conomics: If you increase the price of something, you'll get less of it" (Norton 63). Thus increasing tariffs on foreign imports would inevitably lead to a reduction in such products and a decrease in anticipated tariff revenues. Concomitantly, the countries targeted by tariffs would likely retaliate against American exports.
Economists point to the lessons of history as evidence that the kind of protectionism that Buchanan advocates would lead to economic disaster in the United States. Argentina, India, and the U.S.S.R. have all resorted to protectionism against competition at one time in their histories--with disastrous results. Likewise, protectionism in U.S. history also failed miserably. In the words of the current Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, "The 1920-38 period was a perfect test of Buchanan-omics. What followed was depression and war."
Another aspect of Buchanan's protectionist policies is stringent curbs on immigration. Buchanan estimates the number of legal and illegal immigrants in the United States at between 25 million and 30 million, a number sufficient enough to create a "constant downward press
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