What's Trump's endgame with global tariffs? Canadian officials say they have a clearer idea
What's Trump's endgame with global tariffs? Canadian officials say they have a clearer idea
In an interview on Power & Politics, (David Paterson, Ontario's representative in Washington) told host David Cochrane that the Canadians and Americans had a 90-minute meeting and the first half-hour was "a master class" from Lutnick in breaking down the U.S. position on tariffs.
The focus of the U.S. government is dealing with its yearly deficit in federal spending, Paterson said. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the federal government ran a $1.83 trillion US deficit in the 2024 fiscal year.
There are three ways the U.S. government is working to cut down that deficit, Paterson added.
The first is a major budget resolution that calls for billions of dollars in tax cuts, and the second is slashing the size of government through Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The third is tariffs, which are meant to be a new revenue source and attract investment into the United States.
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Tax cuts for billionaires to balance the budget? What morons actually believe that?
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There are three ways the U.S. government is working to cut down that deficit, Paterson added.
The first is a major budget resolution that calls for billions of dollars in tax cuts
Any good financial planner will tell you if you want to get out of debt, step one is decreasing your income
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They're trading 'tax' for 'tariff' because greater than 50% of the American populace reads at less than a grade 6 level and will think "China pays for it!" when it comes to tariffs, all while getting reemed paying more for utilities and groceries.
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@Yoga @HellsBelle That must explain why I failed as a billionaire.
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It's literally a way to raise taxes on poor Americans without using the word tax.
Billionaires aren't importing significant amounts of physical goods from Canada, Mexico, or China.
For poor people, a good chunk of what they buy is coming from or partially made in one of those locations.
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Tariffs are more than just a tax on the working class though. There's a reason businesses and the stock market are shitting themselves.
The largest businesses may have the capital to move some of their manufacturing on shore but many as re hesitating or just going through motions to appease Trump since no one knows if he's going to stick with it.
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The largest businesses may have the capital to move some of their manufacturing on shore but many as re hesitating or just going through motions to appease Trump since no one knows if he's going to stick with it.
Be careful of those businesses outside the States. Those are the ones who want this to be happening.
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Wouldn't it be easier for them to just tax the billionaires until they're just ten-millionaires?
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Yes the Americans stupid plan to “reduce the insurmountable deficit” won’t work. They let their deficit ballon to an unimaginable number then expect the world to pay for it. And they got a moron surrounded by a bunch of other morons to try to address it. They are enriching themselves as they pretend to bring a massive deficit down. This won’t work. Also, screw them, Canada should not bend to them.
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They have plenty of money there that could pay off their deficit. Look at how much Elon Musk and Bezos are hoarding. Maybe if they had proper tax brackets they wouldn't be in a bind.
Canada could do similar. We need to stop running on tax cuts, our economy isn't funded by fairy dust and rainbows lol.
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It's honestly a little reassuring to here that the reason for these tariffs is "We want to tax the ever-loving shit out of our citizens so we can give money to billionaires, but we don't want to call it a tax."
At least that means that it wasn't meant to be an act of betrayal and pre-text to war with Canada. I mean, it still was an act of betrayal creating massive hardship and permanently damaging our relationship. But the idea of a Russian/Ukraine remake happening along the 49th parallel seems less likely than it did.
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Why not both?
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What a bunch of shit bags. The tarrifs violate the same trade agreement the cheeto signed a few years ago. If he doesn't like it, he can request a review in 2026. Until then, he should live up to his agreements. His actions make it abundantly clear any agreement with him isn't worth shit.
And using annexation threats as trade leverage to pass his tax cuts for the rich is beyond despicable.
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"There are three ways the U.S. government is working to cut down that deficit, Paterson added. The first is a major budget resolution that calls for billions of dollars in tax cuts"
...ah, yes, nothing balanced the budget like siphoning the federal coffers into the 1%ers' pockets.
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It's probably going to be cheaper for manufacturing to completely remove themselves from the USSA and avoid doing any business with it at all.
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“Tariffs are now a global policy of the United States,” said David Paterson, Ontario’s representative in Washington. “And this is a historic change to global trading patterns, and [the Americans are] very aware of that.”
Paterson said the American plan is to impose tariffs by sector across countries all around the world on April 2. From there, the countries that get along with the U.S. the best will be “first in line” to adjust or mitigate the tariffs.
[Ambassador Kirsten] Hillman described the meeting as “concrete” and appreciated the conversations, but she noted that nothing changed in terms of the ongoing trade war between Canada and the U.S.
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That’s what I understood the strategy to be back in 2015 when it was first being floated.
Why did it take the government so long to figure it out? Because it’s so badly thought out that it couldn’t possibly have been the plan?
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Why did it take the government so long to figure it out?
If you mean the Canadian government, it probably has to do with the multiple of false justifications that have been provided so far.
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You are looking at step 1 when you see US actions as related to the federal budget deficit. Step 2 is to reduce the trade deficit and bring home manufacturing and other production. The strategy for Step 2 will be devaluing the $USD.