It’s not a tax, it’s a schmax. Totally different.

[xenon]

I don’t understand how it’s acceptable to be this loose with policy that goes to the heart of American capitalism.

[jon-nyc]

“We can’t undo the dumb thing I did because it was dumber than you think.”

[Horace]

Assumes facts not in evidence. Don't think we'd have to pay anything back. It may even be ambiguous whether the current tariffs would have to be repealed.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace said in It’s not a tax, it’s a schmax. Totally different.:

Assumes facts not in evidence.

I believe those are now called 'alternative facts'. When Donald Trump says something, it becomes true simply because he said it.

It's a bit like the anthropic principle, except applied to bullshit. If we hear it, it becomes true.

[jon-nyc]

@Horace said in It’s not a tax, it’s a schmax. Totally different.:

Assumes facts not in evidence. Don't think we'd have to pay anything back. It may even be ambiguous whether the current tariffs would have to be repealed.

I read somewhere that we would have to pay them back, even if some of them could be reissued using a different (but also fragile) legal justification. We’ve only taken in about 200B in tariffs as of 9/30. I think when he talks trillions he’s thinking of the phantom non existent trillions that these countries have ‘promised’ to invest. Any tiny subset of that investment that actually materialized would not have to be paid back.

[Renauda]

@Horace said in It’s not a tax, it’s a schmax. Totally different.:

Assumes facts not in evidence. Don't think we'd have to pay anything back.

In past when the US has lost arbitration suits over countervailing tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber imports, the US government had to issue refunds to the affected importers. I believe, although not certain, the same occurred in 2019/20 over national security tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium into the US.

[89th]

Can we pause for a second and listen to what he said in that clip? Wish I had the transcript, what an odd rambling and nearly incoherent response.

[jon-nyc]

After his poor solicitor general went to great pains to tell the court that the tariffs aren’t for revenue, here’s Mr Message Discipline cutting his legs out from under him while the court is yet to decide.

Secondly, really cool that we have a budget surplus and they’ll be paying down the debt soon! Time to sell my gold and buy dollars.

And that’s on top of my $2,000 government payment which should be in the mail soon.

[89th]

I wonder does he actually press the shift key before capitalizing the first letter in random sentences? Seems like a lot of effort to make grammatical mistakes.

[jon-nyc]

This reminds me of when our last decrepit president would talk confidently about how he was leading in all the polls when literally everyone else knew better.