I'm sorry,but didn't alot of these folks vote for Trump because he was going to shake things up? He's been talking trade war forever it seems. Now the taxpayers have to bail out the farmers & for how long being this imbecile is convinced he's "winning " this ludicrous trade war ? Reap what you have sown.
4
He's paying off his base. Plain and simple.
8
The NY Times has erroneously echoed the Trump House's phrasing and referred to this 12 billion dollar giveaway as "emergency relief."
There is no emergency here other than Trump's self-inflicted idiocy. Yet these mostly male white farmers from the heartland, the majority of whom supported Trump, will happily accept the welfare (as they always have, calling them "subsidies"--along with cashing their social security checks and billing their doctor visits to medicare) while simultaneously opposing any social assistance for everyone and anyone else. Including those experiencing actual emergencies.
12
This is the dumbest thing that Trump has done, enact a tariff to raise prices then enact a program to pay the farmers who can't sell their produce. Buying votes, corporate welfare etc. Is he going to drug test the recipients?
6
This is how farming works:
Too hot? More farm welfare entitlements!
Too cod? More farm welfare entitlements!
Too much rain? More farm welfare entitlements!
Too little rain? More farm welfare entitlements!
Prices too high? More farm welfare entitlements!
Prices too low? More farm welfare entitlements!
Not enough illegal aliens to hire? More farm welfare entitlements!
Foreign competitors too efficiant? More farm welfare entitlements!
Working Americans are getting sick and tired of supporting farmers. You elected Trump, you pay his price.
10
Well Trump did say he loves debt. No real surprises here since the big one in Nov of 2016. Thanks Trump and Stein voters. I’m saddened to learn how ignorant our country is.
5
To Trump voters, You are clearly way smarter than DJT believes.
I would have voted for John Edwards if all of his lies had not been exposed Before he was elected. So I can say from experience that it is embarrassing to admit you fell for a conman, but you learn from it and move on.
4
MAGA, Make America Grovel Again. Trump's stupidity just cost the taxpayers some big bucks. Remember this when you vote in November. Toss Trump from the House and the Senate.
8
This goes against basic rules of economics. That simple.
What happened to the Republican ideals of free markets and minimal government involvement in business?
Despite the fact that we're exhausted by the endless daily idiotic ideas coming out of the White House, our congress remains quiet.
8
Don the Con had to restore payments under the ACA to insurers after this stupid tariff / bailout for the farmers. Does he ever think one step ahead or listen to anyone else?
7
moving on to a centralized economy now, get rid of the free press, rig the elections, welcome to the ussr.
3
From which country China bought triple soybeans??? Russia.
And Russia is planing to double the soybean area in the next year. Funny!!!
6
So, Trump's trade war robs farmers of up to $12 billion in income (& the taxes from that income that would help pad the treasury & lessen the debt & deficit). Trump replaces it with up to a $12 billion bailout - which comes from the nation's taxpayers as a whole & adds to the debt & deficit. Now Trump's farmers are being made reliant on taxpayer welfare as they lose the ability to work & earn their own keep. Once again, taxpayers are forced to bail out an administration for its damaging & ill-considered policies. It is a classic lose-lose situation.
2
The more he runs up the deficit the more justification he will have to eliminate social security and medicare in his second term.
3
Trump's "helping hand" reminds me of the arsonist who suits up like a firefighter, and runs in for the glory of saving a life while the town burns to ashes. Trump has spent his whole career playing with fire, traditionally burning up someone else's money before walking away. This latest caper is about Trump burning up our national resources while feigning to be the rescuer - all for the glory of votes that will allow him to do it again ... and again - until there's nothing left but the ashes of debt. Perhaps then he'll move to Russia.
4
Trump's whack-a-mole trade policies reflect his nature to lie, distract, divert, and later "fix" unintended consequences (NB: that have been foreseen by nearly every expert). Following a truthful, transparent path in all of his activities would be so much easier and effective, but that appears impossible for this man. So sad for all of us. Our only short-term help is the mid-term election.
