April 3rd, 2025

On Thursday’s Mark Levin Show, when did Democrats last voice concerns over tariffs imposed on our products and services that increase consumer goods prices for us? They appear silent on tariffs from China and Canada today but decades ago they weren’t silent. From the founding of the U.S. until 1913, tariffs funded about 95% of the government. While some blame tariffs for the Great Depression, Milton Friedman argued it resulted from a recession exacerbated by the Federal Reserve’s tight monetary policy, not tariffs. Trump is pursuing an unprecedented strategy in U.S. history by combining massive tax cuts, deregulation, reductions in government size and personnel, and tariffs, all with the goal of re-industrializing America. Do tax cuts cause inflation or cause deficits? No. Inflation stems from government actions, not the private sector. Tax cuts create economic growth, wealth, and prosperity – across the board.

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP

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Rough transcription of Hour 1

Segment 1
Hello America. Mark Levin here. Our number 877-381-3811. 877-381-3811. You’re going to want to listen to the show beginning to end all 3 hours. When you’re done, you’re going to say, I hope. I think I’m glad I did. When’s the last time the Democrats complained about tariffs placed on our products and services, driving up costs to conserve consumer goods to us? Mr. Producer. Isn’t that interesting, America? I mean, they don’t complain about China’s tariffs. They don’t complain about Canada’s tariffs. They don’t complain about Mexico State. Now, keep something in mind. I’m not a tariff. You know, pom pom guy. I’m just not. But I want to go through some of this with you folks. Let’s begin here. We want to give a hat tip. We want to do things right around. Right, Mr. Producer, to make em easy on X. I have no idea who Maze is, but Maze is quite good. I understand. Here’s Chuck Schumer seven years ago. Seven years ago. Hat tip, mate. Cut to go. Look, I think the president’s doing the right thing. China has been taking advantage of us for two, two decades. They’re stealing our intellectual property, which means stealing our good paying jobs. And I, frankly, am closer on this issue, not on many, but on this issue with President Trump than I was with Presidents Bush or Obama, because they did nothing to tell China off. Now, China, of course, will respond. But if they know we’re strong and we’re not going to back off, they will back off. They have far more to lose than we do. They have a $300 billion trade surplus with us. So I’m looking out, number one, for jobs. You know, if General Electric moves jobs to China, they’re not unhappy. But my New York workers in Schenectady are unhappy. And so you can’t let the international business companies who don’t give a hoot about where their factories are govern this. You have to do what’s good for the American worker. Very interesting. Is it in America? So answer is when Trump wasn’t president. Schumer mentioned it in 2018. Now, what’s going to happen now is every other radio host is going to use these. Well, our friends on Fox are going to use these, and they won’t give credit to Mase, I don’t think. I hope they do. I hope they do. We can go out and find them now that Mayes found them. But we’re giving Mays credit, whoever that is. Here’s Nancy Pelosi on the floor in the House, 1996, 1996. Cathy, go. In terms of tariffs, I think it’s interesting to note that the average U.S. MFN tariff on Chinese goods coming into the United States is 2%, whereas the average Chinese MFN tariff on U.S. goods going into China is 35%. Is that reciprocal? On exports, China only allows certain industries into China, of U.S. industries into China, and therefore only 2% of U.S. exports are allowed into China. On the other hand, the U.S. allows China to flood our markets with 30 a third of their exports, and that will probably go over 40%. And it’s limitless because we have not placed any restriction in terms of jobs. This is the biggest and cruelest hoax of all. Not only do we not have market access. Not only do they have prohibitive tariffs, not only are our exports not already, and very specifically, but China benefits with at least at least 10 million jobs from US-China trade. The president, in his statement, Grant, requesting this special waiver, said that China trade supports 170,000 jobs in the United States, 170,000 jobs, whereas. Our imports from China support a mil 10 million jobs at least. Hmm. Now. Their attacks on China could apply anywhere if you listen to their logic. Just keep listening. Here’s more. PELOSI Go. Now, if you take a country the size of China with the cheap, the very cheap and poor and in some instances slave labor. The lack of market access that rip off of our intellectual property. The transfer of technology. A country that is not willing to play by the rules in any respect in this trade relationship. You have a serious threat not only to our relationship, but to the industrialized world. And if there’s one message that I want our