he wants to abolish the income tax and fund the government almost entirely through tariffs, thereby delivering the most regressive bonanza to the rich in the history of American taxation. He has said this many many times. He said it *at the announcement* and yet pieces like this just ignore it.
Comments
Congress is not working out for us
Another
Gilded
Age
Because the US didn’t have enough income inequality before.
Remember the Underwood Tariff act of 1913? When Trump insisted on renaming Mount Denali Mount McKinley, i thought about Underwood Act: it coupled tariff reductions and income tax, which was a class tax, then, not a mass tax/ Trump is Mark Hanna redidivus."
https://archive.is/4rqA5
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/06/opinion/income-tax-rate-wealthy.html
Trump doesn’t think.
Not to said they’d be assuredly wrong, just that others would be there long before the Times and far likelier to be correct.
Meanwhile, they’ll be partying at the Palace in Palm Springs and on their yachts and private planes
Everyone on the planet can make the same stuff as Americans.
So, we will just not worry about buying or selling stuff to that despicable country in the middle of N.America. WE DON'T NEED AMERICA.
https://bsky.app/profile/sixtus.net/post/3lm2ce2m4j22p
It’s Douthat.
Veblen dichotomy of instrumental vs ceremonial uses of technology might be a good hermeneutical approach
Trump likes his ceremonial tech
And accusation/consolation prerogative power>
Meanwhile the forest, teaming with omniscient wildlife, is abuzz with the whispered clamor —
“They’re about to destroy the whole enchilada and you’re crafting effete intellectualisms. Fetch your Lucille!”
Greedy crooks support trump all the way!
Unscrupulous criminals support trump all the way!
Hate supports malevolent guys all the way!
maga followers can’t see beyond their racism and greed!
The rest of the idiots who voted for him would probably have voted for no one, since Kamala focused her campaign mainly on the cult because she's using the same incompetent senile idiot strategists that continue using the Charlie Brown strategy.
That they could be dumb, dishonest and racist and live lavishly without accountability.
Trump is the peak embodiment in of The Toxic Masculinity American Dream
crowd are about to find out
about when keepin’ it real goes
very wrong ….
Sadly, the rest of us will too.
Meanwhile the congress is
moving at light speed to get
His budget in place … and
soo-prize, soo-prize … the
numbers don’t work.
Versus our government creates our currency & banks create loans
Chris sometimes understands this.
Sometimes he too pushes the tax payer money myth
Most of our media & politicians do too
" What he is saying is"
" What he meant to say was"
Et, al.
Trump Defenders: oh he's joking
Trump: *does the outrageous thing*
Trump Defenders: that's not what he did - he did this other, non-outrageous thing
Maddening
#trumpcession
Okay but that simply could never be feasible, to a degree that it’s not even a productive thought experiment. Tariffs could not replace the $2 trillion in federal individual income tax revenue.
I don’t know if it’s sane washing or just not believing him but it’s dangerous.
"Trump's said this 👇 in his 'Liberation Day' reveal. The reasons for creating the income tax in 1913 were not unknown. It was to replace a previously regressive taxation system that Trump wants to resurrect in 2025. 🤡"
https://bsky.app/profile/ivanthek.bsky.social/post/3lm3f4u2ka32f
trump knows this and uses the flaccid moral character of the media to his advantage.
Of course, bend the knee (and send tribute) to get a waiver. Lose favor and you're out of business.
So much for capitalism.
But BRICS+ seems more likely than crypto, even if crypto-bros won’t hear that
This is not a recipe to save an empire. It is a recipe to end one, though most rich today won't care. They will be fine..
But I don't see how that leads to funding the government.
It's more of a sales tax that directly transfers $$ from people who buy things to the companies who sell things. And from the companies to foreign companies, right?
Rich get richer....
Money to foreign companies - no
When foreign companies sell goods here the US puts a big tax on them, and that money goes to the govt, paid by US companies or consumers. Then the companies raise their prices to cover the tax, paid by all consumers
That’ll get the MAGAts attention.
In the same Oblast as Pootie...
"The president walked right into my living room and slaughtered my entire family... But.. you know... It was probably for the best. MAGA!"
That’s why he stole the keyboard
1 keep saying it
2 can you find the clip that should have been his romney moment where he was at the southern palace and told his billionaire buddies that "they all are going to get very very rich" almost like an aside... i would love to know who was in the room at the time; maybe big oil?
