A Historical Look at Tariffs

VCY America

William J. Federer is a nationally known speaker, historian, author, and president of Amerisearch, Inc. He's the speaker on "The American Minute" daily broadcast. On April 2nd, President Donald Trump had a special event on the White House lawn. He declared, "A declaration of economic independence...Liberation Day...the day that we began to make America wealthy again." Since then there's been quite an uproar, not merely from nations around the world but from opposing politicians and the American media. With the way the reactions have gone (12 states are suing the Trump administration) you'd think that tariffs are some sort of new idea that President Trump has concocted. But there's much more to this than you may realize both historically and constitutionally. As William began, he described tariffs as a tax on items imported into America from other nations. Keep in mind that prior to the time of Woodrow Wilson there was no income tax. So for the first 150 years of our nation's history, tariffs were the number one instrument used to finance the federal government. In spite of this history, is there a constitutional basis for tariffs? Yes there is. Article 1, Section 8 authorizes the federal government to collect duties and imposts (tariffs) to help pay the debt, provide for the common defense and the general welfare of the United States. Hear the rest of the history behind this subject to see how President Trump is simply following our Constitution. Listeners joined the discussion as well to round out the broadcast.