The prohibiting duties we lay on all articles of foreign manufacture which prudence indeed requires us to establish at home, with the patriotic determination of every good citizen to use no foreign article which can be made within ourselves, without regard to difference of price, secures us against a relapse into foreign dependency. —Thomas Jefferson, in an 1815 letter to John-Baptiste Say, a French economist
A free people … should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent on others for essentials, particularly military supplies. —President George Washington
Under free trade, the trader is the master and the producer the slave. Protection is but the law of nature, the law of self-preservation, of self-development, of securing the highest and best destiny of the race of man. Free trade destroys the dignity and independence of American labor… It will take away from the people of this country who work for a living— and the majority of them live by the sweat of their faces— it will take from them heart and home and hope. It will be self-destruction. —President William McKinley
I wish we still had tariffs on all imports. Why? Because tariffs are what kept America’s manufacturing alive, our people with decent jobs, our ability to purchase quality goods produced by American owned companies, and because those tariffs once supported the entire cost of running our country. For 126 years, until 1913, there was no federal income tax and we kept all of the monies we earned. Today’s communist progressive taxation is a far cry from what our founders envisioned for America’s citizens.
Following World War II, America began switching from a policy of protection, to a policy of “free trade,” which used international trade deals as a means of diplomacy and alliance-building, slowly eroding and ultimately destroying America’s status as the world’s dominant manufacturing power.
The idea that America’s economic tradition has been economic liberty, laissez faire, and wide-open cowboy capitalism, which would naturally include free trade… is simply not real history. The reality is that all four presidents on Mount Rushmore were protectionists. Protectionism was, in fact, the real American way.
Trump’s populist pro-tariff advisors Bannon and Navarro opposed the globalists in Trump’s administration, including economic adviser Gary Cohn, and Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, then Trump’s national security adviser.
Gary Cohn resigned when the President called for broad import tariffs on steel and aluminum, anathema to establishment free-trade Democrats and Republicans. McMaster was fired and replaced by former UN Ambassador, John Bolton.
The 1913 Income Tax
This tax dominates the revenue scheme of the federal government today. It is totally unconstitutional. Prior to ratification of the 16th Amendment (income tax) in February 1913, the federal government managed its few constitutional responsibilities without an income tax, except during the Civil War period. During peacetime, it did so largely or even entirely on import taxes called “tariffs.”
Congress ran the fed government on tariffs alone because fed responsibilities did not include welfare programs, agricultural subsidies, Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid. Before the Northern War of Aggression, the need for tariff revenue to finance the federal government generally kept the tariffs at reasonable levels. During wartime throughout early American history, the Founding Fathers were able to raise additional revenue employing a different method of direct taxation authorized by the U.S. Constitution prior to the 16th Amendment. These alternative taxing methods gave the young American nation embarrassing peacetime budget surpluses that several times came close to paying off the national debt.
President Andrew Jackson boasted in his veto of the Maysville Road Bill in 1830 that God had blessed the nation with no taxes (except tariffs on imports) and no national debt. “Old Hickory” presided over a nation where Congress had abolished all federal internal taxes, and no citizen saw a tax collector of the United States unless that citizen was in the business of importing foreign goods. (And now, the $20-dollar bill sporting the visage of Tennessee’s beloved President Andrew Jackson will be replaced with the picture of abolitionist, Harriet Tubman.)
While American consumers were occasionally manipulated by outrageously high protective tariffs, inside the United States a massive free market emerged over which the U.S. government had almost no influence.
By way of contrast, the advent of the income tax prompted some congressmen to note that this tax was designed not principally for revenue, the U.S. government had always had plenty of money from tariffs, but to manipulate the American people and their choices in the market.
This has been the legacy of the income tax. While the income tax has produced the type of revenue that has made a massive transfer of wealth from the productive to the unproductive, the incentives, through thousands of deductions and tax credits have manipulated the American people into choices that they wouldn’t have otherwise made in a free market. These manipulations, whether in favor of “green energy” research, “cash for clunker” automobile purchases, or tobacco crop subsidies, have been chosen according to the prevailing virtue in Washington.
Prior to 1913, Americans were responsible for themselves and independent enough to know that their future depended not on the government, but solely on themselves.
Selling Out American Manufacturing
In 1992, ads in local newspapers encouraged businesses to transfer their manufacturing to Honduras, El Salvador, the Caribbean Basin International Development Zone, of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. These were International Free Trade Zones and Port Industrial Free Zones. This included Mexico.
Instead of paying living wages in the United States, corporations were urged to move to countries where wages were $.33 to $.56 per hour. In 1991, a U.S. government agency actually directed apparel firms in the Southeast to be approached and sold on the idea of going offshore where the labor was cheaper. There is a Puerto Rican and Asian connection as well. Hundreds of companies moved their plants out of our country, and this was 27 years ago.
I remember a friend of mine who worked for Levi Strauss jeans at a terrific middle-class salary being told to train the Mexican workers how to do their jobs knowing the company was moving manufacturing to Mexico. The Mexicans were given free living accommodations in our country, they were free from our income taxes, and they took over the jobs our American citizens had for a lot less money and manufacturing was ultimately moved to Mexico.