He says America was last "great" in the Gilded Age. It was great for a few wealthy families. For the rest of us: tenement housing, dangerous sweatshops, no school, child labor.
https://bsky.app/profile/goofrider.bsky.social/post/3lm2rmlhz2k2l
Have they thought this through? (Rhetorical question of course)
Trump rants are like that. He says things so dumb or crazy it's nearly impossible to pick up on.
& House GOP keep trying to do it.⬇️
This is why MAGA Republicans haven't started impeachment proceedings against Trump for nuking the economy, THEY AGREE with him.
https://www.newsweek.com/republican-plan-abolish-federal-income-taxes-irs-reform-2023362
I assume the Same Vara kook that tried to get him to do this during his failed China trade war.
Lots of purchasing will also be delayed for months or years while everyone (Joe Citizen and American companies) wait and see.
Trump’s tariffs are going to hit workers hard for the next decade.
https://www.thestreet.com/retirement-daily/retirement-research/2008-financial-crisis-continues-to-impact-the-lower-middle-class
Educate me.
Trump sees tariffs as a means to national power and his personal power. But he’ll say anything
I’d hope that if people are presented with a simple question “Who should pay more taxes?” they’d realize income tax is more fair.
and people still act blindsided when he follows through.
This is why it has been so frustrating that the media (including MSNBC) sanewashed him in the name of “balance,” while the country tilted off the edge.
I mean - literally.
That’s what Republicans do. They announce their plans in advance because they do not fear anyone will stop them.
And hey look around. Is anyone stopping them?
Too many people do this w Trump. Real life is not litigation! You can say “this is bullshit”
He said what he's doing yesterday: " it's time to get rich." #DowDown
DING DING DING
Trump will gut the IRS anyway, so tax revenue drops every year too. Then tariff $$ goes down, and our deficit utterly trashes the dollar.
Abolishing income taxes plainly articulates the regressive NON-civilization he envisions.
It’s anarchy at best and probably more like stone age “civilization” of foraging, hunting, gathering.
Or maybe 899.
1) The government collects tariff taxes on imports.
2) Tariff revenue is used to justify reducing taxes for the rich.
3) The majority who have to spend their entire paycheck just to survive are stuck paying for the tariffs in the form of higher prices for basic needs.
His theory sucks shit but man, goals.
I grew up in a county that kept having more education sales tax on the ballot so seniors wouldn't pay for schools through property tax and I've lived as an adult in a state that replaced income tax with sales tax. It always leads to finding ways not to pay it.
Fuck these billionaires with their tax cuts!!!
Fuck them!!
Greedy bastards!! Sick greedy bastards!!
I support whoever tax them to the ground!!
In any case, I think USA should be looking at introducing a VAT.
1/3
2/3
It is one of the most efficient taxation systems ever devised. And it can raise a lot of tax – which should be a big part of the policy mix for a country whose govt has spent far more than it raises in taxes for decades.
3/3
And what's worse is he'll abolish income tax but still leave all the loopholes for the rich to deduct their yachts and jets.
He’s a real estate guy. Trade reduces the differential value of location. You can’t export a golf course.
Here’s the reality: he’s gonna pocket the gold card, the tariff money, selling of gov buildings etc by putting it into his fed slush fund.
Then cry about needing more rev & income taxes + will stay or go up.
If people are going to continually let one man destroy everything, well then that's on you.
Americans could end this tomorrow if they wanted to.
Pandemics travel rapidly globally by airplanes.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4904a1.htm
and
The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War
https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/
How does a tax - paid to companies like Best Buy fo goods - fund the US govt???
?????
Dems have a window now to reset public opinion on basics like economics and crime.
https://medium.com/@aletheisthenes/on-april-20th-2025-the-united-states-will-cross-the-point-of-no-return-0aecac04cfc3
Wait…What?
Rutherford B. Hayes wrote in his diary in 1886. “It is a government by the corporations, of the corporations and for the corporations.”
Fuck the New York Times.
Trump knows tariffs will make everyday goods more expensive. He knows this makes the poorest in the country, poorer.
Trump wants to remove income income tax. He knows this makes the richest in the country, richer.
Money flows into the pockets of the richest in the country.
Only possible way this can work is trade extorted at barrel of a gun: buy our chlorinated chicken or a carrier group shows up in the harbor.
#StockMarket
This is important I think.
Is it annoying to billionaires? Get rid of it.
Would it help billionaires? Get it.
Can I buy it and so I don't have to care if other people have access? It's not important.
Get this through your fucking thick skulls.
Americans pay for all this bullshit. No-one else.
https://newrepublic.com/article/193457/trump-tariff-madness-income-tax