The FIX Congress will never consider

[FreakinDJ]

DANIEL WEBSTER in a speech on the 8th of July, 1833, affirmed the truth of the foregoing statements when he said : '' From the close of the War of the Revolution, there came a period of depression and distress, on the Atlantic coast, such as the people had hardly felt during the sharpest crisis of the war itself. Ship-owners, ship-builders, mechanics, artisans, all were destitute of employment, and some of them destitute of bread. British ships came freely, and British ships came plentifully ; while to American ships and American products, there was neither protection on the one side, nor the equivalent of reciprocal free trade on the other. The cheaper labor of England supplied the inhabitants of the Atlantic shores with everything. Ready-made clothes, among the rest, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, were for sale in every city. All these things came free from any general system of imposts. Some of the States attempted to establish their own partial systems, but they failed."

" It is certain that the English have the trade of these States almost wholly in their hands ; whereby their influence must increase ; and a constantly increasing scarcity of money begins to be felt, since no ship sails hence to England without large sums of money on board, especially the English packet-boats, which monthly take with them between forty and fifty thousand pounds sterling." Again on page 439 we find this :

"The scarcity of money makes the produce of the country cheap, to the disappointment of the farmers, and the discouragement of husbandry. Thus, the two classes, merchants and farmers, that divide nearly all America, are discontented and distressed."

Years ago, Lord Goderich publicly declared in the English Parliament : " Other nations know that what we English mean by free-trade is nothing more or less than by means of the great advantages we enjoy, to get the monopoly of all the markets of other nations for our manufactures, and to prevent them (the foreign nations) one and all from ever becoming manufacturing nations."

So the most feared word in the English language was added to our Constitution.

Congress shall have power to REGULATE commerce with foreign nations...

And Congress immediately set to that task.

The first bill ever passed under our Constitution ?

Can any "conservative" answer that question ? I doubt it.

U.S. TARIFF HISTORY 1821-2000

YEARS……………..AVERAGE EFFECTIVE TARIFF (% tax on all imports)
1821-1830………….46.6%
1831-1840………….24.9%
1841-1850………….24.0%
1851-186……………20.8%
1861-1870………….36.2%
1871-1880………….31.3%
1881-1890………….30.1%
1891-1900………….23.7%

1821-1900………….29.7%

1901-1910………….25.0%
1911-1920………….11.8%
1921-1930………….13.8%
1931-1940………….16.8%
1941-1950………….9.0%

1901-1950………….15.3%

1951-1960………….5.9%
1961-1970………….7.3%
1971-1980………….4.0%
1981-1990………….3.5%
1991-2000………….2.5%

The income tax was created in 1913, just in time to be around to fund WW I :

YEAR.......INOME TAX REVENUE.........TARIFF REVENUE
1916............$173,387,000.........$213,185,000
1917............$675,250,000.........$225,962,000


Up until 1916, the tariff was the largest single Federal revenue source.

1917 was the first time in U.S. history that the income tax surpassed the tariff and we've never looked back since then.

2007 IMPORTS AND TARIFF REVENUES

IMPORTS = $2,345.983 billion
(source: http://www.census.gov/compendia/stat...es/09s1260.pdf )

TARIFFS = $26.010 billion of which $1.339 billion came from trust fund revenues.
(source: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/hist.pdf Table 2.5 p.50 of 342)

$26.010 - $1.339 = $24.671 billion

$24.671 / $2,345.983 x 100% = 1.0% EFFECTIVE TARIFF RATE

U.S GDP = $13,841 billion
(source: http://www.census.gov/compendia/stat...es/09s0645.pdf )

Imports as a percent of U.S. GDP are now a staggering 16.9% of GDP yet only pay 1.0% effective tax rate.

Percent of Federal revenues paid by tariffs in 1905 was 47.4%

In 2002, 49% of all Federal revenue came from the personal income tax.

The entire U.S. economy now suffers under a 30% effective tax rate.

[northoftheborder]

1. A big discussion needs to happen regarding trade. "Free Trade" is a big part of our problem.

[FreakinDJ]

2. You want Jobs - increase tariffs 2% across the board

[northoftheborder]

3. Yes, tariffs need to come back. But we would have to renegotiate all our trade aggreements.