Unfortunately, Congress is in on the grift so I don’t expect the Republican controlled Congress to do much more than the absolute minimum to get past the midterms. What a shame, but then again they have no shame.
"And the experts were right about Covid, climate change, ulcers being with caused by stress, that Brexit would never happen and their super accurate predictions of the results of the 2016 and 2024 elections.
And of course there are 72 genders. And young men dressed as girls are not stronger or faster in sports, than girls."
As always a well thought out piece and pleasure to read. I would like to comment on the tariff issue. Economists have since Cordero in the 1800’s show that tariffs have in general a negative impact. That said if these tariffs are a negotiating tool and will bring on fairer trade then I would be very much in favor. The application of the tariffs seems chaotic. Australia has very low tariffs if any on most US imports and has a negative trade deficit with US yet tariffs were increased on Australian imports. Similarly with Israel which lowered its tariffs to zero on US imports, tariffs were raised to 17%. There doesn’t seem to be any coherent metric to this action. Maybe I’m missing something in the method or the goal but confusion shouldn’t be a factor in this policy.
The congressional GOP is in full resistance to the Trump agenda. Their donors want to continue spending taxed and borrowed money and congress has no intention of stopping it. Even if they are philosophically inclined to reduce the federal budget they will only support reductions to other legislators donors, never their own.
There are those pesky voters to consider, just opposing Trump may get them primaried. They will team up to distribute the resistance.
In the end each GOP rep will have voted yea on 98% of the Trump agenda, voted no on 2% (on principle!), and congress will have stymied any effort to actually rein in spending.
Trump needs to find a way to work around the GOP. They are not on his side (or ours).
Tanned, ready and rested. You're an inspiration for us all. Thanks for the update. Colorado continues to be a battleground - lots of Rebs left over from the last Civil War.
Unfortunately, Congress is in on the grift so I don’t expect the Republican controlled Congress to do much more than the absolute minimum to get past the midterms. What a shame, but then again they have no shame.
" I already voted for him, you don’t have to sell me!"
1. Love It!
2. Over the years I've found Donald Trumps plans//ideas have worked out much more than they have failed.
3. What gets me is all these Talking Heads/Experts telling me what Will happen.
Phelim McAleer
https://phelimmcaleer.substack.com/p/tariffs-listen-to-the-experts
"And the experts were right about Covid, climate change, ulcers being with caused by stress, that Brexit would never happen and their super accurate predictions of the results of the 2016 and 2024 elections.
And of course there are 72 genders. And young men dressed as girls are not stronger or faster in sports, than girls."
As always a well thought out piece and pleasure to read. I would like to comment on the tariff issue. Economists have since Cordero in the 1800’s show that tariffs have in general a negative impact. That said if these tariffs are a negotiating tool and will bring on fairer trade then I would be very much in favor. The application of the tariffs seems chaotic. Australia has very low tariffs if any on most US imports and has a negative trade deficit with US yet tariffs were increased on Australian imports. Similarly with Israel which lowered its tariffs to zero on US imports, tariffs were raised to 17%. There doesn’t seem to be any coherent metric to this action. Maybe I’m missing something in the method or the goal but confusion shouldn’t be a factor in this policy.
The congressional GOP is in full resistance to the Trump agenda. Their donors want to continue spending taxed and borrowed money and congress has no intention of stopping it. Even if they are philosophically inclined to reduce the federal budget they will only support reductions to other legislators donors, never their own.
There are those pesky voters to consider, just opposing Trump may get them primaried. They will team up to distribute the resistance.
In the end each GOP rep will have voted yea on 98% of the Trump agenda, voted no on 2% (on principle!), and congress will have stymied any effort to actually rein in spending.
Trump needs to find a way to work around the GOP. They are not on his side (or ours).
Ilya Somin thinks that the president has exceeded his authority under IEEPA:
https://reason.com/volokh/2025/04/03/why-trumps-liberation-day-tariffs-are-illegal/
Thx Glenn! You’re always out front on how we’re all thinking.
They are in gear. Reverse.
Tanned, ready and rested. You're an inspiration for us all. Thanks for the update. Colorado continues to be a battleground - lots of Rebs left over from the last Civil War.
I truly hope the Professor haven’t identified the failure mode for Trump’s efforts.