TheVoiceOfJoyce Congress wants to use tariffs as a tax on the lower classes and get rid of income taxes?

So by taking away Federal Agencies that were established to protect all Americans, we’re now trashing our Agencies and eliminating taxes the wealthy don’t pay, anyway? Non of this makes sense. Trump is ushering in a 2 md Gilded Age!

Except, there are the competing interests of the Billionaires who may rein in Tariffs. The Stock Market went up 1200 points today.

From the desk of Heather Cox Richardson, historian.

The Trump Game Plan:

Congress passed the 1913 Revenue Act imposing income taxes to shift the cost of supporting the government from ordinary Americans, especially the women who by then made up a significant portion of household consumers, to men of wealth. Tariffs were regressive because they fell disproportionately on working-class Americans through their everyday purchases. Income taxes spread costs more evenly, according to a man’s ability to pay. The switch from tariffs to income taxes helped to break the power of the so-called robber barons, the powerful industrialists who controlled the U.S. economy and government in the late nineteenth century.

To get rid of income taxes, Trump and his Republicans have backed the decimation of the government services that support ordinary Americans.

Today, in the Oval Office press conference, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested where they intend to put government money, promising a defense budget of $1 trillion, a significant jump from the current $892 defense budget. “[W]e have to be strong because you’ve got a lot of bad forces out there now,” Trump said.

Allison McCann, Alexandra Berzon, and Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times reported today that the administration also intends to spend as much as $45 billion over the next two years on new detention facilities for immigrants. In the last fiscal year, the total amount of federal money allocated to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement was about $3.4 billion. The new facilities will be in private hands and will operate with lower standards and less oversight than current detention facilities.

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Notes:

Donald J. Trump, Truth Social post, April 7, 2025, 11:14 am.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czrvngj03jlo

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-trump-tariffs-trade-war-04-07-25

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/global-stocks-markets-dow-news-04-07-2025-2062512c?mod=WSJ_home_supertoppermiddle_pos_3

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/07/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/.VIX/

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/07/trump-tariffs-live-updates-stock-market-crypto.html

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/vix.asp

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/senate-tariff-bill-must-become-the-focus

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/07/trump-veto-tariff-bill-grassley