SCOTT BESSENT: Let's talk tariffs. It's time to revitalize Alexander Hamilton's favorite tool

For months, economic commentators parroted the Harris campaign’s misleading talking point that tariffs are a "sales tax." Like much of economists’ conventional wisdom, this view is fundamentally incorrect. The reflexive opposition to tariffs represents political ideology and advocacy, not considered economic thought.

The truth is that tariffs have a long and storied history as both a revenue-raising tool and a way of protecting strategically important industries in the U.S. President-elect...