colleagues to understand today and our constituents is that on this day, your member of Congress could have drawn the line to say to the president of the United States, do something about this US-China trade relationship that is a job loser for the United States. And this brings us to the point that others have said, well, we can’t isolate China. Do you think for one minute that with ten of 10 million jobs at least and 35 billion and be over $40 billion this year in a trade surplus, all those billions of dollars in surplus that the Chinese are going to walk away? Where are they going to take 35 to 40% of their exports? Who’s going to buy them? This is what sustains the regime, the the funding and the jobs. They can’t have those people out of work. They have to be worth exporting to the United States. Hmm. 50% of all the products that come into this country from can come from Mexico. 15% of all the products that come into this country come from Canada. It’s 30%. 13% of all the products that come into this country come from China. So listening to her logic, very logical, listening to Schumer’s logic, it doesn’t matter if it’s China or Canada or Mexico or whatever it is. They’re not making national security arguments, which I make as well as economic arguments. But here’s the the icing on the cake. Bernie Sanders on the floor of the Senate in 2008, again, hat tip to Mays on x. I want you to listen to this. Bernie Sanders, cut five. Go. What they have said is that we need to not worry about manufacturing in America because what we should establish is a policy of unfettered free trade. We don’t need tariffs. What we need is to allow corporate America the freedom, the freedom to throw American workers out on the street, people who are making 15, 20, 25 bucks an hour health care pensions. Throw them out on the street because somehow, Madam President, we are going to create wealth in America and good paying jobs in America. As we shut down plants, we moved to China. Corporations there pay workers 20, $0.30 an hour and we bring the product back into this country. And anyone who goes shopping in a mall knows how difficult it is today to find a product made in America. But that is the philosophy. And I have to say in that regard, the champion and he is honest on this one. Senator McCain has been criticized recently for not being the most honest candidate we have seen in terms of his ads and so forth. He has been honest on this one. He is the leading advocate of unfettered free trade. And that’s an also important part of this right wing ideology, that it is good for America, that corporations can go to China, bring products back into this country. So where are these people today? If this is what they believed 2008 to 1996, in 2018, where are they today? Were Schumer, Pelosi, Sanders to that? They’re nowhere. They’re nowhere. Now. When we come back, I want to do a little history lesson. I’m going to tell you where I come down on this. Again, I’m not a big tariff guy, but I’m stepping back and I’m analyzing this and I’m looking at this and I’m listening to these people. And because we played it and you’ll see tomorrow yourselves, if not earlier, if not tonight on some of the shows, they will play these. Videos. We play the audio of the video because it is radio after all. We’re happy to do the research for them. And Mr. Mayes did the research for everybody and we give him attribution maybe to her. We’ll be right back.

Segment 2
Discuss this. I come at this as a tariff skeptic, except, as I’ve explained before, with our with our enemies, tariffs are perfectly fine by me. I don’t believe in free trade with people who want to blow off the face of the earth, people who promote terrorism, any of that. That’s not for me. And also our allies that are really, really screwing us. And on certain products they are very severely. I agree with Reagan. Reagan put quotas in. Trump puts tariffs and you got to address it. But let’s talk about this in a more macro sense. Okay? From our founding. Two, 1913. From our founding to 1930. And the federal income tax was added by the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. 95% of the federal government was funded by tariffs. Again, there was no income tax. Lincoln tried to temporarily, but it was unconstitutional during the Civil War. The average rate. See, I do my research. The average rate during this period from the founding to 1913 was about 20%. Now, some more information it’s very important to understand. We’ve had what’s considered to industrial revolutions, and I consider three and I’ll explain myself. The first one was from about 1750 to 1850. The cotton gin and things like that. The second, which was the most powerful on the face of the earth, was from about 18. 1672 1914. Look around you. Electricity, steel. Automobiles. On and on and on. And it did a lot more than that. But that’s not the point. So those are the two great recognized industrial revolutions. And for me, there’s a third. And that was the Reagan. The Reagan Industrial Revolution for eight years like we’ve never seen since the second great Industrial Revolution, the economy grew almost 30%. In fact, it kept growing right through into the Clinton administration, where Clinton was taking credit for a balanced budget. That was all Reagan. Massive expansion of the private economy. Massive. 