As prescient as ever, John Dewey observed in 1930, that the Republican party “has officially constituted itself the guardian of prosperity; it has gone further and offered itself as the author of prosperity.”
Ignoring much evidence to the contrary, many voters support the GOP message, only to suffer the consequences. In 2024, enough voters backed businessman Donald Trump – forgetting that his primary economic goal has always been personal profit.
The result – which plagues the rest of us as well – was Trump’s executive order, global tariff war that spiked prices on many consumer items. In February, the Supreme Court – exercising rare reading comprehension skills – ruled that, yes, the Constitution says such tariffs are the sole prerogative of Congress.
Last week, the government complied with the ruling and opened a tariff refund portal with orders to repay businesses $168 billion [plus interest] for the tariffs they paid on imported goods.
Notice, that, despite Trump’s repeated tariff tax lies that foreign countries would be paying the tariffs, the refunds will go to the ones who actually paid the tariffs – U.S. businesses.
I have pointed out to the point of redundancy that foreign countries do not pay the tariffs. But I claim no extra astuteness for this assertion. The only person who does not understand how tariffs work is that “stable genius” Donald Trump, who recently promoted himself to “extraordinarily brilliant.”
If there are any non-sycophants among his advisers, maybe one of them could show him just who are getting the refunds – because they actually paid them! [Of course, any honest adviser should contradict Trump with an updated resume in hand. Facts are out of fashion in the Trump administration.]
The refund process is simple. “Importers of Record and authorized Customs brokers” are to provide the portal with the pertinent bank account information.
Notice, too, who are not standing in the payback line, not getting reimbursements: U.S. consumers. We, who paid tariff-inflated prices that the businesses passed along, are sorta out of luck.
A Congressional study from the Joint Economic Committee “combined official data from the U.S. Treasury Department on the amount of tariff revenue collected between February 2025 and January 2026 with independent estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office of the percent of each tariff dollar that is ultimately paid by American consumers. The Committee found that American consumers overall paid more than $231 billion in tariff costs between February 2025 and January 2026, an average of roughly $1,745 per family.”
Starting with $54.65 per family in February 2025, the burden jumped to $172.15 by last August and then on up to $209.92 in Trump Tariff Taxes by January. Consumers’ out of pocket expenses increased most months though I feel doubtful about the Christmas dip in December. [Maybe it was pushed forward to January credit cards.]
So, foreign countries imported their goods. U.S. companies paid the tariffs. Consumers paid the higher prices. With the refunds, companies’ expenses drop and their profit margins – due to those higher prices – increase.
Yep, GOP prosperity.
In addition to filling governmental coffers – with its own people’s money – tariffs are supposed to protect and encourage domestic industries producing the same products. Trump, in fact, ballyhoos in new investment that might be so construed.
Yet, our America First president, according to an early April story in the New York Times, will be receiving tens of millions of dollars in European-produced steel for the construction of the ballroom abomination he envisions to replace the half of the White House that he destroyed.
The steel is apparently coming from Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal though exactly where in Europe it originates is unclear.
When People magazine asked the White House for clarification, an official replied “Due to the top secret and sensitive nature of various elements of the East Wing Modernization and Ballroom project, we do not discuss specific materials and where or how they are applied.”
“Sensitive?” Having to confront another contradiction between his words and deeds would undoubtedly hurt Trump’s sensitive, snowflake feelings. No telling whom he would bomb to exact revenge.
