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That actually checks out. If you take the median U.S. household income ($74,580) and factor in the effective tax rate (10.9%), eliminating federal income taxes would save the average household $8,167.50 per year. Subtract the $3,488.27 in extra costs from tariffs, and the net savings is still $4,679.23.

So yeah, if those numbers hold up, the median American household actually comes out ahead after everything is accounted for.

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I'm sorry, what? Federal income taxes have not been eliminated. Trump can't even do that; Congress would have to, and they won't.

The federal government currently collects on the order of $2.5 trillion in income taxes. These tariffs would only generate $500 billion of federal revenue. But in reality they'll generate less, due to any amount of second-order effects where less stuff is imported due to higher costs. It's very myopic to only look at the household finances and not have anything to say about a proposed loss of $2 trillion of federal revenue.

With allies like you in this discussion thread, who needs enemies?

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