Tariff, Tribute, Covet – Part 2
Good day to each of you reading about a very “hot” topic which is tariffs and how it affects each of us in both the USA and in Canada.
Before we begin, let’s enjoy some laughter: https://www.charlesspecht.com/a-funny-christian-joke-or-two/
A joke about Creation
An atheist scientist came to God and said, “We’ve figured out how to make a man without you.” God said, “OK, let me see you do it.” So the atheist bent down to the ground and scooped up a handful. But God stopped him and said, “Oh, no you don’t. Get your own dirt!”
The $100 and $1
Two well-worn bills arrived at the Federal Reserve Bank to be retired – a $100 and a $1. As they traveled down the conveyor belt, they struck up a conversation. The hundred reminisced about the interesting life he had, traveling all over the country. “I’ve been to the finest restaurants, Broadway shows, Las Vegas, and amusement parks,” he said. “I even want on a Caribbean cruise once. Where have you been?” “Oh,” said the one-dollar bill, “I’ve been to a Methodist church, an Episcopal church, a Baptist church, and a Lutheran church.” “What’s a church?” asked the hundred.
Jonah and the whale
One day, a teacher was talking to her first-grade class about whales when a little girl had a question.
Little Girl: “Do whales swallow people?”
Teacher: “No, even though they are much bigger than a person, they have throat pleats that filter their food of krill and plankton.
Little Girl: “But Mrs. Thurston says Jonah was swallowed by a whale.”
Teacher getting angry: “Blue whales cannot swallow people.”
Little Girl: “Well, when I get to heaven, I’ll just ask Jonah if he was really swallowed by a whale.”
Teacher, still red with anger: “What if Jonah went to hell?”
Girl: “Well, then you can ask him.”
A four-year old’s description of creation
In the beginning, which was close to the start, there wasn’t anything except God, darkness and some gas. The Bible says, “The Lord, thy God, is one,” but I think He has to be much older than that. Anyway, God made the world and then He said, “Give me some light,” and somebody gave it to Him. He split an atom and made Eve. Adam and Eve didn’t wear any clothes, but they weren’t embarrassed because God hadn’t invented mirrors, yet. Adam and Eve sinned by eating one bad apple and they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. I’m not sure what God drove them in because He hadn’t invented cars, either. Adam and Eve’s son, Cain, hated his brother as long as he was Abel. After a while, all of the first people died, except Methuselah, who lived to be, like, a million years old.
Hey, weren’t those great and a big thanks to Charles Specht for sharing them—we definitely need a laugh.
If you have the time and want to see what products the Canadiens are placing a List of products from the United States subject to 25 per cent tariffs effective March 13, 2025
Effective March 13, 2025, the Government of Canada is imposing 25 per cent tariffs on $29.8 billion in products imported from the United States (U.S.).
These tariffs only apply to goods originating from the U.S., which shall be considered as those goods eligible to be marked as a good of the U.S. in accordance with the Determination of Country of Origin for the Purpose of Marking Goods (CUSMA Countries) Regulations.
These countermeasures are effective as of 12:01 a.m., March 13, 2025, and will remain in place until the U.S. eliminates its tariffs against Canadian steel and aluminum products.
According to: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/trumps-tariffs/article/canada-is-expanding-its-tariffs-on-us-products-heres-what-they-are/
Canada has revealed another batch of tariffs on U.S. imports as the ninth day of a North American trade war marches on.
The new tariffs of 25 per cent will affect a total of $29.8 billion in U.S. goods, starting just after midnight Thursday and joining the initial $30 billion in tariffs levied against the United States last week.
Of that $29.8 billion, $12.6 billion will affect American steel products, $3 billion will affect aluminum and $14.2 billion will impact other items including tools, computer and server technology, water heaters, sports equipment and cast-iron products.
If you go to the above article, The full list of items newly subject to tariffs is shown in the table below:
U.S. products subject to new Canadian import tariffs,
Below is the full list of U.S. products identified by the federal Department of Finance as targets for 25 per cent import tariffs starting March 13, 2025, valued at $29.8 billion in U.S. goods.
Readers, we are looking at 90 pages of US products subject to tariffs of 25%.
And, in addition, the existing $30 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods such as food and drink, furniture and appliances, clothing, home wares and some automotive products remain in effect.
The full list of items subject to Canada’s initial batch of tariffs is shown in the table below:
U.S. products subject to Canadian import tariffs,
Below is the full list of U.S. products identified by the federal Department of Finance as targets for 25 per cent import tariffs starting March 4, 2025, valued at $30 billion in U.S. goods.
Readers, we are looking at 90 pages of US products subject to tariffs of 25%.
25%, that right, 25% tariff or tax added for bringing fish, meat, steel, aluminum, fertilizer and other products from Canada.