3
President Trump's expertise in bankruptcy should come in handy as the trade wars heat up. Step one: reduce government revenues through tax cuts. Step 2: Arbitrarily apply tariffs that encourage other nations to target tariffs against key US industries. Step 3: dig into reduced government revenues to shield big agriculture from the problems he created. No wonder Trump says he loves tariffs - wonderful way to drive US economy into the ground.
4
Brilliant. So, this is Trump's solution "for a better economy."
Start a trade war and introduce tariffs. And then, as soon as his bad decisions start affecting Americans, take money out of our own coffers -- BILLIONS OF DOLLARS -- and give the money to the people harmed by his bad decisions.
Absolutely brilliant. Why didn't my 5-year-old think of that?
2
Obviously, this is aimed at Trump's rural supporters. But aren't they the same people who rail at "handouts" for struggling urban folks? I'm guessing the irony is lost on them.
3
Shouldn't every industry damaged by Trump's receive the same benevolence? Oh wait a sec. he's just spending to buy votes in the midwest.
1
So, is this $12 billion aid package a one-time event or, instead, the first installment of an aid program that will continue annualy until who-knows-when? Even if Trump's nonsensical trade wars eventually cease, the loss of global market share that our farmers will have suffered in the interim is likely to be permanent, requiring permanent aid, financed by additional Federal debt, the cost of which will be borne by all US taxpayers................
Is this administration is prepared to keep this aid on an annual basis, while the rest of the country is expected to subsidize this by reducing necessary programs? The real problem is that other countries will look for alternative sources for their needs and the possibility that this market could rebound could be forever lost. As the saying goes. . . "penny wise, pound foolish"
4
When the 3 trump kids were in their tweens they were playing in trump tower making some noise that the blowhard found annoying.
Angrily he screamed for them to go in another room to continue their games playing.
Suddenly a loud crash came from this other room, djt scrambled to find out what happened, seeing that no one was hurt but some things were damaged, he chastised them and said they would have to pay for the broken stuff they caused, that'll teach youse guys.
2 days later he increased all 3 of their allowances.
Isn't this the group of voters who always say that big government and welfare are destroying this country? The people that always complain about the "welfare queen?". I guess it's ok when the money flows their way. There are no American value left, it's all situational.
10
Tax and Spend: Bad Democrat!
Tariff and Spend: Good Republican!
Subsidies: Bad Democrat!
More subsidies: Good Republican!
No wonder we're polarized.
2
Once the international buyers turn to other sources it'll be a long time to woo them back. Maybe not even possible. When the US was developing their agricultural markets overseas they didn't have a lot of competition. Now there is a lot. Incredibly incompetent move by the GOP administration and it's foolish leader.
2
Does anyone besides me sort of get the feeling that he doesn't really know what he is doing?
1
I hope this Goverment welfare program goes to the Family Farm and not Agro-Buisness.
1
Trump's Tax, Tariffs and Trade Policies are affecting EVERY American! Our Government, Congress, is designed to be a "Check and Balance" of the President. Clearly, it is not working!
Get to work Congress for the American people you represent! You are in Office to serve us...not the President!
2
Trumps tariffs and republican complicity are ensuring America is last
Lots of other countries are making deals for years in the future while we fight among ourselves
A republican vote is a vote against the US
2
Farm groups expressing thanks for this aid package, which aims to mitigate the damage inflicted upon them by Trump's trade war, is akin to the shooting victim thanking the gunman for handing him a sterile pad to stem the bleeding from the wound. Go figger.
1
Corporations that pay little in taxes should not be eligible for bail outs
Or how about you can only be bailed out up to 30% of the taxes you paid
That ought to get them thinking
All these guys live smaller government until it costs them
1
I see the Times is avoiding calling this money the welfare it is.
Trump needs to be called out on this explicit support for welfare.
1
Whatever happened to the conservative mantra of "pulling yourselves up by your own bootstraps", don't farmers have boots on their straps ?
Farm Industry. On Bachelorette, one could witness the tomato planting machine in action. In the stores, stuff comes from all over. Does the American consumer support the farm industry so persons abroad can buy stuff at lower prices-- as with drugs?
-I do not think the US should be the bread basket for, nor the munitions dealer for, nor the policeman for the rest of the world.
-Methanol should not be produced from corn rather sugar cane.
-Brazil needs to sell its soybeans.
-Aquifers everywhere are running dry.
