In what way?
There have been no cuts to benefits nor are any planned per this site
The personnel cuts have started, non-mission critical folks first on the list. Have the wait times for services affected you?
Just to bring this back to cars… I’ve seen various claims - in both directions - about the effects with regards to US auto production. So and so will be moving out… Other so and so making plans to move in… I think they might mostly be partisan statements where people are fishing for political “ammo” rather than doing actual analysis. But I haven’t been able to find anything solid, and welcome anything that is.
That said, a search turned up a recent Edmunds article that I only skimmed. But it seems like the basic message is … ambiguous. Word from the admin changes quickly. Uncertainty is high. But major production moves are long term and expensive, so nothing definitive can be decided. But at least in the short term auto prices will be hiked.
As long as tariffs are in place many cars will cost more, thousands more in many cases. Tariffs will not turn the US into a low-cost car making country. Money out of our pockets, into the government’s.
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Because of US tariffs on imports from Canada, and the resulting trade war, Canada has imposed tariffs for the first time on imports from The US. Many of the Subarus sold in Canada are built at Subaru’s factory in Lafayette, Indiana, and Subaru of Canada has “solidly” announced that they will be sourcing more of their vehicles directly from Japan, rather than from The US, in order to minimize the pricing problem that results from tariffs.
This is likely not good news for the men & women who work at that Indiana factory.
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It will be easy to pick and choose problems no matter what is done. We are playing the long game, not for short term head lines. Many of my 35 years, it was necessary to cut 10% to stay afloat. Not easy but necessary. Consider the interest alone on 37 trillion in debt and still a two trillion deficit.
It cannot be sustained. Pay more for a car or don’t buy, as a patriot, changes must be made. Got any better ideas? 85,000 IRS agents?
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I read that Canadians weren’t buying US built Subarus before the tariffs were announced. Canadians have dramatically reduced traveling to the US and buying all products made in the US.
Not the Canada I knew in my youth. Jordan Peterson has some sharp views about the current state of Canada. It was interesting though how many Canadians own condos in Florida or visit in the winter. Whether they choose to freeze or not, they will still have to pay us taxes and hoa fees. Kinda like shooting themselves in the foot. Also a couple years ago a Canadian investment firm was buying Florida homes like crazy.
May traffic in Florida be reduced a little.
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Hotels, restaurants and other businesses at the NJ Shore rely on Canadian tourism for a big chunk of their income. The number of cancellations has already indicated a drastic downturn in income for those businesses.
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A similar situation was addressed in the 1990s. The administration and both parties in Congress worked to reduce the annual deficit to near zero. It took a while since they worked hard to make thoughtful choices in what to cut. It would be nice if that could be done now. Anyway, cutting federal jobs is very little of the deficit. Federal workers account for about 4.5% of the annual budget. Add another 4.5% for federal contractors. Do we really need an F35B at $109 million each? That’s just the cost at delivery. The lifetime cost of the F35 program is expected to be about $2 trillion. I’m all for a strong defense, but over $100 million for an airplane is just nuts.
Oh, and those 85,000 IRS agents? That’s full IRS employment (82,990 in 2023 actually) and not all of them are auditing tax returns. Anyway, reducing the number of employees means less enforcement, and that means it’s easier to evade taxes. If we are trying to reduce the budget deficit, it seems reasonable that increasing revenue by catching tax cheating is a quick way to get more money.
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Most of the liquor stores in Ontario & Quebec no longer sell Kentucky Bourbon, which used to be a big seller up there.
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Well, sure. I was trying to maintain a neutral tone. I’m not saying most of what I think.
That makes sense. But I was talking more about people referencing foreign companies closing production down on US soil vs other “stories/claims” about companies planning to open new production facilities on US soil.
Sure. But tariffs are not a solution to that. If we think of paying down debt as an issue of taxation here in the US, tariffs are just a tax increase. And if they do slow economic growth, which they very likely will, then it just exacerbates the debt problem.
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Well, not exactly. Sweeping tariffs change the economy dramatically, which leads to big losses in certain segments of the economy. Those losses mean job losses, even before tariffs create jobs. If they create jobs, that is. Can’t count it if it hasn’t happened. If we just made direct increases to taxes, economic segments wouldn’t be severely damaged. I’m not talking about huge tax increases. Just letting the sun set on the last big tax cut (2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) would provide a lot of money to offset the deficit. After the dust settles and government expenditures are revised in a thoughtful way, we can look at whether other adjustments to revenues are appropriate.
No. Pretty much exactly. The fact that they have more widespread negative effects because of their direct effects on consumer prices is just part of the broader issue. It doesn’t make them not a tax.
A point lost in this and many other discussions about tariffs is; You won’t pay them if you buy American made goods.
Many, many foreign car brands build cars in the US and have for decades. VW, Honda, Toyota, Mercedes Benz, Hyundai and Kia, BMW, Nissan, Subaru. Many of those have more US content than some US brands!
I buy American made New Balance tennis shoes. They do cost more but they are better shoes.
We still make a lot of products here in the US. If you have a choice and do not want to pay the tariffs, buy US products.
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That is not true. The whole purpose of tariffs is to raise the price of all items in a category so that domestic goods can compete. They’d be pointless otherwise. Well, except to line the government’s pockets. A way to transfer the tax load to everyone that buys anything, instead of a graduated income tax.
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I have a fundamental issue with paying more for something just because it is domestically fabricated. My goal is to maximize the effect of what money I have available and that means buying the less expensive version, all things being relatively equal.
Material cost doesn’t vary all that much geographically. It’s the labor cost that impacts COGS the most. Like it or not, the genie is out of the bottle. It’s a constant search for the newest “low cost country” to manufacture in. It used to be China (still is for some things) but eventually all that work translates to higher standard of living and the search is on for the next lowest cost country to manufacture your product.
The US cannot tariff its way back into being a manufacturing country. All that does is level the playing field domestically. There’s a big world out there willing to buy other countries’ products because they will be less expensive than ours.
You can’t turn back the clock. The long term plan has to be continuing to innovate and make/do things no other country can do. That includes investing in educating the population to do the type of work necessary to stay ahead of everyone else. The alternative is to engage in the “race to the basement”
A business (country) is like a living thing, it must continue to grow and evolve or it will die…
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We are all affected by the tariffs.
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Ahhh, salve for a tired mind. The trade imbalances (that are referred to as us being “ripped” off) are just called “capitalism.” And yeah, labor costs are central, and the business folks do refer to “Low Cost Country Sourcing” explicitly. And the genie has been out of the bottle for a long time. Right around the late 60s/early 70s was a big turning point.
Not only that, but all of the “loss of manufacturing” talk that’s gone on ignores a couple of things if that means manufacturing was somehow “stolen.” One is that mechanization/automation has had greater impacts than offshoring. (And even then, automation still works better with lower labor costs). In addition, manufacturing only helped create a solid part of the middle class back in the day because of strong labor unions. We don’t have those anymore.
We couldn’t go back to the 1950s even if we wanted to. Someone should explain that to…(clearing throat) the one who shall not be named.
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I also buy American made products whenever possible, but you’re ignoring what actually took place circa 2018. When tariffs raised the price of Mexican-made washing machines, companies that made 100% American washing machines raised their prices too. This all amounts to a significant federal sales tax on a lot of items that people need to buy.
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I have had appointments canceled without notice or reason.
Mission essential, that depends on the needs of the veteran. People at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave may not consider a position essential, whereas a veteran attempting to get service may think the position is essential.
Is there “deadwood” in the VA? Yes, just as anywhere else, no matter if public or private sector.
What will be next, no crystal ball for that.
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