Rand Paul: Tariffs Are Taxes, When You Tax a Business, It’s Passed Through as a Cost

EXCERPT:

PAUL: "Well, tariffs are taxes, and when you put a tax on a business, it's always passed through as a cost. So, there will be higher prices. And I think this is what's important to know. People talk about, oh, this is America versus China. The U.S. doesn't trade with China. You trade with Walmart, or you trade with Target, or you trade with Amazon. Americans go in and buy a product. Now, it might come from China, but think about it this way -- think of the entire trade with China was all TVs. A million people go to Walmart. They all buy a TV. They like the quality. They like the price, and it happened to come from China. But then you draw a circle around China and the U.S., and you say, oh, my goodness, it's a trade deficit. We buy all of our TVs from over there. But each individual transaction -- each individual who bought a TV was happy. But how can you draw a circle around a million happy people and say they all got ripped off? So, there is an economic fallacy here, and the fallacy is that trade deficits actually mean anything. They're an artificial accounting. The only trade that means anything is the individual who buys something. That's the only real trade.”