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Civitas Outlook
Topic
Economic Dynamism
Published on
Aug 22, 2025
Contributors
Richard M. Reinsch II
Photo by Galen Crout on Unsplash

Can Tariffs Replace Income Taxes?

Contributors
Richard M. Reinsch II
Richard M. Reinsch II
Editor-in-Chief, Civitas Outlook
Richard M. Reinsch II
Summary

We need to deal in reality instead of wishful thinking.

Summary

We need to deal in reality instead of wishful thinking.

Listen to this article

Can tariffs replace income taxes paid by Americans earning an income under $200,000 annually, as President Trump has suggested?

We seem to have entered a new world in 2025, or rather, reincarnated an older America whose tax receipts were heavily built on tariff payments. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick recently stated that tariffs could replace income taxes paid by Americans making up to $150,000 per year.

And certain economic nationalists have urged that there is a vital causal connection here worth recalling in an “American system” of tariffs and protectionism, and the growth of American industry. They argue that America’s Gilded Age wasn’t regressive economically; in fact, the country exploded in growth, commerce and inventions.

Continue reading at The Spectator World.

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