Trump Tariffs Will Cost US Households $500 Each

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The Wall Street Journal reports on our latest tariff haul:

The U.S. is now on a pace to generate $72 billion in tariffs annually, and could well hit the $100 billion mark Mr. Trump has touted if new 10% tariffs on $300 billion in untaxed imports take effect on Sept. 1, as threatened….Although the U.S. had relatively low tariffs before the Trump administration’s latest actions, it still collected about $30 billion annually in pre-existing tariffs assessed against imports from China, Europe, Japan and other countries.

That’s $70 billion in new tariffs. The US has about 130 million households. So this comes to about $500 for every household in America.

Normally Republicans would be up in arms about higher taxes, but tariffs are a regressive tax so it’s OK. Anything that hits the rich more lightly than the poor is always worth a sympathetic look. And if it’s an invisible tax that screws the poor without them even knowing it? Now that’s a tax a Republican can love.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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