Biden’s Call for More Steel Tariffs Is Economically Ineffective Political Pandering

Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm

“Just four days ago, the Biden administration launched a new line of attack against former President Donald Trump and his campaign trail promise to hike tariffs if he is elected in November. Those higher tariffs would be ‘inflation-feeding welfare for the rich’ that would raise prices for consumers, according to an Axios summary of a White House memo. The shift in messaging, The New York Times reported, was an attempt at ‘recalibrating’ Biden’s economic message in the face of stubbornly high inflation and the persistent sense among voters that the economy is not doing well. In effect, this is an attempt to remind voters that Trump’s economic plans include the deliberate goal of artificially inflating prices — because that’s what tariffs do. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden called for hiking tariffs.” (04/17/24)

https://reason.com/2024/04/17/bidens-call-for-more-steel-tariffs-is-economically-ineffective-political-pandering/