Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs • Hacker News Board

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#631

Post by Dylan16807 » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:05 AM UTC

levzettelin wrote: post #487

trymas wrote: post #256

Side topic, but this number puts into how crazy it was for trump[0] to go on tariff war against enemies and friends alike. All the propaganda and extortionist language about how all countries will pay up to USA. Astronomical tariffs in some cases, trade wars and dramas, alienate all allies and from all of this they got only $130B ? $7T of spending, $1.77T in deficit[1] and they planned to fix this hole with $100B?! M…

> Astronomical tariffs [...] and from all of this they got only $130B ? Which is it? A number can't be small and large at the same time.

The percents were huge. The income was comparatively useless.

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#632

Post by booleanbetrayal » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:07 AM UTC

This is what sophisticated corporate welfare and wealth transfer looks like I guess.

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#633

Post by Saline9515 » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:07 AM UTC

epolanski wrote: post #470

duxup wrote: post #96

Absolutely absurd that we’re at this point. The courts / SCOTUS let the government roll out a massive and obviously illegal tax on citizens for a long time. They should have stepped in earlier. Now we the people probably don’t get our money back….

> Absolutely absurd that we’re at this point. It's not really, this is the result of having a flawed democratic system. What do Turkey, Philippines, Russia, Belarus, Hungary, Nicaragua, etc and now US have all in common? They are ALL presidential or semi-presidential republics where a single person "rules" without needing to face opposition in a parliament nor even requiring support from its own party. Winner-takes-a…

France has arguably the most presidential regime of the OECD, while it's not without faults it's not horrible either. Parliamentary regimes optimize for coalition stability which weakens them and forces to always take the path of least resistance, which isn't usually the best one.

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#634

Post by Saline9515 » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:09 AM UTC

ianburrell wrote: post #614

epolanski wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Absolutely absurd that we’re at this point. It's not really, this is the result of having a flawed democratic system. What do Turkey, Philippines, Russia, Belarus, Hungary, Nicaragua, etc and now US have all in common? They are ALL presidential or semi-presidential republics where a single person "rules" without needing to face opposition in a parliament nor even requiring support from its own party. Winner-takes-a…

Hungary is a parliamentary republic, Orban is the Prime Minister. Turkey was parliamentary system until was changed in 2017 to presidential system with more power for Erdogan. I agree about parliamentary systems being better, but they are still vulnerable. It doesn't matter if the electorate is in favor of strongman.

Parliamentary systems have a very hard time strategizing in especially larger countries.

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#635

Post by rayiner » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:11 AM UTC

trymas wrote: post #256

Side topic, but this number puts into how crazy it was for trump[0] to go on tariff war against enemies and friends alike. All the propaganda and extortionist language about how all countries will pay up to USA. Astronomical tariffs in some cases, trade wars and dramas, alienate all allies and from all of this they got only $130B ? $7T of spending, $1.77T in deficit[1] and they planned to fix this hole with $100B?! M…

[flagged]

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#636

Post by rayiner » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:13 AM UTC

lokar wrote: post #389

lokar wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Friends? America has no friends, only client states.

I'm serious. The Trump/MAGA view of foreign policy is that the US sits at the top, we owe friendship to no one. We engage with other nations transactionally, zero sum, with the US always getting more.

That’s always been the U.S. view of foreign policy. MAGA is just honest about it.

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#637

Post by pwg » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:14 AM UTC

jonathanlydall wrote: post #434

trymas wrote: post #256

Side topic, but this number puts into how crazy it was for trump[0] to go on tariff war against enemies and friends alike. All the propaganda and extortionist language about how all countries will pay up to USA. Astronomical tariffs in some cases, trade wars and dramas, alienate all allies and from all of this they got only $130B ? $7T of spending, $1.77T in deficit[1] and they planned to fix this hole with $100B?! M…

Maybe I don't understand as I'm an outsider, but as per my recent comment on this topic [0], I fail to see the logic of how "other countries" pay the US when the tariffs are paid by the importer and not the other country which is exporting. I do acknowledge that import taxes can in theory help local industries, especially if the other countries are subsidizing exported goods. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id…

> I fail to see the logic of how "other countries" pay the US when the tariffs are paid by the importer and not the other country which is exporting.

The "logic" is/was that this was a lie directed at his "low information supporters" who tend to simply "believe" whatever he tells them without question. Those same supporters would have been very much against having a "tax increase" levied upon them, but so long as he lied to them and told them "the other country pays the tariffs" then they were fooled into not understanding the tariffs were just a tax increase and so were "in support" of the tariffs.

That was the sole logic -- although there have been times when I've seen news blurbs that have made me wonder whether Trump himself actually believes his own lie about "other countries pay us" in regards to tariffs.

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#638

Post by rayiner » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:15 AM UTC

lokar wrote: post #477

epolanski wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't the Trump/MAGA foreign policy, american exceptionalism is a century old and only gotten stronger. If anything MAGA is the full blown expression of this phenomenon. The difference was that in the past US understood that you "rule" better when you surround yourself with enemies. Now the policy is to dictate conditions left and right.

From the 2nd half of the 20th century until Trump there was the view that the US lead a large group of "western" democracies (in the sense that Japan is "western") in a loose coalition that was NOT zero sum. The US provided a lot of benefits to others, this collaboration produced an overall surplus[1], which the US got a large share of. The new view seems to be based on a zero sum, transactional view of international…

The “western democracy” thing was always a stupid republican excuse to justify bankrupting the U.S. with foreign wars.

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#639

Post by QuantumNoodle » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:22 AM UTC

Do I understand correctly, that these companies applying for refunds, likely passed the costs onto consumers who paid a higher price for goods. Now the companies will claw back their refunds from the gov AND keep the markup they charged consumers?

Re: Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs

#640

Post by rayiner » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 2:25 AM UTC

tzs wrote: post #600

rayiner wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re piling speculation on speculation. First of all, there was no such memo saying the tariffs were “very likely to be overturned.” The Supreme Court decision was 7-3, with two Bush appointees voting to uphold the tariffs. The appellate court decision was 7-4, with two Obama appointees and two Bush appointees dissenting. Second of all, there is no evidence that this legal analysis was leaked to Cantor.

Wait...how do we know there was no such memo? We have no reason to believe that if such a memo exists it was used improperly, but I don't see how we could know there is no such memo. BTW you've got an extra Justice on the Supreme Court. Should be 6-3, not 7-3.

> but I don't see how we could know there is no such memo.

There was no such memo because OLC isn’t full of dummies. Maybe the talking heads on CNN said the case against the tariffs was a slam dunk, but you don’t get split courts at multiple levels for cases that are slam dunks.