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Tom Tradup wrote an article for Townhall yesterday in which he blasted the Leftists for misleading the public about what President Trump is actually doing.
He began by quoting Ben Franklin: "History’s great Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, 'Nothing is certain except death and taxes.'”
He continued, "I would paraphrase Franklin’s wise words with this update: 'Nothing is certain except these people always being wrong: former Congressman Joe Walsh…MSNBC’s prince of darkness Lawrence O’Donnell…and virtually any cast member on The View.'”
He said, "This week has provided all the proof one needs to know how Trump Derangement Syndrome has poisoned the brain cells of these and other Trump haters. That list also includes Erik Erickson…Jonah Goldberg…the late Jennifer Rubin—who quit the Washington Post to launch a website that likely has fewer readers than one finds in the stands at your average Pop Warner football game—onetime 'conservative' Charlie Sykes, and the follically challenged George Conway."
The American and European press is orchestrating an effort to mislead America about what President Trump is doing and why.
Be informed, not misled.
Tradup says, "As President Trump launched or increased tariffs on dozens of nations around the world—seeking to level the economic playing field and ratchet up the pressure on countries like China, which have been ripping America off for decades—the howls arose from coast to coast as 'progressives,' and RINOs bemoaned the 'madman' in The White House. One by one, they formed a nationwide conga line of querulous criticism that Donald Trump was plunging the United States into (a) chaos, (b) a recession, or (c) a depression by starting a 'trade war' with China. These folks comprise a 2025 Fifth Column—aided and abetted by biased coverage from the Associated Press. No story is too large or too small to be turned into an anti-Trump smear."
Cheering for America to fail is sad and unsightly, but cooler heads, hopefully, will generally ignore this crowd.
The history of "tariffs" gives a clear, historic perspective.
Bill Federer and his American Minute have researched the history of tariffs in America and have found them to be the most effective ways of maintaining a fair trade balance for the US.
Tariffs, also called imposts and customs duties, are taxes on products imported from foreign countries.
This was the U.S. government’s main source of income for the nation’s first century and a half.
It is mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, which authorizes the Federal government to collect “duties” and “imposts” to help “pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States."
In fact, the second bill signed by President George Washington was the Tariff Act of 1789, which imposed a 5 percent tariff on all imports.
As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton created the Coast Guard to stop merchants from smuggling goods into America without paying tariffs.
In the 1700s, the Industrial Revolution began in Britain. Britain burned coal, but coal mines would fill up with water.
Soon, factories produced textiles very inexpensively.
During the colonial period, Britain discouraged manufacturing in the American colonies to ensure that the factories in England had a larger market for their products.
After the Revolution, U.S. tariffs made British goods more expensive, allowing the Industrial Revolution to spread to America.
Jefferson wrote on April 6, 1816:
“It may be … the duty of all to submit to this sacrifice ... to pay for a time an impost on the importation of certain articles, in order to encourage their manufacture at home.”
Factories sprang up in America, particularly in the northern states.
Steam engines powered “spinning jennies” that made yarn, and enormous looms made textiles such as cotton, wool, and shoes.
Factories made items from chemicals to clocks and machinery, such as mechanical reapers and farm equipment. This allowed farmers to plant and harvest crops using less manual labor, resulting in lower food prices. Americans experienced the fastest rise in the standard of living in human history.
Most notably, factories freed women from menial tasks such as spinning thread, weaving cloth, and sewing clothes. Now, they could buy bolts of cloth made in factories or even ready-to-wear clothes. Instead of washing clothes in washtubs and hanging them out to dry on clotheslines, they could own a washing machine and a dryer.
Instead of drawing water from a well and carrying it in buckets, pipes could bring water directly into the house. Indoor plumbing was also used instead of outhouses.
Tariffs not only brought revenue into the Federal government, but the many factories also provided jobs for the waves of legal immigrants.
President Franklin Pierce stated on December 5, 1853:
“Happily, I have no occasion to suggest any radical changes in the financial policy of the Government. Ours is almost, if not absolutely, the solitary power of Christendom having a surplus revenue drawn immediately from imposts on commerce.”
Did you know there was no Federal Income Tax in America before the Civil War, when Lincoln enacted an emergency income tax to raise money for the Union, but it was repealed when the war ended?
Tariffs continued to be the main source of income for the U.S. government through the early 1900s, reaching at times as high as 95 percent.
The move from relying on tariff revenue started with Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, who enacted the first peacetime income tax, which was tacked onto the 1913 Tariff Act.
Income tax was initially a one percent tax on the top one percent richest people.
During World War Two, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the Federal Income Tax to tax the majority of the population and enacted paycheck withholding.
The unexpected fallout of FDR raising taxes was “outsourcing.”
To avoid FDR’s taxes, many business owners moved their factories overseas to locations with lower taxes, cheaper labor, less government regulation, and fewer lawsuits.
The loss of American factories meant a loss of American jobs, causing unemployment to rise.
As overseas factories became more profitable, they used their profits to lobby American politicians to vote for even lower tariffs on their foreign-made goods to bring them back to the U.S. at a lower cost.
This policy was called “free trade.” But was it fair trade? No.
As it turned out, foreign governments often gave financial subsidies to their businesses so they could produce goods at a lower cost.
Then, they would import these goods into America and sell them at a lower price, undercutting American factories and forcing many out of business.
Once foreign nations had a monopoly, they would raise prices or pressure U.S. foreign policy by threatening to withhold products.
Takeaway
Welcome to 2025.
President Trump’s reduction of the income tax and replacement of it with tariffs is essentially a return to the policies that existed in America for its first century and a half, during which time the U.S. grew to have the strongest economy on earth and the highest standard of living for its citizens.
Trump is returning to the "old paths," the ways that God used to bless America.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.
