David Brooks on Tariffs: ‘It’s Literally the Dumbest Domestic Policy of My Lifetime’

EXCERPT:

BROOKS: “Yes, I think this is going to be — well, a) I think it’s literally the dumbest domestic policy of my lifetime. The most — of all the policies, they usually have some plausible argument. A group of experts say, yeah, this could work. You really don’t see that this time, with the confection of a few Trumpy — I also think it’s going to be a turning point for the Trump Administration. You can cut foreign aid, and voters don’t really notice. You can gut the Department of Education or whatever, and voters shrug. But if you mess with their prices, add $4,000 to the price of a car, if you’re an electrician and you have got all these contracts, big contracts out, you have now got to go back to the people you signed the contract with and try to renegotiate, because all your supplies costs are going up. So it’s — the inflation rate, some economists think it’s 3 to 5 percent. It’ll add — that would put us up to 8, maybe, and then the disruption, the increased risk of a recession. So people will definitely notice that, and they will absolutely take it out on the Trump Administration.”

(via RealClearPolitics)