Millions of Americans paid billions in tariffs later ruled illegal — and they won’t see a dime back

Low- and Middle-Income American families, and small businesses, accounting for well over half of our country’s population, paid out a disproportionate share of their incomes to the government due to IEEPA Tariffs recently struck down by the Supreme Court. Total payments amounted to roughly $175 billion. Now these families and small businesses face the prospect of receiving no rebates. Thus, the system is regressive for them on both the front and back ends — the burden of the original high tariffs and now the denial of rebates to compensate them.

As the result of the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs announced April 2, 2025, retail prices rose by between 6 and 7 percentage points, costing the average American household between $400 and $600 — and many considerably more. For low-income families especially, this was a painful gouge into their incomes.

One might imagine that in the interest of fairness, rebates would automatically go to these families and small businesses. That is not the case. The way our system works, rebates go ONLY to importers who DIRECTLY paid the tariffs to the Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) in the first place. The CBP estimates that 330,000 American importers actually paid the tariffs.

In contrast, 300 million-plus Americans assumed most of the burden virtually every time they went to the grocery store, bought a car, or........

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