When an item is imported at a price of $10.00 and is subject to a 30% tariff, the item becomes a $13.00 purchase. The American company that manufactures the same item will now raise its price to $13.00 giving it an additional $3.00 profit. So tariffs are just another tax on the consumer. The recent tax cut was minor for most people and tariffs will more than offset the few dollars saved by the cuts.

A car dealer has said the average price of a car he sells will increase over $5,000. A builder of a single family home stated his homes will raise about $7,000.00 per house. Both raises are for materials imported from Canada, Mexico, European Union, and China. If the reader isn’t buying a new car or house, the cost of clothes washers and dryers, dishwashers, and many other imported appliances is going up substantially.

The backlash is clearly stated by the Texas Governor who has pled with Trump to remove the steel and aluminum tariffs from China because no American company makes the specific grades or worse the American smelters are already at peak capacity. He says the potential increase of 17,000 steel jobs will cost 550,000 Texas jobs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and many companies have predicted an economic disaster if the tariffs aren’t dropped.

Why doesn’t Congress do anything about tariffs? It is because they have had their attention diverted by a concocted immigration emergency. Common knowledge shows Congress is incapable of juggling two or more subjects at once. They gave us a few dollars a week tax cut for political gain and refuse to address the tariff disaster. A three year old child has a greater multi-tasking ability.

The Constitution says Congress is to levy tariffs and they have shirked the responsibility.