Trump’s tariffs are a ‘dirty tax’ that will make the $38.6 trillion national debt crisis even worse over the long term, top analyst says

Kent Smetters, faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, is challenging the narrative that tariffs are a tool for protecting domestic industry. In a recent interview with Fortune, Smetters held forth on what he said was his long-held view that broad-based tariffs are a “dirty VAT” (value-added tax)—a policy he believes is significantly more damaging to the U.S. economy than traditional tax increases. While economists generally view a broad-based, flat VAT as an efficient method for raising gove ...