President Donald Trump scored a huge victory over the European Union with a new trade deal and some of his counterparts across the pond are not happy about it.
The deal imposes a 15 percent tariff on almost all goods entering the U.S. from the E.U., and requires the E.U. to make massive investments in American energy. The tariff is almost triple the current rate of 4.8 percent.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the E.U.’s European Commission, said Europe will purchase $750 billion worth of U.S. energy as part of the deal, in addition to making $600 billion investments in other U.S. investments.
Part of the $600 billion would be used to purchase U.S. military equipment.
Europe will be replacing its Russian gas purchases with energy from the U.S., in the amount of $250 billion per year for the rest of Trump’s term.
That should quiet the “Russia collusion” voices for a while.
He’s awesome! And tops it off by trashing windmills as crap right in front of Von der Leyen!!
They know it’s all crap, but destroying energy independence plays in to the globalist power grab.
And Trump is not playing along with it - oops! what’ll they do now?
Continue with the ridiculous pretense of a “climate crisis”, I suppose, while working feverishly behind the scenes to undermine Trump in every way they can.
Yes, a remarkable deal in some ways - the energy and military contracts, but consider this. Europeans will now have access to all American imports tax (tariff) free, while American consumers will pay a minimum tax of 15% (and much higher tax on some items) on all imports from Europe.
I believe the plan should be, in a free society, to allow Americans to purchase goods they wish at prices they are willing to pay. How can Trump claim to be a tax fighter on one hand, anf then impose taxes on imports? He boasts about the billions of dollars generated for the US government by his tariffs, but he seems not to recognize who is paying these billions of dollars - the American consumer. If a $100 bottle of French wine will now cost $125, Trump seems to think that France pays the tariff. Nonsense. The American purchaser does.
I could be quite wrong, but I don’t agree with this.
We’ve already seen what’s happened to our manufacturing industry from decades of dependence on cheap goods made in China - it’s been gutted, and has subjected us to being taken advantage of in every way by an enemy.
Just as deporting illegals deprives our businesses of “cheap labor”, but benefits our own citizens by opening employment for them, tarriffs strengthen our own industries - even if it may raise prices - for the sake of national security, if nothing else.
Exactly. And part of the purpose of tariffs is to encourage foreign companies to make their products in the US, employing American workers. They can still make profits which they can send back to their home countries, but the benefits would not be just a one-way street.
Maybe so. But tariffs induce laziness and inefficiency in the protected industries. This is empirically so.
But more importantly, there is a twofold philosophical conundrum here for conservatives who venerate the Constitution. The first is that the Constitution makes it clear that all money matters (taxes, tariffs etc.) are exclusively a matter for Congress to debate and legislate. The Constitution gives no power to the Executive Branch to raise or lower taxes. Trump could not issue an EO to stop taxes on tips, for example. He required Congressional legislation to do so.
Secondly, there is a profound issue regarding the philosophical foundation of the USA. The bedrock principle is that individuals are born with rights (endowed by Nature of God), and it is the primary (perhaps only) function of Government to safeguard these rights. If, say, consumers have demonstrated a preference for BMWs over Cadillacs, it is their right as free citizens to do so. It is decidedly not the function of the State to
manipulate market conditions to do otherwise.
Conservatives who say they cherish the Constitution and the Declaration must face these issues. In any case, Mr Trump is not calling me for my advice!
My interest is now focussed on the Deep State corruption of the Obama administration. I hope Bondi pursues these thugs as an avenging Fury, My cynical friends say no one will be prosecuted, but let’s see.
Yes, the government should safeguard the rights of citizens, but it’s also supposed to protect us from foreign threats. Threats can be many other things besides armies.
The Chinese Communists have proven that, by following a plan they came up with years ago to use economic and other types of non- kinetic warfare against the US to undermine, weaken and conquer us without firing a shot.
They’ve succeeded to an alarming degree, and the globalists are doing the same thing.
Trump is using tarriffs as one way to fight back and level the playing field.
And if George Washington enacted tarriffs, which he did, I doubt they’re unconstitutional.
He’s awesome! And tops it off by trashing windmills as crap right in front of Von der Leyen!! 