Tag Archives: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick

A Deal That Makes Sense

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On Thursday, Just the News posted an article about a steel mill to be built in southeast Iowa. The article explains that “Iron ore from the company’s newly opened mine near Nashwauk, Minnesota — described by the administration as the first new U.S. iron ore mine in 50 years — would move downriver and be turned into finished steel in Iowa.” America controls the manufacturing plant and the mine that supplies the material–brilliant!

That article reports:

Trump, standing in the Oval Office with Essar executives and Iowa Republicans, cast the deal as proof that raising the cost of imported metal is pulling plants onto American soil, an important message for lower and middle income Americans who have lower consumer confidence due in part to perceived high gas prices. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index fell by 6.7 points to 81.9 (1985=100) in September, down from 88.6 in August. 

References to prices, the high cost of goods and services, and oil and gas prices in particular, rose to new heights, reflecting September’s surge in fuel costs.

The article notes:

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick did not treat the mill as a coincidence. He tied it directly to the administration’s Section 232 steel duties, which Trump raised to a staggering 50% last year. Under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Lutnick initiated investigations to determine the effects of imports on national security. 

“These are your 232 tariffs, the steel tariffs at work. Without those tariffs, this mine and steel plant doesn’t get built,” Lutnick said, arguing the United States has leaned too long on imported pellets, including from Brazil. “Now we are unleashing the Iron Range in Minnesota. You go right down the Mississippi to Iowa, where they get to build a $15 billion integrated steel plant.”

Trump made the same case in plainer language, saying the domestic industry is “roaring back to life” because companies “don’t want to pay tariffs.” The administration’s theory is straightforward: if imported steel is more expensive, the math for building a mine-to-mill chain inside the United States starts to work. Lutnick said that is “exactly your plan, because you’re driving steel to America.”

The tariffs are bringing manufacturing back to America. They are also putting large amounts of money into the Treasury. The courts need to be quiet–they are standing in the way of making America fiscally secure.

Getting To The Root Of The Problem

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The Democrat party has turned non-profits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) into cash cows. That is one of the reasons Democrats were so upset about defunding the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Even if the Democrats (and some Republicans) were not skimming money directly, the boards of many of these organizations included their relatives who were paid exorbitant sums of many.

On Monday, The New York Post posted an editorial explaining how some of this works and what can be done to stop it.

The editorial states:

Starting to lift the lid off a far, far larger scam, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick just nixed $7 billion in “advance payments” that Biden administration staffers aimed to divert to a “nonprofit” controlled by other Democratic insiders.

The bigger scam being, of course, how the left (and lots of plain-old Dem machines) feeds off government-funded “charities.”

It’s a huge part of the “swamp,” though of course its denizens pretend their motives don’t reek.

In this case, the Bidenites were in too much of a hurry to make the theft fully legal: After President Donald Trump’s victory last November, high-level staff all across the executive branch rushed to corral cash that hadn’t yet gone out the door, lest the MAGA crew actually vet where it was going.

So some plugged-in Dems quickly created Natcast, a public-private not-for-profit — which the Bidenites immediately chose to direct tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to tech firms under the CHIPS Act.

Except that law never allowed for such a cut-out to handle the outlays — which made the diversion plainly illegal: Even if nobody ever goes to jail for it, Lutnick can at least claw back the funds.

That was just part of the looting frenzy; another scheme parked $20 billion at CitiBank with an eye on ensuring the “environmental justice” grants went to Democratic allies, such as one linked to Stacey Abrams, the failed Georgia gov candidate and election-denier.

EPA chief Lee Zeldin moved to rescind that insider dealing after getting wind of Bidenites at his agency “throwing gold bars” away before the Trumpies could take over.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. This is information voters need to know.

Policies Make A Difference

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On June 28th, Yahoo Finance posted an article about the impact of President Trump’s tariffs. If nothing else, the numbers prove that taxes are not the only way to get funds into the United States Treasury.

The article reports:

President Trump’s tariffs are pouring billions more into US coffers in June, putting the revenue supplied by importers on pace for another monthly record.

The latest measure of government receipts for “Customs and Certain Excise Taxes” stood at almost $27 billion for the month of June, according to the Treasury Department’s latest daily statement dated June 25.

The monthly total is likely to rise only slightly in the coming days, with importers often depositing their tariff duties in a single day and the June 24 statement showing a massive daily deposit of more than $19.9 billion.

June’s total so far has already topped May’s total haul of about $22 billion — not to mention April and March totals of $17.4 billion and $9.6 billion, respectively.

It was a continuation of revenue spikes seen during Trump’s second term in office that are dwarfing counts from recent history as well as the amounts collected during Trump’s first term.

All told, more than $121 billion has flowed into government coffers since the start of this fiscal year.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick touted the pace of deposits earlier this week in a social media post that criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

“What he avoids discussing is the incredible revenue increase the US has received from these tariffs,” Lutnick said in his post, suggesting the US’s “current run rate” is for more than $30 billion per month.

The article concludes:

The June uptick in revenues, in any case, is on a pace of roughly $1 billion a day in revenue and that remains a tiny fraction of all monthly government spending.

In May — the most recent full month of data available — total government receipts totaled $371 billion.

In recent decades, tariff revenue has tended to constitute about 2% of federal revenue. The surge in recent months has changed that, with revenues now accounting for closer to 4%-5% of that revenue.

Now if Congress would finally cut spending, we might be able to get rid of our massive interest payments.

Winning

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On Wednesday, The New York Post reported that America had reached a trade agreement with China.

The article reports:

President Trump announced early Wednesday that the US had reached a trade agreement with China following two days of negotiations in London.

“Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,” Trump revealed in an all-caps post on Truth Social. “Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China.”

“Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, China is getting 10%. The relationship is excellent! Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The article concludes:

The commerce secretary said the new arrangement would see China ease barriers on rare earth minerals “in a balanced way,” without elaborating on specifics.

Lutnick (Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick) claimed that the framework brokered in London put “meat on the bones” on the Geneva consensus and would allow China to ease barriers on rare earth minerals “in a balanced way,” without elaborating on specifics.

China’s Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang had similarly confirmed late Tuesday that an agreement in London had been reached, subject to Trump’s and Xi’s approval.

I really would like to see a limit on the number of Chinese students allowed in our universities, but overall I think this will turn out to be a good deal.