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How can the President’s tariff revenues be used? 

The President has justified his tariff mania by saying “Deficits pose a threat to national security,” “other countries heavily subsidize their exports,” “other countries impose punitive tariffs on the US”, “other countries don’t allow US products into their country”, “we need to bring manufacturing back into this country,” “we need to balance trade,” “we need to stop fentanyl”, “it will help balance the budget,” “it can replace income taxes,” “I’ve decided for purposes of fairness that I will charge a reciprocal tariff,” “retaliation,” “tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again.” Whew! Did I leave out anything?

I am not going to dissect all of that but I was wondering if you were wondering what Trump is going to do with the revenues from the tariffs? The Congressional Budget Office estimates that in the coming fiscal year that tariff revenue could reach almost $1 trillion ($942 billion). The Trumpers are probably doing high fives but it is likely that the CBO figures are an overstatement. Actual imports are falling and with it will fall tariff revenues. Higher prices mean less quantity demanded and less quantity demanded leads to a lower supply of goods imported which in turn means lower tariff revenues.

What could Trump do with the money coming from the tariffs? Could he subsidize US exports to compete with subsidized imports? Could he lower income taxes dollar for dollar for the tariffs collected? Could he use the money to build much needed new merchant marine ships? Could he use it to eliminate all taxes collected from active duty military? Trump said that the tariffs will be used to “put America in the green.” So could tariffs be earmarked to reduce the federal debt? Or how about using the tariffs to offset decreases in revenues from the tax cuts? Or using the tariffs to compensate US farmers and exporters from the losses incurred through the retaliatory tariffs of others? Lately, he is talking about sending checks out to the public, “We have so much money coming in, we’re thinking about a little rebate.” Can Trump do any of this?

In a word, no unless he gets a special appropriation from congress. When the tariffs are collected they go into the Treasury’s general fund and become indistinguishable from any other revenue source. All dollars are fungible. Only congress can allocate monies from the general fund and not the president. Trump can say that he is going to rebate the tarrifs but he cannot do it. That would take an act of congress and to date Trump has not issued any instruction to his congressional minions on how he would like to see tariff revenues used. Of course he could tell congress that the next budget will be less by the projected intake of tariffs. Fat chance.

In the meanwhile, the great tariff shakedown tour continues. Japan has agreed to a 15 percent tariff on their goods. That means that Ford and GM should transport their Mexican and Canadian vehicles though Japan where they will be assessed 15% rather than 25%. Then Trump is crowing that the Japanese deal includes a commitment by the Japanese to invest $500 billion in the US. Someone needs to tell the president that foreign investment inflows are counted as an increase the US trade deficit. Yikes! Does that mean that the increasing US trade deficit caused by the Japanese investment will cause Trump to further increase tariffs to try to reduce the deficit that was increased by the Japanese agreement? Does this make sense to anyone other than Trump? Can anyone who has the president’s ear have the guts to point out this madness? Does anyone else have the vision of an emperor with no clothes?

Again, if somehow Trump’s reasons come to pass then I will be among the first to issue mea culpas. My PhD advisor, the great Karl Brunner, would hammer into his students that there are always exceptions or else economics becomes a tautology and becomes a useless collection of axioms. So are Trump’s the exception to all history? Could Adam Smith and every economist not on Trump’s payroll be wrong? I seriously doubt it but I always have said “prove me wrong and I will adopt your opinion.” That goes too for the president and his tariffs.

BTW, I thought the International Court of Trade ruled that Trump doesn’t have the authority to enact tariffs. So is that opinion not binding?

Pimping the Cybertruck

Tesla sales continue to fall. Revenues have fallen 23 percent since the start of the year and the company just reported a fall in profits of sixteen percent. The left is gleeful that the market is putting it to Elon Musk who quite honestly is just plain weird – like many geniuses. But the entire EV market is down. Used EVs are down around 5% from last year while used internal combustion vehicle prices are up 5.2%. Sounds like EVs are running out of gas. 

Speaking of EVs, Lucid the EV that gets all the raves from the car magazines is suing my home state of Georgia to be able to sell direct to the customer. Seems like in Georgia, new cars can only be sold by a dealership. A few years ago the state did a special carve out for Tesla. Now Lucid wants one too. I guess the law exists to protect dealers from competition from the internet. Suppose you could go online to buy your car and have it delivered to you, wouldn’t that imperil dealerships? But doesn’t that just apply to cars that have existing dealerships? Consider a startup like Lucid with no dealerships. In order to sell cars in Georgia, they would have to establish dealerships which would be timely and costly. Tesla does not have dealerships. Rather they have showrooms where one can look at models, order a car, buy one on the lot, or pick up a car. Maybe Lucid will do the same. But for now they just want to be able to sell a car direct to the consumer. Seems to me that not allowing Lucid to do so is in constraint of trade. 

Go to any Tesla showroom and look at all the cybertrucks sitting on the lot. Clearly a bust. Sales are down 50 percent from the same period last year. The woes of the cybertruck are well documented. There has been a recall of all 2024 and 2025 models. The stainless steel panels may delaminate at the adhesive joint causing the panels to separate from the vehicle. The doors don’t often align. There are warnings from the high voltage system, critical steering issues, system malfunctions, loss of “system redundancy”, vehicles can suddenly lose electrical power, steering and propulsion and drivers may be unable to apply the parking brake. There were also alerts for degraded adaptive drive control plus automatically disabled traction, lane departure avoidance, stability controls, degraded adaptive drivee control plus automatically disabled traction, lane departure avoidance, stability controls and door latches that don’t work.

