Column By John Young
The ignorance was exceeded only by the arrogance.
“So I can destroy the country, but I can’t charge them a little fee.”
ConMan the Destroyer was venting his fury after a Supreme Court majority read what the Constitution, in plain script, says about go-it-alone, contrived “emergency” tariffs.
The court majority huddled around the document and said:
“Oh, yeah. Illegal. Says right there.”
Excused for their weekly remedial reading circle: Justices Thomas, Scalia, and Kavanaugh.
So much for reading. How about hearing?
What did you hear when your president said, “I can destroy”?
Destroy what country? Ours – the American institutions he’s sought to wreck from Day 1, and the social bonds at which he’s zealously torn.
And those “little fees” – for foreign competitors? Come on, people. Not even a dime on a dollar of his illegal tariffs has been paid by dastardly foreign trade partners.
The nonpartisan Tax Foundation calculates the average American paid $1,000 last year because of those tariffs – those taxes. The foundation calculates that the Average Joe will pay more this year, even after the court ruling.
Our so-called leader stuck you and me with those costs. Yes, he alone.
Mr. “Fix It” didn’t consult Congress. He certainly didn’t consult the Constitution.
By now, only the most rock-headed American doesn’t understand the fact that, contrary to a lie the president won’t stop telling, tariffs are paid by higher prices.
They’re taxes that obliterate the supposed tax benefits to you and me emanating from the No Good Horrible Very Bad Budget Bill.
Republicans in Congress who’ve advertised the supposed tax benefits of that legislation – which will drive up the deficit while millions lose health coverage — should hang their heads and resign.
Wait. Is that why so many Republicans in Congress are hanging it up after this session? Are we seeing shame in action?
We will never expect an ounce of shame from this president, no matter how many laws and norms he breaks.
One of the too-little-discussed dimensions of tariffs is how they invite corruption when wielded by a corrupt chief executive.
One of those “first orders of business” a year ago was a 180-day pause on enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The 1970s-era act bars American companies – or those that are foreign-owned but publicly traded in the U.S. — from bribing governments or officials to obtain international business.
The administration said any such restriction “actively harms American economic competitiveness.”
In other words, the law tied a president’s hands when a company or industry came a-bribing.
So, no hands tied — oh, no, they’ve been outstretched — for instance, when Apple CEO Tim Cook paid homage on a trip to Mar-a-Lago early in this president’s second term.
Cook’s objective was to spare his company from having to pay the 100 percent tariff being imposed on foreign-made semiconductors. Surprise. He succeeded.
The symbolic consummation of the favor to Apple came in Cook’s presentation, as cameras flashed and video whirred, of a gold medallion to the Great Favor-Giver.
The bigger gift came away from prying eyes when Apple donated $1 million to the obscene $225 million raised for the Destroyer’s second inauguration, twice what the first one cost.
As demonstrated, the inauguration, along with what was raised toward the Destroyer’s designs for the East Wing, has proved to be a handy and cost-effective means of buying a piece of our democracy.
Back to those tariffs – those illegal taxes paid by you and me. The president says he’ll end-run the court’s ruling with a 15 percent global tariff under a provision of the Trade Act of 1974.
One limitation therein is that the law restricts such a measure to 150 days.
One hundred and fifty days. Let me look at my calendar.
The calendar says the global tariff would still be raising Americans’ costs barely weeks before cash-starved, angry voters go to the polls to upend the president’s cuddly GOP-majority security blanket in Congress.
Then Democrats can begin impeachment proceedings for high crimes and kickbacks.
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email him at jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
