Weekend Joe Quick Facts: Tariffs
- frastecon
- Sep 27
- 2 min read
One of the most confusing topics of these turbulent times is tariffs.
Will they help reduce the national debt? Will they help the economy? Will they create more jobs in the US?
Here are some actual facts about tariffs. (And the answer to the above questions is “no,” according to most economists ...)
🔹 1. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tells us American importers are paying the tariffs and can pass the cost on to consumers. That’s right -- the importer of the goods pays the tariff, not the country the goods originate from, despite Pres. Trump’s insistence that countries pay the tariffs. American businesses pay tariffs.
🔹 2. Businesses can absorb those increased costs. But we’re not naive. Most will pass the costs along to us consumers or figure out other ways to reduce their costs. And those other costs include labor.
🔹 3. The new tariffs are expected to cost American households an average of $2,400 this year (per The Yale Budget Lab). The impact is regressive, of course, hitting lower income homes the hardest.
🔹 4. For all of 2025, more than 33,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, mostly in companies that make durable goods like cars, household appliances and electronics. Confusion over Trump’s tariffs and other policies are making US companies skittish – they can’t project what their production should be, so they don’t hire.
🔹 5. Grocery prices are up 2.7% over last year (as of Sept.) and tariffs are part of the problem. Tariffs alone are projected to raise inflation by 0.4% this year and next (per CBO).
🔹 6. Tariffs produce additional income to the national treasury in the billions (income that is actually a sales tax paid by us), but our debt is measured in the trillions – currently $38 trillion! And it’s projected to increase by an additional estimated $4 trillion more with the extension of the 2017 tax cut. The math simply does not work.
🔹 7. The tariffs of 2018 resulted in other impacts that we should watch for. One example, which we are already hearing about, is reciprocal tariffs on US goods. These can price US exporters out of international markets. Projections are that tariffs will slow GDP growth by about 0.9% and reduce long-term growth by 0.6% annually. (Per Yale Budget Lab.) This will lead to lower sales, lower production, lower job growth and job losses.
Yes, tariffs are complicated. But when you hear that tariffs can help offset the national debt, will lead to increased manufacturing in the US, or solve any number of other woes – be skeptical. We as American consumers are paying those tariffs; it’s akin to a new tax on us that isn’t being called a tax.
For more information, please go to Tariffs—Everything you need to know but were
And we’ll keep watching prices and provide a before-and-after tariff price comparison...
Let us know your thoughts:
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