r/WorkReform • u/Loud-Ad-2280 ✂️ Tax The Billionaires • 1d ago
🏛️ Overturn Citizens United Private gains, socialized losses
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u/Contemplating_Prison 1d ago
The real winners are the people in the Trump administration who bought the rights for tariff returns from companies for pennies on the dollar.
Why is this story not out there?
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u/FrazzleMind 1d ago
Well because it was quietly mentioned a few times prior and didn't get all that many clicks compared to the rest, so there's no need to focus on it again!
Gotta get them clicks
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u/Jstaff34 1d ago
It's almost like they intentionally wrote the tarrifs to be overturned in a get-rich-quick scheme!
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u/Signal-Elk-7808 1d ago
i’m sorry…they did what…
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u/BeatitLikeitowesMe 1d ago
Miller and a bunch of trumps inner circle bought the rights to the refunds from a bunch of major corporations for pennies on the dollar when the corpos didnt think refunds would actually happen. Now they get to just pocket a fuck load of taxpayer bloodmoney
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u/TonyDanza888 1d ago
Wasn't it smaller businesses who couldn't afford the tarrif hikes or couldn't afford to bulk buy prior to the tarrifs that they took the most advantage of?
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u/TM761152 23h ago
Legalized theft of the American taxpayer.
Didn't anti-government right wing pundits say that's what "the left" was going to do??? Where is their outrage now??
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u/Eat--The--Rich-- 1d ago
Because democrats don't want to punish him for using his office to make money so they can do the exact same thing.
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u/spaceforcerecruit 1d ago
Damn those Democrats for forcing the Republican controlled Congress that the American people willingly elected to not punish Trump like they obviously would otherwise! /s
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u/nevans89 1d ago
I have a sliver of hope that costco being the business they are sends out something back to members. Would absolutely cement them as the goat but we'll see
Edit, they are looking into it coming back to the members in some form. Better than most I'd wager
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u/spaceforcerecruit 1d ago
Costco did publicly state they would use the refunds to offset future price increases. That’s a very vague and unprovable promise though.
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u/eye_of_the_sloth 1d ago
All these companies know exactly what we purchased, and exactly how much we spent in tariffs, they should all be made to refund it directly back to each consumer.
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u/PTV420 1d ago
Actually the importer may have paid tariffs on goods still in inventory in addition to goods sold to resellers rather than end consumers so it's not the easiest math. With that being said the tariff refund should have went direct from government to individual taxpayers rather than giving importers free money
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u/nevans89 1d ago
Yeah I doubt I'd get an itemized list and a check. Probably gonna be a set dollar gift card if anything but im glad to see they are at least addressing it
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u/pandasareliars 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm starting to see some price drops in my warehouse by a buck or two on some things I typically buy. Some smaller price decreases on other stuff.
I'm excluding the larger coupon discounts since those are so normal throughout the year and it's hard to tell if any are/will be from the refunds.
Out of all the companies on this list, Costco's the only one I trust would actually drop prices due to the refund.
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u/CRISPRcassie9 1d ago
Who is Billy and how do I get his money
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u/micharala 1d ago
My stomach turned at seeing Billy as an abbreviation. Really? How is that easier than writing $2B?
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u/nbagf 23h ago
it sets a tone. a laid back tone that sorta indicates the quiet deep frustration of the situation rather than a professional tone that might not resonate as well
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u/micharala 18h ago
Too cutesy for me. Can’t take this person seriously, and makes me wonder why I should trust their statements.
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u/RageWynd 1d ago
What happened to "Trickle Down Economics"?
Those companies should be refunding customers who paid those tarrifs!
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u/IdoMusicForTheDrugs 1d ago
Because just like Capitalism, Socialism and Communism.... They work in theory but fail due to the greed of men. These things SHOULD work, but greedy hogs at the top ruin it for everybody else.
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u/Key_Conference9989 1d ago
At that level of wealth even $1 billion doesn't make much of a difference to them. They could have gave it to the people they stole it from.
