Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“American families and businesses are struggling with high costs. It’s one of the top issues that they want policymakers to address.”

That’s Neil Bradley, Chief Policy Officer at the US Chamber of Commerce.

The US Chamber of Commerce has never been accused of being anything but pro-business since it was established in April 1912. It has quite a track record of being, well, non-liberal.

Bradley was reacting to the 25% tariffs that were and possibly will go on to most goods from Canada and Mexico.

Evidently it seems that the Chamber is not seeing a whole lot of addressing of the high-cost issue going on in Washington.

Rather, what’s being seen is a mean sideshow of people getting thrown out of their jobs, in some cases simply because they were doing what they were told to do.

Some guy who runs a car company is suddenly not only a human resources genius, but he knows all about everything from social aid programs to criminal investigations.

“Look at what DOGE is doing! Ignore everything else, like our throwing Ukraine under the treads of a T-90A to the fact that eggs are still expensive. Isn’t Elon swell!”

The Chamber points out the trade with Canada and Mexico supports 13 million American jobs.

If jobs are a concern of the Trump Administration, then what about these jobs?

Trump said in his address to Congress last week:

“We pay subsidies to Canada and to Mexico of hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Which is simply untrue.

The trade deficit, for example, with Canada, according to the US Census Bureau (hope those people have cardboard boxes handy to clear out their desks), is $64.26 billion.

What does that mean?

Simply: Americans buy stuff that Canadians have for sale in greater quantities than Canadians buy American stuff. That is not a subsidy. When you go to McDonalds and buy a burger, are you subsidizing the company? Apparently you are in Trump World.

The trade deficit with Mexico is higher: $179 billion.

But again, this is not a subsidy, this is something based on what we buy from Mexico.

And this is not all vegetables. The US buys things from electrical machinery to surgical instruments from Mexico. The next time you need a medical procedure you might be happy there’s equipment in that OR from Mexico.

Again: no one is making us buy stuff from Canada or Mexico. But because of something once revered by Republicans known as the “free market” we had the opportunity to make those purchases.

But the Trump Administration doesn’t even abide by a free-trade agreement that Donald Trump negotiated during his first term (USMCA). 

Getting back to the Chamber’s Bradley:

“We also want to work together to keep costs down, but tariffs will only raise prices and increase the economic pain being felt by everyday Americans across the country. We urge reconsideration of this policy and a swift end to these tariffs.”

Raise prices.

Increase the economic pain.

Now the Chamber is in favor of things that make liberal’s blood run cold:

“The Chamber supports the administration’s efforts to advance pro-growth policies like fewer regulations and less taxation that will grow our economy and expand opportunity.”

But it knows that tariffs do little to help the economy.

And because the President rolls out people to make his point, when the Chamber made its announcement, it did so, as well.

Like Traci Tapani, co-president of Wyoming Machine, a sheet metal fabricator in Minnesota that processes aluminum (another Trump Tariff Target).

Tapani:

“My company will feel an immediate, detrimental impact as a result of these tariffs.”

That’s a nice way of saying they’re going to be gut-punched and will probably have to make adjustments to every aspect of their business.

Trump has been making it sound like we are now in the Golden Age. . .but now he shifts.

In an interview on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo, when asked about the possibility of a recession this year, he responded:

“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of, it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”

There is “a period of transition, because what we are doing is very big.”

What they are doing is big: Destroying supply chains that have been reinforced since the COVID debacle that he is not inculpable for. (“You know, a lot of people think that it goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April.” —President Trump, February 10, 2020)

“We’re bringing wealth back to America.”

No, what tariffs will do is take money out of people’s pockets in America. Prices will go up for essentially everything for people whether they are running a fab shop or trying to buy fabric to sew a Communion dress.

“And there are always periods of” — why didn’t he come out and say it: Periods when people are going to suffer economically — and largely without reason.

Now-retired Professor Michael Porter developed a theory of the Competitive Advantage of Nations. There are four elements involved (which you don’t need to know). Suffice it to say that some places do thing better than other places. (e.g., Silicon Valley is what it is because of the conditions on the ground there, something that other parts of the US haven’t been able to replicate. And if it was easy, there would be Silicon Valleys across the globe. But some places have the right factors and others don’t.)

That’s pretty much how the world works. 

In addition to making it more expensive for people in the US, tariffs also have the consequence of “protecting” the market from competitors — competitors that may have more advanced or clever products to sell. But by making those products prohibitively expensive, they are kept out of the market and domestic products that are less advanced continue because there is little incentive for companies to improve those products.

On the homepage of the White House website it says:

America Is Back

“Every single day I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body. I will not rest

until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. This will truly be the golden age of America.”

If the Trump Administration continues what it is doing — attacking our allies, throwing scientists and researchers at federal labs out of their jobs, putting unnecessary taxes on American consumers, the headline will read:

America Is Behind

And we will be less strong, less safe, less prosperous, and our children will be inheriting a less robust America.

But he can’t admit that.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.