Tariffs: Mother's Milk for USA

Yesterday some Wisconsin Cheese Baron told a teevee news reporter that he 'could not find an example of a country which prospered due to tariffs.'

Maybe that Cheese Baron should get his head out of his curds and into US history.

The tariff history of the United States spans from colonial times to present. The first tariff law passed by the U.S. Congress, acting under the then recently ratified Constitution, was the Tariff of 1789. Its purpose was to generate revenue for the federal government (to run the government and to pay the interest on its debt), and also to act as a protective barrier around domestic industries.^[1] An Import tax was collected by treasury agents before goods could be landed at U.S. ports. 

Tariffs have historically served a key role in the nation's foreign trade policy. They were the greatest (approaching 95% at times) source of federal revenue until the Federal income tax began after 1913. For well over a century the federal government was largely financed by tariffs averaging about 20% on foreign imports....

That same Cheese Baron was not certain that President Trump actually had a plan vis-a-vis the whole "tariff" thing.

So far, that's two strikes, Mr. Schwager.