-It would be great if birth numbers went down everywhere.
-Maybe we should have had tariffs 60years ago before industry CEOs CFOs etc. decided stockholder value would increase if they moved their plants overseas -- and too advantage of cheap labor and no unions.
White man speak with forked tongue.
PS the horrible school lunch program is a farm support program.
??Why is tofu so expensive?? and corn -- now 75 cents an ear??more than a dollar for 12 oz frozen? No FREE Market -- just words -- of which I am sick.
1
Farmers should have the same cure as the rest of us. Dumping Trump and his supporters in Congress.
1
Dear Trump supporter: could you please ask your President to articulate what he considers a 'fair' trade deal?
While it is true that other countries have various tariffs and subsidies, the US also has tariffs and subsidies on selected products and services (see for example the 25% tariff on light trucks and the system of sugar quotas and subsidies). The US overall tariffs amount to 1.6%; Canada's are 0.8%. The US is not by any means the most open economy in the world.
The purpose of trade deals such as NAFTA is to negotiate which of these trade restrictions will be removed and which remain. NAFTA did this. So far the main impediment to renegotiating NAFTA is the US insistence on a five year sunset clause. Tell me what a sunset clause has to do with fairness?
3
If the USA does not vote in a Dem-controlled Congress in 2018 and if that Congress does not impeach and replace Trump & his cabinet then it is the nation`s fault. You can only fool some people ALL of the time.
5
Farmers who depend on government money are more or less welfare bureaucrats who have to spend ungodly amounts of time filling out government paperwork for their livelihood. It is no wonder that they choose to give up that line of work and sell the family farm to corporations who are swamped up with lobbyists and congressmen in their back pockets. Looks like a political payoff to farmers to accept money for producing nothing except paperwork. How does that make America great?
12
Once these markets are replaced by let's say Brazil, they will be gone for ever. Just like the Supreme court pick, Trumps policies will last way pass his leaving office.
Another Republican taking a perfectly good economy and trashing it.
12
It would be interesting to know where the money is going. Does it end up in a huge conglomerate, such as Del Monte, or in the hands of individual farmers? Is is a bailout of big business, in which Trump and Company may hold stock? If it goes to individuals, are they going to have to demonstrate that they are drug free, looking for work, going to school, putting their kids in day care to free themselves up for jobs? Or do those rules only apply to the urban poor? Will there be a lien on their farms? Will they pay it back?
Have we ever had a bailout because the President made a bad policy decisions and wants to buy the votes of his supporters? I think not. he makes a mockery of government and of the Republican party, and exposes them for what they are.
10
President Haney (from Green Acres) is proposing a deal to Mr. Douglas. Take the money and vote for me. What will Mr. Douglas do? Stay tuned to the tragicomic ending in next week's episode.
7
In another country, this would be called buying votes.
23
First he raises taxes but calls it a tariff then he buys votes by calling it aid.
13
Farmers, like immigrants like poor people like to work and do not relish a hand out. Will DJT require that the farmers work for this 12 billion dollar give away much the way poor people, etc., must work to receive Medicaid, Food Stamps, subsidized housing, and other so called welfare payments? If there is no work requirements for farmers, then I ask, is that an example of entitlement DJT & his progeny style entitlement? Please explain this to me.
7
Just more of the MAGA crowd receiving a hand out. You can rationalize it anyway you want, but your President is giving you hand out for his policy failure and your vote in the fall. This is pathetic...
Your President leads a group of whiners who blame everyone else for their own failures. Their motto ought to be BAA, Blame America Again!
13
I hope people are aggressively saving right now. Because the next great recession is impeding due to Trump's asinine polices to make America poor again.
7
So most farmers in the mid west voted for Trump... he is doing what he said..it is called karma
1
How sick is this #StableGenius?
He creates a TERRIBLE problem that is ALREADY bankrupting fifth generation farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin now swooping in “to save the day!”
If these GOP farmers and GOP legislators STILL back Trump, well too bad when this “band aid” becomes an irreversible bankruptcy!
Enjoy your jobs at Burger King!
