> At least tariffs tax consumption rather than production. Taxing production/income is horribly evil and in better times (such as when the country was founded) people who insisted on it would have been shot.

Not true. Producing almost anything in the material world requires raw materials. If any of them are imported, they suffer from tariffs.

IMO, if a consumption tax is what you're looking for, then value added tax (VAT) is a more suitable solution.