David Frum: Trump Is ‘the Most Protectionist President Since World War II,’ Biden Is Second

EXCERPT:

FRUM: “The appropriate political response is to discover the cause of free trade. There’s been a lot of mealymouthedness from Democrats on this. Democrats have liked tariffs. Donald Trump, the most protectionist president since World War II. Joe Biden, second most protectionist president. A lot of Democrats say I’m not — I’m against these tariffs because they’re dumb, but I’m for smart tariffs. The answer is to rediscover, tariffs are a tax that falls heaviest on the poorest people. They’re a tax that is the most dangerous tax because it’s the most arbitrary tax. Tariffs are wrong. Free trade is right. And raise money, if you’re going to raise money with a consumption tax, raise it on one that middle class people pay by taxing services as well as goods, a VAT, or a carbon tax, but don’t make the people who are eating spaghetti on cheap chairs, on cheap tables, with cheap plates, with cheap knives, don’t make them pay the cost of government all by themselves.”