The Real Victims Of Trump's Tariffs

The CBO just dropped a truth bomb: tariffs aren’t punishing China; they’re punishing you. Here’s how they’re draining your wallet and killing your coverage.

Guest article by Michael Cohen. For more, join him on Substack here.

Some days I wonder if the folks running this country — and yes, I mean both parties — have a bet going to see how far they can stretch our patience before we finally snap. I read the latest CBO report and almost spit out my coffee. Tariffs, it says, will cost the average American over $1,200 a year, shovel money to the wealthiest people in America, and strip more than 11 million Americans of their Medicaid and health coverage.

And still, we act like this is some complex economic riddle. Spoiler alert: it’s not. It’s as straightforward as the gas pump. You hear me say it all the time — on TV, on Substack LIVES… everywhere. So, say it with me now: “Tariffs Are Taxes.” “Consumers Pay Tariffs.” That’s it. That’s the headline.

You slap a tariff on imports, and it’s not some faceless overseas bogeyman footing the bill. It’s you, me, and the single mom in Ohio who already has to decide whether to buy milk or medicine. When the cost of goods goes up, we pay. Always. The store isn’t swallowing the difference out of the kindness of their capitalist heart. They pass it along, and you feel it at the register. You feel it in the smaller shopping cart and the bigger bill. You feel it in the quiet dread when the cashier reads the total and you pretend not to care.

But here’s the real magic trick: while you’re bleeding at the checkout counter, the wealthiest in this country are laughing all the way to the bank. Because tariffs, like most bad policy dressed up as “America First,” are designed to look like they punish foreign competitors but actually function as a cash funnel to the top. They jack up corporate profits, protect monopolies, and give the ultra-rich yet another reason to pop open champagne on their yachts while you’re sweating over whether you can afford back-to-school supplies.

And Democrats — yes, we Democrats — are still fumbling the message. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard dumb-ass explanations and ridiculous talking points that make eyes glaze over. Let me be clear: this isn’t a dissertation. This is politics. And politics, as James Carville once famously drilled into our heads, is simple: It’s the economy, stupid. He didn’t say, it’s the complex multilateral trade policy implications for domestic fiscal balance, stupid. He said the economy. The thing people live and breathe every single day.

So here it is, free of charge, gift-wrapped, and ready to roll out: Tariffs Are Taxes. Consumers Pay Tariffs. Two three-word slogans that hit like a hammer. You can shout them at a rally, put them on a bumper sticker, plaster them across every cable news chyron, and people will get it instantly. You don’t need an economics degree from Harvard to understand what’s happening when you walk into Walmart, Costco, or Kroger and your bill looks like a mortgage payment.

Republicans are counting on Democrats being too polite, too professorial, too allergic to slogans. They think they can hide behind a fake populist act — “We’re sticking it to China!” — while the actual pain is being inflicted at home. They’re banking on the fact that people won’t connect the dots between tariffs and their shrinking wallets. And unless we start shouting the truth, they might just get away with it.

But let’s be crystal clear on this: you can’t lie your way past a price tag. No soundbite on Fox News, no spin from the White House, can defeat what you feel when your paycheck doesn’t stretch far enough. It’s one thing to play political games with immigration policy or pretend climate change is a hoax; the damage there, though catastrophic, is often delayed or distant. But tariffs? Tariffs hit you on Tuesday afternoon when you’re trying to buy dinner or pick up your meds.

That’s why this should be the easiest fight Democrats have ever had. This is retail politics in its purest form — literally about retail. The voter doesn’t need convincing with charts; they just need someone to validate what they already know… prices are up, and it’s because the government slapped a hidden tax on everything they buy.

The CBO numbers should be a blaring siren. Over $1,200 a year drained from the average household. Eleven million people losing health coverage — not because they got sick, but because policymakers decided to gift-wrap the economy for billionaires. And for what? So the guy on TV can wave a flag and declare victory over imports while American families go bankrupt buying bread and insulin.

Enough with the cowardice. Enough with the “Well, we must explain the nuances.” No. We need a unified, relentless message. “Tariffs Are Taxes.” “Consumers Pay Tariffs.” You hit those lines until they’re burned into the national consciousness. You say them at rallies, in interviews, at press conferences, in debates. You say them when your neighbor, co-worker, or relative says something idiotic. You repeat them like your life depends on it — because for millions of Americans who stand to lose health care, it actually does.

This is the fight Democrats should want. Because when the pain is this tangible, you don’t have to invent outrage. You just have to point to the price tag and say, “This is what they’re doing to you.” And when you do it right, it cuts through the noise like nothing else.

If the party can’t figure out how to win on this, then maybe they should all pack it in and let someone else try. Because tariffs aren’t just taxes; they’re a slow-motion pickpocketing of America’s working class. And unless we start screaming it from the rooftops, the only people who will come out ahead are the same ones who’ve been cashing in for decades while the rest of us foot the bill.

Tariffs Are Taxes. Consumers Pay Tariffs. Learn it. Live it. Say it until the country gets it.

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