My Dad was born in 1905 and lived through the depression. He was a minister, raising 4 children before churches started to recognize that ministers had the same expenses as everyone else. As a discipline in honesty (and a necessity) he carefully budgeted every penny - and when I received an allowance as a child to cover school lunch, tithing, and other real expenses (not comic books!), he required me to budget and keep an account of every penny. It was a practice of integrity and responsibility, which I carried into adulthood.
I'm surprised by how many of our fellow citizens think tariffs on Chinese goods are paid by the Chinese. Not so. Tariffs on other countries' products are paid at our border by purchasers in our own country. That hardware store down the street that got another order of shovels from China also got a new bill to pay from our customs agency that will be paid directly to the U.S. government. It's not just a hidden tax, it's a hidden point-of-sale sales tax, or its cousin, a passed-on gross receipts tax -- something, in either form, that Oregonians have a contentious history with. Just like a sales tax or a gross receipts tax, some of the effects of the tax may ultimately be absorbed by the Chinese producer, if they reduce prices to remain competitive. But those downstream effects are small; meanwhile the initial tax incidence (a technical term for who pays in the first transaction) will be borne in full by the U.S. importers and passed on in large part to U.S. consumers. Small manufacturers and niche businesses will be hit hardest by that, while Amazon and Wal-Mart will adjust. They have pricing power that small businesses don't have. Add to your list of ironies that Oregonians, so averse to a sales tax (soundly rejected in nine different statewide votes), and those who complained about the business activity tax enacted here in 2019 are turning a blind eye to the effects of tariffs on their household budgets.
By the way, that 2019 business tax (which I viewed at the time as a good way to improve out K-12 system) showed up as a separate item on the invoice for my last car purchase. But, to your point, at least it was transparent to the voter and to me as a consumer and, I would add, has been helpful to my local school district. Nothing in Trump's tariff regime will have a useful purpose of that kind; it's just leverage for him politically and, incidentally, a new source of money for the U.S Treasury (paid by us as consumers) to blunt the impact of his deficit-driven budget bill and the tax cuts it will deliver with the greatest benefits to the wealthiest among us.
The US trade deficit dropped by 46% from March to April. That’s because businesses are moving back home. Good jobs and real growth is coming back to the US because of Trump tariffs. From an article in American Thinker, “Car prices dropped by 0.5% from March to April, despite 25% tariffs on auto imports going into effect on April 3.” Now tell me again that tariffs aren’t being absorbed by manufacturers outside of our country. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/06/trump_s_tariff_gamble_pays_off_without_the_inflation.html
We have purchased nine cars in 61 years, six used, three new. A one-half percent price drop for a new car, if true, is not very meaningful to us. Meanwhile since Trump took office gas is up $0.64/gal where I live, the food we buy is up about 15%; those are things we buy every week or so. Less frequent purchases like lumber, hardware, metal stock, etc. are also up; much of that is due to incomprehensible tariff increases that are so high that even if they are partially absorbed by the supplier they are still significant to us.
Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs in the U.S. have declined every month since Trump launched his tariff agenda. And prices haven't yet reflected the higher cost of imports because many companies boosted their inventories before the tariffs took effect and are now drawing down those supplies. Both are short term effects and are somewhat offsetting.
The best case for your prediction rests on an increase in manufacturing jobs in the future (which I, too, would celebrate) but there are longer-term trends in the displacement of jobs by technologies that will work against that in any scenario. Meanwhile, prices will rise (I'd bet on that). And, yes, higher prices could well be worth any gain in jobs and wages. I willingly pay more for some products because they're made in the U.S. But then we need to ask what are those products that should be made here, because we're better at making them (our comparative advantage) and what products and resources should come from abroad because other countries are better positioned to make or extract them and we benefit from what we buy from them.
I can make a case for tariffs, if they're targeted -- to what we're better off importing and what, for national security reasons, we don't want to cede to other countries (as is the case with high-end computer chips). But Trump's tariffs are mostly across the board and will hurt many industries and workers that have benefitted from importing raw materials and adding value to them here in the manufacturing process.
Also, tariffs are not a two-way street. Ask wheat farms and apple growers here how this is affecting them, because Chinese consumers don't want to pay the higher prices that come from reciprocal tariffs on their end.
This is why, in the past, we negotiated product-specific trade agreements, which, admittedly, sometimes reflected market and political power (Big Pharma) rather than the interests of consumers and jobs. Trump deserves credit for that approach with his renegotiation of NAFTA in his first term. But what he's doing now is different, less targeted, more disruptive and more likely to hurt economic growth rather than boost it.
