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April 17, 2025

Title: The History of Tariffs
Topic: The History of Tariffs

Discussed by Bill Federer
with American Minute (www.AmericanMinute.com)

Thomas Jefferson wrote April 6, 1816: “It may be … the duty of all to submit to this sacrifice ... to pay for a time an impost on the importation of certain articles, in order to encourage their manufacture at home.”

What is a tariff? Are they good or bad? What should we believe (or not believe) from the media?

Bill Federer is a renowned author, much sought-after speaker, and the founder of American Minute. Today, he discusses his op-ed “Tariff History”.

Questions/Issues Discussed:

Does the US Constitution discuss using “impost”?

What were “Revenue Cutters”?

What was the result of the Industrial Revolution? Bill Federer discusses Thomas Jefferson’s words and how tariffs stuck around for quite a while.

There was no income tax on wages until the Civil War. What happened after the Civil War?

After the Civil War, did tariffs still provide most of the revenue needed to run government? Bill Federer runs thru some of the history of tariffs and what was funded with them.

What did Democrat President Woodrow Wilson tack onto the 1913 Tariff Act?

What was one unexpected fallout of FDR raising taxes? Bill Federer discusses the impact on manufacturing jobs.

For the first 150 years of our history, tariffs funded the US government. Can we do this once again?

Click here to order a copy of Bill Federer’s book, “The Interesting History of Income Tax”.

Click here to help Bill Federer spread the true history of America.

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