Also, the vehicle just looks weird. I know Musk likes being different but maybe the cybertruck which looks anything but a truck is just too off putting. I wonder what is the cargo capacity in its hidden truck bed. I did see an article in which a cybertruck was towing a 7.000 pound Airstream. The truck had a range of 137 miles. Not ideal unless you just want to take short trips or make a lot of stops on longer ones.

Clearly it is time for Musk to spin off Tesla and sell his car company to a company that knows how to make cars. Musk seems more interested in Space X and trying to get his self-driving technology to work. He is late to the game. Waymo seems to be making a better product. Musk’s efforts have resulted in more accidents and videos show his robotaxis braking suddenly or going straight through an intersection from a turning lane and driving down the wrong side of the road. One observer said “The system has always had highly erratic performance, working really well a lot of the time but frequently making random and inconsistent but dangerous errors. This is not a system that should be carrying members of the public or being tested on public roads without trained test drivers behind the wheel.” Tesla’s Full Self-Driving function is being investigated by the Feds. There have been issues as to how the function has responded in low-visibility conditions causing several accidents, including one that was fatal. Surely, Musk’s dustup with the president doesn’t have any relation to the increased scrutiny of Federal authorities – right?

 Despite the problems with its self driving software, Tesla is offering the $12,000 option free with a purchase of a new cybertruck. Some car magazines call this an act of desperation. Maybe that will induce some people to buy the weird looking truck but I have another idea. What to do about the ugliness of the cybertruck? I wrote about pimping a Nissan Leaf to sell it to the brothers. Well what about pimping the cybertruck? Why not offer a free makeover to new customers? Maybe potential buyers are not attracted to the silver metal look. I don’t know about you but I would not want to have a vehicle that looks exactly like all the others. The silver is difficult to paint but Tesla does offer a color wrap for around $8,000. Remember the show “Pimp My Ride” where you could get your car’s looks upgraded? Well how about Musk offering to pimp your cybertruck for free by giving away your choice of a color wrap? Maybe if EVs weren’t so ugly then sales would improve. Why not try it with the cybertruck?

Tomato Sandwiches, Cane Sugar and Fox’s Trump Apologists

I have said before that I had never heard of tomato sandwiches until recently. I read where they were a southern staple which was a surprise to this son of southern red clay, born and raised in Georgia. Not to sound like Al Sharpton but I guess that it was a white southern thing, since confirmed by my white friends. The absence of meat baffled me so I assumed that the sandwiches were eaten by the poorer folk on the paler skin side of town. But I was told that no, it was a favorite at tea parties held by genteel southern matriarchs. One writer even romanticizes the simple concoction. “The tomato sandwich, a seemingly simple culinary creation, holds a special place in the hearts (and stomachs) of many. It’s more than just sliced tomatoes between bread; it’s a nostalgic bite of summer, a taste of home, and a testament to the beauty of fresh, seasonal ingredients.” Oh please!  Well what is going to happen to the consumption of tomato sandwiches when Trump’s 17 percent tariffs on Mexican tomatoes kicks in? Is the demand elastic or inelastic?  BTW they made with white bread and mayonnaise (which of course is also white).

Seventy percent of tomatoes consumed in this country are grown in Mexico. Most US tomatoes are grown in Florida. One wonders if this is Trump handing out a favor to Ron Desantis? There is something called the Tomato Suspension Agreement (of course there is) that stipulates not to place anti-dumping fines on Mexican tomatoes if the growers agree to price minimums. Mexico did not violate the deal but with Donald Trump, no excuse is necessary to slap on a tariff. Florida growers say that Mexico’s lower labor costs and less stringent regulations have created an uneven playing field. But of course, they are just making an excuse. The Wall Street Journal says “Mexico’s tomato boom is driven by technology. Growers south of the border have adopted greenhouses that carefully control water, temperature and nutrition, usually located at high altitudes. Much of this tech was developed in Canada, but American growers have been slow to deploy it. The Agriculture Department found in 2023 that 88% of greenhouse tomatoes consumed in the U.S. were shipped from Mexico.” 

I have no idea why US tomato growers have been slow to innovate. Now they have even less incentive to do so. With less competition expect the price of tomatoes to go up. Mexican greenhouses specialize in vine-ripened tomatoes, while Florida tomatoes are typically grown in fields and picked green. I don’t buy tomatoes and I am wondering if American tomatoes are labelled “Produce of USA”? Whether prices will go up enough to reduce the consumption of tomato sandwiches is an empirical question. If there is a blowback on an increase in the price of tomatoes the surest way to get Trump to rescind the tariff will be for a bunch of irate elderly stately white women to picket the White House. Trump would fold like a house of cards. 

But I am confused. Almost on the day that Trump hits Mexican tomatoes with a tariff, he waxes rhapsodic about Mexican Coca Cola which is made with cane sugar. Trump says that Coke with cane sugar tastes better than Coke made with high fructose sugar. Mind you Trump drinks up to 12 Diet Cokes a day so what does he care about the taste of regular coke? Coke responds that it will introduce a separate line of sodas that will substitute cane sugar for high fructose sugar. The US sugar growers – mostly in Louisiana – are ecstatic with vision of seeing increased demand and higher prices.  

