It's really disappointing to keep having to call out my favorite politicians, but Rand is once again wrong here.
PAUL: "Tariffs are a tax, and anybody who tries to say tariffs are not a tax are just not serious people..."
I guess put me down for the "not serious people" group, then. I'm mixed on tariffs, but don't hate them like the super autistic libertarians. I'm mostly a libertarian, but not obsessive like that.
Look, tariffs are - if an evil - a necessary one. Unless we have no domestic regulations, we need some way to balance against all the countries with less regulatory strangulation, and authoritarian governments who are willing to weaponize their people as workers in the Global Marketplace™.
Should tariff power rest in the hands of the Executive? Maybe, maybe not. I'm no expert, but I can definitely see the argument, as it's in line with the other duties of the branch. But simply saying 'tariffs are a tax, if you disagree you are retarded' isn't as compelling as Rand thinks. In fact it's obnoxious.
To the point, Tariffs are not a tax, as they don't target the American people. Not everything that affects the American people is a tax, or the president also couldn't enforce immigration laws or anything. It's just a bad argument. Tariffs don't come out of my paycheck.
Now, printing money, that's essentially a tax, and I'm glad my fellow libertarians get that correct almost completely across the board.
If the Supreme Court is going to strike anything down for this reasoning, it should be fiat currency and central banking.
Whether one agrees with Trump's use of tariffs or not, I think it should be clear the power to levy tariffs should be with the executive anyway. And that's probably why Congress essentially delegated it to the Executive decades ago at this point.
Imagine trying to manage a trade strategy with any sort of coherence while having to get every little thing rubber stamped by Congress. Now, of course the whiplash inducing way orange man has wielded tariffs may not seem much better, but that is a different issue entirely.
I think it only seems whiplash cause we're not used to govts acting fast. But basically he responds to anything the other countries does almost immediately for govt timing. People aren't used to that. They're used to committees and politicians going up and saying 'we wont stand for this' and then deliberating for 6 months before deciding on something that's probably already obsolete
The thing that drives me nuts about lolbertarians is that despite claiming to be against globalism, they treat tariffs as if they are a tax, that you can't possibly choose not to buy foreign products, that you must buy chinesium toilet paper or else.
Tariffs, unlike taxes, are voluntary, at least in the sense that you aren't forced to purchase the goods they are attached to. They are merely a fee for transferring money out of your economy and into another country's economy. Taxes are forced upon you at gunpoint and remove any possibility of choice because they are applied everywhere.
Tariffs are literally better than taxes in basically every way, and yet lolbertarians can't stop being autistic spergs for the 5 minutes it would take to understand this.
To the point, Tariffs are not a tax, as they don't target the American people.
Essentially they do as the tariffs are paid by the importer not exporter. Unless they're long-term tariffs aimed to protect domestic industries and/or build up domestic production of certain goods. But if you can't be certain that the tariffs stay in place for next couple of decades investing in domestic production is a risky gamble. Because if they just disappear overnight in a couple of years you're fucked.
It's really disappointing to keep having to call out my favorite politicians, but Rand is once again wrong here.
I guess put me down for the "not serious people" group, then. I'm mixed on tariffs, but don't hate them like the super autistic libertarians. I'm mostly a libertarian, but not obsessive like that.
Look, tariffs are - if an evil - a necessary one. Unless we have no domestic regulations, we need some way to balance against all the countries with less regulatory strangulation, and authoritarian governments who are willing to weaponize their people as workers in the Global Marketplace™.
Should tariff power rest in the hands of the Executive? Maybe, maybe not. I'm no expert, but I can definitely see the argument, as it's in line with the other duties of the branch. But simply saying 'tariffs are a tax, if you disagree you are retarded' isn't as compelling as Rand thinks. In fact it's obnoxious.
To the point, Tariffs are not a tax, as they don't target the American people. Not everything that affects the American people is a tax, or the president also couldn't enforce immigration laws or anything. It's just a bad argument. Tariffs don't come out of my paycheck.
Now, printing money, that's essentially a tax, and I'm glad my fellow libertarians get that correct almost completely across the board.
If the Supreme Court is going to strike anything down for this reasoning, it should be fiat currency and central banking.
Whether one agrees with Trump's use of tariffs or not, I think it should be clear the power to levy tariffs should be with the executive anyway. And that's probably why Congress essentially delegated it to the Executive decades ago at this point.
Imagine trying to manage a trade strategy with any sort of coherence while having to get every little thing rubber stamped by Congress. Now, of course the whiplash inducing way orange man has wielded tariffs may not seem much better, but that is a different issue entirely.
I think it only seems whiplash cause we're not used to govts acting fast. But basically he responds to anything the other countries does almost immediately for govt timing. People aren't used to that. They're used to committees and politicians going up and saying 'we wont stand for this' and then deliberating for 6 months before deciding on something that's probably already obsolete
The thing that drives me nuts about lolbertarians is that despite claiming to be against globalism, they treat tariffs as if they are a tax, that you can't possibly choose not to buy foreign products, that you must buy chinesium toilet paper or else.
Tariffs, unlike taxes, are voluntary, at least in the sense that you aren't forced to purchase the goods they are attached to. They are merely a fee for transferring money out of your economy and into another country's economy. Taxes are forced upon you at gunpoint and remove any possibility of choice because they are applied everywhere.
Tariffs are literally better than taxes in basically every way, and yet lolbertarians can't stop being autistic spergs for the 5 minutes it would take to understand this.
Essentially they do as the tariffs are paid by the importer not exporter. Unless they're long-term tariffs aimed to protect domestic industries and/or build up domestic production of certain goods. But if you can't be certain that the tariffs stay in place for next couple of decades investing in domestic production is a risky gamble. Because if they just disappear overnight in a couple of years you're fucked.