Real opposition?

If it’s real, this could be the first real crackdown on the Tech Tyrants by the Trump admin. It’s aimed at a sneaky trick by Amazon and other America-hating corporations to get around customs and tariffs. The ‘de minimis’ exception was made a long time ago to assist ordinary tourists who wanted to bring home a bottle of wine or a souvenir. The tax on a small item wasn’t worth the expense of processing, so it was exempted. Amazon organized massive groups of “small” shippers to bring in crap from China without customs and tariffs. Trump’s recent tariffs carefully continued the exception, knowing full well who it benefits. Now they’re closing the loophole, provided they’re really serious.

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Related: The Senate appears to be passing a bipartisan bill that lowers SOME barriers to affordable housing. Probablyl won’t make it through the lower house, but we don’t know yet. Among other things the bill would remove an odd federal requirement that all modular houses must be built like trailers, street legal with wheels and hitch. This requirement certainly wasn’t present in the 50s and 60s. Modular houses were shipped by rail and truck, ready to install on a cement foundation. The builder assembled the modules in various ways. My family owned a split-level house built that way in 1961.