Did you know that some Costcos sell Mexican Coke (at almost $40 for a 12 pack)? A cheaper alternative would be Jones soda which is available at most grocery stores.

When I was young we used to be able to get sugar cane from Cuba in the grocery stores. I have fond memories of chewing sugar cane. It was one of the joys of summer. I guess the sugar growers in Louisiana don’t produce enough product to replace the Cuban sugar cane now missing from our stores. Currently the US puts a quota on imported sugar – to the chagrin of the Brazilians. Will Trump lift that quota if the demand for cane sugar soars? While the Louisiana sugar growers are giving each other high fives, the corn growers are grumbling. They say eliminating corn fructose sugar will eliminate thousands of US jobs. The Corn Refiners Association (yes there is such a thing) says to no one’s surprise “President Trump stands for American manufacturing jobs, American farmers and reducing the trade deficit.” “Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and boost imports of foreign sugar, all with no nutritional benefit.” 

Chill corn growers. No one is talking about replacing high fructose sugar. The US does not produce enough cane sugar to replace the corn based stuff. Trump would have to exempt Mexican sugar from tariffs and possibly the quota on Brazilian sugar. So both sugars will be available with additional demand by producers for the sugar cane growers. Personally I don’t care since I do not drink soft drinks, diet or otherwise. But I do read labels and won’t buy a product with high fructose sugar. Maybe that is why at age 80 I have only had two filings.

Trump versus Rupert Murdock and the Wall Street Journal

Fox is so full of Trump apologists it is downright embarrassing. What are they all going to say now that Trump is suing their boss after praising him only a few months ago? Then Trump said “We’re bringing in the most talented people in the world. By the way, we just– unrelated, but we have two of the most talented people in the world, the legendary Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison.” Trump said Murdock was “an amazing guy” and in a “class by himself.” That was in February. Now its July and Trump is suing Murdock and the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over a rauchy 50^th birthday card published by the Journal that allegedly Trump sent to Epstein. Trump never a fan of the Journal tweeted “We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal.” In addition, as the president eloquently put it “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.” I guess Murdock is no longer “amazing” and in a “class by himself.” Now what are the Trump praisers on Fox now going to say? Would Murdoch fire them if they keep making excuses for Trump and praising his every deed – no matter how dumb?Should be interesting.

Breaking News!

US District judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, has ruled that Trump’s firings of the two democrats, Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka, from the NCUA Board was illegal and has ordered them reinstated. What is important about this ruling, as I have indicated in the past, is that it explicitly means that Trump cannot fire a sitting governor of the Federal Reserve, including chairman Jerome Powell. Just like at the Fed, the members of the NCUA Board are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate to fixed terms – in the case of NCUA 6 years. I was appointed by President Carter to the first NCUA Board created by a congressional act – the Financial Institutions Act of 1978. Ali wrote in his opinion “The overlap in powers wielded by the NCUA Board and the Federal Reserve, and their common role as financial regulators, supports the conclusion that Congress can insulate NCUA Board members from at-will removal.”

The administration had argued that Trump had the authority to fire the appointees and the courts had no authority to order their reinstatement. Although Trump had fired other appointees and those firings have been upheld by the courts, NCUA was the only agency structured like the Fed with congressional granting of independence from the White House. Maybe this will end Trump’s incessant whining about threatening to fire Jerome Powell. One can only hope.

Prior to the establishment of the NCUA Board, the agency was governed by a single administrator that served at the pleasure of the president. Harper, ironically was appointed by Trump in 2017 to an unexpired term and named chairman by Biden in 2021. Harper’s term as a board member expires in 2027 while Otsuka’s term expires in 2029. When Trump was elected, Harper stepped down as chairman but kept his seat as a board member. Trump then appointed the republican member Kyle Hauptman as chairman. What is interesting is that the NCUA Board has generally had two members of the same party as the president. Since both Harper and Otsuka are democrats it may be that Trump would then try to fire only one of them and appoint a republican arguing to be following the intent of the congress.

The Justice Department may not appeal to the Supreme Court given its earlier ruling regarding the Fed. Perhaps the only recourse is for the president to urge congress to re-write the laws governing appointments to independent agencies like the Fed and NCUA. However, the likelihood of passage is slim given the senate filibuster. So sorry Mr President but nice try.

How can California mandate the sale of only cage free eggs?

It took an act of congress to repeal the California mandate banning the sale of gas powered vehicles in the state. Given that it took congress to undo the mandate, I presume that it was another act of congress that gave California the power in the first place. Let’s consider what has happened. California’s mandate said that in 2035 and thereafter, no gas vehicles could be sold in the state. I guess that this would mean that California residents who would then go out of state to buy a car could no longer get them registered in California. I also presume that the sale of used cars would have be permitted. This is ironic because if the move to ban the sale of new gas cars is predicated on the environment, perpetuating the sale of older gas cars would mean keeping vehicles that pollute more on the streets. I also presume that Californians would be prohibited from buying used cars and registering them in the state. If not, this would lead to a common practice in China, now being addressed by their government, in which a new car is registered and sold as used. That way, Californians would be able to buy a new “used” car and register it in the state.