30%. During the period when he completed office, the economy grew. An additional 30%. It was it was as big as back then, West Germany. In a short, relatively short period of time. That’s how big it was. So you have that period, which was 1983 to some time in the Clinton administration. Okay. But I want to go back to the recognized first industrial revolution and the second industrial revolution. Especially the second industrial Revolution about 1860 to 1914. 1913, again, there was no income tax. So you had tariffs. The two greatest depressions. Really? The two only great depressions we had or is one that you’re familiar with. It started in 1929. In a list of 410 years to 1939. Started under Hoover and went well into FDR, his administration. The other Great Depression we had was and it was longer was 1873. 1873. To 1889. So there you had a Great Depression when there was only tariffs. The second Great Depression you had when there were tariffs and an income tax. People blame. The second Great Depression from 1929 to 39 on tariffs may have had something to do with it, but many of you have heard of Milton Friedman. One of the great economists and all time libertarians have heard of them. Conservatives, free market capitalists have heard of Milton Friedman. He’s our God. If you will. And yet he said, no, they’re tariffs. And he opposed tariffs very forcefully. But he said the reason for the depression. Beginning in 1929 was we had a recession. A bad recession. And the response by the Federal Reserve was to tighten money. He said monetary policy by the Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression. And in fact, he said the stock of money, the availability of money fell from 1929 to 33 in that four year period, over one third. So we had a recession. And what did the monetary geniuses do at the Federal Reserve? They took one third of the money out of the economy that collapsed the economy. There was not enough available money to invest in capital, to create jobs, to expand businesses, to pay people. So the system collapsed. I would remind Rand Paul, who I assume is a. Adherent to Milton Friedman. Now people have written that the tariffs did it and so forth and so on. Maybe they had some impact. But if you believe in what Friedman says. No, it was monetary policy. You can’t take one third of the money out of the economy and expect anything. But not just slow growth, no growth, a collapse, complete collapse of the economy. So they took a recession and they destroyed the economy. And on top of that, it was extended to brilliant professors at UCLA. I’ve explained and I’ve written about it and quoted them because of the socialist central government policies of FDR. Now, keep this in mind, because I want to talk about what Trump’s doing. Okay. Monetary policy, the Great Depression, Socialist policy, Franklin Roosevelt, massive tax increases. Okay, Now, I’ll be right back.

Segment 3
So you had a great Depression from 1873 to 1889. There was no income tax. You had a Great Depression. From 1929 to 1939. There was an income tax in the waters and built the freeman as the great Milton Friedman that that was caused as a result of monetary policy. You can’t take one third of the of the money out of the economy and then expect it to do anything but collapse. And that’s what it did. And then it was extended because of socialism. As two other professors point out, from UCLA. Now this industrial revolution. The first and the second occurred without when there were tariffs. President William McKinley was big on tariffs. He was president in 1897 and 1901 when he was assassinated. He was Mr. Tariffs. He was tariffs. Brit Harris when he was a congressman, when he was a governor, and then, of course, as president. And a Republican. Big on tariffs. And during that period of his presidency, 1897 and 1901. It’s a massive industrial revolution and in that period in particular was very hyper expansion. Says it mean tariffs are always good. I’m just making a point. Making a point. Now, what does this have to do with Trump? It has everything to do with Trump. Because what I’m saying now and I’m going to make this case Saturday on Life, Liberty and Levin. So if you hear anybody else make it, they’re listening to the radio show. Donald Trump is doing something that’s never been done in American history. Stay with me. That’s why I’ve laid out this past history. He’s doing something that’s never been done in American history. What is it? Massive tax cuts. This is why these tax cuts are crucial or the economy will. Spiral out of control. That’s why these tax cuts are crucial. That’s why the Democrats oppose it. They want the economy. To collapse so they can have massive landslide victories. So the massive tax cuts are critical or this won’t work. And Trump knows this. He’s the one calling for. So what’s never been done in American history