Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

That well known quote from George Santayana, a Spanish-American philosopher who attended Harvard and Kings College – Cambridge, seems to have escaped elected officials in Washington today.

Tariffs have been used to tax imports into the United States since its inception. Tariffs provided the bulk of Federal revenue until 1913 when the Underwood-Simmons Act passed during the Woodrow Wilson Presidency. That Act reduced tariffs by 40 to 27 percent in October 1913. The lost revenue was replaced through a progressive income tax established in that same year.

Since 1913, nearly every President has faced the issue of tariffs. Lower tariffs reduce the amount paid by Americans for imported goods, but it also reduced Federal revenue. Without budget cuts, the loss in revenue has to be replaced through other revenue streams. More often than not, the loss in tariff revenue is made up through personal income rates. It is a “Catch 22” scenario.

Similar Congressional wrangling took place during the Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt years. Two major wars impacted imports both positively and negatively. It does not require the wisdom of Solomon or the knowledge of a Sage to learn from the decades of experience recorded in American History on the topic of Tariffs.