Who pays for this? You guessed it, you and I. Look no further than the price of beef, price of chicken, price of turkey, fertilizer along with other items that we import from Canada.
How much does the USA import in goods from China? Canada Exports to United States was US$431.2 Billion during 2023, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.
America was a lender nation with little or no debt and now has become the borrower or “service” nation.
Please read Deuteronomy 28 for I am using the following verses to illustrate my point:
Verses 11-13 (NIV) 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom
Do you not remember when America was the “breadbasket” of the world, producer of wheat, soybeans, agriculture, beef, chicken, turkey, fruits and vegetables—look no further than the orange groves in Florida, the dairy lands of Wisconsin and the beef produced in the Midwest.
Today, we must buy these same products from Canada for we are the borrower. This is man’s economics and not God’s.
America was the head, not the tail, the lender, not the borrower. As verse 11 says, the Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—abundant prosperity to ALL AMERICANS if they would honor his commandments, statutes, laws. Prosperity includes all the blessings in verse 12 and not the curses in verses 16-23.
While tariffs may benefit the government and as Mr. Trump says billions of dollars will be flowing into the USA, what about countries who are imposing those 25% tariffs on goods they receive from the USA?
We used potash in the 1st lesson to show the reciprocal effect where the government in both the USA and Canada “trade” monies and the consumer gets stuck paying the 25% extra as it passed on down to you and me, the consumer.
If we talk about tribute Biblically, then we look at the Old Testament where tribute is found to be used as a payment by one ruler or nation to another in acknowledgment of submission or as the price of protection
also:the tax levied for such a payment—courtesy of Merriam-Webster dictionary.
I do believe that “tribute” fits well with b (1):an excessive tax, rental, or tariff imposed by a government, sovereign, lord, or landlord courtesy of Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Tributes are nothing knew for Jesus had to pay according to Matthew 17:24-27, taxes were instituted on land in the Old Testament—Genesis 41:34, 48, 2 Kings 23:35 and land mortgaged for in Nehemiah 5:34.
In Luke 2:1-6 – Caesar Augustus implemented a Roman census (registration) to aid military conscription or tax collection to which Joseph made his long trip to pay his taxes.
Biblically, you could say tariffs or tribute were first introduced by Caesar Augustus for Luke 2:1 says He issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
So, let’s put all into perspective, Canada Exports to United States was US$431.2 Billion in 2023, In comparison, the US exported $352.8 billion worth of products to Canada in 2023. That dollar amount equals 81.8% of America’s total spending on all commodities from Canada, flatlining via a -0.6% slowdown from 2022.
As a result, America incurred a -$78.4 billion deficit trading goods with Canada during 2023. Courtesy of https://www.worldstopexports.com/us-most-valuable-imports-exports-with-canada/
2023 has come and passed and now we are in the 25% tariffs trading goods and money to and from Canada to the USA and vice versa with the result, 25+% higher prices for the American people.
The result—look at Deuteronomy 28:15-19 (NIV) 15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
The word “cursed” is used seven times in the above verses for God gives the circumstances that will follow when we don’t follow all his commands and decrees—not a few, not most, but all—for here, God says that “cursed” refers to those who are under God’s displeasure or condemnation.
The root of the problem—America has become the tail and not the head, the borrower and not the lender, the bottom and not the top.
No leader can bail us out of this economic mess—we are in too deep and the hole that is being dug is only getting deeper. The monies from the tariffs will only benefit the government and not the tax paying citizen. Have you heard our current leader in America say that those monies will make each and every American tax payer better financially?
At this present course, America will have a recession and tariffs will not bail us out. What has happened to officials, especially those in our neighboring borders sitting down and eradicating tariffs and trading dollar for dollar?
Instead of trading globally, why not trading locally? God says if you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you on high above all the nations on earth.
Will this happen, no and not until the Lord comes back to claim his kingdom here on earth.
In the meantime, the trade war with Canada and Mexico will continue, the war of the words will continue, officials will say mean spirited things, prices will continue to climb and the recession will happen.
God says we are to go our neighbor to resolve our differences and to work things out in accordance to God’s will and not ours. If we do say and we fully obey God and follow his commands then the situation will taken care of according to the will of God and not man.
Unfortunately, our leaders have allowed their egos to get larger and larger without giving glory to God and following their path.
God’s response—Psalm 37:12-13 (NIV)
The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.
Psalm 59:7-8 (NIV)
See what they spew from their mouths—
the words from their lips are sharp as swords,
and they think, “Who can hear us?”
8 But you laugh at them, Lord;
you scoff at all those nations.
The wicked—God knows their day is coming
Fellow Christian, be aware that if President Trumps wants to make America great again, here is the solution:
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
As for the alternative: Psalm 37:12-13 (NIV)
The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
