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... Douglas Irwin is a New Hampshire college professor who has spent decades studying tariffs. On Feb. 2, he got a painful lesson in how they work in the real world.

His utility company sent him a letter alerting him that with President Donald Trump planning to slap tariffs on Canada, his heating bill would rise. Trump later postponed the tariffs for a month, but the point had been made: New tariffs meant Irwin and other customers would be paying more to heat their homes in frigid New England winters with propane coming down from Canada.

"It's been a very cold winter up here, and [the tariffs] would have an immediate impact on a big-ticket item for consumers," Irwin said in an interview.

As a candidate, Trump promised to impose tariffs on nations he says have shortchanged the United States. He also promised that people would pay lower prices. Either may be possible, but together the goals are incompatible, economists say. ...

On another front, Trump wants to extend his multitrillion-dollar tax cut from the first term and simultaneously curb "the unsustainable path of federal debt." A president can do one or the other but not both, according to budget analysts.

Whatever savings Elon Musk's effort to shrink the government workforce achieve won't be nearly enough to offset the cost of the tax cuts, said Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. ...