Was California given an exemption to legislate that only cage free eggs can be sold in the state? Since the California market is so large, out of state egg producers who wanted to sell in the state were forced to comply with the California regulation. This was one of the reasons why egg prices were so high especially in California where customers can not purchase the cheaper non cage free eggs. There is something called the Egg Products Inspection Act (no kidding), which bars states from requiring “the use of standards of quality, condition, weight, quantity, or grade which are in addition to or different from the official Federal standards.” Huh? Doesn’t that mean that California violated the Egg Act by imposing conditions that are “different from the official federal standards” if it wasn’t granted a waiver? That is egg-actly what it seems to me. So Trump’s Department of Justice has just filed a suit to roll back California’s cage free egg mandate. This will give Californians a choice like the rest of us. Did you know that Turkey exports about 70 million eggs to the US each year but when the avian flu hit, they sent 420 million? Are these eggs cage free? Are they allowed in California?  Is Trump putting a tariff on Turkish eggs? Obviously they constitute a threat to national security.

I had never seen cage free eggs in the stores before the California mandate. Now they are in every store along side eggs produced by hens in bondage. There is now a market for cage free eggs. Some folks will buy them because they cite animal cruelty reasons. Others contend that cage free eggs taste better. A certain brand of brown eggs used to be my favorite before the avian flu caused those eggs to disappear from the shelves. They are back but I am now buying a brand’s extra large white cage free eggs – instead of their brown ones because they are cheaper and I cannot taste any difference. They are egg-cellent.

So I wonder why the Californians can’t be like the rest of us. My state did not try to ban gas vehicles but left it up to us what type of vehicle we choose to buy. It did not ban the sale of caged chicken eggs either. Yet cage free eggs are on the grocer’s shelves offering us a choice. Banning the sale in the state of those products would be akin of Tennessee saying that no whiskey other than Tennessee whiskeys can be sold in the state. Georgia would ban out of state peaches and Florida could ban out of the state tomatoes (or get Donald Trump to do it for them). Clearly these acts would be in violation of Federal law. So why is California allowed the banning of eggs that are not cage free? Isn’t it time for California’s chickens to come home to roost?

I am personally appalled that some chickens are stacked inside a cage for their egg laying life. But cage free does not mean free range. If the hens are kept in barns where one square foot is available per hen, it qualifies as cage free. Still not an ideal situation if you sympathize with the hens. However, “free range” is no panacea either. Free range simply means that the hens have access to an outdoor space. But there is no rule dictating what constitutes an outdoor space like its minimum dimensions. Some observers say that even if an outdoor space is available that it is so unappealing that the range free chickens don’t venture outside making them no different from those that are cage free. I guess that the most humane conditions would apply to pasture-raised chickens – but watch out for the coyotes. 

I am also appalled at the living conditions for chickens raised for the table. When I see the trucks stacked with chickens piled on top of each other going to slaughter, I have images of my people stacked inside a slave ship shackled together living in filth. At least we were not being sent to become food. But I do eat chickens that are not organic, free range or cage free. 

When I was growing up, my grandparents raised chickens at their Georgia farm. They were certainly free range. They wandered all over the place but stayed mostly close to the house. They would be pecking all over the place. My grandfather gave them open access to the bottom of the outhouse where they engaged in solid waste disposal. I don’t remember how the eggs or the chickens themselves tasted. But my sainted mother to her dying day bemoaned the taste of modern eggs and chickens.

Maybe one day I will stop eating chickens and their eggs like I have done with red meat. I have not eaten any red meat other than what I kill myself since 1971. When I was at the farm growing up, I loved to follow my grandfather around when he was hunting. He hunted small game there being previous few deer and no turkey in Georgia in those days. I loved his dogs which were kept outside in a pen and existed only for hunting rabbits. I stopped hunting when I went to college and only started hunting again after my grandfather died in 1971. I vowed that going forward that I would only eat the meat that I had killed myself. I only eat venison and wild game that I harvest. I do eat the fish that I decide to keep although most times I catch and release. I did not start eating chicken again for almost 20 years and started back because of not wanting to impose my diet on my other half when we  started dating. But I am seriously thinking about stopping again. Maybe if one day I move back to the farm I will get some chickens. I can raise my own meat and produce my own eggs. Then I will stop buying processed chickens and mass produced eggs – cage free or not.

Treestands, Presidential Treason and Unchecked Presidential Power

First: No more hang-on treestands

Baltimore Orioles broadcaster, Ben McDonald, tweeted out a picture of himself in a hospital bed saying “This is what a severe concussion looks like and sounds like (I still don’t remember anything). Apparently I fell out of a deer stand 25 feet up yesterday morning.” He also suffered two cracked vertebrae. First, I don’t know any place that has deer season opened this early. McDonald was apparently putting a stand in place for the upcoming season or else the wildlife rangers would be at his hospital bed arresting him for hunting out of season. 

Ben, I feel your pain. In October 2015 I too fell out of a stand while hunting on the farm in Georgia. Mine was 20 feet up. I walked to the stand early in the morning while dark and went up the climbing stick to the stand. When I stepped on the platform, it gave way causing me to fall twenty feet. When I came to, I laid there assessing the situation. I could move my limbs and but had pain in my left side and left shoulder.  I had to use my flashlight to find my glasses. I had landed on my backpack and had just missed falling on my gun (I hoist my weapon up to the stand once and strap myself in). I had also missed hitting the steps on the climbing stick which would have cause serious damage (pictured). I had replaced the straps before the season and it was not until first light did I notice that my straps had been cut (also pictured)! I had previously had some trouble with poachers who had ignored my no trespassing signs. I had alerted the local ranger who suggested I paint markers on the trees. Well obviously the good old boys did not take it kindly and cut the straps on my stand. I went to the emergency room where they did x-rays and a cat scan. The doctor told me I was lucky and that falling on the backpack had probably saved me from more serious injury. I had a mild concussion, bruised ribs and a slightly separated shoulder. Otherwise I was fine although later I had to have total shoulder replacement.

