In an interview on Power & Politics, (David Paterson, Ontario’s representative in Washington) told host David Cochrane that the Canadians and Americans had a 90-minute meeting and the first half-hour was “a master class” from Lutnick in breaking down the U.S. position on tariffs.
The focus of the U.S. government is dealing with its yearly deficit in federal spending, Paterson said. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the federal government ran a $1.83 trillion US deficit in the 2024 fiscal year.
There are three ways the U.S. government is working to cut down that deficit, Paterson added.
The first is a major budget resolution that calls for billions of dollars in tax cuts, and the second is slashing the size of government through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The third is tariffs, which are meant to be a new revenue source and attract investment into the United States.
It’s literally a way to raise taxes on poor Americans without using the word tax.
Billionaires aren’t importing significant amounts of physical goods from Canada, Mexico, or China.
For poor people, a good chunk of what they buy is coming from or partially made in one of those locations.
Tariffs are more than just a tax on the working class though. There’s a reason businesses and the stock market are shitting themselves.
The largest businesses may have the capital to move some of their manufacturing on shore but many as re hesitating or just going through motions to appease Trump since no one knows if he’s going to stick with it.
Be careful of those businesses outside the States. Those are the ones who want this to be happening.