President Trump has come up with a novel idea for dealing with all the Fake News swirling around - tax it. From New York's The Sun:
Newspapers Opposing Trump Begging for Relief on Duties On Newsprint From Canada
If you think President Trump has an antagonistic relationship with the press now, just wait until his administration slaps a new 30% tax on newsprint.
Seriously. That’s the threat America’s newspaper publishers are warning about, with the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration set to issue a preliminary determination by March 7, 2018 on whether Canada’s export into the United States of “certain uncoated groundwood paper” meets the legal tests to qualify for countervailing duties under the Tariff Act of 1930.
The publisher of Maine’s largest newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, raised an alarm about the issue in her year-end letter to readers. “We are facing a new challenge that threatens our newspapers,” the publisher, Lisa DeSisto, wrote. “The Trump administration is looking to impose a tariff on newsprint from Canada, which would have a disastrous effect on the entire newspaper industry. We purchase all our newsprint from Canada, as Maine mills no longer produce it. It would be near impossible for us to absorb a 30 percent increase in newsprint costs.”
Come on now - the corporate tax rate is way down. And how many newspapers are starting their reporters, typesetters and press operators $15/hour? How many of them are handing out bonuses this year? Methinks we are seeing a bit of crocodile tears - newspapers are generally privately held corporations so we do not really get an insiders look at their finances. Considering what they charge for advertising, I am betting that selling ink is still quite profitable.
