Judges question whether Trump tariffs are authorized by emergency powers – USA Today

WaPost

“Trump officials say trillions of dollars in tariff revenue will pay for their tax cuts. Don’t hold your breath.”

As CCSE pointed out in a conversation with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) after he discussed tariffs with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) at the Cato Institute this week, to the extent they shift the tax bill from the country’s progressive income tax to higher tariffs, the Trump Administration and Republicans are shifting the burden away from higher-income and on to lower- and middle-income Americans. Like sales taxes, tariffs tend to be regressive (unless confined to goods and services that higher-income people consume). Lower-income individuals spend a larger proportion of their income on imported goods. In contrast, the tax cuts preserved by Trump’s big+beautiful bill by far benefit higher-income households the most. We need to hear more from Democrats on the distributional impacts of the combined effects of higher tariffs and the tax cuts in the landmark tax and spending legislation.