The jobs report is reflecting a decline in the need for services as illegals self deport and are sent home by the thousands. Taxes are being cut so citizens have more cash in their pockets as we aren’t paying for housing, medical care, and SNAP food for illegal welfare recipients. Oh and don’t forget, NGOs supported by USAID are not needed.
Remember TN. Trump just signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a month ago. We are finally on to recovering our economic strength in the world markets. It is a new Industrial Revolution, thanks to Trump.
Funny thing CJ is that many of the tariffs on 3rd world countries have been lowered below what they were in April. The CCP has stolen intellectual property and killed Americans with fentanyl, yet you are anti tariff and likely pro fuel taxes because you choose to dance on the head of a pin on the issue. Oh, keeping it secret from the voters who put you in office?? Fuel taxes increase the prices of virtually everything we buy in stores including food. Fuel taxes hit the poorest Americans the hardest. You are the problem, not the solution to Oregon’s high cost of living! BTW, sending illegals home will reduce the cost of living for the legal working population. https://worldscorecard.com/world-facts-and-figures/us-tariffs-and-the-world/
Seems like you need a lesson in oil/gas economics. PLease educate yourself before you spread claims of fraud.
1. Supply and Demand Dynamics: West Coast states, including Oregon, are relatively far from major oil production regions, leading to higher transportation costs and potential price fluctuations.
2. . Environmental Regulations: Oregon has environmental regulations that require the use of reformulated gasoline, which can be more expensive to produce.
Oregon has FAARR better air quality than Texas. In fact, several cities in Texas rank as THE WORST in the USA.
3. HIGH POLLUTION LEVEL- Texas frequently experiences high levels of ozone and particle pollution, with several cities ranking among the most polluted in the US.
4. HIGH EMISSIONS:
Texas leads the nation in emissions of several pollutants, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds, according to the Texas Center for Policy Studies
I'd much rather pay the 15cents extra (current rate) for clean air and Less Cancer.
My child lives in Texas she is paying 2.89 for the same gas that we in Oregon are Paying nearly $5 a gallon for. You did not say one thing about the fraud in ODOT. They cannot account for millions of dollars in that department alone. Before raising taxes let's find the money! No more taxes without accountability!
I donated and voted for you before, but never again, you lied and pretended to be conservative to get us to vote for you, but now we can see you for who you really are.
I like your way of thinking. Yes taxes are necessary. However the money must be managed wisely, and be accounted for where it is spent. So until our governor gets ODOT's budget going to our roads, bridges etc I just can't agree to pay a tax increase. We are not getting value from what we pay now. If Oregon would grow our economy there would be more workers and businesses paying taxes. The more taxpayers paying into the system means each taxpayer pays less to cover the budget. Ask our Governer to step up and let our economy grow!!
Oregon is already in the top ten for highest fuel taxes in the country. Cascade Policy Institute has a white paper explaining how Oregon is bent on punishing everything that moves as it includes raising taxes on car tires, title and licensing, car dealers sales tax, and even the sales tax on bicycles. Fuel taxes will go from 40 cents to 80 cents per gallon doubling in just 7 years by 2032. The legislature figures that the new taxes will generate 1.5 billion every 2 years and that the taxes may be diverted to ODOT special projects over cap and trade environmental issues. They actually call it cap and pave. Commercial fleets like FedEx and UPS and freight haulers will have to pass on costs due to increases in fees and fuel. The worst part of it is that once this passes, we will never be able to downsize from it, and ODOT will never be reformed. https://cascadepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/From-Gas-Tank-to-Paycheck-250609-Website-Version.pdf
Thank you for your explanation and honesty. I didn’t vote for you but you have impressed me with your thoughtfulness on the issues. Just finished a road trip; gas may have been cheaper in other states but the quality was poor and my gas mileage dropped. I found out octane ratings matter more than price.
Besides the other major projects that ODOT and the State need to do to deal with major projects, out here in Astoria our major streets that are also carrying Hwy 30 traffic are full of potholes. These cause damage to our cars and make the trips unpleasant. Astoria is old and streets over char-walls were never meant to carry the heavy trucks for construction and logging which are continual.Changes in tourism dollars might allow for a greater portion to be spent on repair. We don't need more promotion.
My Dad was born in 1905 and lived through the depression. He was a minister, raising 4 children before churches started to recognize that ministers had the same expenses as everyone else. As a discipline in honesty (and a necessity) he carefully budgeted every penny - and when I received an allowance as a child to cover school lunch, tithing, and other real expenses (not comic books!), he required me to budget and keep an account of every penny. It was a practice of integrity and responsibility, which I carried into adulthood.
Thank you for your integrity.