I called the ranger and sent him a picture of the sabotaged stand and a picture of where my head landed close to the climbing stick. I don’t know what happened to the yahoos but the next season one of the properties that adjoin the farm was leased to a new group (from Florida). I haven’t had any more trouble. I immediately replaced all my hang on stands with ladder stands and now I always check the security of the stand before I start climbing.

Second: Obama – treason?

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has issued a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, saying that former president Barack Obama and his national security team manufactured the Russia hoax trying to in essence stage a coup to remove President Trump from office. Mind you, this would have to start prior to Trump taking office. Gabbard says that she has over 100 documents that provide evidence of this effort and essentially accuses Obama along with James Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper and Susan Rice of a “treasonous conspiracy”. Gabbard says this is a “prosecutable crime”. Stay tuned.

Is Adam Schiff included in this group? When did Gabbard acquire this information? Is this being brought to light to deflect attention to the MAGA mess over the Epstein “list” – or no list? It will be no surprise if Trump’s “Justice” Department and AG (Blondie) Bondi go before a grand jury, issue subpoenas to Obama and his intelligence crew and proceed with criminal indictments. I cannot begin to imagine what happens next. Would there be significant fines and jail time for a former president, a former FBI director, a former CIA head and a former advisor to the president? That would seriously shake the very foundations of the country. 

Third: Unchecked Presidential Power 

Trump is testing the limits of presidential power. He has taken it upon himself to downsize the federal government. He has impounded congressionally appropriated funds. He has unilaterally re-written trade policy with his tariffs. He has changed the environmental edicts of Biden along with DEI and CRT. He has replaced leadership in the military removing and reassigning generals and admirals who are considered “woke”. He is busily removing trans and perhaps gays from the military. He has fired presidential appointees with fixed terms (see the National Credit Union Administration). He keeps cursing the chairman of the fed while threatening to fire him. All in six months. All this while republicans in the congress meekly allow him to do so, even as he usurps their authority.

He is using tariffs as a political cudgel, trying to force the world to bend to his wishes – however erratic they might be. Most of what he has said about the motivation for his imposing tariffs are really a rope-a-dope. Deficits a national security issue – a lie and he knows it. Reciprocal tariffs – another lie. US getting ripped off? Another lie. You mean that the strongest economic power in the world is getting ripped off by Lesotho? Or even Viet Nam? Seriously? No. Trump’s 50% tariff on Brazil shows that what he really wants is for countries to let him be their president. Canada anyone?

This is from Don Boudreaux’s Café Hayek

https://cafehayek.com

July 21, 2025

“Today’s shambolic civic life, with the public sector dominating and corrupting the private sector, reveals this: The Founders’ elegant architecture of institutions for liberty under limited government guarantees nothing when the institutions are inhabited by the unenlightened.

Trump’s ever-shifting and contradictory rationales for tariffs (curing trade deficits, strengthening national security, punishing ingratitude, etc.) reveal that protectionism is not an economic policy but a political strategy for aggrandizing personal power. His tornado of tariffs-by-whim produces an endless auction as businesses bid for beneficial whims: intensifications of, or exemptions from, tariffs.

As the American Enterprise Institute’s Dalibor Rohac says, when tariffs are multiple and malleable private rent-seeking (bending government for preferential treatment or for injurious treatment of competitors) displaces entrepreneurial talent and shrewd management as the path to economic success. Rent-seeking has always been with us, but not on today’s scale as innumerable factions become genuflecting supplicants, groveling for presidential favors.

The most statist administration in U.S. history has replaced capitalism with what economists call “economic repression”: government supplanting the market by restraining or compelling economic activities for political objectives.”

Thanks Don.

Bye bye Department of Education – for now

The President has been given permission by the Supreme Court to downsize the Department of Education. I am confused. Rubio is downsizing the State Department but I don’t recall his asking the Supreme Court for permission to do so. Regardless, neither the reduction in force at State or at Education can be permanent. The departments were created by an act of congress and only congress can eliminate them. The next democrat administration will restore both.

Linda McMahon the Secretary of Education said “Today, the Supreme Court (by a 6-3 vote) again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,”

The president of the Heritage Foundation among many others applauded the downsizing say that the department was an “abject failure” and failed in its mission to improve American education. I disagree. The department has been a rip roaring success and has not been an “abject failure.” Only the naïve would assume that the purpose of the department has been to improve American education. Elizabeth Warraen tweeted “Trump’s Supreme Court just greenlit his plans to gut the Department of Education. Every kid in America deserves access to a good public education.” Somehow she wants us to think that there is a relationship between funding the Department of Education and receiving a good public education. She knows better and so should most Americans. The purpose of the department of education was to funnel money into the education-industrial complex, namely the teachers’ unions. No wonder they are whining. While the number of students in public education is falling, the number of administrative staff has shot through the roof.