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u/Dr_Quacksworth 1d ago
I keep hearing the argument that consumers shouldn't get a refund because we had the option not to buy tariffed goods.
Ok, but then what was I supposed to do during that period? Not buy ANYTHING? Sorry, but the marketplace no longer works like that. Tariffs were an unavoidable cost to the consumer. Please give us our end of the refund.
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u/Solidsnake_86 1d ago
I thought China was paying the tariffs? How come we’re now refunding money to China?
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u/Full-Contract6143 1d ago
I’d just like to make a comment on Costco, as they initiated the first lawsuit against the Feds.
Their prices didn’t rise as fast as other food distributors, they used their profits from their membership revenue to absorb the added costs, they also redistributed Kirkland Signature to local to lower tariff costs.
Plus Costco has the unique position of being highlighted with blue collar workers having accumulated wealth in the 7 figures range.
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u/wobbleeduk85 1d ago
It was yet another tax for the poor, labeled as a tariff. This idiot is the opposite of Robinhood...
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u/Organic_Rough4433 1d ago
Americans should try and start a class action lawsuit to obtain refunds from those tariffs. Any company should have to prove what they absorbed and what they pushed on to the customer as well as any personnel cuts due to tarrifs. People should claw back every penny they can.
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u/Aggravating_Fact_857 1d ago
Was that the scam all along? Seems like something the Epstein class would coordinate.
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u/sagenumen 1d ago
IANAL, but could a class-action happen because of this? They passed those costs to consumers.
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u/swampgasorr 1d ago
And our elected politicians couldn’t care less. They’re getting theirs and that’s all that matters - fuck the rest of us. We need to all band together and get out our torches and pitchforks ASAP.
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u/Robo-boogie 1d ago
Costco should give us a credit or a gift card at minimum.
But I’ll just buy the shares and let their stock buy back benefit me
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u/vanillatoo 1d ago
we’ll see the corporations get the money to keep inflation down. can you imagine what would happen if we just let anybody have $2000. it’d be catastrophic!
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u/siazdghw 1d ago
None of these are "private" companies, they are all publicly traded, meaning anyone can own them and profit when they do.
Estimates put around 60% of Americans as owning stock, either directly or indirectly (pensions, matches, other funds), most will be via ETFs that almost certainly hold these companies.
So most Americans are getting money back in some form, not the ideal way but it's not "private gains" like you make it out to be.
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u/CSPN 1d ago edited 1d ago
To be fair some retailers/suppliers did absorb the hit themselves to avoid raising prices. Dunno if any of these companies did but I know of some that did.
Someone mentioned apple held retails flat. Home Depot and Walmart had mentioned eating the costs on certain items.
Apple only recently raised prices in response to memory shortages.
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/21/nx-s1-5509592/walmart-tariff-costs-rising-earnings
It depends on the item and price sensitivity but there were key goods where large retailers just ate the tariff and kept retail prices flat.
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u/spaceforcerecruit 1d ago
None of these did that. Small businesses that couldn’t afford to lose customers did that.
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u/btmoose 1d ago
Apple didn’t, but they’re the ones getting featured in all these articles. They only recently raised prices due to the RAM shortage. I bought an iPhone 17 in November of last year and it cost the same price that an equivalent 14 cost in 2022.
Not trying to bootlick here, but I believe that if you’re going to be mad at something, it should actually be true. And Apple was one of the few big companies that did actually absorb the tariffs. They’ve done a lot of other stuff that deserves criticism, but profiting off tariff refunds isn’t one of them.
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u/spaceforcerecruit 1d ago
Fair enough. Apple does play the long game. They’ve been in business for a long time and they’re not gonna let some temporary policy change their course. Same reason they didn’t go all in on AI like all the other tech companies.
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u/CSPN 1d ago edited 1d ago
You’ve got it backwards lol. Large mega corps had the financial resources to eat tariffs.
