like:
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Here's the cost of living under Trump's taxes: Start with groceries, which have been a topic of much concern. Yes?
A dozen eggs costs about $3. With the Trump tax, it goes up to $3.30. With the United States importing more than 4 million eggs annually, this can cost American consumers more than $1.2 million. If you like oranges, they're currently around $1.53 per pound. With the 10% Trump tax, that would be $1.68 per pound. This would cost American consumers nearly $71 million for the nearly 500 million pounds we import.
Or how about bananas? They don't actually grow it in the US, right? That averages out to about $0.63 per pound, which goes up to $0.69 per pound with the Trump tax. And since the United States imports more than 10 billion pounds (including “B” pounds) annually, it could cost Americans $609 million. That's $609 million in taxes on U.S. consumers.
Next is tomatoes. The price is about $2.13 per pound. Apply the 10% Trump tax. That would be $2.34 per pound, potentially costing Americans $3.5 million since we import 16.5 million pounds per year.
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This is higher than the peak inflation rate in 2022 (9%). That's 10%, right? And it's not just groceries.
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The average price of a new refrigerator is about $1,300. Trump's tax of up to $1,430 would cost Americans $1.95 billion for the 15 million refrigerators we import. Again, that's $1.95 billion in new taxes.
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Do I have to drive to the grocery store? The average price of a new car today is approximately $48,808. Imposing the Trump tax could cost Americans $53,684, potentially costing Americans $66.3 billion on the more than 13 million cars we import. And he'll make an extra $25,000 despite the 50% tariff he says he wants to slap on imported cars.
The smartphone in your pocket now costs about $940 on average. Under the Trump tax, Americans would likely pay an additional $13.2 billion for the roughly 141 million smartphones they import each year, a figure that could rise up to $1,034.
Everyone hates having to pay more for things. Inflation is one of the biggest vulnerabilities for a sitting president. But here we are in 2024, Donald Trump competing with President Biden by promising to pay more for all Americans.
After President Joe Biden's passionate State of the Union address, approval ratings are improving as we expected. At the same time, even as Donald Trump's transition appears to be complete, the Republican Party cannot stop its infighting. Markos and Kerry enter Biden's improved ground rules as the race to save America heats up.