Causes persistent trade deficits
Increases the unemployment rate
Is the main contributor to our budget deficits and national debt
Reduces our national GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
I don't care that the source is the putatively-conservative WND. The response to Roger Simmermaker is a simple as two words (with a hyphen between):
Smoot-Hawley.
Supposedly-protective tariffs damage all concerned - the countries imposing the tariffs, and the countries whose products are subjected to the tariffs. The reason is simple. The countries hit by the tariffs hit back, and maybe harder than they were hit. A "tariff war" ensues, and everyone is hurt, and no one is helped. Smoot Hawley (and earlier tariffs) were part of what made the Great Depression "Great". IMO, Adolph Hitler and Hideki Tojo @$$-kicked the US out of the Great Depression; all of Hoover's and FDR's economic tinkering and interventions were another, large, part of what made the Great Depression "Great".
Similarly, sanctions by the US government against US companies that "off-shore" or who avoid US taxes by keeping profits earned in other countries outside of the US will end disastrously for the US. Such sanctions force on US companies a choice: be driven out of business by the higher cost of keeping certain operations inside the US (i.e. higher cost compared to foreign competitors); move entirely outside of the US.
There is no "clever" permutation of tariffs plus anti-off-shoring sanctions that won't hurt the US worse than the present situation. IOW, this is an are where I thoroughly disagree with both Trump and
The Shrew: with Trump, better informed advisers might change his mind; better advisers are not available on the D side of things, IMO.