7
I just love the headline in the Wall Street Journal today: Trump Offers Trade Aid to Farmers. It almost makes him sound like a decent guy. It should read: "Trump screwed up big time and now has to dig Farmers out of the hole he threw them in." What's so frightening is that this is just the beginning. Does he plan to bail out everyone he's crushed and will crush through his ineptitude? He's using OUR TAX MONEY to pay off his supporters!
15
$12B buys some relief for their lost crop sales this year. But Chinese buyers are making deals with soybean producers in other countries that may well involve multiyear deals. Who's going to help those farmers stay afloat next year? Or will the tariffs be conveniently lifted once they have proved their usefulness as a Trump-base rallying point.
4
What makes the trade war so crazy? Let's see, there are nearly 2 billion Chinese and only 330 million of us. Although we have more money per person, China is coming up in the world. Chinese consumers want more than just what their country has to offer. China has always protected their interests not because their people want that but because their government officials are as corrupted as ours, so much for the Communist revolution. Trade between countries has been a means to connect without going to War over the other's resources. These tariffs have no real use because the Chinese government has a different agenda. Like us, the Chinese people are at the mercy of their leaders. Unlike us their culture does not allow them to confront their leaders, we can. Our farmers will be feeling the pain and many will not survive these tariffs. This time we should help them instead of leaving them high and dry. They will need more than money. They will need jobs. They will need support to deal with the mental and emotional strain of not being able to support their family. Throwing just money at these social problems never works. Do not allow the Pretend King Trump's administration to divide us. A long time ago, our farmers moved from the Midwest because of the dust bowl disaster. This time we need to support our fellow countrymen.
1
Financial aid that will go mostly to corporate farming! Does anyone think that Trump actually cares about individual or family farms?
4
Unfortunately, his voters do believe he cares about them. Farmers, coal miners and steel workers all believe it. It is unfortunate that many people are not aware of his bankruptcy history and the resultant loss of income for regular working people and small businesses, just like farmers in the Midwest.
NYT review that history on the front pages again. Put it front and center for all to see. All voters needed and still need to know what kind of businessman Trump truly is.
1
A one time bailout is a short-term solution that doesn't change the fact that Trump has stopped other countries from buying American goods.
4
Because of this trade war U.S, soy bean farmers are losing business while Russia is gaining more of this business, giving them much needed cash.
China is also gaining trading partners that we are losing which also hurts U.S. businesses.
Everything Trump is doing seems to be hurting the U.S. while helping China and Russia.
Are we missing the forest for the trees?
2
If I were a farmer, I would not be holding my breath waiting for this compensation. This administration has taken INCOMPETENCE to new levels. If they can't keep track of 2,000 children I'd doubt they will have the capacity to administer $12B in farm aid. Once again, much talk, with no planning.
7
Didn't the Farmers get a wonderful boost to their incomes when they forced America to put 15% minimum ethanol in every gallon of gas we buy? The Farmers giveth and the Farmers take away.
4
Another prime example of the new Republican attitude that our debt is of no concern unless it is created by Democrats
7
Our family farm (180 years tilling the same land) raises fruit. We are not the favored subsidized crop- steel or soybeans. But the export markets are destroyed so the local prices are in the dumper.....
5
And the next solution by the GOP will be another tax cut for billionaires.
It’s in the works.
Sorry, but these people only care about the money.
4
Since this is a blatant attempt to use $12 billion of federal funds for a political purpose, it should be charged to the Republican National Committee or, perhaps, to Trump's 2020 electoral campaign fund. How possibly can Trump criticize other countries for subsidizing their products, when he engages in such fiscal tomfoolery. Oh yes, "trade wars are easy to win."
9
It’s profoundly insulting to the farmers that they are being bribed by Trump for their support. And where is this 12 billion coming from and how long this will go on?
4
Trump has Russia's interest at heart.Trump's tariffs are a Russian ploy. Attack our NATO allies and destabilize their economies.Trump only cares about the farmers because he needs their votes.Trump's goal is total chaos so he and Putin will be the last ones standing. Ray Sipe
1
Does Trump think China will continue to finance our increasing debt to support the tariffs against them?
6
Trump creates a problem, then throws $12billion of taxpayers money to try to solve it. Will a BANKRUPTCY claim be next?
