EDITORIAL Trump's tariffs spawn exemptions, then his own Big Government

40,000 applications for relief from steel and aluminum taxes pour into Commerce Department for bureaucrats and political appointees to weigh 

If it weren’t enough that the Trump administration has slapped tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum, it has instituted a process by which companies that consume these products can apply for exclusions from these taxes. In other words, the administration has imposed a new tax on imported metals and then put itself in a position to decide who has to pay it and who does not. This is Big Government at its worst — arbitrary and capricious, if not outright political, as it picks winners and losers in business. And all this is being done without any new law being passed and while a Republican Congress, which used to stand for free enterprise and limited government, remains supine. Not surprisingly, many of the 38,901 applications for relief that had been filed as of Monday made pleas designed to appeal to President Donald Trump’s political side. For example, American BOA, a Georgia-based company that manufactures specialized hoses, pipes and bellows, noted that its three main competitors “all have operations in Mexico.”Seneca Foods, a fruit and vegetable processor that makes its own cans, noted its connections to farmers and to the swing state of Wisconsin. Several companies volunteered how much they paid employees or what kind of benefits they provided. While playing every card they can to avoid punishing taxes, companies that use steel and aluminum find the process, in the words of the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association, “onerous, expensive and confusing.”...MORE