Every politician says they’re lowering taxes. Or if they raise taxes, it’s only on the rich, poor people definitely deserve lower taxes. So do middle class people (where “middle class” equals “everyone less than rich” and “rich” equals “everyone richer than my current audience and me”). Taxes are unpopular and taxes shouldn’t be raised.

But tariffs are fine apparently. In a new wave of protectionism, Biden and Trump have jacked up tariffs on everything from solar panels to lumbar. And despite claims of “national security” and “containing China” these tariffs have most strongly hit America’s allies such as Canada and Germany. The national security claims are bunk, these tariffs hit allies far more than they hit enemies.

But still Biden doesn’t get pushback for raising taxes because “tariffs” aren’t seen as taxes. Wrongly, most people don’t realize that slapping a tax on imported goods raises the price of all of those goods, even the locally made ones. Think of it like this: if Biden slapped a tax on Pepsi such that every Pepsi now costed 5$, would Coca-Cola sit back and keep their prices? Of course not, as a greedy company Coca-Cola knows that customers will flock to its lower-priced products, and this will give it the ammunition to raise prices to juuuuuuuust under what Pepsi has. So now 4$ Cokes will become the norm.

So too does it happen with tariffs. When you raise the price of Canadian lumbar, American lumbar companies also raise their prices because they know the consumer has no choice but to take it. When you raise the price of German steel, American steel raises its prices. These taxes on foreign goods have raised the price on all goods. They then raise the price of what those goods are used for, for example lumbar tariffs are raising house prices. And what do you call it when the price of goods rises over time? Inflation.

Biden’s tariffs are adding to inflation. Trump’s tariffs are adding to inflation. Tariffs are nothing more than a tax on goods, a tax that the poor and middle class pay most as they are the ones most damaged by inflation. I’m tired of house prices soaring in part because of these new taxes. I’m tired of solar panel prices soaring as well. It’s all very two-faced of the Biden admin to claim global warming is an existential threat and then do everything in their power to kill the solar industry with new tariffs. Taxing it into the ground only makes global warming worse.

So I’m tired of these tariffs, they’re nothing more than a tax. And I’m not going to pretend otherwise.