January 3, 2019

Trump’s Trade War Taxes Will Cost Middle-Class Families $200-300 This Year

This got me curious:

How much money are we taking in from increased tariffs? Here’s the answer:

There you have it. We appear to be taking in an extra $1-2 billion per month, and it’s going up. This is gross tariffs, of course, and doesn’t count the amount that other countries are taking in from their retaliatory tariffs.

Anyway, tariffs are paid by domestic firms who import stuff, so this is ultimately all a tax on consumer goods. Over the course of the year it will probably amount to a tax increase of about $200-300 per family—maybe more. I hope everyone enjoys paying their share in order to show Canada who’s boss.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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