NYC Congestion Pricing, Tariffs, and DOGE Rebates
Media Hit, 2/20/25
I’m on the road in Nashville, TN this week! Had my first taste of true, “Nashville Hot” chicken yesterday. All I can say is that the imitation stuff I’ve had before is more accurately called “Nashville Not!” It was easily the best chicken I’ve ever had and I thought I had a high tolerance for spicy food… I was wrong!
The hotel room should be halfway decent for a media hit today and I happened to bring my new (wired) lav mic just to be safe. I absolutely love this thing. With an extra long wire, I don’t have to worry about making sure the wire hangs straight down and is tucked behind my tie/jacket. No external webcam, though, so I’ll have to make do with the built-in one on the laptop. Here’s a picture of my admittedly ridiculous set-up:
The chair on the table was the best way I could find to get the camera high enough that the reflection of the can lights in front of me won’t show up in my glasses but not so high that I’m craning my neck to look into the lens. I also had to unplug the refrigerator because it makes SO. MUCH. NOISE. The video quality is clearly lacking, so lesson learned: bring the camera along for the ride. I love my Insta360 Link which I bought for teaching purposes during the pandemic. The gimbal is great if you’re moving around a lot (like I do when I’m lecturing) but if you’re stationary, it’s much less important and it makes traveling with it harder as I have to somehow protect it from damage. I’m thinking about upgrading to the newer Insta360 Link2C since it does not have a gimbal and would, in theory, be easier to pack due to its smaller size.
Anyway, enough of all that. On to the talking points!
NYC Congestion Pricing
Link: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5153627-donald-trump-new-york-city-congestion-pricing/
NYC implemented a $9 congestion price for drivers entering some parts of Manhattan.
The goal was to reduce congestion on some of the busiest streets in the entire world.
That there would be other benefits, like reduced CO2 emissions, increased revenue for the City, etc. are, to me, ancillary.
Trump ended this and started referring to himself as “the king.”
All of this is deeply problematic.
First, the president is NOT a king. I don’t know how anyone, conservatives especially who seem to care the most about our nation’s history and heritage, can think positively about this.
Second, what business does the president have in regulating traffic law in NYC?
This screams like an overreach to me and I hope that Trump focuses on the problems that are plaguing the nation and not the problems facing certain parts of Manhattan.
This remains true even if they were built using federal funds.
Now he could, if he wanted to, cite Reagan and say, effectively, “I’m not telling you what to do, but I’ll withhold certain monies unless you do this.”
Reagan famously did it with the drinking age and the federal highway funds, so there is precedent.
But here, I think Reagan was wrong to do that and I think Trump would be wrong to do it, too.
Tariffs
No link provided.
Whether tariffs will hurt the market or not depends heavily on what actually happens.
Continuous threats of tariffs with no action will certainly hurt markets as businesses try to make long-term plans with respect to supply chains and acquiring materials.
Actual tariffs will certainly hurt the manufacturing sector and getting into a trade war will yield exactly no winners.
But if he keeps using tariffs as a negotiating tactic and succeeding at getting other countries to lower their tariffs without raising ours, then markets will respond positively.
But there’s considerable debate about the efficacy of tariffs as a negotiating tactic.
Trump is a great businessman. He should be making handshake deals, not threats.
DOGE Rebates
Link: https://fortune.com/2025/02/19/elon-musk-5000-check-doge/
$5,000 for every person in the US would cost $1.65 trillion.
If we were to save the $2 trillion that DOGE has floated and spent 20% of that on DOGE Dividends, that works out to about $1,200 per person in the US.
Not sure where we’re getting $5,000. Even if you gave the money only to taxpayers, you’re still at $2,500 - $3,000.
Maybe someone meant “households”instead?
I just can’t imagine a world where that amount of money is “saved” by DOGE in a single year.
But look, all the money that the federal government collects is money expropriated from the people. It was ours, we earned it, and it was taken from us.
If it is not going to be used to promote “a civilized society” as Oliver Wendel Holmes once said, then it should be returned to the people.
So What Happened?
I was joined by Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayer’s Union once again for our segment covering congestion pricing in Manhattan and the DOGE refund. We did not talk tariffs, which is fine. Pete is a wonderfully intelligent person and I always learn something from him whenever we’re on together, so this was a real treat. I hope one day our paths cross and we’re able to get coffee or something together in person.
I was able to hit all of my talking points above on these issues and I think it’s clear that Pete, myself, and the hosts of the show were all in agreement on some of the broader issues.
I think I’ll write an article later on today about the DOGE dividends that goes into a little more depth on these issues in particular because there are both broad issues at play and also nuanced discussion.