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Michael Cianchette is a Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan. He is in-house counsel to a number of businesses in southern Maine and was a chief counsel to former Gov. Paul LePage.
President Joe Biden has been in politics a long time. That means he has espoused a lot of conflicting policy positions over the years. In fact, that was a knock on him during the 2020 campaign by his then-primary opponent Kamala Harris.
One of the major attacks against him from progressives focused on his advocacy for “tough on crime” legislation back in 1994. He moved away from some of those previously-held positions in pursuit of the presidency.
It’s a tough line to walk. People do change their views over time. Yet how do you tell the difference between a real, sincere change of heart and transparent political calculus chasing the popular movement of the moment?
Here’s why I’m asking.
Back on June 11, 2019, Biden shared this tweet: “Trump doesn’t get the basics. He thinks his tariffs are being paid by China. Any freshman econ student could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs.”
Tuesday this past week, Biden tweeted about imposing new tariffs on production from various industries in China. He went on to claim “China is determined to dominate these industries. I’m determined to ensure America leads the world in them.”
C’mon, man.
Are tariffs great policy, or does Biden fail to “get the basics?” Pick a lane.
During his long Senate tenure, Biden split the metaphorical baby when it came to free trade questions. Like his tweets, sometimes he was for it, other times he was against it. It is hard to divine a unifying economic or policy theory underlying his positions.
At least Rep. Jared Golden gets points for consistency. He’s all in on tariffs, whether from Donald Trump or Biden.
As a former freshman econ student referenced in Biden’s 2019 tweet, the economics of tariffs are pretty clear. They raise the price of imported goods. Those higher prices are inflationary, causing consumers in the issuing country — Americans — to spend more than they otherwise would for the same product.
So, when then-candidate Biden said Americans were paying the tariffs imposed by President Trump, he was spot on. But Americans are also paying the price — literally — for the tariffs imposed by President Biden.
The “why” of tariffs gets a lot more complicated.
In a perfect world, free trade leaves everyone better off. Markets enable people and countries to find the niche they are best at filling. This leads to economic growth, prosperity, innovation, and efficiency. It is the reason that a television that cost $1,000 in 1952 would be priced around $8 today if anyone still made them.
In that perfect world, tariffs are bad. It is like any other government intervention that distorts the market, picking winners and losers and taking choices away from consumers.
So, if tariffs contribute to inflation and hurt consumers, why do Biden, Trump, and Golden all seem to like them nowadays?
In part, politics.
Tariffs are incredibly popular. For candidates facing challenging campaigns, it is an easy way to “do something” and claim credit.
And, since we do not live in a perfect world, there are some focused, targeted opportunities for economic protectionism when it comes to national security. Relying on nations like China or Russia for critical goods — weapons, food — would give them significant leverage over our nation.
That would be bad.
Biden was against Trump’s tariffs before he was for them. Neither of them seem to grapple with the nuance of the challenge, nor do they level with Americans that we might feel some pain to achieve a larger goal.
But Biden is the current president. He was the one opposed to tariffs just a few short years ago. So it is incumbent on him to explain why he had this real, true, sincere change of heart on a policy which will inevitably impact Americans.
So c’mon man. We’re waiting.