before? Massive tax cuts. Massive regulation cuts, massive cuts in the size of government. Massive cuts in government personnel. And huge tariffs. Now what Trump’s trying to do, what Trump is trying to do all at once, because he feels he has to do it all at once, not because of political timing, but because of the economy and economics. He wants to what I call re industrialized America. There are certain areas. Of our economy, where we depend significantly on imports and dangerously. Depending on who we’re dealing with. I’ll give you an example. Let’s take a look at China pulling it up right now. Told you, 13% of all our imports come from China. But what about the kind of imports, the crucial imports? So you understand. Consumer goods. Let me get this organized properly here. There’s a number of types of goods that are imported, and we need them now. In the case of China, China, places ready for this on average, 67% tariffs on our products, 67%. Some. Several hundred percent. Even worse than that, China steals 51% of any company that starts or is expanded or has a office or factory. In China, they take 51%. They take control of all the proprietary information. They take control of all the patents and so forth. They use that to create their own companies to steal all the information when they can and where they can. And then they deny those companies any further business activity in communist China. Trump’s looking at this and saying, What the hell? So they have 67% tariffs in China, the European Union 39%. Vietnam 90%. Taiwan, 64%. Now what’s this? 90%? Vietnam. It’s Nike. It’s these apparel companies, sneaker companies that left China. Some of them left India. They went to Vietnam because Vietnam was very cheap. But Vietnam says, okay, great, we want you here. Now, when you American companies make these products in Vietnam and ship it back to America, we are charging in 90% for American products coming into Vietnam. Taiwan, 64%. Japan, 46%. India 52%. These are allies. South Korea 50%. Thailand 72%. Switzerland 61%. Indonesia 64%. I’m just doing the higher ones right now. Malaysia, 47%. This is on average. Cambodia, 97%. South Africa 60%. Bangladesh 74%. And on and on and on. So Trump says, all right, we’re going to reciprocal tariffs now in the reciprocal tariffs that he’s imposing. They don’t even come close to what tariffs are being imposed on our products. For instance, China will pay 34% on top of the 20%. That’s still under 67%. The European Union is pulling 20%, but they’re charging us 39%. Vietnam charges it’s 90%. He’s putting 46% on and so forth and so on in every single instance. Our tariffs are lower than theirs. Every single one. And I’m just laying out the facts for you. He sees the deindustrialization of America and he wants to re industrialize America. We can’t make battleships anymore. Naval ships. Over 90% of computers are made overseas. Over 90% or 95% of computer chips are made overseas. The elements we need for some of the most important pharmaceuticals that we do manufacture here come from China. And the president’s looking at this and he’s thinking, how do I how do I create this industrial base and re industrialize these these industries and so forth. Without destroying our economy. And so he has a two step plan. And that two step plan is. These tariffs, plus massive tax cuts. And slashing regulations and slashing the size of government and slashing all the people. Not all, but a lot of the people. Small percentage, actually, of the people who work in the government. In other words, to shrink the government. Expand the private sector. And re industrialize America. Now, you may not agree with every aspect of this, but that’s the plan. And it’s not a a foolish plan. It’s not a reckless plan at all. As I look at this. And it’s never been tried before, as I said, because from our founding to 1913, there was no income tax to cut. There was just tariffs. Okay. And then when we had the Great Depression. From 1929 to 1939. They didn’t cut taxes. FDR raised taxes. They had a high. The highest rate is 93%. Massive socialism, redistribution of wealth. He set up government cartels and trusts to determine which companies would do what. There was enormous government control over productivity and so forth. Trump is saying, No, that’s wrong. Slash the taxes. It worked in my first term. Let’s maintain the cuts I had and go beyond and. And make sure the so-called middle class is protected. No tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. That is those who receive it. No tax on overtime. People. Who are actually helping family members. They should get some kind of tax credit. He’s talking about things like that. And the Democrats come back and say tax cuts for billionaires, tax cuts for billionaires. I want to discuss that briefly. So I told you, we’re going to discuss everything. I’m glad you’re here. This is very important. An analysis of the IRS statistics was done. An analysis of the statistics that I’m reading this. From Justin Haskins, who wrote about this many years ago in the Heartland Institute. And it was in the hill. And