Insanitocracy

I should probably focus more here on the ongoing destruction of the public health and biomedical research infrastructure, but I've been there quite a lot and just repeating the bottom line -- they're trying to kill you and your children -- is where we'd keep ending up. (Here's a gift link to Danielle Ofri in the NYT saying it all yet again.) But what neither she nor I can tell you is why they are doing this. It obviously has nothing to do with any recognizable version of conservative ideology. I mean okay, we already know that some radical libertarians don't want government to fund scientific research, but they don't want government to actively promote disinformation either. How does this benefit the Republican party's billionaire donors or its neo-Confederate base?

 

But I'd like to focus on the whole tariff thing today, because it's equally if not more puzzling. Here's Krugthulu on the deal with Japan.  Supposedly the whole idea behind the tariff crusade is to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. This is not actually a good idea -- low skill manufacturing jobs are about the worst jobs there are, picking crops is actually more fun and pays better -- but the deal won't even achieve that, just the opposite in fact: it will make it cheaper to buy cars made in Japan than cars made in North America. It will give Japanese car manufacturers a huge advantage in the U.S. market. 

 

[W]hy are U.S. manufacturers so upset with the Japan deal? Because in combination with Trump’s other tariffs this deal actually leaves many U.S. manufacturers worse off than they were before Trump began his trade war.  ...  Trump has imposed a 25 percent tariff on all automotive imports, supposedly on national security grounds. This includes imports from Canada and Mexico. And here’s the thing: Canadian and Mexican auto products generally have substantial U.S. “content” — that is, they contain parts made in America. Japanese cars generally don’t. But now cars from Japan will pay only a 15 percent tariff, that is, less than cars from Canada and Mexico.

OK, it’s not quite that straightforward, because imports from Canada and Mexico receive a partial exemption based on the share of their value that comes from the United States. Yes, it’s getting complicated. But we may nonetheless now be in a situation where cars whose production doesn’t create U.S. manufacturing jobs will pay a lower tariff rate than cars whose production does.

Wait, there’s more. Trump has also imposed 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, which are of course important parts of the cost of a car. Japanese manufacturers don’t pay those tariffs. Overall, the interaction between this Japan deal and Trump’s other tariffs probably tilts the playing field between U.S. and Japanese producers of cars, and perhaps other products, in Japan’s favor.  If this sounds incredibly stupid, that’s because it is.

 

Again,  there is no conceivable interpretation of conservative ideology -- in this case especially the libertarian version -- that could possibly justify this. And now there's the supposed "deal" with the EU (not really a deal because the member countries have to approve it and they won't) that is utterly delusional and would only harm U.S. businesses and consumers if it did take effect.

 

Why is the U.S. making these insane deals? Because the president of the United States is ignorant and insane, he thinks he's brilliant, and he has an idee fixe about tariffs, so his lackeys go along with it. The corporate media are too cowardly to tell the truth, and most of their reporters are incompetent to understand this anyway, so it gets presented as a "win" for Mr. Dump. When consumer prices skyrocket, who will the voters blame?

 

And I'll just add this from Digby:  

 

So 15% tariffs are just great now? Higher than we've had in since the 1930s but since Trump said a couple of months ago that he'd put 50% tariffs that means this is really great. This is why people think Trump is such a magical figure. He has made every elite in the country into a moron.