By James J. Devine
The American experiment is unraveling before our eyes.
With the stroke of a pen, a single man—Donald J. Trump—has imposed the largest tax increase in U.S. history, a staggering $6 trillion tariff scheme that will crush working families, ignite global economic chaos, and further erode what remains of our democracy.
This is not policy. This is plunder.
The numbers defy reason. $6 trillion—triple the inflation-adjusted cost of financing World War II—is being ripped from the pockets of American consumers, not after a reasoned congressional debate, not through the consent of the governed, not by the august body empowered to make such choices, but by presidential fiat.
The stock market, that barometer of elite panic, convulsed in response, wiping out billions in savings for ordinary Americans.
Jerome Powell cautioned that inflation likely to increase due to Trump’s tariffs — and the Federal Reserve chairman warned that price hikes could be persistent with elevated risks of higher unemployment, undermining both of the central bank’s dual mandate to pursue both maximum employment and stable prices.
Even Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence, broke ranks, calling it the “largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history,” one that will cost families an extra $3,500 per year.
Yet the architect of this disastrous worldwide recession, Peter Navarro, stands before the cameras with Orwellian audacity and declares it a tax cut. A lie so brazen it would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so dire.
Economists—real ones, not political hacks—know the truth: tariffs are taxes, paid not by foreign nations, but by American workers at the checkout line, by small businesses struggling to survive, by retirees watching their pensions shrink.
And what do we get in return? A trade war with allies and adversaries alike, a reckless gamble that risks tipping the global economy into recession. A 25% tax on every imported car. Retaliatory measures that will devastate U.S. farmers and manufacturers. All while Trump, like some modern-day Nero, tweets threats of bombing Iran, sparking oil price spikes, and pushing the world closer to the brink of war.
This is not governance. This is gangsterism.
The Constitution is clear: only Congress has the power to levy taxes. Yet here we are, watching as a would-be strongman bypasses the people’s representatives, ruling by decree, turning the presidency into an elected dictatorship. Where is the outrage? Where is the resistance? The political class—Democrats and Republicans alike—has allowed this slow-motion coup to unfold, too cowardly or too complicit to stop it.
Congressman Tom Kean Jr. has remained silent while billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are destroying the American economy and replacing our representative democracy with a full-blown dictatorship.
Kean has made no public appearances in the district, and he has never held a town hall meeting to give people who elected him a chance to confront the things that are happening in Washington DC, where Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are on the chopping block and Trump unilaterally imposed the largest tax hike in history.
Kean pledged his support for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid during a “telephone town hall” on March 26 but no one was allowed to ask questions on the call.
Instead, an aide read the questions submitted in advance, and the congressman answered them but there was no interaction or exchange, and naturally, no surprises.
Kean required participants to register in advance that those who passed some sort of screening received a phone call when the event started.
Andrew Shipley, an aide in Kean’s district office, said the congressman’s schedule is kept secret for security reasons and declined to say when or where the public might encounter him, although he recommended checking social media to see all the local places he has been.
Lisa McCormick, a rare voice of dissent in a broken system, warns of the danger: “The United States is one tweet away from full-blown war because Americans elected a wannabe strongman who treats diplomacy like a demolition derby.”
She is right. Trump’s tariffs are not just an economic catastrophe—they are the opening salvo in a broader assault on democracy, a test of how much power one man can seize before the system snaps.
And snap it will. Already, the world recoils. Iran seizes oil tankers, the Strait of Hormuz trembles on the edge of closure, and global markets brace for chaos. Meanwhile, Trump’s allies whisper of grand schemes—privatizing Gaza, aligning with autocrats, surrendering Ukraine to Putin—all while American families drown in the rising tide of economic despair.
This is the cost of apathy. This is the price of a political system hijacked by billionaires and spineless careerists.
The path forward is not to swap one failed leader for another, to cycle between corporate-backed puppets while the country burns.
The answer lies in reclaiming democracy—not just at the ballot box, but in the streets, in the workplaces, in the unyielding demand that power must serve the people, not the other way around.
History will judge this moment. Will we be remembered as the generation that stood idle while democracy was dismantled? Or will we rise, as others have before us, to say enough?
The choice is ours. The time is now.
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