Trump’s Trade War Taxes Will Cost Middle-Class Families $200-300 This Year

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You come to Mother Jones for unique journalism, and we love doing it for you. That's it. That's the upshot of our fall fundraising drive, and we're hoping to raise $250,000 in a shorter than normal three-week window so we can keep right on doing it.

This got me curious:

The United States Treasury has taken in MANY billions of dollars from the Tariffs we are charging China and other countries that have not treated us fairly. In the meantime we are doing well in various Trade Negotiations currently going on. At some point this had to be done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2019

How much money are we taking in from increased tariffs? Here’s the answer:

There you have it. We appear to be taking in an extra $1-2 billion per month, and it’s going up. This is gross tariffs, of course, and doesn’t count the amount that other countries are taking in from their retaliatory tariffs.

Anyway, tariffs are paid by domestic firms who import stuff, so this is ultimately all a tax on consumer goods. Over the course of the year it will probably amount to a tax increase of about $200-300 per family—maybe more. I hope everyone enjoys paying their share in order to show Canada who’s boss.