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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(134,290 posts) Tue Feb 17, 2026, 04:58 PM Tuesday

Small business owners squeezed by Trump tariffs await Supreme Court decision

WASHINGTON — Aluminum cans rolling off Virginia cider maker Tristan Wright’s production line cost more because of increased tariffs on aluminum.

Minnesota baby product inventor and seller Beth Benike ran out of inventory and lost income for months last year when President Donald Trump sparked a trade war with China.

-snip-

“If there’s one thing that’s universal in business, no matter what you’re doing, it’s that stability and calmness create a positive market,” said Rowen, a third-generation owner of Susquehanna Glass Company in eastern Pennsylvania.

But many small business owners feel anything but calm since Trump began his whiplash trade policy shortly upon starting his second term. And now they are waiting on the U.S. Supreme Court, which has been mulling since November what was supposed to be an expedited opinion on whether large shares of the president’s unilateral emergency tariffs are legal.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/02/16/repub/small-business-owners-squeezed-by-trump-tariffs-await-supreme-court-decision/

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Small business owners squeezed by Trump tariffs await Supreme Court decision (Original Post) Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Tuesday OP

Maddowblog-White House eyes punishments for economists who told the truth about tariffs, consumers LetMyPeopleVote Wednesday #1

LetMyPeopleVote

(177,573 posts)

1. Maddowblog-White House eyes punishments for economists who told the truth about tariffs, consumers

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Wed Feb 18, 2026, 05:47 PM

Wednesday

Donald Trump’s top economist didn’t just disagree with consensus economic research, he also suggested he wants to see researchers “disciplined.”

Link to tweet

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-eyes-punishments-for-economists-who-told-the-truth-about-tariffs-consumers

Unfortunately for the White House, almost a year after Trump advanced his tariffs agenda, experts have scrutinized the evidence and concluded that their predictions were correct. From the Congressional Budget Office to international scholars to the National Bureau of Economic Research, all of the available data points in the same direction: American consumers, not foreign companies, are paying more as a result of the Republican president’s policy.

Last week, still more evidence emerged. Research published by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Columbia University found that, through last fall, 90% of the economic burden from Trump’s tariffs fell on Americans, not foreigners.....

The trouble is, Team Trump doesn’t want economists and researchers to make reality clear.

Hassett on new study from NY Fed showing 90% of tariff burden is being shouldered by US firms & consumers: "The paper is an embarrassment. It's I think the worst paper I've ever seen in the history of the Fed system. The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-18T14:18:16.156Z

....Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan, mocked Hassett’s on-air comments, writing via Bluesky, “Happy Kevin wants economists to be disciplined by their bosses for contradicting the regime’s understanding of The Truth.”

Paul Krugman released a related video on the subject, making a compelling case that Hassett’s call to discipline economists was “thuggish.” Krugman added, “That’s incredible. That’s like saying, ‘If you carefully study the data and come up with results that we in the Trump administration don’t like, we will punish you personally — or we will try to.”

In all likelihood, if the White House were serious about targeting the researchers, those efforts would fail. But as Krugman concluded, the public threat is itself “horrible.”

The war on dissent is ongoing, and there’s every reason to believe it’s getting worse.

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