Fools and Lapdogs

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The US Supreme Court issued a ruling on Friday saying that Donald Trump does not have the authority to impose tariffs by personal whim.  Under most circumstances that is a power which the Constitution clearly gives to Congress.   The vote was six to three with the dissenters being Kavanaugh, Alito, and, of course, Clarence Thomas.  Three other conservative justices - Chief Justice Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch - joined with the three liberals - Sotomayer, Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson - to uphold the Constitution's mandate.

Trump, for his part, was quick with the name-calling and labeled the justices who opposed him "lapdogs and fools."  He also said they were "disloyal to our nation" and "very unpatriotic and disloyal to the Constitution."  (Piggy's social development got stuck in the "schoolyard bully" phase when he was ten.)

That ruling would have been a perfect opportunity for Trump to pull himself free of the very unpopular tariffs, but the man who can't accept a loss on anything, chose instead to double down and impose new tariffs - 10% on every nation - under the authority of the Trade Act of 1974,  another shaky basis for a President to be able to impose tariffs that will take at least another year in court to justify or throw out.  The following day he raised that new rate to 15 percent.

So attention Walmart shoppers, Trump is still reaching into your pockets despite the US Supreme Court telling him to leave you the hell alone.

Donald Trump realizes that it is actually us, the American people, who pay his tariffs every time we buy imported goods - and almost all goods seem to be imported these days.  Trump knows we are the ones paying -  he is not that stupid.   Revenue already collected from the Trump tariffs is into the billions of dollars, and Treasury Secretary Bessent says it could reach a trillion dollars by this June.  Most of that is money from American pockets and savings accounts, not those of people from other nations or from the pockets of the oligarchs who own and control most of the planet's resources and commerce.  

The US Supreme Court relieved us of that unfair tax burden - and the very same damned day Donald Trump foisted new tariffs on us from by a different act.  Piggy must be fed.  He plans to take $10 billion from our treasury and put it into his pseudo government agency, the Board of Peace, a slush fund that he, and he alone, will control - for life.  He is also talking about plans for suing OUR government for $10 billion because the Treasury Department released some of his tax records - something other politicians who run for President routinely do.  Piggy must be fed.

Piggy is doing very well for himself.  Whatever became of those $2,000 tariff rebates that he promised us?  Perhaps that money will be used to gold plate his new ballroom.

The US Supreme Court in its Friday ruling failed to address what to do about the tariffs which have already been collected from American consumers.  Some companies are preparing lawsuits in order to reclaim the money that they paid into tariffs (most of which was later incorporated into the price of their goods).  Here are three scenarios of how tariff refunds could play out:

1.  The courts could ultimately rule against the idea of refunding the tariffs, and Piggy would keep would keep his ill-gotten loot.   Or,  

2.  The courts could rule that the tariff money must be refunded, and the money would go back to the entities that actually handed it over to the US government in the first place - and many of those companies have already recouped their tariff money through sales to consumers.  The companies would therefore have a big case of "windfall" profits.   Or,  

3.  The corporate giants and oligarchs who own them could figure out a way to make cheerful refunds to their consumers, the people who actually paid the tariffs.   (Don't hold your breath for option number three.)

Maybe it's us, the American public, who are the "fools and lapdogs" to corporate criminals and sleazebag. politicians.  Just sayin' . . .