Hacker News Reader

Whether the money is coming out of US consumers and businesses or out of Chinese businesses, where is the money going? How is it being used?

It goes into the Treasury Department's general fund, where it's used as part of the federal government's overall budget

I think that's more important than people realize:

* The executive branch is doing its own appropriations, effectively - it's revenue they create and control, with little restriction (?).

* It's a way of shifting revenue from progressive taxation to regressive forms (for example, sales tax is another way to do that).