The teachers’ unions do not care about educating our children. Every sign of achievement has fallen since the establishment of the department. I have noted before that at the teachers’ unions conventions are hardly any sessions on teaching. Rather critical race theory, LGBTQ issues and equity take center stage perhaps not surprisingly since the head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten – a woman – is married to a woman. This is a statement from Biden’s Department of Education which was all in for imposing trans policies on every school receiving federal funding. “Every student deserves to learn in a safe and supportive setting, free from discrimination. As the Department of Education has reaffirmed, discrimination based on sex—including sexual orientation and gender identity—isn’t just wrong, it’s prohibited in America’s schools. Yet many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) students experience bullying, harassment, and other discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” Obviously, the Trump administration vanquished all such pronouncements.

Downsizing the department does not mean that the funding that was appropriated by the congress will vanish into the ether. Trump could impound it or he could allocate it to the states in block grants. But remember that the department was low hanging fruit. It has a relatively small budget and employs only 4,400 people Consider that State just laid off 1,350 workers with a goal of 3,000. This is out of a workforce of over 80,000.

Some are saying that when the Department of Education basically disappears under Trump that it will stay gone because nobody will miss it. Au contraire, those on the gravy train will miss it. The teachers’ unions are run by democrat operatives and fund democrats. Does it surprise anyone that the bulk of the spending by those unions goes for political activities and 94 percent of that goes to democrats? The unions spend more for politics than they do for representing members. Mark my word, the democrats will resurrect the department at the first opportunity.

If the criteria for doing away with a department is that it has failed its stated mission, then more cabinet agencies need to go bye bye. Energy, Small Business Administration, Labor, Interior, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture come to mind. I think that Defense, Homeland Security, Treasury and Health and Human Services may be worthwhile but all are grossly overstaffed and overfunded. Just keep in mind that democrats disagree because in their eyes, every penny of federal money is vital and every federal employee is essential (as long as they keep voting democrat).

Finally, why is the department’s headquarters’ building named after Lyndon Johnson? Shouldn’t it be named after Jimmy Carter instead?

More Random Thoughts #64

Adam Schiff, Biden’s mental acuity, Epstein, Fed renovation and ET go home (and get paid)

Adam Schiff who led the Trump inquisition witch hunt (nee impeachment trial) which landed him in the Senate is now being investigated by the Justice Department for alleged mortgage fraud. Seems that Schiff claimed Maryland as his primary residence to receive more favorable loan terms. The law clearly states that a US senator must have primary residence in his home state. Schiff of course is whining that he is being investigated by the Trump Justice Department solely because he led the House impeachment trial. You think?

The House Oversight Committee, which has nothing better to do, is investigating the cover up of Biden’s mental decline. Witnesses have been subpoenaed. Rumor has it that Jill Biden may be called. I guess the reason is to invalidate any actions signed by the autopen. This is stupid. Apparently the only ones who did not know of Biden’s mental state were democratsand the media. My sainted mother who died at age 101 used to refer to Biden as “that pitiful old man.” Two of Biden’s aides took the 5^th. One of Biden’s defenders was Jasmine Crockett who defended Biden while criticizing President Trump. “So yeah, he would maybe clobber over some words or something like that. But if you talk to him about foreign policy – one of the most vivid memories that I have was after that debate that did not go well, we saw him have this complete command of foreign policy, something that this president doesn’t. And this president seemingly doesn’t even know who our allies are.” You know, she may have a point there.

I don’t know anything about the Epstein files. Was there a client list? It seems that Trump once thought there was and his attorney general said when asked directly about the client list responded, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.” The MAGA universe was all atwitter (now I guess that is all aX) because the democrats had sat on it while Biden was in office so it must contain some dirt on some really big dems. Right? Well all of a sudden Bondi the AG says that “systematic review of documents revealed no incriminating client list” and “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” WTF? No incriminating client list? Then what was Trump and Bondi talking about before? Now half of the MAGA universe is suddenly supporting Trump’s new revelation while the other half is seething. Thomas Massie who is Trump’s republican nemesis in the House is demanding to see all the government’s records on Epstein. He has introduced a discharge petition in the House to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices” that have links with Epstein.”  Massie said members of the public “deserve to know what’s in the Epstein files, who’s implicated, and how deep this corruption goes.” He has some support from some of his colleagues including my congressman Tim Burchett along with Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia), Eric Burlison (Mississippi), Jeff Van Drew (New York) and Lauren Boebert (Colorado).

But interestingly hardly a peep from the democrat leadership. Surely given their hatred of the president and their desire to see him gone, they should be leading the charge. But again, they did not want the now non-existent list released when Biden was president and it seems that they do not want it released now. Why? Is there a cover up both by the democrats and now by Trump. Didn’t Musk say that Trump’s name was on the list? Is something there? Why is the media – with the exception of the Wall treet Journal – which incessantly gave us stories about the Russia hoax is almost ignoring this one.

Is there a conspiracy? Trump who loves conspiracy theories – he has tweeted over 100 of them including most famously about Obama’s birth certificate, – now says that there is a conspiracy out to get him. “Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bull—t,’ hook, line, and sinker. I don’t want their support anymore!” Poor baby. Even the MAGA apologists have a hard time defending Trump now. For a truly astounding list of Trump’s conspiracies go to 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories_promoted_by_Donald_Trump

You have to feel sorry for the MAGA apologists. They have had to keep the stiff upper lip though two impeachments, porn actress payoff, criminal indictments, lawsuits, the raid at Mar-a-Lago, two assassination attempts, all the conspiracy theories and all the bombastic and profane tweets. What are they saying now especially since Dan Bongino – another MAGA favorite – seems to be at odds with AG Bondi? It’s a bad look. Trump has been a survivor and may survive this one too. If it were just Trump, he would be out. But it all looks like there are too many mega biggies in politics, business and the media itself with too much influence to be outed. 

