As discussed on today’s BradCast, there are a few things you should know about all of these supposed Donald Trump “trade deals” you have been hearing about in recent days, in advance of his iron-clad August 1 deadline (until he changes it again — oops, too late, and too late again) for implementing new tariffs on imports into the U.S. from the rest of the world. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Among those things…
- Any Trump “trade deal” that includes tariffs on another country is actually a sales TAX on your purchase of the tariffed goods from that country. The foreign nation does not pay the tariffs on those goods. You do.
- These “deals” aren’t actually trade agreements. They are frameworks, of a sort, for potential trade agreements, at best. Trade agreements take years to sort out. At least if they are real ones, which the ones being announced by Trump may not even be. (That is true even when a foreign head of state is by his side when the “deal” is announced.)
- The frameworks announced as “deals” by Trump and the White House to date, may or may not include things that the foreign nation has actually agreed to during negotiations. Trump just makes shit up. (Last weekend’s supposed “trade deal” with the European Union — including laughable claims of promises for $750 billion in energy purchases and $600 billion in unspecified “investments” — provides just one great example.)
- All of these corrupt “deals”, or lack thereof, that include new sales taxes on goods from other nations, may ultimately be found unlawful if only because Trump may not have the statutory authority as President to unilaterally issue tariffs of this sort. (Though you’ll be paying them anyway, as the courts work that out.)
There is more. Lots more. Tune in for it.
Also today…as discussed last week with gerrymandering expert and author Dave Daley, Texas Republicans are now officially moving ahead with their sleazy undemocratic scheme to create a new U.S. House map for the state in the middle of the decade. The newly proposed map in the GOP-controlled state legislature would wipe out Democratic districts on their already-gerrymandered map in hopes of stealing as many as five new seats for Republicans in next year’s midterm elections. Dems plan legal challenges in Texas, and continue to ponder whether or not they should do the same sleazy, anti-democratic thing to Republican-held districts in states that Dems control. (I argue, regrettably, that they should. Immediately.)
Finally…Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report as the corrupted Trump EPA makes a landmark move to kill its own legal authority to regulate planet heating greenhouse gasses while the unspeakable financial cost of ongoing climate change destruction continues to soar…
Who we gonna call (The Machine Religion – 7)?
“The Trump Administration’s Campaign to Undermine the Next Election” (BrennanCenterForJustice).