COMMENTARY: You thought things were bad? It’s about to get worse with these tariffs.

March 4, 2025 41

We have a huge problem here, and they’re related to the tariffs levied on the United States’ top three trade partners.

Americans have been suffering through inflation that plagued the first Trump administration and the entire Biden administration. Surprise, surprise: nothing has changed with the second Trump administration so far.

Now Americans will be forced to suffer even more with Tuesday’s tariffs on trade partners Canada, Mexico, and China. How? Because once existing inventory is exhausted, cost of living is going to be significantly higher than what it was during the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Donald Trump claims that the tariffs that went into effect Tuesday were meant to address the ongoing fentanyl crisis and deadly drugs flowing through the northern and southern borders. Spoiler alert: they’ll still go through despite how many jackboots you place at the border.

The other reason why Trump enacted the tariffs was to spur investment in the United States.

money tariffs person holding a black wallet — Jake Leonard | Heartland Newsfeed Photo by Ahsanjaya on Pexels.com

How has that been going? In my entire 38-year existence, investment has been limited to the wealthy elite. Try starting a business when no one will financially back you. That has been the case for all three of my businesses since they were established. The U.S. Small Business Administration is an absolute joke. Even if you have a business plan, you still get told no, you can’t get funding.

Then imagine the necessity of funding to keep businesses alive during the COVID pandemic, only to be overlooked in favor of someone who kissed ass with their local, state, and federal politicians. How is that an equitable system when so many businesses were forced out of business permanently, while forcing many others to pivot and adapt while struggling in the process?

Good luck getting the auto manufacturers and companies who moved manufacturing out of the country due to cheaper costs. The higher costs created by the tariffs just ensured that they’re NEVER coming back.

Meanwhile, Illinois legislators have nothing better to do than bitch and whine about the tariffs, Democrat and Republican alike.

Rep. Sharon Chung (D-Bloomington) stated before her Democratic colleagues that the tariffs will hurt working families and business owners. She also alluded that aluminum prices will increase by up to $2 billion per year.

No shit, Sherlock. While tariffs are a tax on the exporter wishing to sell their products, the bottom line is that consumers will bear the worst of it through increased pricing.

Equally moronic is the response by Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Murrayville). Not only did he attack the narrative Chung spoke on the tariffs, he even doubled-down on his dumbassery by detailing the tariffs.

The working people and the business owners do not give two flying fucks about the tariffs. We’re more concerned about the harm that it will do to our pocketbooks. Business owners will have to increase prices, which would then make cost of living that much worse for everyone else.

And Dipshit Davidsmeyer, you’re actually wrong: America started the trade war. There’s no such thing as fair trade. If you want fair trade, let’s go back to the bartering system, because your definition of fair trade proves that you are completely ignorant of economics, God forbid interstate and international trade.

Just another day proving that BOTH Democrats and Republicans are illiterate when it comes to economics and international trade.

Representatives Chung and Davidsmeyer, take heed some words of wisdom that I’m borrowing from (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and slightly revising it:

Know your role and shut your goddamn mouth, you fucking jabroni motherfuckers.

It’s been the same old mantra that spans decades: the rich keeps making the rich richer, and the poor keeps getting screwed over a barrel, getting even poorer.

Jake Leonard

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Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.