President Joe Biden has more than three years to roll back former President Donald Trump’s tariffs that drove up prices for consumers and businesses.
Although Biden made it clear during the last campaign that he knew Americans were bearing the costs of these trade policies, he did not do so. Instead, Biden has chosen to pander to union workers in the Rust Belt and peddle an economically meaningless message that in many ways echoes that implemented by Trump. Biden even increased some of the tariffs that Trump initially imposed on Chinese imports.
The chickens all paid off during Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta – Biden was attacked by Trump Both Maintaining these tariffs and the consequences of these policies. He failed to defend himself.
“Doh you Notice he no way take go out mine tariff because us bring exist so a lot of money and this tariff That I imposed exist China,” Trump said. 「he no way take them leave cannot because it is also a lot of money. it is huge.
Soon after, Trump turned to attack Biden because the tariffs seemed to have no results for China.
“China’s go arrive my own us if you Keep allow them arrive Do What they are doing arrive us as A nation. them yes kill us as A nation, Joe, and you cannot let That occur. Who are you destroy our nation.
Biden is following Trump’s playbook exactly, but is this letting China kill us?
Yes, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but to be fair, neither does the fact that Trump and Biden are accepting tariffs, which are nothing more than taxes on Americans as a way to counter whatever China is doing right. An imaginary political solution that we no longer like.
The topic of tariffs came up just after a clash over tax policy—kudos to the moderators, CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, for making that choice—and it could have been a great opportunity for Biden to draw a distinction between himself and the former President Joe Biden sought to criticize Trump’s plan to impose a 10% tariff on all imported goods, calling it a “tax on everything that comes into the country.”
real! But the fact that Biden has kept in place most of Trump’s other tariffs (or increased them) makes that argument difficult to convince. After all, if the tariffs are a tax on all Americans, and Biden has promised not to tax anyone who isn’t wealthy, then something isn’t true.
In fact, Trump seized the opportunity.
What’s really frustrating is that Trump is fundamentally wrong about how tariffs work. He’s been like this for a long time. Taxing Americans won’t change China’s behavior. This is not theoretical. We have six years of real evidence. Tariffs did not save U.S. manufacturing. The trade deficit has not declined as Trump promised. China did not purchase most U.S. imports under Trump’s so-called “Phase One” deal. During Thursday’s debate, Trump even managed to conflate the trade deficit with the federal budget deficit (a mistake he has made for years).
It would be nice if Biden could highlight Trump’s clearly misguided views on trade and tariffs. But that requires different choices over the past three-plus years (and a better debate performance from the president, who at times struggled to articulate Thursday).
Biden chose this outcome, and now we face a choice between a candidate who does not understand the basic tenets of trade policy and a candidate who foolishly follows this fantasy for political gain.
