3d ago

Trump's tariffs would cut US deficits by $2.8T over 10 years and shrink the economy, CBO says

AP burying the lede here...

"President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plan would cut deficits by $2.8 trillion over a 10-year period while shrinking the economy, raising the inflation rate and reducing the purchasing power of households overall, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office."

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https://www.aol.com/news/trump-tax-bill-add-2-152542512.html
It also seems to be contradictory to the statement that it will increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion over the same period.
- The tax bill and the tariffs are separate. In sum there would be a $40M surplus each year for a decade.
- You’re conflating the tax bill and the tariffs. Two different things.
- Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying CBO?
That's simply idiotic. Trump and the Republicans' Big Beautiless Bill will send the deficit soaring. Count on it
cut deficits by $2.8 trillion over a 10-year period
by taking that money out of your wallet.
I mean I guess every deficit reduction implicitly comes out of taxpayers wallets, but this is about consumers paying more for the same stuff while at the same time the government is massively reducing services which also will cost us more. We are being absolutely fleeced.
We are going to have much lower quality of life for a given income. And then the next Republican administration is just going to run up the deficit further because that's all they do.
- i guess every deficit reduction implicitly comes out of taxpayers wallets
  Yeah, but it doesn't have to be yours and my wallet, ideally it would come out of the wallets of all these billionaires but instead we give them tax cuts in the big beautiful bill.
  That's the problem with tarriffs and sales taxes in general, there regressive. They hit people who spend a majority of there income buying stuff instead of those putting it in a bank and making more money that isn't taxed as much as money earned working.
- $2.8T more tax cuts for the rich, hooray!!!
  /s
- And then the next Republican administration is just going to run up the deficit further because that's all they do.
  Yeah... no. The next Republican administration is going to be too busy building concentration camps and putting people in them to bother with boogeymen like the deficit.
  
  Maybe. This country has gone through some dark times before. I have to operate on the belief that things will get better because the alternative... the alternative obviates the need to worry about that money in any event. Because I'm too old to go anywhere else and I will not suffer under the boot of a domestic enemy.
How much would it shrink the debt? None?
And who's controlling the CBO these days? What reason is there to believe that they're capable of impartial forecasting anymore?
- They're not being provided the data because no one is so it's more reading vibes at this point.
So the idea is to wring out the normal people to make rich people richer. Normal GOP strategy for decades, but now on steroids.
If only there were a way to not crush the average US citizens, like say, raising tax rates to the 90th percentile, on billionaires and corporations.
- Doesn’t even need to be the 90th %tile. The 99.9th would do.
I don’t see how any prediction can possibly hold any water since tariffs are totally unpredictable and in flux, and the commerce volume effects they have are huge (and dependent on those rates). Deficit reduction itself is good, but it’s also a regressive tax that directly hits the consumer base.
But I will say the US was basically founded to avoid tariffs, and got real good at smuggling, too.
- The letter agrees. It's too unpredictable AND adds that what he's doing hasn't been done so they really have to comparison
The guy who wrote this opinion could not pass econ 101.
Maybe im just dumb. But when I read "shrink the economy", I thought it meant negative GDP growth. But they actually mean a 0.06%-pnt reduction in the positive GDP growth. i think they should have used a better word.
these tariffs have been a moronic strategy from the get-go and they're not going to help a goddamn thing and they might not even be put into law the way the things look
Tbf you also buried the lede here and I am mildly annoyed by it
- I mean, I did BOLD it. :)
  
  😋
- How so? I'm a lil confused by all this lede burying
  
  … while shrinking the economy, raising the inflation rate and reducing the purchasing power of households overall, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office.
The letter is pretty short
Why should I give a fuck about trade deficits anyway?
I suppose that the tariffs could be seen as an income or consumption tax. Politicians have a devil of a time raising taxes as the voters don’t like them and neither do billionaires. Taxing imports maybe a substitute. Gotta get money from somewhere, even if crashing the economy causes pain.

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