That’s a beautiful legacy. Discipline, integrity, and accountability baked into daily life. I’m honored by the comparison. Thank you.
I'm surprised by how many of our fellow citizens think tariffs on Chinese goods are paid by the Chinese. Not so. Tariffs on other countries' products are paid at our border by purchasers in our own country. That hardware store down the street that got another order of shovels from China also got a new bill to pay from our customs agency that will be paid directly to the U.S. government. It's not just a hidden tax, it's a hidden point-of-sale sales tax, or its cousin, a passed-on gross receipts tax -- something, in either form, that Oregonians have a contentious history with. Just like a sales tax or a gross receipts tax, some of the effects of the tax may ultimately be absorbed by the Chinese producer, if they reduce prices to remain competitive. But those downstream effects are small; meanwhile the initial tax incidence (a technical term for who pays in the first transaction) will be borne in full by the U.S. importers and passed on in large part to U.S. consumers. Small manufacturers and niche businesses will be hit hardest by that, while Amazon and Wal-Mart will adjust. They have pricing power that small businesses don't have. Add to your list of ironies that Oregonians, so averse to a sales tax (soundly rejected in nine different statewide votes), and those who complained about the business activity tax enacted here in 2019 are turning a blind eye to the effects of tariffs on their household budgets.
By the way, that 2019 business tax (which I viewed at the time as a good way to improve out K-12 system) showed up as a separate item on the invoice for my last car purchase. But, to your point, at least it was transparent to the voter and to me as a consumer and, I would add, has been helpful to my local school district. Nothing in Trump's tariff regime will have a useful purpose of that kind; it's just leverage for him politically and, incidentally, a new source of money for the U.S Treasury (paid by us as consumers) to blunt the impact of his deficit-driven budget bill and the tax cuts it will deliver with the greatest benefits to the wealthiest among us.
The US trade deficit dropped by 46% from March to April. That’s because businesses are moving back home. Good jobs and real growth is coming back to the US because of Trump tariffs. From an article in American Thinker, “Car prices dropped by 0.5% from March to April, despite 25% tariffs on auto imports going into effect on April 3.” Now tell me again that tariffs aren’t being absorbed by manufacturers outside of our country. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/06/trump_s_tariff_gamble_pays_off_without_the_inflation.html
We have purchased nine cars in 61 years, six used, three new. A one-half percent price drop for a new car, if true, is not very meaningful to us. Meanwhile since Trump took office gas is up $0.64/gal where I live, the food we buy is up about 15%; those are things we buy every week or so. Less frequent purchases like lumber, hardware, metal stock, etc. are also up; much of that is due to incomprehensible tariff increases that are so high that even if they are partially absorbed by the supplier they are still significant to us.
Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs in the U.S. have declined every month since Trump launched his tariff agenda. And prices haven't yet reflected the higher cost of imports because many companies boosted their inventories before the tariffs took effect and are now drawing down those supplies. Both are short term effects and are somewhat offsetting.
The best case for your prediction rests on an increase in manufacturing jobs in the future (which I, too, would celebrate) but there are longer-term trends in the displacement of jobs by technologies that will work against that in any scenario. Meanwhile, prices will rise (I'd bet on that). And, yes, higher prices could well be worth any gain in jobs and wages. I willingly pay more for some products because they're made in the U.S. But then we need to ask what are those products that should be made here, because we're better at making them (our comparative advantage) and what products and resources should come from abroad because other countries are better positioned to make or extract them and we benefit from what we buy from them.
I can make a case for tariffs, if they're targeted -- to what we're better off importing and what, for national security reasons, we don't want to cede to other countries (as is the case with high-end computer chips). But Trump's tariffs are mostly across the board and will hurt many industries and workers that have benefitted from importing raw materials and adding value to them here in the manufacturing process.
Also, tariffs are not a two-way street. Ask wheat farms and apple growers here how this is affecting them, because Chinese consumers don't want to pay the higher prices that come from reciprocal tariffs on their end.
This is why, in the past, we negotiated product-specific trade agreements, which, admittedly, sometimes reflected market and political power (Big Pharma) rather than the interests of consumers and jobs. Trump deserves credit for that approach with his renegotiation of NAFTA in his first term. But what he's doing now is different, less targeted, more disruptive and more likely to hurt economic growth rather than boost it.
TN, Take heart. Zero Hedge has some great news on the job growth which is a sign that tariffs are actually working. https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/untold-story-todays-jobs-report-unprecedented-purge-illegal-alien-workers
Not my prediction. Did you read the article? Numbers are facts.
Short term (did you read the most recent jobs reports?); long term (we'll see).
