Trump: Tariffs Could Replace Income Tax

Trump is right that prior to 1913, tariffs were sufficient to cover the federal budget

What he doesn’t seem to understand though, is that the federal budget was tiny in 1913. A literally fraction of a fraction of what it is today. There is no way tariff revenue can fund the current behemoth.

We don’t have an earning problem. We have a spending problem.

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What he doesn’t seem to understand though, is that the federal budget was tiny in 1913. A literally fraction of a fraction of what it is today. There is no way tariff revenue can fund the current behemoth.

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Your false premise is that the federal budget has any business being the size that it has become.

It should never have been allowed to get as bloated and unnecessary as it is.

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What he doesn’t seem to understand though, is that the federal budget was tiny in 1913. A literally fraction of a fraction of what it is today. There is no way tariff revenue can fund the current behemoth.

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Please note, Trump is saying "income taxes". Not payroll taxes. Not capital gains taxes. Not potentially carried interest taxes. Not excise taxes. Not corporate taxes.

There are a shite ton of taxes in the federal government tax basket. Trump is only talking about supplanting income taxes with tariffs.

Only if you cut like 90% of the current federal budget, which would be political suicide at the minimum and more likely than not fundamentally damaging to the entire nation.

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Hes wrong, and badly wrong.

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Introduce tariffs.

Eliminate income taxes.

Tax carried interest.

Increase corporate taxes.

Increase capital gains.

Increase excise taxes.

Break even revenue.

Declare income taxes eliminated.

Politically profit.

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Your false premise is that the federal budget has any business being the size that it has become.

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So we will finally see this mythical Trump budget that could be supported via tariffs soon, right?

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The government is operating on a continuing resolution (CR) that was passed in March and extends funding through the end of the current fiscal year, September 30, 2025

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27 days

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Your false premise is that the federal budget has any business being the size that it has become.

It should never have been allowed to get as bloated and unnecessary as it is.

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Of you run on eliminations SS, Medicare and Medicare… me and 5 other people will vote for you. We aren’t going back to 913-sized government anytime soon by voter choice. Neither or our taxes.

It’s on the last page of the Les Miles secret playbook.

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Only if you cut like 90% of the current federal budget,

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Again, the presumption is that we should be spending the money that we already are, at the federal level.

Many reject that premise.

The next window to be licked by the howler monkeys in the cheap seats is that "We have to service the debt!". Trump has already hinted that the figure that is touted by conventional wisdom as comprising the "national debt" might be just as rife with fraud as USAID and every other gargantuan federal boondoggle, and may only be a fraction of what we commonly accept as being just south of $40T owed to the Federal Reserve.