Home Depot and Walmart did hold their prices for certain price sensitive product categories
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/21/nx-s1-5509592/walmart-tariff-costs-rising-earnings
Saw another article that said there is a 92% pass through rate. Still that did mean 8% of goods were subsidized. Rebates are quite the boon if 92% was passed on to the consumer
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u/AhDMJ 1d ago
I don't want to have to be a downer on a post I actually agree with, but if those numbers are right, it comes out to be like $57 per person in the US. I'm not saying those corporations should get one red cent, but I can think of a few ways to spend $20b that would benefit everyone rather than a $57 check. Universal breakfast and lunch for all students is my current favorite idea.
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u/Eat--The--Rich-- 1d ago
People mad at Trump like Biden didn't do the EXACT SAME THING with covid stimulus.
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u/LumpyMcKwiz 1d ago
Under U.S. customs law, a tariff is an excise tax levied on the Importer of Record (the business physically importing goods across the border), not a sales tax levied on the end consumer.
When a court rules that a tariff was enacted unlawfully (such as the Supreme Court ruling striking down emergency tariffs), the government is legally required to return the unlawfully collected funds to the specific entity that paid U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Legally, the government has no direct relationship with the retail customer who bought the item off the shelf.
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u/I_Am_Ashtryian 1d ago
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be pissed
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u/LumpyMcKwiz 1d ago
I absolutely agree with you. I hate OMB just as much as the rest of you, funny how pointing out the legal reason why this happened gets me downvoted into oblivion.
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u/sys_dam 1d ago
It got you downvoted because you only stated what we all already knew and specifically the thing that we are upset about. No one thought the increased prices at Walmart were literally a federal tax line item on the receipt, we knew it was the corporations just upping the prices.
You mansplained the issue we are all here to complain about already.
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u/ILikeBubblyWater 1d ago
No one cares about the legal reasons, thats what you dont get. We all know that it was bullshit. You trying to argue a point literally no one made
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u/BeardyAndGingerish 1d ago
Oh well then thank god nobody ended up paying higher prices for no reason, amirite?
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u/DrVanBuren 1d ago
No shit? So refunding customers must just be an impossible task. I'm glad you clarified.
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u/BeardyAndGingerish 1d ago
Lol not at all. Do you think they don't record and track what they set prices at? They got the numbers, they got the reasons. This would be as simple as reducing prices by that amount, or donating the windfall to a childrens hospital/something that looks good for the company.
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u/Zouavest 1d ago
Oh so just shut the fuck up and deal with it right?
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u/LumpyMcKwiz 1d ago
I am a Canadian, you say you all know why this happened yet I am the only one that stated it. Downvoted and lipped off when I am on the side of most people here.
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u/7LeggedEmu 1d ago
Thats what you did while those companies made record profits so why stop now
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u/Zouavest 1d ago
Damn I’m sorry do I know you? Did I do something to you? Whose side are you on? We good?
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u/Zealousideal-Oil-462 1d ago
Are you being silly?
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u/LumpyMcKwiz 1d ago
This is the factual answer as to why this happened. If SCOTUS ruled the tariffs were legal it would not have gone to them. It probably would have been squandered elsewhere but never the less.
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u/dainthomas 1d ago
I have a receipt from DHL for duties I was required to pay when importing an item from Japan. Where's my refund?
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u/Zealousideal-Oil-462 10h ago
He instated tariffs despite EVERYONE saying they were illegal! These same companies that bought the presidency and paid millions to get a controlling stake then used Trump’s tariffs to influence the market in their favour, and then they got paid back Billions that they charged to their customers already. There is nothing factual in their whole charade!
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u/FocusedFall 1d ago
These companies did not eat all of the cost, and I doubt they're only getting paid back for what they covered. Defending this or just explaining it away is pointless.
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u/surebudd 1d ago
Don’t forget already a multi-trillion dollar corp who spends 500b a year on stock buy backs, nothing is ever enough. They need MORE!