XPost: alt.politics.trump, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: todd@dont-email.me   
      
   Hardly a day goes by without President Donald Trump boasting about the   
   record tariff revenue the US government has been collecting since he   
   ratcheted up taxes on almost every imported good.   
      
   “We have a lot of money coming in, much more money than the country’s   
   ever seen,” Trump said over the weekend, referring to tariff revenue.   
      
   Trump’s right: The US government collected nearly $30 billion in tariff   
   revenue last month, according to the Treasury Department. That’s a 242%   
   jump in tariff revenue compared to last July.   
      
   Since April, when the president began imposing a 10% tariff across   
   nearly all goods, among several other steeper levies that followed, the   
   government collected a total of $100 billion in tariff revenue, three   
   times the amount collected during the same four months last year.   
      
   Tariff revenue has soared after Trump's substantially higher levies   
   Monthly tariff revenue collected by the US government   
      
   Column chart showing that US tariff revenue tripled in July over the   
   previous year as a result of President Donald Trump's substantially   
   higher levies   
   0   
   10B   
   20B   
   $30B   
   Jan ’21   
   Jan ’22   
   Jan ’23   
   Jan ’24   
   Jan ’25   
   July 2025:   
   $29.6 billion   
   April 2025:   
   10% tariff on most imports went into effect   
   $7.2B   
   $7.6B   
   $7.6B   
   $8.5B   
   $7.9B   
   $8.6B   
   $8.9B   
   $8.8B   
   $9.4B   
   $9.1B   
   $9.4B   
   $9.5B   
   $9.7B   
   $9.5B   
   $9.5B   
   $10.5B   
   $9.6B   
   $9.9B   
   $10.3B   
   $10.1B   
   $10.4B   
   $9.6B   
   $8.8B   
   $8.1B   
   $8.4B   
   $7.9B   
   $7.5B   
   $7.7B   
   $7.8B   
   $7.9B   
   $8.3B   
   $8B   
   $8.1B   
   $8.1B   
   $7.6B   
   $7.2B   
   $8B   
   $7.9B   
   $7.4B   
   $7.7B   
   $7.7B   
   $7.6B   
   $8.7B   
   $8.9B   
   $8.8B   
   $9B   
   $8.4B   
   $8.3B   
   $9B   
   $8.9B   
   $9.6B   
   $17.4B   
   $24B   
   $28B   
   $29.6B   
   Note: Treasury statements record tariff revenue as collections from   
   customs duties and excise taxes.   
   Source: Treasury Department daily statements   
   Graphic: Elisabeth Buchwald and Matt Stiles, CNN   
      
   So what exactly is the government doing with all this money?   
      
   Trump has floated a combination of two options: paying down the   
   government’s multi-trillion debt and sending “tariff rebate checks” to   
   Americans.   
      
   “The purpose of what I’m doing is primarily to pay down debt, which will   
   happen in very large quantity,” Trump said Tuesday. “But I think there’s   
   also a possibility that we’re taking in so much money that we may very   
   well make a dividend to the people of America.”   
      
   Neither has occurred – at least not yet. So it might appear to many   
   Americans that the billions upon billions of dollars flowing in from   
   tariffs, coming primarily out of the pockets of US businesses footing   
   the initial bills to import foreign goods, are collecting dust.   
      
   But there’s much more going on behind the scenes.   
      
   What happens to tariff revenue   
   Any revenue the government collects, through ordinary taxes or tariffs,   
   goes into a general fund managed by the Treasury Department. The   
   Treasury refers to that fund as “America’s checkbook,” because it’s   
   used   
   to pay the government’s bills, such as distributing tax refunds.   
      
   When the amount of revenue the government takes in falls short of its   
   bills, meaning it runs a budget deficit, it borrows money to make up the   
   difference. In total, the government is on the hook to repay more than   
   $36 trillion, an amount that has been steadily growing, raising alarm   
   bells among many economists claiming it’s weighing on economic growth.   
      
   That’s because, like any American borrowing money, the government has to   
   pay interest on its loans. The more the government borrows, the more   
   interest it has to repay, which is yet another expense the government   
   has to pay that doesn’t go toward public-good investments, such as   
   improving highway roads.   
      
   While the tariff revenue being collected isn’t sufficient to wipe away   
   the $1.3 trillion budget deficit the government’s running for the   
   current fiscal year, tariff collections have caused that figure to   
   shrink. That means the government doesn’t have to resort to borrowing as   
   much money as it otherwise would without the tariff revenue.   
      
   “It’s not like there’s a better use for the money,” Brett Ryan, senior   
   US economist at Deutsche Bank, told CNN, referring to tariff revenue.   
      
   https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/06/economy/government-tariff-revenue   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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