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.
Tax cuts for billionaires to balance the budget? What morons actually believe that?
The politicians don’t believe it, they just have to say it. The people voting for it see themselves as also getting a tax cut, which they want.
The funny thing is the tax cuts will only help those making over $360k/yr.
Oh is that actually the case this time around? I remember the 2017 cuts by revenue mostly affected the top whatever but the poor still had a tax cut, it’s just the amount of money saved was, by definition, significantly less than it was for the top earners.
The biggest factor in transfering wealth to the wealthy from those tax cuts was the cut in corporate tax rates as a boost to stock market, while keeping economy down enough for Fed to keep QE and low interest rates, further boosting stock market and bonds.
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
Any good financial planner will tell you if you want to get out of debt, step one is decreasing your income
Wouldn’t it be easier for them to just tax the billionaires until they’re just ten-millionaires?
It’s honestly a little reassuring to here that the reason for these tariffs is “We want to tax the ever-loving shit out of our citizens so we can give money to billionaires, but we don’t want to call it a tax.”
At least that means that it wasn’t meant to be an act of betrayal and pre-text to war with Canada. I mean, it still was an act of betrayal creating massive hardship and permanently damaging our relationship. But the idea of a Russian/Ukraine remake happening along the 49th parallel seems less likely than it did.
“Tariffs are now a global policy of the United States,” … But those countries who
play nicesycophantically serve US empire at expense of their GDP and sovereignty will have their existence spared. “This was, enthusiastically, a great and productive meeting”To understand this as a great meeting, is to understand that if we just compete with Europe/other colonies for shifting our GDP and weapons purchases to US, even more than Europe, that we will get some merciful favoritism in the future, when Trump declares “Canada is no longer taking advantage of us, and there are zero fentanyl deaths in US, and the border line was set correctly, and we are not wasting $200B defending Canada” then maybe tariffs will be removed. This is “good cop Lutnick” making promises that “bad cop Trump” is not bound to. Calling this a good meeting is falling for BS.
Step 1: Get auto manufacturers and CAW to ensure full production capacity in Canada. Use export tariffs on energy and materials, and Potash, to reduce US auto sector capacity, and make their agriculture uncompetitive. No WTO rules respect for US. Auto parts exports to China may not be tariffed from Canada, but they are from US. Ensure decent relations with China to increase exports to China. Reciprocal trade with Europe, for their weapons and Airbus exterminating Boeing orders, but with high export deals to Europe too, and to get Canada-Europe unity in destroying US manufacturing, economy, and debt sustainability.
Step 2: IF auto manufacturers do not cooperate, and colonies choose US over Canada, then full decouple from US, and join BRICS/SCO. Chinese FDI/belt and road. Abandoning war on Russia, NORAD/US military cooperation. Canadian manufacturing is very highly subsidized. Using export tariff revenue from step 1 to subsidize it more is acceptable, but it requires cooperation from manufacturers. Having much cheaper/better value cars is a completely reasonable policy. Future of manufacturing is robotics anyway, and it will have declining employment.
Calling the US trade meeting “great”, is fulfilling US empire’s wet dream of EU/Canada going into direct war with Russia and China, while buying US weapons to do so, and sparing US soldiers in the process. The generational hatred manufactured by US propaganda that made us support this suicidal evil under Biden should not be amplified tenfold. Canada’s divisiveness with Russia, China, and Mexico has increased under this trade war already. Dead wrong direction.
Calling this trade meeting productive is the same gas lighting as Chuck Schumer calling the budget deal unacceptable for a few hours, and then betraying the US (and Canada/world) by pretending that a government shutdown gives Trump more power than the explicit unchecked power given to him in bill.
Trusting the US to keep Canada’s standard of living sustainable is a terrible mistake. We need to aggressively force them to.
And denominate all international trade, including energy, in Euros instead of USD. I predict that one alone would make the top of Trump’s head go spinning off into space.
OPEC would have sway in this. EU and Arab Kingdoms use US controlled SWIFT payment system. Only BRICS have been working on an alternate system, and Europe’s history of sanctions and sanctimony usually at US’s behest doesn’t make them a reliable currency partner for the global south. Supporting BRICS system might be quicker path, and actual independence from US.
For sure, EU trade in EUR is an easier step. Global south would need to trust their holdings not seized.
“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”
…ah, yes, nothing balanced the budget like siphoning the federal coffers into the 1%ers’ pockets.
I had to read that twice. Cutting taxes makes the deficit worse…
It’s probably going to be cheaper for manufacturing to completely remove themselves from the USSA and avoid doing any business with it at all.
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.
