Imagine the US government’s only source of revenue being tariffs.

Do you know what happened in 1913?

putting the question on whether taxing trade alone is a good idea aside, this doesn't seem like a realistic way to fund the government. at all.

Agreed. I can see some negatives too because it may put us too dependent on the foreign economies but what if we cut the middle class tax tax down to 10% up to the first 100k and left the tariffs in place? While prices may go up the middle class has more money in their pocket to pay those costs and those jobs stay in America.

Imagine this.

Imagine that there are big companies out there whose biggest client base are there own employees.

I'm talking big massive companies ... and there are more than a few.

So imagine a company whose big client base is their own employees AND the Federal Government.

There are quite a few actually.

I’m going to say this as nicely as I can.

This is stupid. Companies hit by tariffs raise their prices to compensate. Companies that are not affected by tariffs will also raise their prices because their competition’s prices are being manipulated by the government.

It’s a tax on foreign producers, but it’s a tax that ultimately gets passed down to the consumer... even if the consumer buys domestically.

Not even mentioning that it’s completely insufficient revenue generation by itself.

Many professional economists blame high tariffs on the Great Depression. I have found none of the mainstream economists that tout conventional wisdom on the reasons for the Great Depression mention income taxes.

As income taxes came on line tariffs did decrease. Before the Depression tariffs made up approximately 15% of federal tax revenue and the remaining revenue was made up by income taxes and other sources but mostly by income taxes. Prior to the 16th amendment and income taxes, tariffs made up most of the federal tax revenue. After the Depression and into 40's tariffs made up and continue to make up 1 to 2 percent of federal tax revenue.

Leading into the Depression it wasn't just tariffs that caused the Great Depression. It was the total impact of high income taxes combined with high tariffs.

Total taxes are the overarching issue.
The secondary issue is the type of tax and those fall into two broad categories, regressive taxes and progressive taxes.

I personally favor regressive taxes like the Fair Tax, sales taxes, VAT taxes and tariffs over progressive taxes like the income tax.

Regressive taxes tax consumers. Progressive taxes tax producers.

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it would be plenty to fund a reasonably sized government

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maybe, maybe not

it doesn't approach funding ours without requiring a rate of taxation that would shut down most trade, leaving nothing to tax

sounds like the next project should obviously be to get to that level of reasonably-sized government before giving ourselves any more goodies

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but it’s a tax that ultimately gets passed down to the consumer... even if the consumer buys domestically.

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And foreign entanglements during that time period?

Hmmm.

Maybe President Eisenhower was onto something.