At least 85 industry groups representing the overwhelming majority of our economy, from fossil fuels to farms, automobiles, plastics and electronics have banded together to create a super-lobbying group that will oppose Trump's trade war.
In what I would call a failure of imagination, these trade groups say Trump has gone further than they thought he would and the truly worrying thing is that he's not done.
“A lot of other interest groups thought they wouldn’t go this long or go this deep, but the layering effect (of tariffs) has finally gotten everyone to say: ‘Enough is enough,’” said Nicole Vasilaros, the top lobbyist for the National Marine Manufacturers Association, whose members are weighing layoffs after costs rose as much as 35 percent. [...]
“There has been a lot of work that has been going on over the last eight months to try to persuade the president and the administration that tariffs are not going to work,” said Dean Garfield, chief executive of the Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc. “Our view is that it’s not too late.” [...]
“The sugar high of the lower taxes and the reduced rules that have fueled the stock market since the president was elected are in jeopardy,” said Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Technology Association, whose members include IBM Corp (IBM.N) and Facebook Inc (FB.O) He warned that some of his members were also considering layoffs.
These industries groups may not believe it's "too late," but I would say it is far too late to convince the current Congress to do anything and it's possible they may not have been able to even if they launched this group a year ago. The incompetence of our Republican-controlled Congress is only overshadowed by their cowardice. They're too afraid of Trump to do anything.
This new super group, Americans for Free Trade, is launching a television and digital ad campaign that will target specific districts and urge their representatives to stop Trump's trade war.
Speaking of which, Trump still believes imposing tariffs means other countries are going to pay us.
The Wall Street Journal has it wrong, we are under no pressure to make a deal with China, they are under pressure to make a deal with us. Our markets are surging, theirs are collapsing. We will soon be taking in Billions in Tariffs & making products at home. If we meet, we meet?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2018
That is not how anything works. We're not going to "take in billions," we're going to pay billions. Tariffs are a tax on consumers. You, the person reading this, will pay for it one way or another.