7
It must be difficult for the people that railed so hard against the welfare "socialism" to have to accept this hand out. How is it that they can't see the tariffs are killing them? Ask the nail manufacturer in Poplar Bluff Missouri who is expecting to shut their doors by Labor day. Ask the soybean farmers who are trying to make their loan payments. "Just hold on a little longer folks. Sacrifice for the good of the Donald! I will show those people that don't agree with me what kind of power I have! I will put tariffs on their goods and make them beg to do business with us again!" says the man who went bankrupt multiple times. In the meantime these people will sit back and take the "socialist welfare" handout that they railed so hard against and all will be fine until that runs dry. This handout is for no other reason than to buy your vote in November. Just remember this, that after the election you won't be looking at another handout. You may be signing over your farms to the banks to sell to China. Or, if you are lucky, the "Party before Country" republicans in Congress will grow a collective backbone and tell Trump to kill his bully tariffs.
5
Brazilian soybean farmers seem pretty happy with Trump's tariffs.
1
Um, I thought vote-buying was supposed to be illegal.
7
Aiding family farms is one thing. Aiding agri-business is another. Agri-business benefits corporations, seeks little except high profits, and often scars the land. Family farmers often refuse federal aid, even when needed. Agri-business sees government aid simply as another income stream.
Excluding agri-business from receiving governmental aid would reduce money spent for "corporate welfare." Aiding family farms in moments of need protect our common American values.
The Trump administration decision to offer billions in such so-called federal aid will only insure additional contributions to Trumps re-election.
Just another Trump bait-and-switch illusion paid for by the American taxpayer.
17
Just another social welfare program. This administration has made it clear its more than happy to appropriate and reallocate money from other Americans to financially prop up his base rather than focusing on actually developing trade and financial strategies that work. I don't see how moving money around from some Americans to other Americans to cover up a poor thought through trade policy is making America great (again). Its just tapping into and draining out our current finances rather than growing our economy.
6
Why should we taxpayers have to foot the bill. We will already be hurt by increases in the price of consumer goods as result of Donald's boondoggle.
14
Given the apparent outrage by some Congressional Republicans, what do we suppose they will do? My guess is that they will follow their altered consciences and continue their reality to Mr. Trump.
7
Aren't these precisely the subsidies Trump rails against as being "not fair" trade? Corporations and farming sectors that get government welfare are EXACTLY the same thing as what the GOP abhor about Chinese industries: they're state-run.
5
Is the Trump administration taking the economy to Socialism?
5
Are the farmers taking the money? Seems like the money is a just one more gub'mint handout - the thing that Trump supporters claim to despise - until THEY need it.
18
DonalD doesn't know enough to know if he wants to be Herbert Hoover or FDR.
3
Trump threw money around with his casinos and went bankrupt.It appears that he had to depend on Russian money to keep his brand afloat.Now that he has access to taxpayer money, he is acting like a kid in the candy-shop.He and his Republican enablers have already run up the deficit to over one trillion dollars.I'm not sure how the Russians are going to save hime from his economic follies this time.Maybe Larry Kudlow(whose comments are just goofy) and John Bolton will suggest another war as a way of stimulating the economy.Trump is like a 12year old who wants to fly the airplane.I'm afraid he's already left the runway.The likelihood of an economic crash under Trump grows daily.Grassley should hang his head in shame for his blatant hypocrisy.
12
It's time for a national boycott of ALL American grown and produced food products. Buy only food imported from our friends and allies like China, Canada and NATO. That will teach Trump and those deplorable welfare farmers not to mess with real Americans.
3
What next, Trump dropping wads of cash from Air Force One over states that supported him?
13
Trump dropping cash out of air force one over States that supported him.... don’t give him any ideas!
Why do I have the uncomfortable feeling that the only moochers who are going to benefit from Trump's payoff to them are Big Farma? That is, the big agribusinesses who run the giant farms?
I kind of doubt the little guys on family farms are going to see much of this corporate welfare.
12
These farmers hate people on welfare yet fail to realize that a federal bailout is also welfare. The hypocrisy!
9
Doesn't Congress have to approve Farm Aid?
