A Democrat defends tariffs
Free trade didn’t work for the American middle class, manufacturing was sold to the lowest bidder, and the American middle class saw stagnation in wages while the corporations saw year over year gains. I agree with my Republican neighbors that we can’t continue to allow the United States to fall behind in manufacturing while the world races ahead of us in the industrial renaissance of the technological age. Our country doesn’t produce our own technology; we don’t manufacture our own computer chips, our own EVs, even the phone in your hand was not made here in America. Simply put we are beholden to foreign labor and foreign leaders.
Tariffs are a great tool that can be used with other tools to create a dynamic plan to bring high paying jobs back to this country. However, like any tool, they can be used wrong. Tariffs are a hammer, and sometimes you need to drive a nail; but when you're tightening the screws on a trade plan, a hammer isn’t the correct tool. A hammer isn’t going to cut through legal red tape to make it easier for companies to build new factories. A hammer isn’t going to cap markups on consumer goods to make sure that companies, and not consumers, feel the pain of tariffs. A hammer isn’t going to unclog the back log of permits for manufacturers. A hammer isn’t going to patch the worker’s protections to ensure that the jobs that come to this country are the kind of jobs that Americans want to work. Tariffs are a hammer, but if you're building a foundation for a new American economy, you need a tool belt with more than just a hammer.
That is why I stand opposed to this administration’s use of tariffs, because there isn’t a specific vision, it's an empty unenforceable promise. It’s the same old “trust me” politics that got our country into this mess, and it doesn’t serve the American consumer. I work in retail, I have seen the prices go up just in the last few weeks since these tariffs were announced. American families will have to spend less on Easter, hope the swim trunks still fit from last year, and choose between Cadbury eggs and chicken eggs. The administration and congressional Republicans will have you believe that this is all to benefit you; while you pay more and more, make less and less, and they ride the waves of the DOW to draw in billions in profits for themselves.
There is a better way, there is a correct way to use a tool. My father and my grandfather taught me how to use the right tool for the right job. They taught me how to punch a nail, how to set a screw, and how to see when I'm being screwed. This deal is screwing us, it’s holding the American middle class hostage and expecting the world to pay the ransom. This isn’t how you put America first. The most disappointing part is that Republicans control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the White House. There is no excuse for why they can’t pass common sense legislation to make this vision a reality, except that they don’t really want to do it. Their investments aren’t on American soil, their money isn’t sitting in American companies, and if it is, those American companies are pulling in sweet dividends on the back of Asian labor. This isn’t a conspiracy, it’s public knowledge.
How should we use tariffs? First we should ask what kind of jobs we want to bring back to this country. Do we think Americans want to screw in tiny screws in the next iPhone? Do we think Americans want to sew textiles for pennies? Of course not, we need high paying, high productivity jobs that not only benefit the people working in those industries but everyone else in the communities around them. We should be imposing tariffs on foreign pharmaceuticals, incrementally and intentionally raising the tariff while encouraging domestic production to ramp up. Of course, we can’t keep letting companies gouge everyday Americans for their insulin and heart medications, so we also need to impose price caps that prevent companies from simply passing the cost of tariffs onto the American consumer. We have to work together not just Republicans or Democrats, but together, to fight for the American people again.
So, that’s how as a Democrat I support tariffs, just not the bludgeoning of our economy with a hammer. My name is Daniel Byron, I am running for Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District, to bring common sense back to Washington.
