Tariffs and Deportations -- or Prosperity?

Writing at the Bulwark Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) cautions President Trump that two of his major planks -- tariffs and mass deportation of undocumented immigrants -- will damage the economy and argues that moderate members of his party would be happy to work with him to improve the economy in other ways.

Although I am sure I would disagree with some of what Coons would hope to accomplish -- I admit that environmental standards coming from a Democrat raises my hackles -- his warnings are on point and merit serious consideration, if not by Trump himself, the fellow Republicans he is about to lead son a primrose path:

... The Peterson Institute estimates that your tariffs will cost the typical American household more than $2,600 a year.

These tariffs will also cripple your efforts to bring jobs and investment back to the United States. American-made cars are built using parts and raw materials imported from around the world, and so are American-made semiconductors, electronics, and machine tools. Putting tariffs on the raw materials those industries need will raise the cost of American production and make it more likely those businesses move these jobs overseas. This is also before the retaliatory tariffs come -- and they will. When our trading partners fight back, we will struggle to sell our goods overseas, hurting our farmers and killing good-paying export-oriented manufacturing jobs. We know this will happen because it happened during your last administration.

...

[Y]ou seem serious about trying to deport every undocumented immigrant, even if it takes mobilizing the National Guard and the military. The United States already faces a labor shortage, and roughly one in twenty workers here in our country is undocumented. Many of them work in areas like agriculture, construction, and hospitality that are most sensitive to inflation. How are you going to keep the cost of food down when you've deported half of our farmworkers?

The upshot of these policies you ran on isn't lower inflation, but exploding costs. Even close allies of yours like Elon Musk are admitting that these policies will lead to markets crashing in an economic "storm." [bold added]

Coons is a rare voice of common sense on today's political scene. I hope more than a few members of each party hear him.

-- CAV