12 Apr 2025 6:29 pm
jerrab » Today, 12:41 pm » wrote: ↑ ---------------------------
Indeed, soybean farmers were one of the biggest victims of Trump’s costly trade policies in his first term. Following retaliatory Chinese tariffs on American soybeans, exports to the soybean farmers’ largest foreign market dropped by 77 percent, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Of the $27 billion in total reduced US agriculture exports from mid-2018 to the end of 2019, soybeansFarmers getting squeezed on both ends of a renewed and potentially uglier trade war likely means taxpayers will get squeezed to help cover the consequences.
The first Trump administration took $23 billion from taxpayers and gave it to farmers to compensate for their losses. In her January Senate confirmation hearing, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins referenced the bailout, noting, “We are prepared to execute something similar … we can’t reinvent the wheel.”While the administration is happy to provide farmers with another bailout following another self-inflicted gunshot to the economy, it’s already started handing out taxpayer money. Last week, Rollins used National Agriculture Day to announce the administration is issuing $10 billion in direct payments to farmers authorized by Congress in December. This is all occurring while the Trump administration is supposedly trying to downsize the federal government. However, eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse” in government programs while simultaneously offering multi-billion dollar bailouts—all in the pursuit of economic autarky—will accomplish no such thing.Looking for a good example of government waste, fraud, and abuse?The time the Trump administration is spending upending global trade is a waste, the rationale for it is a fraud, and forcing taxpayers to cover the damage is downright abuse.Related Tags
Economics, Tax and Budget Policy, Trade Policy
Jeez....constant bitching and crying...grow up already