4
Black Welfare - Handouts
White Welfare - Aid
18
Add another 12bn to the deficit along with the large tax cut to corporations that have as yet shown any willingness to invest the money in jobs and infrastructure. Current reports show that a large percentage of that money from tax cuts has gone into corp's buying back their own stock. Now that tariffs are reducing the markets for products, the corporations have less incentive to invest in growth in the US. Who would have thought that might occur ( ground hog day of the last trickle down policy ) and was predicted from the start by many economic experts. The scary part is it is just beginning. Trump plays checkers while the work plays chess.
5
@Rob Wagner - the word "work" should be world-my apologies
Two points. First, as the farmers themselves state they will still need global markets after the tariff wars. They have said they may lose the markets for good. Second, how much of this aid will go to corporate farms owned by multi-national corporations who can sustain economic disruptions rather than the family farms who cannot?
10
With the usual drug test and work requirements no doubt.
10
So I think Trump blinked first.
So now the farmers are equivalent to Stormy Daniels, they are getting paid to shut up and take it.
He is going find it hard to borrow enough money to pay off all those who have been hurt so far and if he goes to the next threatened step the needed payoff will be an order of magnitude larger.
So now the farmers are equivalent to Stormy Daniels.
14
Isn't Donald Trump afraid our farmers will become accustomed to handouts and turn into lazy good-for-nothings, relying upon government largesse?
No, they will not become accustomed because it's a one-time payment. Even if it's eventually made. it cannot compensate for the pain the trade war is causing. The best the farmers can hope for is an apology, and there's scant hope even for that.
2
Communism: Government runs the economy into the ground, then pays the workers, even though they don't produce anything that consumers want to buy. Consumers are hurt by rising prices because what they need isn't being produced.
America the Great: Govt imposed tariffs run the economy into the ground, then pays farmers for crops that can't be sold. Consumers are hurt by rising food prices because tariffs have made imports too expensive.
Thank god we don't live in a communist country.
8
What about billions and billions of dollars in aid to consumers, who will have to pay higher prices due to Trump's trade wars? Also, quality will predictably go down since the makers of cars, washing machines, etc. will not have to worry so much about competition.
Meanwhile, Trump will play favorites with those he chooses to protect, undoubtedly based on their loyalty to him. A formula for corruption, and national bankruptcy, which is Trump's special expertise.
10
Another example of blue tax dollars going to red States welfare recepients (AKA farmers). If the Republican voters weren't so vindictive when they vote sometimes I might have some sympathy for their plight now. imagine, lower crop prices, means they will pay even less to their workers, ohh and by the way they also want to deport all their immigrant workers. And I can see all the southern white workers lining up for those great paying farm jobs the immigrants time from them. You wanted Trump, then have Trump, but not my sympathies.
8
In my civics class, I learned that congress allocates money, and the president only executes congress' money.
How does this President get the authority to announce how money would be spent??
It seems that he has exceeded his authority once again.
6
Trump 's misguided logic: I raise tariffs and then use tax dollars to pay you out of tariff discomfort. Hard to beat such a deal.
4
not one dime until we help Puerto Rico..... hypocrisy at its best and sadistic at its worst.... republicans please explain why
18
You do know, of course, that Puerto Ricans voted against statehood because they did not want to pay federal income taxes. With that knowledge do you still want to send even more aid to an openly corrupt and bankrupt bureaucracy in Puerto Rico rather than to actual tax paying farmers?
I'd like to know who the —— is going to pay for this. Maybe DonDon will put it on his credit card. Afterall he got us into this mess in the first place.
Ok bring the handcuffs. I'm guilty of dissing the prez.
7
No one knew the President had the power to start a global trade war. No one knew the President had the power to pay off its victims. No one knew ...
4
What does it take to destroy America? That mentally deranged crackpot Trump. He should be impeached immediately.
12
One important question needs to be asked and answered.
How much of the $12 billion is going to agribusiness and not to the small, independent farmers?
9
We need to keep in mind that Trump's words and deeds have one aim and one aim only-- to keep his base charged up. He has convinced them to believe that his 19th Century failed ideas and policies are actually new.
12
Will President Trump call this welfare? Will there be additional work required to receive this welfare? Is this another example of Republican democracy where the risks and costs are socialized and the profits private?
