One Liberation After Another: Michigan Families Are Still Paying For The Illegal Tariffs Huizenga, Barrett, And James Backed And They Haven’t Seen A Dime Back
On April 2, 2025, sweeping new tariffs were announced with a promise of a manufacturing boom and a better deal for working Americans. Congressmen Bill Huizenga, Tom Barrett, and John James backed that agenda every step of the way. One year later, the results are now in, and they are not what families in Michigan’s 4th, 7th, and 10th Districts were promised. Today, the average household has paid roughly $1,700 more over the past year because of these tariffs. Those costs never showed up on a receipt, they were quietly absorbed into grocery bills, utility costs, and the price of many household goods that depend on imported materials to make it to a store shelf.
The manufacturing boom never came. More than 100,000 manufacturing workers have lost their jobs since the tariff agenda began, a loss equivalent to closing thousands of factories nationwide. Here in Michigan, that reality is not abstract: Stellantis has laid off hundreds of workers, with economists noting that tariffs drove the company to “pause production.” Small businesses across the country, already battered by a year of tariff-driven cost increases rippling through their supply chains, are now bracing for another wave as the conflict in the Middle East ramps up the pressure. Families in Kalamazoo, Lansing, Warren, and communities across our districts are living with costs that have climbed month after month, on top of a Republican Tax Law that handed massive tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy while cutting Medicaid by hundreds of billions and enacting the largest cuts to food assistance in history.
“As a business owner, it is getting harder and harder to keep track of all the places where added expenses will come from. If it isn’t tariffs, then it is gas prices; if it isn’t supplies, then it is groceries. How is anyone supposed to plan for the future when monthly budgets get thrown out of whack based on arbitrary decision making and lack of oversight from our elected leaders,” said Mike, MI-10 constituent and small business owner. “All these tariffs did was liberate hardworking people from the prospects of saving their money. Congressman James was elected to look out for us, not rip us off. We call on him to take action and get us our money back, we have all the receipts.”
“Anybody living on a fixed income can only describe the situation we’re living through as one thing: dire. People are afraid to go to the doctor, the gas pump, and the grocery store. Simply staying at your house is getting more expensive,” said Sheila, Rep. Tom Barrett’s constituent. “A lot of people are getting hurt when Congress should be taking action to help, not just continue asking the American people to continue sacrificing while the wealthier get richer and richer. Congressman Barrett, we are your people too, and if you don’t act to do right by us, we don’t stand a chance.”
One year into the damage, the verdict is clear: these tariffs did not protect American workers. They did not bring manufacturing back. They raised costs for working families, drove up prices for small businesses, and funneled hundreds of billions of dollars out of the pockets of everyday Americans. At the same time, Huizenga, Barrett, and James voted to hand the ultra-wealthy trillions in tax cuts. Families in Michigan’s 4th, 7th, and 10th Districts have waited long enough. Their representatives need to stop defending the policies that caused this and start fighting to give their constituents their money back.
