Since Trump is screwing around with tariffs again, I think it’s time to speak up. My local business imports precision instruments from the UK and distributes them across the U.S. It’s niche work, but we’ve been doing it a long time, and we do it well.

We’re a small company. We employ people locally. We pay our taxes. We support local charities. We bring outside dollars into Nevada County. And I’ll tell you what — it’s hard enough to keep a small business running without the government actively making it worse.

Right now, our biggest challenge is dealing with tariffs — pointless, destructive tariffs introduced by Trump and supported by Rep. Kevin Kiley and the rest of the Republican crowd in Congress. These tariffs were dropped on us out of nowhere, with no warning and no logic. And we’ve been left to figure out how to survive.

First off, they’re confusing. We’ve never had to deal with tariffs before, and we don’t have an import department to figure it out, like a big business has. It’s a bureaucratic maze, and it takes our precious time to work through it. Second, we’ve had to raise prices. Nobody wants that. Customers don’t like it, and it puts us at a disadvantage. We nearly lost two big deals because of these sudden price hikes.

And it’s not just the tariffs. Because of Trump’s screwing around with tariffs and international markets, the value of the dollar has gone down steadily since January 20 compared to the British pound. That means everything we import from the UK costs more. Again — we have to raise prices, which makes it harder to compete. That’s a one-two punch to the gut of a business like ours.

Here’s the part that really burns: Trump, Kiley, and the rest talk a big game about supporting small business. But these policies prove they don’t understand how small businesses work — or worse, they do understand and just don’t care.

We’re not big donors. We’re not flying out lobbyists to Washington. We don’t have a PAC. But we small businesses account for nearly half of all private sector employment, which means we’re the ones who keep the economy running. And we’re the ones getting kicked around by policies made by people who’ll never feel the pain.

Let’s straighten out one big misconception, spread by right-wing propaganda: If you say that tariffs aren’t taxes, you’re either ignorant or lying. They’re taxes, plain and simple, paid by the company that imports the goods. That eventually gets passed on to all of us as consumers directly or indirectly. Ain’t no free lunch.

And let’s talk about something most people miss: corruption. Economic historians will tell you – tariffs, especially big ones and arbitrary ones, are an invitation to corruption. When you start handing out favors and exemptions, you open the door to shady deals. Shady companies. Shady governments. And if you’ve got a shady administration, guess what? They’ll take full advantage of that.

We don’t get those side deals. We just get screwed.

I’d love to sit Trump and Kevin Kiley down and say this to their faces: You don’t understand a damn thing about how small businesses actually work. Or maybe you do — and you’re intentionally making life harder for us. Either way, the result is the same. We pay the price.

We’re not just numbers. We’re people trying to build something, keep people employed, and contribute to our community. We take pride in what we do. But pride doesn’t pay the bills when policy is stacked against us.

This is not what we voted for. We need representatives who understand — or at least care to learn — how small business actually works. We need policies that support growth, not ones that punish the little guys while the big corporations write the rules.

Neighbors, please call Kevin Kiley at (202)225-2523 or send him a message at https://kiley.house.gov/contact. Join me in telling him to get real and fix this!