he looked at the IRS data and he said, wait a minute here. Adjusted gross income 15000 to $50000. Under the. Trump tax cuts that were instituted in his first term. That was a tax cut of 16 to 26%. In 2018, the first year for people earned between 50 and 100,000 adjusted gross income. It was a tax break of 15 to 17% for those 100,000 to half a million. Adjusted gross income, it was 11 to 13%. And for those. He earned at least $500,000. Their tax cut never exceeded 9%. And those who earned $1,000,000 or more adjusted gross income, their tax relief was never more than 6% at best. And yet they run around yelling tax cuts for billionaires. And if the Trump tax cuts that are already in place but they expired after five years, which means at the end of 2025 this year, if that were to take place, those of you who consider yourself average income earners or in the middle class, your taxes are going to shoot up by $3,500. Trump is saying, No, no, no, no, we can’t do that. And in fact, we have to slash taxes more. And he’s right. This has to be done by the Republicans in the Senate and the House. It’s crucial. When we come back, I want to provide you with a little bit more thinking and information on this, what Donald Trump is trying to do with the tariffs, the massive income tax and business and corporate income tax cuts. Massive. The slashing of regulations, the slashing of the size of government to the size of the government workforce. This has never been tried together like this before. But he’s saying, look, I got to grow the economy. I got to bring down prices for people. At the same time, I’m going to put in tariffs. There will be a short term period of price increases. I’ve got to offset that with the tax cuts. I’ve got to re industrialize America. So things are built here. So the pharmaceutical companies have the the elements that they need here so we can build our ships here, so we can do what we need to do here because we can’t rely on these other countries who are killing us with their tariffs. Nobody ever talks about their tariffs. I’ll be right back.

Segment 4
Slashing taxes, slashing government spending. Slashing regulation, slashing the size of government. Simultaneous with the president’s tariffs. The goal is to re industrialize America. Create economic growth with the tax cuts, regulation cuts and expand the private sector. Any increases. At least the thinking is that might occur from the tariffs will be more than addressed through the tax cuts. I figured this. I won’t even talk to the president about this. I’m just sitting here taking in the big pieces. You know how we did several years ago. The. We understood they were spying on the president. I’m just sitting here taking in the big pieces, and I’m looking at the history of. The industrial revolutions, plural in America. What caused them? When did they occur? The two massive great depressions in America. And with President Trump is knowing he’s never been done before, ever. The across the board tariff increase. It’s kind of nerve racking, isn’t it? It’s a little scary, a little frightening. You hear trade. War could be a trade war. Maybe he’s thinking of himself. Look. There’s already a trade war. Everybody else has these massive tariffs on us. We’re reciprocating. There’s a guy, her Sanni, who I like a lot, really admire this gentleman, David or son. And I don’t watch a lot of cable or anything else, too. In the course of the day, I caught him out of the corner of my eye, so I turned it up and he made a great point. You know, we Americans live pretty damn well compared to everybody in the world. You might even say we live better than anybody in the world. I agree with that. So there is that. But things are not static. They’re not stationary. That’s why things like Marxism make no sense. They talk about the end game. There is no end game. In other words, the state doesn’t wither away. And here we are in paradise on Earth. And although there’s no such thing for humanity. Superpowers, unfortunately, don’t always remain superpowers. They just don’t know. It doesn’t mean you get to stir things up. But on the other hand, he’s looking at things we can’t build because we don’t have enough naval yards, you know, ships for our Navy. That’s a problem. If we can’t make our own pharmaceuticals without relying on communist China for so many of the elements, for so many of our most important pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. That’s a problem. And I can go right down the list and he sees it as a problem. So there’s no possible way that I can in one minute tell you what needs to be the follow on point. Everything I’ve discussed this hour. So we’ll take this into the next hour. But I want you to keep something in mind as we go from now to the break. Back to the second hour, which is this. What President Trump is trying to do has never been tried in American history and is going about it, at least on the growth side, exactly the right way to try and increase prosperity, wealth, economic growth. At the same time, he’s trying to re industrialize America through his tariff regime.