Trump grasping at every straw is trying to oust Fed chairman Powell over cost overruns on the renovation of the Fed’s headquarters in DC. The original cost was $1.9 billion and is now $2.5 billion. The difference is chump change. Mind you nothing was said about the original cost estimate – I guess it is all that union labor. The Fed said its headquarters buildings are in a significant state of disrepair with asbestos contamination, antiquated plumbing and old ventilation. I can tell you that in my many visits to their William McChesney Martin building, I have marveled at the old grandeur of the building and the barely functioning toilets.

Trump, of course, accuses Powell of mismanagement and thinks it may be grounds for firing him. Huh? If that is the case, then there are grounds for firing everybody on Capitol Hill including Trump himself. One would say that these grounds are dubious at best. But MAGA apologist Anna Paulina Luna of Florida is criminally referring Powell to the Justice Department for alleged perjury. Russell Vought, a Trump hack at OMB claims that Powell violated the National Capital Planning Act – whatever that is – and could be grounds for removal. Yea sure. When has there not been a cost overrun in any budget allocation in DC? This would be embarrassing if it were not so stupid. BTW, the Fed is using its own money and not – like congress – the taxpayers.

Seems like one million illegals have self deported. They are using something called the CBP home app to receive $1,000 when the app confirms that they are in their home country. I wonder if a family leaves will each family member get $1,000? Regardless, if all used the app then the total bill is $1 billion. Where did that money come from? How much was budgeted? Is this a cost overrun? Homeland Security says that at the end of April, 207,000 illegals have been deported. The cost of Homeland Security deporting an illegal is $14,000 to $20,000. So let’s use $17,000 as an average figure and multiply 207,000 and get $3,518,900,000. Hum. Self deporting is a bargain. You think that if they offered say $10,000 they could save money and there would a a flood of illegals rushing to self-deport. However, this would surely result in a cost overrun.

Zohran Mamdani, New York’s flower child

Isn’t it a bit amusing to see all the stories bashing Zohran Mamdani? Don’t you think that his voters know that the is a socialist radical? One who wants to raise taxes on the wealthy and the corporations? Who wants to give all sorts of stuff to the poor? Who wants to freeze rents? Who wants to raise minimum wages? Who wants to send social workers to domestic violence calls rather than cops? Who wants to globalize the intifada? Who wants city run grocery stores? Who wants no more billionaires? Who wants to boycott, disinvest and sanctions against Israel? Who is unapologetic about his socialism? Who says “violence is an artificial construct?” Who says “A statue of Columbus remains in Astoria, in defiance of the values of humanity, empathy & justice that we stand for.” Who wants to universal childcare? Who wants to seize the seize the means of production? Hold it, seize the means of production? In New York City? What are they producing – municipal bonds?

Mamdani has said that if he is out of work he can always get support from his parents. He has obviously needed it with virtually no real job on his resume. He was a failed rap “artist”, lived in subsidized housing and only worked for three years before being elected to the New York State Assembly. He is from Uganda and his major at Bowdoin College (home of the great Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain) was Africana studies – of course. He just wants to “envision a world marked by equality, sustainability, justice, and love.“  A flower child? Hey, sounds like the perfect mayor for New York to me.

Mamdani’s support is mainly among young college “educated” whites. Although his platform was based on an erstwhile Robin Hood – taking from the rich and giving to the poor – the poor in New York voted for Cuomo. Some are saying that voting for Mamdani was the result of our education system which is dominated by socialists and anticapitalists. Maybe so, but most of youth turn into their parents once they have to leave the cocoon of home and college and get a real job. They become less willing to give up their money to the government to be distributed first to the bureaucrats than then secondly to the masses. Maybe the youth in New York just wanted to be anti-establishment. Or maybe Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo were worse losers in their eyes, 

Some say that these young folk are naïve and stupid. If so, then kindly explain the support for Mamdani among some of the city’s millionaires. Some of his supporters are among the city’s new generation of millennial millionaires, tech founders, venture capitalists, and Wall Street traders who are backing Mamdani despite his wanting to tax the rich to pay for his expansive social give-aways. One young venture capitalist says “In my eyes, I should absolutely be paying my fair share for the people that need it.” Did anyone tell him that he could start a foundation to serve that purpose? Or make a direct contribution to the poor? Why does he need the government as a middleman? This guy is an idiot.

And speaking of idiots, voting data show that about a third of the city’s wealthiest residents supported Mamdani in the primary.

Current polls show that despite some of the city’s old money trying to coalesce around Adams who has virtually no chance of winning, Mamdani maintains a solid lead and will be elected. I say good riddance. The founders of this country set up a democratic republic with states rights. The states could be “laboratories of democracy.”  Louis Brandeis noted that the federal system of government allowed any state to be a laboratory for experiments in policy without putting the nation as a whole at risk. Well in that spirit, let New York City embark on its experiment of socialism. Even Bernie Sanders’ Vermont, home of Ben and Jerry’s, has a republican governor. Let Sanders can be an advisor. Maybe AOC can be head of a city department. No testimony from those fleeing oppressive socialist regimes will do. No appeals to history will do. No, the only way the children of socialism will learn their lesson is to experience it.

