Monday Miscellany, 8/4/25

Tariffs and our still-good economy. Planned Parenthood received more tax money than PBS and NPR. And federal employees may now express their faith on the job.

Tariffs and Our Still-Good Economy

Despite President Trump’s first-round of tariffs and contrary to many expectations (including mine), the economy is growing, inflation is minimal, and there is no recession.

Now, as of August 1, a more comprehensive tariff regime has kicked in. But they are more modest than threatened. The most common rate of 15% isn’t all that bad.

Some countries, including the European Union and Japan, have negotiated trade deals that favor the U.S. Imports from the EU will have a 15% tariff, but American goods on most products will come in duty free. Plus, the EU committed to investing over a trillion dollars in the U.S. through energy and defense purchases. Some negotiations are still pending.

It is evident that Trump’s purpose with his tariffs is not just economic. They have given him leverage over other countries that he has used not only to advance U.S. interests but also to make peace, as he did with the armed conflicts between India and Pakistan and Cambodia and Thailand.

Other countries have been slammed pretty hard. A deal with China is still up in the air. Canada was hit with a 35% rate, due in part as a punishment for its plans to recognize a Palestinian state, but most of its trade with the U.S.–potentially as much as 95%–comes in free because of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Plans to increase Mexico’s tariffs to 30% have been put on hold for 90 days pending further negotiations, but over 80% of Mexican exports are already exempt because of the USMCA.

The real test of the economic impact of the tariffs is ahead of us. And the courts might rule that no “emergency” exists, which, according to the law, is required for giving a president the authority to set tariff rates, a power the Constitution explicitly gives to Congress. But so far, President Trump’s luck is holding.

Planned Parenthood Received More Tax Money Than PBS & NPR

Abortion provider Planned Parenthood received $700 million in taxpayer money last year. That’s much more than the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR and received $535 million.

So observes John Gerardi, who comments on the plans to cut funding for public broadcasting,

Yes, CPB was created via an act of Congress while Planned Parenthood is an ostensibly private entity. Yet Planned Parenthood was receiving more money, and a greater percentage of its revenue, from taxpayers than CPB was. As a practical matter, Planned Parenthood was far more “public” than PBS or NPR. . . .

Planned Parenthood was also more reliant on federal funding than PBS or NPR were. Roughly 12.9 percent of revenues to NPR or PBS stations came from CPB’s federal allocation of taxpayer funds. Based on an examination of the federal tax documents of Planned Parenthood’s regional affiliates (the nonprofit corporations that run their clinics), more than a third of their $1.7 billion in 2023 revenue was coming from Medicaid and other federal programs, along with even more money from state governments. In short, Planned Parenthood is far more “public” than NPR or PBS in the most basic sense: money, and reliance on that money.

Now that federal and state governments are also cutting off the taxpayer money from Planned Parenthood, their clinics are closing right and left. At last count, 25 clinics have shut down. The organization laments that as many as 200 clinics, 60% of their total number, might have to close unless the government spigots are turned back on.

Federal Employees May Now Express Their Faith on the Job

The Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management has issued a policy allowing federal employees to express their faith on the job.

According to a Politico article on the subject, the guidelines “allow public employees to pray and discuss religion, including efforts to ‘persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views.’”

Though freedom-from-religion advocates were outraged, the White House pointed out that the policy simply restores the protections established in the Bill Clinton administration.