A tariff is a sneak tax. Just like a garden-variety tax, it results in money being taken from citizens (or consumers) and deposited in government coffers. Unlike a regular tax, a tariff allows the government to pretend that the money will be paid by exporters, the firms that sell and send goods to our nation. But the exporters will not pay the tariffs with their own funds — they will raise prices to offset the expense, and those inflated prices will be paid by consumers. In the end, ordinary people will have less to spend and the government will have more.
Perhaps the government needs more money, perhaps we as a nation need to spend less on pizza and more on munitions, perhaps we need to pay off the enormous, debilitating national debt. If the nation needs more taxes, the government is right to demand more. Only don’t be sneaky about it.