The jobs report is reflecting a decline in the need for services as illegals self deport and are sent home by the thousands. Taxes are being cut so citizens have more cash in their pockets as we aren’t paying for housing, medical care, and SNAP food for illegal welfare recipients. Oh and don’t forget, NGOs supported by USAID are not needed.
Remember TN. Trump just signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a month ago. We are finally on to recovering our economic strength in the world markets. It is a new Industrial Revolution, thanks to Trump.
Thank you for your simplicity and honesty! I know you might be losing some favor with the MAGA crowd, but you've sure made me into a fan.
I'm attracted to "the government we deserve" and your clear-eyed logic is what would underlay it.
Funny thing CJ is that many of the tariffs on 3rd world countries have been lowered below what they were in April. The CCP has stolen intellectual property and killed Americans with fentanyl, yet you are anti tariff and likely pro fuel taxes because you choose to dance on the head of a pin on the issue. Oh, keeping it secret from the voters who put you in office?? Fuel taxes increase the prices of virtually everything we buy in stores including food. Fuel taxes hit the poorest Americans the hardest. You are the problem, not the solution to Oregon’s high cost of living! BTW, sending illegals home will reduce the cost of living for the legal working population. https://worldscorecard.com/world-facts-and-figures/us-tariffs-and-the-world/
Seems like you need a lesson in oil/gas economics. PLease educate yourself before you spread claims of fraud.
1. Supply and Demand Dynamics: West Coast states, including Oregon, are relatively far from major oil production regions, leading to higher transportation costs and potential price fluctuations.
2. . Environmental Regulations: Oregon has environmental regulations that require the use of reformulated gasoline, which can be more expensive to produce.
Oregon has FAARR better air quality than Texas. In fact, several cities in Texas rank as THE WORST in the USA.
3. HIGH POLLUTION LEVEL- Texas frequently experiences high levels of ozone and particle pollution, with several cities ranking among the most polluted in the US.
4. HIGH EMISSIONS:
Texas leads the nation in emissions of several pollutants, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds, according to the Texas Center for Policy Studies
I'd much rather pay the 15cents extra (current rate) for clean air and Less Cancer.
My child lives in Texas she is paying 2.89 for the same gas that we in Oregon are Paying nearly $5 a gallon for. You did not say one thing about the fraud in ODOT. They cannot account for millions of dollars in that department alone. Before raising taxes let's find the money! No more taxes without accountability!
I donated and voted for you before, but never again, you lied and pretended to be conservative to get us to vote for you, but now we can see you for who you really are.
I like your way of thinking. Yes taxes are necessary. However the money must be managed wisely, and be accounted for where it is spent. So until our governor gets ODOT's budget going to our roads, bridges etc I just can't agree to pay a tax increase. We are not getting value from what we pay now. If Oregon would grow our economy there would be more workers and businesses paying taxes. The more taxpayers paying into the system means each taxpayer pays less to cover the budget. Ask our Governer to step up and let our economy grow!!
Oregon is already in the top ten for highest fuel taxes in the country. Cascade Policy Institute has a white paper explaining how Oregon is bent on punishing everything that moves as it includes raising taxes on car tires, title and licensing, car dealers sales tax, and even the sales tax on bicycles. Fuel taxes will go from 40 cents to 80 cents per gallon doubling in just 7 years by 2032. The legislature figures that the new taxes will generate 1.5 billion every 2 years and that the taxes may be diverted to ODOT special projects over cap and trade environmental issues. They actually call it cap and pave. Commercial fleets like FedEx and UPS and freight haulers will have to pass on costs due to increases in fees and fuel. The worst part of it is that once this passes, we will never be able to downsize from it, and ODOT will never be reformed. https://cascadepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/From-Gas-Tank-to-Paycheck-250609-Website-Version.pdf
Thank you for your explanation and honesty. I didn’t vote for you but you have impressed me with your thoughtfulness on the issues. Just finished a road trip; gas may have been cheaper in other states but the quality was poor and my gas mileage dropped. I found out octane ratings matter more than price.
How about popcorn? Good luck as you think this through. 🍿
Besides the other major projects that ODOT and the State need to do to deal with major projects, out here in Astoria our major streets that are also carrying Hwy 30 traffic are full of potholes. These cause damage to our cars and make the trips unpleasant. Astoria is old and streets over char-walls were never meant to carry the heavy trucks for construction and logging which are continual.Changes in tourism dollars might allow for a greater portion to be spent on repair. We don't need more promotion.
All My Axes Fall on Taxes , but Tarriffs are the Place I Really Long to Be! It’s called Reciprocity.