At the U.S. Supreme Court last week, the government’s lawyer argued that President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs, issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), aren’t really taxes at all. “The fact that they raise revenue is only incidental,” he told the Court. “The tariffs would be most effective … if no person ever paid them.”

That defense captures the problem with emergency economics: Tariffs that raise no revenue still raise uncertainty. They tax planning, investment, and trust. A tariff no one pays is self-defeating. It deters trade and investment without delivering even the limited fiscal benefit of real revenue. The result is slower growth, higher prices, and weaker supply chains.

Chief Justice John Roberts pressed that point, describing the government’s

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