RUTHFULLY YOURS

In trade relations between Germany and the U.S., the European nation has clearly been on the winning side of unfair policies, and now the president of the nation’s central bank says Germany would “suffer” if President Trump were to implement the same tariffs that they have on us. From Reuters, via Yahoo News:

Trump’s tariff plans put Germany’s growth at particular risk, Bundesbank warns

Germany is particularly vulnerable to US trade tariffs, which could curb growth for years to come and hold back an economy already suffering through two straight years of contraction, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said on Monday.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has been in a deep industrial recession, due in great part to subsidised Chinese output crowding out German products at a time when soaring energy costs at home are already weighing on competitiveness.

Modelling projections based on tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, the Bundesbank concluded that Germany would suffer but the U.S. would also take a hit that would more than offset any positive impact of the trade barriers.

 

Germany clearly has lots of problems not associated with America. China dumps its products there, and its own “green” policies are hammering citizens with high energy prices.

According to Google AI, Germany’s tariffs on American cars is 10%, plus they have a 19% value added tax. Meanwhile America only has a 2.5% tariff on German cars. That doesn’t sound fair, does it? And after all, all these European progressives are “fairness,” right?

Why should America subsidize Germany’s economy to the tune of $65 billion per year? From the same Reuters item:

The German trade surplus with the United States is heading towards a record level just before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives at the White House, an analysis of statistics office data showed.

 

While the German statistics office published trade data for November on Thursday, Reuters calculations of 11 month figures showed that between January and November German trade surplus with the U.S. exceeded 65 billion euros ($66.95 billion), well above the previous 63.3 billion euro record reported for the full year 2023.

America has a lot of problems. We depend too much on other countries for many of our products, yet we turn around and subsidize those countries through bad trade agreements (especially China). I would think that so-called experts would have learned from COVID that economic strength and independence is that answer, but they act like tariffs and bringing back production would be a disaster.

The purpose of reciprocal tariffs is to teach other countries who abuse America to behave. They can get rid of our tariffs by lowering theirs. That is all it takes. Reciprocal tariffs will cause little (if any) harm to our economy, and would likely bring some production home.

One of America’s biggest problems is the size and power of the government. Last year the federal government spent over $6.9 trillion, which is 24% of our $29 trillion economy. About $4.9 trillion came from federal revenue, meaning the deficit was around $2 trillion, or around 7% of the economy. The total debt of $36 trillion is over 120% of the GDP.

Trump has recognized that the U.S. is cascading towards a disaster and is trying to reduce the power and size of the government as fast as possible to save the country. The media and Democrats are fighting him with every lawsuit they can possibly file. They call Trump a fascist dictator, but a fascist dictator would not try to reduce the number and size of the agencies under his control. It is absolutely not a constitutional crisis for a president to reduce his footprint.

Here is a headline in the WaPo that shows what the problem is: “As Musk reshapes the government, some ask: Where are the guardrails?”

Trump and Musk are the guardrails as they look for waste, fraud, and abuse. Not once have the media asked “where are the guardrails” on politicians and bureaucrats who keep unconstitutionally expanding the size of the government.

The problem is that the media and other Democrats have never wanted to limit the power and size of government as long as it is run by Democrats.