(no subject)

[timelets]

To me, the biggest surprise of the current presidency is that most Republican values no longer apply:

In other words, they are against tariffs—except when Trump imposes them. Which strikes me as a perfect rationale for this political moment. They are also presumably against stonewalling investigators, refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas, shutting down the government, running up the national debt, labelling close American allies national-security threats, and praising dictators—except when Trump does it. So far, this has been the story of the Republican Senate in the Trump era and, indeed, of the national G.O.P. At a time when no one is really sure anymore just what constitutes Republican ideology, you could do worse than to call it the Except-When-Trump-Does-It Party.

For Republicans, Trump now trumps all. Even D Day, the Party’s national chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, said should be an occasion to praise and acclaim the President.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/republicans-have-become-the-except-when-trump-does-it-party

BTW, so far the only real effect of the tax reform seems to be growing budget deficits:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-07/trump-s-tax-cuts-failed-to-deliver-the-promised-boom

Comments

[timelets]

You got me here :)

I'm not a historian, but a fun way to explore the history of tariffs would be by visiting castles along the Rhein river in Germany. [Riesling is good there too]. Most of them were built by local lords to extract tolls from merchants. Once a strong regional government was established, they were out of business because trade choke points were established at the border.

Back to the modern world, selective economic tariffs is an ideal tool for abuse of government power; has always been and always will be. No wonder the current US administration is using it left and right.