China

Trump’s Lies About China Paying Tariffs Gets Fact-Checked Live – On Fox News!

Posted by on May 12, 2019 at 11:00 am. 5 Comments :

America is currently suffering through a historically unique period wherein it is being misled on a daily basis by both it’s president and the State TV network (aka Fox News) that is propping him up. Donald Trump has been documented to have told more than 10,000 lies since his inauguration. And the pace of those falsehoods is increasing as he gets ever more desperate due to the unfolding web of criminality that he is frantically trying to cover up.

Donald Trump

The risk this poses for the country is significant. Trump doesn’t care how dishonest his impotent rants are, so long as they provide a distraction from his impending legal jeopardy. And he doesn’t even care if they introduce threats of war or other serious harm to the nation – and the world. Representative of that reckless disregard for the welfare millions is an entirely manufactured economic crisis that Trump has latched onto with fanatical fury. His shameless ignorance of economic and fiscal affairs is the real crisis that America faces.

Last week Trump threatened China with increased tariffs if they didn’t capitulate to demands that Trump seems obsessed with but refuses to specify. He tweeted repeatedly that China would suffer if they didn’t comply, throwing the stock market into a tizzy that produced a 600 point drop. Trump believes (or pretends to) that the tariffs he seeks to impose would be paid by China. Probably around the same time that Mexico pays for his idiotic border/vanity wall. He even said that the tariffs would be more financially advantageous than actual trade with China.

Every economist with a pulse knows that tariffs are not paid by countries. They are paid by the importing businesses (i.e. U.S. companies), and those costs are generally passed on to U.S. consumers. It’s a de facto tax that would burden every American family. Nevertheless, Trump tweeted or retweeted his ignorant assertions twenty-six times just in the past week. He is apparently impervious to the facts and logic associated with this (or any) issue.

On Sunday morning Trump’s stubbornness was brought into the spotlight by his favorite “news” network Fox News. His Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, was interviewed by Chris Wallace, when the subject of tariffs came up. Kudlow tried to obediently tow the Trump line, but his embarrassing failure to do so resulted in this exchange (video below):

Wallace: It’s not China that pays tariffs. It’s the American importers, the American companies that pay what is, in effect, a tax increase, and oftentimes passes it on to U.S. consumers.
Kudlow: Fair enough. In fact, both sides will pay. Both sides will pay in these things.
Wallace: But the tariffs on goods coming into the country, the Chinese aren’t paying.
Kudlow: No but the Chinese will suffer GDP losses and so forth, with respect to a diminishing export market and goods that they may need…
Wallace: I understand that. But the President says that China pays the tariffs. They may suffer consequences, but it’s U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers who pay, correct?
Kudlow: Yes, to some extent. I don’t disagree with that. Again, both sides will suffer on this.

First of all, as Wallace pointed out, whether or not China suffers GDP losses is a completely different question than who pays the tariffs. And Trump said explicitly that China’s “massive payments go directly to the Treasury of the U.S.” That’s a lie that even Kudlow couldn’t support. Trump also said that “Tariffs will make our Country MUCH STRONGER, not weaker.” Which Kudlow unequivocally contradicted by saying that “both sides will suffer on this.”

That last comment should ring in the ears of all Americans. Trump’s chief economic advisor admitted on national television that Trump is causing the U.S. to suffer. Many Americans already know that. Particularly the farmers who have already been hurt so badly by Trump’s tariffs that he had to promise them a bailout paid for by every other American.

And you can add to the list of sufferers all of those impacted by Trump’s sabotage of ObamaCare; those dealing with the effects of natural disasters, especially in Puerto Rico; those whose wages have been stagnant for years as Trump’s Republican Nationalist Party opposed increasing the minimum wage; and those residing on a planet that is rapidly deteriorating due to deliberate abuse in pursuit of profit. When it comes to making other people suffer, Donald Trump can finally take credit for really being the best at something.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

America First? Trump Pushes to Save Jobs in China at Company Deemed a National Security Threat

Posted by on May 13, 2018 at 2:09 pm. NO Comments :

Throughout his campaign, and into his presidency, Donald Trump promised that he would be the “jobs” president. He swore that he would make American corporations close up their off-shore factories and bring those jobs back to the U.S. He insisted that his tax scam bill would result in companies investing more in domestic facilities and workers. None of that turned out to be true.

Donald Trump

Unfortunately, when Trump said that he would work tirelessly to create jobs, he failed to specify that thousands of them would be in China. But on Sunday morning he corrected that error of omission by tweeting this:

Oh good. That’s just what the American people voted for. They were hungering for a leader who would direct his cabinet to restore the thousands of jobs that have been lost in China. At least when they had the time and resources to do that after taking lavish trips around the world, buying extravagant office furnishings, harassing asylum seekers and separating their families, and raking in cash and property from corporations seeking favorable treatment from the government.

But Trump’s latest initiative to benefit China’s employment situation is a peculiar choice. The company whose fortunes he is trying to advance, the ZTE Corporation, is suffering a financial hardship due to the sanctions that have been placed on it. Those sanctions were in part the result of the company’s trading with Iran. Just this past week Trump pulled the U.S. out of a multinational agreement to prohibit Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He’s now executing his plan to restore the sanctions that were in place prior to that agreement. So American companies will not be permitted to do business with Iran but, apparently, China will be.

And that isn’t all. ZTE has also been cited as a national security threat whose telecom products were found to be capable of spying on Americans. Many of the heads of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement, including the Attorney General, FBI, CIA, and NSA, have warned about ZTE’s nefarious activities and prohibited American companies from sharing technology and selling them parts. Here are some of the reactions to Trump’s tweet:


https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/995686768782512128

The question is why would Trump suddenly take this position and tweet about it on Mother’s Day? Generally when we see some random thought expressed by the Tweeter-in-Chief it’s something he just saw on Fox and Friends or Hannity. But that doesn’t appear to be the case in this instance. The next best guess is that China’s President Xi brought it up in a recent conversation and Trump is blindly complying with the wishes of Xi without consulting the professionals in commerce and national security to ascertain whether this is a good idea. It is obviously against existing national policy as expressed by his own cabinet heads.

So what is Trump up to? What’s he getting out of this? He and his family have financial interests in China. He also has political interests in getting Xi to go along with his agenda for North Korea. What’s in it for him? Because you know he wouldn’t do this out of compassion for the poor Chinese workers. And the fact that he would violate the Iran sanctions he fought so hard for, while risking national security, means his reward must be substantial. Somebody better start to ask these questions before he’s allowed to cause even more damage.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.