When President Trump announced his reciprocal tariff program on April 2, 2025, he held up a chart illustrating the tariffs being charged America at that time. The chart below came from Newsweek.

This is the chart:

As you can see, the majority of the suggested tariffs America would charge are significantly less than the tariffs currently being charged America. In fact, many of the suggested tariffs are half of what the country involved charges America. So why all this meltdown from the political left, the Washington establishment, and the RINO Republicans? Because when you institute tariffs, you decrease the importance of the federal income tax and thus decrease the power of those who write the tax code.

According to the tax foundation:

There’s the literal statutes that Congress has passed (Title 26 of the U.S. Code). The Government Printing Office sells it spread over two volumes, and according to them, book one is 1,404 pages and book two is 1,248 pages, for a total of 2,652 pages. At perhaps 450 words per page, that puts the tax code at well over 1 million words. (By way of comparison, the King James Bible has 788,280 words; War and Peace runs 560,000 words; and the Harry Potter series is just over 1 million words.)

So how was our tax code formulated? It is a tribute to lobbyists and Congressmen who want to be re-elected. One illustration of that was what happened when President Trump during his first term limited the SALT (state and local tax deduction) on federal income tax forms to $10,000. Congressmen from state with lower property taxes celebrated (because they were no longer subsidizing states with higher property taxes), and Congressmen from states with high property taxes complained because they knew their constituents would not like paying a higher federal income tax. There is talk of increasing or ending the limits on the SALT deduction in the budget currently being debated in Congress. 

The war on President Trump is based on a number of factors. If his presidency is successful, it will prove that America does not need to elect a politician to be President–a businessman who is NOT connected to the Washington swamp can probably do a better job. If President Trump’s policies are enacted, Americans in the middle and working classes will thrive. Wall Street and the political elites might not do as well. If President Trump’s policies are blocked, I think the economic outlook for America is bleak.