Bring it on.

Donald Trump: Liberator?

Although Donald Trump proclaimed April 2 as “Liberation Day” perhaps he should change the date to June 12. That was when he signed the law striking down California’s emissions standards. Recall that California would have phased out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 and that 11 other states and DC had foolishly committed to do the same. If Trump had any sense of the dramatic, he should have waited until June 19^th (Juneteenth).

Why Juneteenth – black liberation day? Its because EVs are racist, of course. The cost is out of the reach of most black and brown households. They are expensive. A base Hyundai Kona costs $22,595 while a Hyundai Kona Electric is $35,295. A base Ford F-150 is $40,960 while a base Ford F-150 Lightning: $51,975. However, I defy you to find a base Lightning. I was at my local Ford dealer getting my F-250 diesel serviced and every Lightning I saw was over $70,000. One was over $90,000! Even with the EV credits, now expired, the EVs costs more. If the greenies were interested in equity, they would lobby for cheaper EVs from China. But Joe Biden kept Trump’s 100% tariff on Chinese EVs. Some equity. Let them eat cake!

The mean family income of black households is $53,000 well below the $75,000 of white households. Yet even among whites, the average cost of an EV is prohibitive. The average price of an EV is $56,910 while that of a gas powered car is $48,900. Personally, I think both price averages are outrageous. Before tariffs the cheapest electric was a Nissan Leaf at $29,280. I guess we could buy one, put mag wheels on it, lower the suspension, give it a spiffy paint job, put a spoiler on back and hang foam dice from the rear view mirror. Never mind.

Here is what one EV advocate says “Among Black and Latino consumers, incomes and credit scores are lower overall, which can make new EVs financially out of reach for families that might otherwise consider buying them. As more vehicle options emerge and older EVs make their way to the used car market, costs to purchase an EV will drop and fall in line with gasoline counterparts. But equitable EV adoption can only be achieved through the creation of incentive programs that are effective and accessible for all consumers.” All total, blacks buy only 2 percent of all EVs. Did anyone suggest an additional incentive rebate for black and brown buyers? Sort of an EV reparations program?

Then there is the charging problem. Most EV owners are white college educated homeowners with home charging stations. Only 44 percent of blacks own their homes. Those people living in apartments would have to have chargers in their apartment complex or have to charge at charging stations – if they can find one that works. Not surprisingly charging stations are located where white, college educated people frequent – and that is not in the ‘hood. Charging deserts exist in poor neighborhoods and not at toney malls. Of course, if there is a Pilot/Flying J handy, you can always go charge at an interstate exit and enjoy a meal at the Denny’s while you wait the hour or so it takes. 

BTW, what happened to the $7.5 billion to build 500,000 charging stations funded in the 2021 Infrastructure and Jobs Act? So far 37 have been built. Why isn’t this a scandal? How many were supposed to be in the ‘hood? But just remember what happened to payphones in poor neighborhoods before contemplating putting in a charging station.

But is buying an EV a rational decision or an emotional one? The comparable price studies show that after three years of ownership, EVs may actually be more costly than gas vehicles. They are more expensive to repair and have higher insurance costs. Some in the let-them-eat-cake groups said that poorer people could buy used EVs (watch out for replacement battery costs) or ride public transit. Is that why Gavin Newsom has spent over $70 billion on a bullet train to nowhere? Couldn’t he just have given poor Californians a grant to buy used EVs? I just love the idea of EV reparations.

One black California politician, Assemblyman Jim Cooper, opposed Newsom’s EV mandate. Cooper said that his constituents could not afford an EV. Cooper wrote an open letter to the state’s largest environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, who, he said, promote policies that “systematically drive racial economic inequities and fuel environmental racism.” Ironically, the CEO of the Sierra Club is a black man, ex-NAACP president Ben Jealous. Cooper points out that low and moderate income Californians are subsidizing wealthy EV owners. Where is the equity in that? He notes the strain on the power grid and the frequent brownouts saying that “Meanwhile, liberal elite policymakers sit, charging their electric cars (for which they received taxpayer rebates), straining the grid while working families lose their electricity and air conditioning during a horrendous heatwave.” Poor black and brown families subsidizing rich white elites? Where is the outrage?

So Trump is the liberator. He has rescued black and brown people from the inequities of the EV. Let the greenie weenies wail and let Gavin Newsom sue saying “We will sue to stop this illegal action by a President who is a wholly-owned subsidiary of big polluters.”  Wow. And this from a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environmental-industrial complex and the education-industrial complex. 

Some will argue that Trump’s actions are racist because black and brown people have higher incidences of respiratory diseases such as asthma – environmental racism. The argument is that those diseases would be lessened by the removal of internal combustible engines. This “environmental justice” crowd say that EVs are a vehicle for racial equity – provided black folk are forced to either buy them because they have no choice or ride public transportation. Hey, you may be walking but at least the air will be cleaner – we think. Most of us recognize this as sheer sophistry. Rather than being racist, Trump’s actions are actually liberating. Black and brown people are liberated from the yoke of EV tyranny and being condemned to EV purgatory. That is why June 12 is the real “Liberation Day” and Donald Trump is the liberator.