r/politics • u/PoliticsModeratorBot 🤖 Bot • 1d ago

Discussion Discussion Thread: US Senate Debates and Considers the Republican Budget Resolution on April 4th, 2025

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55

u/SUNTAN_1 1d ago

The way he talks about tariffs as if they are an infinite money glitch --- "We are gonna charge THEM using these tariffs!" and is so consistent with that messaging as if he almost believes it, is almost just as psycho as "We're building a wall, and Mexico is gonna pay for it!"

Note that the "Mexico is gonna pay for it!" part was a distraction, designed to obfuscate confuse and bamboozle --- because his REAL goal was to be able to get Congress to cough up taxpayer funding for a 300 billion dollar construction project where HE would get to hand-pick and choose all the contractors and subcontractors.

=== ====

And now, tariffs. Let's simplify it, with washing machines.

(a) Five million Americans want to buy a washing machine for cleaning their clothes. They could "buy American" for $1200, or buy one imported from China for $600. EVERYONE buys the $600 washing machine.

(b) Trump announces 50 percent tariff on washing machines.

(c) HOME DEPOT, LOWES or whoever sells washing machines, keeps buying washing machines from China, but now sells them for $900 --- still cheaper than an American-made washing machine.

(d) The American Consumer ends up paying the higher price.

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u/tapwater86 Pennsylvania 1d ago

And even if he applied large enough tariffs for American made goods to become cheap enough for companies to consider moving manufacturing and jobs back to the US:

  • He's proven he can change his mind on applying tariffs and their amount on whim

  • He's applied all of these via Executive Authority which can easily be overturned by the next president if we ever have one

No sane company is going to start making investments that will take multiple years to pay off when there's a chance that it all is for nothing.

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u/NumeralJoker 23h ago

And with the Republicans in charge, those jobs will end up being sweatshop style positions anyway because there will be 0 effective protections in the labor market.

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u/Scooby_dood California 1d ago

You're missing a key part. The components, even if the washer is 'made in the US' are coming from other countries. So, the US washing machine is still going to go up in price because the components are more expensive.

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u/rosie666 1d ago

But how long could it possibly take to build a washing-machine parts factory, 2 weeks, 3 weeks tops?

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u/EWAINS25 1d ago

He does believe it.

People keep trying to ascribe some grand plan to him.

There is none.

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u/TechnicianExtreme200 1d ago

It shouldn't matter WHY he's doing this. If people assume it's just stupidity (the left), or explain it away as part of some benevolent grand plan because they don't want to admit they got conned (the right), then he'll get away with it. And then he'll do more of it and things will keep getting worse. You know, like what happened with Hitler. People need to step up and fight back, not excuse all of these actions as one time fuckups. I believe Elon Musk was actually correct in some sense and leaked a spoiler when he said empathy is a weakness that liberals have: people with empathy let stupidity and incompetence slide easily, because we've all made mistakes, and treat others how we'd treat ourselves.

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u/bigfatgeekboy 1d ago

The grand plan is mostly about patronage. "Want me to exempt your products from the tariffs? Well whaddya gonna do for me?" Lather, rinse, repeat....

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u/pypeDrem 1d ago

The grand plan is to pump all the billionaires with money and then dump the USA for more friendly territory.

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u/ElderSmackJack 1d ago

That’s nonsense. There is no plan. He literally thinks this will make us better. He’s an idiot.

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u/sirbissel 1d ago

Or say there's the Chinese washing machine for $600, and the American one is for $750, tariffs hit, the Chinese machine is pushed up to $900 - so the American one decides they can slightly undercut the Chinese model but make a better profit and start selling them for $850.

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u/say_no_to_shrugs 1d ago

Except the American company can’t raise the price and make a higher profit, because these tariffs aren’t on just on manufactured goods like a normal tariff, they’re also on the commodities and sub manufactured parts, so the price of everything goes up, and the consumer pays nearly as much of a tariff on the American washer.

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u/sirbissel 1d ago

In truth, yes, but I was just making a simple illustration of why even things 100% manufactured here are likely to go up in price due to the tariffs on their competitors.

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u/share_my_filthywife 1d ago

I don’t see enough people talking about this, do folks really believe that if the cost of a European car rises by a few thousand dollars, the US made ones will stay the same price?

If you do, I’ve got a bridge to sell you!

4

u/scoobysnackoutback 1d ago

40-50% of the parts used to manufacture American made cars are made outside of the US. By the way, 1 in 8 jobs are connected to the auto business.

2

u/Ferelar New Jersey 1d ago

And even if we still only look at imported goods, a 50% tariff doesn't mean ONLY a 50% raise in price. There are a lot of pieces of the supply chain, and each little middle man tends to upcharge- often based on the value of the good. So if your tariff increases the price of the good at the import point, that percentage is borne through each of the middlemen who take their slightly higher cut each. So a 50% tariff could end up causing a 60% price hike or more very, very easily- even before we factor in the price gouging that could be done.

And then there's a whole 'nother angle aside from things getting pricier.... tariffs will cause a lot of companies to just stop exporting to the US because it's no longer economically viable. So you might not end up paying more for your favorite brand... because you might no longer SEE your favorite brand.

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u/RTPGiants North Carolina 1d ago

What actually happens is that some of those 5 million people now decide they don't need a washing machine after all. So only 4 million buy them. This cuts demand for washing machines which in turn means everyone involved in the manufacture, delivery, and sales of the washing machine feels a pinch. This leads to layoffs.

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u/Ferelar New Jersey 1d ago

Which causes any domestic washing machine companies to not expand, but contract as they don't see a viable demand for their good. They lay off their workers. Those workers stop spending quite as much money because now that they're laid off and prices are rising, every dollar is precious. All of the companies that were selling goods to these people now aren't making a sale, so they lose a lot of money and have to contract and lay off their work force....

This sort of deadly cycle is the kind of thing that economists absolutely dread. It's essentially the worst possible man-made disaster that can occur economically, a literal war would probably be less disastrous.

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u/catjuggler 1d ago

What will happen a lot of the time (and with pretty much everything I sell in my ecommerce business) is the China COGS are $3->$4, the US COGS don't exist but let's pretend they're $6, so now everything just costs a dollar more and nothing moves locations. The only way for a tariff to cause a move in manufacturing is if the tariff makes the American built cost less, and if it isn't high ENOUGH to do that, it won't do anything but raise costs. Maybe there are some niches where the COGS are close, it's jobs americans actually want, and where using actual strategy could have cause tariffs or incentives to move manufacturing. Or wait, wasn't that what we were doing with electric car batteries and that got cancelled? Hm

1

u/Zealot_Alec 1d ago

30 Rock the American made furniture plotline

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u/SUNTAN_1 1d ago

Jack's Mission: Jack is tasked with making KouchTown, GE's terrible furniture division, profitable.

The Angle: His big marketing push is to heavily emphasize that KouchTown furniture is "Made in America." He tries to leverage patriotism and the idea of supporting American manufacturing.

The Problem: The KouchTown furniture is revealed to be absolutely awful – uncomfortable, poorly constructed, potentially dangerous, and generally hideous.

The Comedy: The humor comes from Jack's increasingly desperate attempts to sell this demonstrably bad product solely on the "Made in America" angle, highlighting the clash between patriotic marketing spin and terrible product quality.