Check out the 1992 article from the Pennsylvania Crier. It will shock you. Then go to the original Pennsylvania Crier home page and click on “Downloads.” The information in this website documents history with far more than anything you’ll find in today’s school books. It is invaluable!
Our country’s manufacturing was purposely sold to third world countries to the detriment of our own people. When NAFTA was first promoted, the calls to our Congressional reps were ten to one against it, but our globalist enemies sold us out and voted for it.
Unfortunately, Trump’s Trade Representative, CFR member Robert Lighthizer has sold us out and fooled our President into thinking the USMCA is a better deal than NAFTA. It is not! And Trump does not have conservative advisers who will read Lighthizer’s USMCA and tell him the truth. Numerous articles have been written regarding the contents and the loss of our sovereignty. Publius Huldah wrote that it not only violates our U.S. Constitution, but it also sets up global government. And my friend, J.W. Bryan, has written numerous articles exposing the dangers within the USMCA.
Trump’s Tariffs on Chinese Imports
Last September 2018, President Trump announced tariffs on “roughly $200 billion of imports from China.” These tariffs are on top of the ones imposed during the summer on $50 billion of products from that country.
Mr. Trump has consistently believed that Beijing needed America far more than America needed China, largely because China is the country running large trade surpluses. In 2017, China’s merchandise trade surplus against the United States hit a record $375.6 billion. As Trump knows, trade-surplus countries get mauled in “trade wars.” Therefore, Beijing, not Washington, is the party that needs to talk to reduce tension.
After extensive trade talks with China ended without an agreement on May 10, 2019, President Trump raised the tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese imports from 10% to 25%. China retaliated three days later, announcing new tariffs on $60 billion of American exports.
Asia expert, Gordon Chang is urging the president to remain strong on tariffs, telling Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs the only way to prevent Chinese theft and trade imbalance is for the U.S. to raise tariffs and implement continued pressure on the Chinese. Chang told Dobbs, “We have seen so many trade negotiations between previous presidents and the Chinese. They have all failed. The Chinese have violated every single agreement. This is really important for us. This is where we either stand or we fail, and the only thing that’s going to get us there is President Trump.”
Of course, there are free-trade Republicans like Senator Ted Cruz who claim these actions will hurt the farmers and people of Texas. Cruz previously supported giving fast track authority on trade to President Obama. But our President already said the government would be subsidizing the farmers’ losses during this “fair” trade battle with China.
The Mexican Border and Trade
Personally, I’d like to see the border closed completely. The trade trucks can stand in line at the border and be thoroughly inspected to allow them into the states. But the border should be closed. All border ports of entry should also be closed. We are being flooded with illegal immigrants pleading asylum, being loosed in America and never showing up for their court appearances. If anyone believes there are only 12 to 30 million illegals in this country, they are not paying attention. The count is over 60 million or more and growing daily.
We do not have enough border patrol agents, ICE agents, fences or walls built as high as the Vatican, or congressional laws to protect American citizens from the influx and costs of these lawbreakers. There are many Islamist terrorists amongst them who daily illegally cross into America.
President Trump threatened tariffs on Mexico being raised every single month until something was done by Mexico to stop them. According to the State Department, Mexico agreed to dispatch 6,000 national guardsmen at the border with Guatemala to block migrants from reaching the United States and expand a Trump administration program that holds thousands of asylum-seekers in Mexico during U.S. immigration processing. Over 90 percent of those released into America never appear in court and are free to remain in America.
If Mexico’s actions “do not have the expected results,” additional measures could be taken within 90 days, and the two countries will continue to discuss add-on steps during that period. This includes tariffs on Mexican goods coming into our country increasing every month until this influx of illegal aliens is quelled. [Link] Without our President and without these tariff threats, there would have been no deal.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson put more than 100,000 National Guard troops on the Mexican border. The military buildup followed an early-morning raid at the garrison town of Columbus, New Mexico. Ten soldiers and eight civilians were killed when the Mexican revolutionary leader General Francisco “Pancho” Villa attacked with almost 500 men.
It’s time for America to put thousands upon thousands of National Guard troops on our border again, and armed with equipment to prevent the surge of illegals from entering our country. And yes, there is new military equipment that repels invaders called the Active Denial Systems Non-Lethal Weapon and turns them back without hurting them. This needs to be manned and used on the entire southern border.
Conclusion
Pat Buchanan was absolutely on target when he stated, “Once a nation has put its foot onto the slippery slope of global free trade, the process is inexorable, the end inevitable: death of the nation-state.”
Tariffs are the answer. The only way our nation can regain control of trade that benefits American citizens is through tariffs. Neither China nor Mexico will cave to our demands unless they suffer the consequences of American tariffs.
If we subsidize our farmers and those who lose during this battle, a battle that we continue to fight over a period of five years or more, manufacturing would again start up in America, first with small businesses, and then it would spread. Our nation would again be one of productivity, surplus, and financial growth for her citizens.
To right the wrongs can be painful for a short time, but in the long run will revive and restore our country.
© 2019 Kelleigh Nelson – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Kelleigh Nelson: Proverbs133@bellsouth.net
