The Tarriff Party

Taxation without representation isn’t just the cry of 1773 echoing across Boston Harbor—it is a living injustice, pounding at the American wallet in 2025.

This time, there are no redcoats, no crates of tea—only silent digits on receipts and unseen hands reaching into the pockets of working families. The White House’s PINA has unilaterally imposed tariffs without the consent of Congress. This is a blatant circumvention of legislative authority. That is not policy; it is tyranny in the language of bureaucracy.

And when Amazon, in a commendable act of transparency, proposed revealing the true cost of these tariffs to the American people, listing them clearly alongside product prices, the administration struck back, choosing secrecy over sunlight.

Let’s call this what it is: a tax. A tax levied without representation. A tax hidden in plain sight. And when that tax is added to the price of goods and then taxed again through state sales tax, it becomes an insult layered atop injury – a tax upon a tax.

This is not economic stewardship. It is economic aggression.

Amazon’s proposal is not only forthright—it is necessary. And it doesn’t go far enough.

Let the tariff be handled as a transparent surcharge, a set aside much like a sales tax: visible, traceable, untangled from the pricing of goods. Let it be known by the consumer, not concealed within corporate spreadsheets.

This would not lower the final price of the toys beneath the Christmas tree. However, it would prevent this administration from hiding behind artificial numbers and allow the public to understand the true weight of federal action. It would carve a small but meaningful path toward economic honesty. SO the final price tag will show the breakdown: actual cost, tariff tax, sales tax = final price.

I call upon the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to codify this principle into its Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and mandate tariff transparency as a patriotic accounting standard. Clarity is not just good policy – it is a democratic necessity.

An added benefit is that this arrangement will allow American taxpayers a new tax deduction!

In the founding spirit of Boston, in the lantern-lit defiance of liberty’s steeple, we must rise again – not with muskets, but with truth. Let the people see. Let the people judge. Let the people decide. Let the people see what’s hitting them.

And from that visibility, let renewal rise. Let economic justice be not just a dream but a policy. Let freedom ring – itemized, accountable, and transparent.

The revolution began with tea. Let the renewal begin with an action plan.