Why isn't the biggest tax increase in more than three decades a bigger story? [View all]

https://www.editorialboard.com/why-isnt-the-biggest-tax-increase-in-more-than-three-decades-a-bigger-story/

The president is burning up the American middle class with the largest tax increase since the early 1990s, which itself is snowballing the price of everything from coffee to clothes to carpets to car parts.
Yet this isn’t a major, ongoing, attention-grabbing story.

To be sure, there’s plenty of reporting about Donald Trump’s approval ratings. He’s underwater on every issue you can think of, including immigration. His so-called deportation crackdown has lost support, even among men. Reuters said today that only 41 percent approve.

But even that reporting carries an undercurrent of uncertainty, as if the Washington press corps can’t figure out the cause of what is becoming a broadbased backlash against the president’s tariffs. In the absence of clarity, there are abstract questions, especially about the unknowable future, ie, how will "affordability issues” impact the midterm elections?

Meanwhile, the American middle class is practically screaming for attention in hopes that someone somewhere does something now.

In January, consumer confidence “collapsed” to its lowest level since 2014, the AP reported. That same month job losses piled up to their highest level since 2009, according to an independent report. (Tariffs are driving job loss and slowing hiring, CNBC reported.) Meanwhile, health care costs keep going up, as do housing and energy costs.

*snip*