Strike three for Trump, but Congress sleeps on
To the Editor:
The tariff disaster is the last of three major events that demonstrate that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are incompetent to govern the country. The deportation debacle was the first and the so called cost-cutting fiasco is the second.
The deportation of undocumented individuals was billed as an effort to remove criminals and “bad actors” from the country. The reality is that it seems to be a cruel strategy to terrorize minorities, foreign students and other non-citizens. In reality, even undocumented persons are less likely to commit any crime than native born citizens.
The second major “initiative” of the Trump administration is the so called cost cutting and fraud detection by the bogus DOGE (Department of Governmental Efficiency). Cost savings were over estimated and any fraud has yet to be verified. This “department” is not approved by Congress, but Republicans in Congress are as quiet as a church mouse about DOGE.
Rather than a competent strategy of evaluating the necessity of different workers and agencies, the DOGE team of 19- to 29-year-old hackers were unleashed willy-nilly to make drastic cuts in the federal workforce, cut funded programs and pause research grants. Critical research on cancer and other health issues are in jeopardy. Thousands of workers have had to be rehired because it was discovered that they performed critical functions — such as maintaining our nuclear weapons. Again, one apparent objective was to terrorize and traumatize individuals and families unnecessarily and to hamper government functioning.
The entire process indicated complete incompetence regarding any fraud, cost savings or functional efficiency. The only alternative explanation other than incompetence would be that this was a concerted effort to damage the government’s ability to function. Again, Republicans in Congress continue to be silent on this display of incompetence.
Related Items
Jackson commissioners’ plaque removal a mistake
WNC does not need martial law
The new sheriff wants DEI to DIE
We deserve better leadership than this
Now we have the tariff terrorism of the Trump administration affecting not only U.S. mar-kets, but markets around the world. The support for solving trade problems with tariffs comes from a crackpot “economist” whose views are not shared by reputable economists.
Adjusting tariffs to achieve a level playing field on specific industries and products would be appropriate. Instead, the approach has been a circus of incompetence. Global tariff has been imposed on all goods from countries based on a simplistic formula — then paused when the consequences became obvious. Incompetence also is indicated by imposing tariffs on islands occupied only by penguins and other small regions that have no discernable trade with the U.S.
A competent strategy would have been to study the areas of trade with each specific country to determine whether a retaliatory tariff was warranted in a specific type of com-merce or group of products. This would be in line with trying to achieve a fair-trade goal.
Apparently, the Trump administration does not have competent staff, discipline or the desire to undertake such a competent strategy. As with the other examples mentioned, the Republicans in Congress appear to be sitting on their thumbs while the investment savings of millions of Americans are in peril.
Congress has the authority to control tariffs but chose to give the president the ability to unilaterally impose tariffs. This means that the tariff issue is a Republican issue and not just a Trump issue.
There are a number of fallacies and myths about tariffs. The first is that other countries pay the tariff. Importers in the U.S. are forced to pay tariffs on goods from other countries. They then pass that cost on to consumers. For example, with a 20% tariff, a pair of shoes that would have cost $100 will now cost $120; a car that would have cost $30,000 will now cost $36,000. The same math holds for imported food. Tariffs are a tax paid by consumers.
A second fallacy is that tariffs alone will stimulate domestic manufacturing. Growing manufacturing requires long-term investment and time. You cannot just increase the price of imports and expect manufacturing to flourish. In reality manufacturing was growing due to the incentives in the stimulus packages passed during the Biden administration.
Tariffs actually can hamper or destroy manufacturing. For example, a company that manufactures metal roofs may go out of business because tariffs will increase the cost of the metals used. Thus, their roofs are not price competitive with shingles.
First imposing harsh measures and then backing off from them seems to be Trump’s art of the deal strategy. So, Trump’s strategy seems to imply that the way to get a good deal on a car is to first punch the sales person in the face and then begin to negotiate price.
The apparent incompetence displayed by the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress is appalling. No wonder hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets on Saturday, April 6, to protest how the country is being run.
Norman Hoffman
Waynesville
