"My country, right or wrong" is a motto often heard from zealous would-be patriots. It is derived from a toast offered by Stephen Decatur, a U.S. Naval officer who fought the "Barbary Pirates" off North Africa in the early 1800s.

A modified version by Carl Schurz in 1872 changed mindless affirmation into a more balanced expression of patriotic support. Schurz was a German immigrant who served as a Union General in the Civil War and later as a U.S. Senator. Shurz said:
         

My country, right or wrong.
When right, to be kept right;
When wrong, to be put right.

With every passing day under the Trump Administration there are more things "to be put right."  A major example is Trump's sweeping and delusional TARIFF SCHEME.

At the heart of the damage done by Trump's tariffs is the truth that he still does not know how a tariff works.

Trump believes that the sending country pays the fees rather than domestic importers and consumers in the U.S. Thus his proud but mistaken claims that he will make China and other nations pay so many billions that he will be able to do away with the income tax.

Even his former Vice President Mike Pence knows the truth that "The Trump Tariff Tax is the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history."

The burden of tariff payments falls most heavily on lower income consumers. 

The Income Tax was introduced in 1912 precisely to compell wealthy citizens to share in paying for government services.

Trump now wants to reverse this corrective innovation. He also falsely assumes that import levels will remain the same after imposition of U.S. tariffs.

Further, Trump seems to ignore the likelihood of punishing counter-tariffs imposed by our trading partners in response to U.S. levies. When the U.S. imposed tariffs in Trump's first term, return tariffs did such damage to our agricultural exports that we had to spend $27 billion in payouts to save farmers from bankruptcy.

 The path to "put right" the crisis in U.S. and world trade caused by Trump's tariffs lies in re-assertion of Congressional authority over tariff policy.

Trump is enabled to manipulate tariffs because he declared a dubious "emergency" after which he could take tariff policy decisions away from Congress.

Fearing the mounting damage and with the votes of four Republican Senators, a recent vote in the Senate partially nullified Trump's "emergency" declaration.

 Alas, Speaker Johnson will not allow a vote on this issue in the House. In a further contortion to prevent a vote, Johnson passed a bill that defines the whole rest of this Congressional session to be considered as a single extended legislative day.  MAGA Republicans will protect even the most flagrant errors and malign policies by their misguided President.

Jim Matlack lives in Camden