From The Deckplates

On January 16, Jared Golden introduced legislation to establish a 10% tariff on all imports. Golden claims his BUILT USA Act will “incentivize American manufacturing, tackle the trade deficit and create jobs.”¹ Golden fails to mention how BUILT USA will effectively impose a 10% sales tax on top of what Mainers are already paying.

“Tariffs are paid by the importer, not the exporter as many claim,” Andrew Rudman wrote in a Bangor Daily News op-ed.² Domestic consumers pay tariffs, not foreign producers. Joseph Politano elaborated:

“To consumers, a tariff on goods that can realistically only come from imports ends up as effectively a high and poorly structured sales tax.”³

Today, the average Mainer pays 5.5% in sales tax.⁴ Golden’s proposal for 10% tariffs would effectively triple Maine’s sales tax. The Washington Post added that this could raise your annual tax burden anywhere from $2,600 to $7,600.⁵

BUILT USA will impose taxes on groceries that are currently exempt from sales tax,⁶ but Golden dismissed this concern. The Washington Post quoted Golden:

“Avocados are nice, right? They have some omegas in them? But do we need to eat avocados? Do we need to eat them year-round? Is there something grown here in America that delivers — I don’t know, American fish… We can get omega-3s and 6s through American-harvested food.”⁷

Golden probably believes you can’t afford a house because of all the avocado toast you’re eating, too. It’s not even worth engaging with Golden’s argument here.

Focusing on avocados is disingenuous. Instead, let’s talk about coffee. Bath built is coffee built. You can’t throw a wad of duct tape without hitting somebody’s coffee mess. We love our coffee, but geography limits our ability to grow coffee ourselves. Why impose a 10% tariff on coffee imports? There is no coffee industry to bring back to America. You can make tea from pine needles, but there is no caffeinated alternative to coffee hiding in the Maine woods. Golden’s avocado defense doesn’t hold up.

Golden’s tariffs will be a nightmare for independent coffee mess owners at BIW. Politano explained the potential fallout:

“In the coffee industry, all a 10%-20% universal tariff will achieve is reducing economic output by driving up the cost of coffee, enriching the owners of the few American plantations on the Hawaiian islands, raising revenue via obtuse regressive taxes, and enraging the couple-dozen US allies with major coffee industries.”⁸

Make no mistake, BUILT USA will trigger a trade war. Rudman warns:

“Retaliatory tariffs are generally applied to products for which there are alternative suppliers. Imposition of retaliatory tariffs by Europe on, for example, lobsters or blueberries, would increase the competitiveness of Canadian exports of these products in comparison with Maine’s.”⁹

At least Americans will start substituting avocado toast for sardine toast. If Golden stopped to think about BUILT USA over a cup of coffee, he might realize it’s not worth it. Politano suggested:

“To the extent it is possible, successful administration of basic industrial policy interventions requires policymakers to answer difficult questions. Is this specific sector worth bringing back to America? What combination of tariffs, subsidies, and loans are necessary to kick-start investment in the US? Will we accept inefficient domestic redundancies for national security purposes or are we aiming for an internationally competitive industry that will become a driver of growth? What parts of the necessary equipment and materials supply chains do we want to onshore and what are we okay importing?”

Golden is not interested in asking these questions or formulating sound policy. Golden’s one-tariff-fits-all approach will hurt America. Golden trivialized BUILT USA’s impact by focusing on avocados, but Rudman explained the broader implications in his op-ed:

“The U.S. depends on foreign production for a number of essential products and will be for some time. These include critical and rare earth minerals, medicines and medical devices. Reducing U.S. dependence, while desirable, cannot occur overnight.”

Targeted tariffs to build up critical industries like semiconductors could be a good thing, Rudman suggested. Politano paints a different picture with washing machines. I don’t know what the answer is, but I know Golden isn’t trying very hard to figure it out. Instead, Golden is busy embarrassing our state in Washington. One economist commented:

“This is going to raise prices — there’s no two ways about it. Why on earth Democrats would think it’s a clever political strategy to support higher prices — you got me, maybe that sells in Maine, but nowhere I’ve been recently.”¹⁰

Are you sold on higher prices? If you live in Golden’s district, call or send him a letter. Tell him you think he’s acting like an idiot, too.

1. Jared Golden, “Golden introduces legislation to establish universal 10 percent tariff,” news release, January 16, 2025. ↩︎
2. Andrew Rudman, “Jared Golden and Donald Trump’s tariff plans would harm Mainers,” Bangor Daily News, January 27, 2025. ↩︎
3. Joseph Politano, “Universal Tariffs are Universally Bad,” Apricitas Economics, October 2, 2024. ↩︎
4. Jared Walczak, “State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2024,” Tax Foundation, February 6, 2024. ↩︎
5. Jeff Stein, “The House Democrat who wants Trump to go big on tariffs,” The Washington Post, January 16, 2025. ↩︎
6. Maine Revised Statutes. Title 36, § 1760. ↩︎
7. Quoted in Jeff Stein, “The House Democrat who wants Trump to go big on tariffs,” The Washington Post, January 16, 2025. ↩︎
8. Joseph Politano, “Universal Tariffs are Universally Bad,” Apricitas Economics, October 2, 2024. ↩︎
9. Andrew Rudman, “Jared Golden and Donald Trump’s tariff plans would harm Mainers,” Bangor Daily News, January 27, 2025. ↩︎
10. Quoted in Jeff Stein, “The House Democrat who wants Trump to go big on tariffs,” The Washington Post, January 16, 2025. ↩︎