11
Sorry, there ain’t any long term benefits here. It’s all short term (not to mention, this aid will just add more to the deficit, on top of what the tax cuts did).
Deals or no deals later, it won’t matter. Once farmers in the EU, China, etc. start getting their soybeans, pork, etc. from elsewhere, and they likely have already, there’s no need for them to come back. Not only because they’ll find a rhythm with their new suppliers and won’t need to look again for another one, but because why buy from the US when they can never trust that the government won’t make up some crazy excuse to re-instate tariffs at their whim. Are soybeans a national security threat? Absolutely not, but Trump doesn’t seem to have a problem making this kind of stuff because...well, just because.
I would much rather farmers be able to sell their products to actual customers, rather than the government use my tax $ for a bailout. It’s clear Trump doesn’t care about these farmers, and he only will when they become as rich as he is (in other words, never).
9
Of course there will be some pain inflicted upon the economy in a trade war and of course opponents will try to target that pain towards core supporters of the administration, in this case farmers. What is interesting is how gleefully the NY Times and others trumpet this in the hopes of inflicting a defeat on President Trump and, thus, on the US as a whole.
Under the namby pamby logic of those who criticize Trump engaging in this trade war the US would have to just accept the unfair trade practices and outright theft of China and others because we can never inflict ANY pain on any group. That is a recipe for long term decline and ultimate disaster. Trump is wise to fight this fight sooner rather than later. If the American people actually understand the stakes and act out of the best interests of our country they will support this "trade war" and the US will win. Unfortunately many, including this newspaper, would rather see the USA lose than Trump win. Almost treasonous, isn't it?
I am a farmer and have been for over 40 years. 3 of my grown children work in different parts of our operation so I am likely much more personally effected by Trumps actions than are most of you. I support the sanctions against China and the EU.
China is not our friend and we need to stop the IP theft and other bad behavior or we will rue the day we did not.
3
I share your outrage. The strategy of China rising peacefully through integration into the western free trade alliance is an abject failure. That’s been obvious for a long time. It is very sad the West so loathes itself it persists in the delusion It can attenuate profoundly different societies through integration. Surely Merkel could have worked for another solution besides destroying European cultures already under stress from low birth rates.
the delusion it can attenuate the more revolting values profoundly different societies through integration Merkel should’ve worked for an alternative solution. What is happening in Europe is truly heartbreaking Shirley miracle could have worked for another solution besides destroying European culture. That’s been obvious for a long time.
When all of these crops start to rot after harvest or left in the field because the markets are gone, who is going to be blamed for that? Obama? With all of the hunger in the world AND in the United States, this is immoral.
Money won't help bring back work when the farms and the farmers are gone.
Trump needs to spend some time getting dirty during a harvest instead of hauling his obese self around on a golf course every weekend.
7
Welfare is just fine as long as it goes to the "right" people.
11
In the real world the word for this is "welfare". I thought Republicans were opposed to that.
8
First of all, what adult past the age of puberty still calls themselves "Sonny", as in Sonny Purdue.
Secondly, farming is incredibly lucrative between low cost loans, subsidized crop insurance and other government price supports and favorable tax treatments its hard not to make money at it. Automation is making it increasingly easier to raise productivity without raising costs and America is lucky to have the richest, most productive cropland in the world. We are like the Saudi Arabia of wheat, corn and soybeans.
The impact of the tariffs on farmers is because we have serious overproduction in grains and dairy and as a country we are blinded to that economic reality because we "view" farmers through a lens that is decades out of date.
3
This is subsidy at tax payer expense. Where else does the government expect the money to come from? Imposing tariffs, will not force our trading partners to come to the negotiating table. These countries to whom we sell our products, would go to other locations. This is already happening, with countries like China and the EU looking at other markets to establish bi-lateral trade deals.
Whether we call it a government subsidy or aid, is only a short term solution. As this article points out, the Farmers and their organizations prefer to have established markets. There are other benefits to this approach.
Now that there is a proposal for aid to the Farmers. will there be similar consolation to help the American people in other areas? How about aid to people who have lost Medicaid, or would soon loose the benefit? We no longer see news about what ever has happened to the ACA or Obamacare? Do we have an evaluation on the impact on the recent Tax Reforms? At the same time, there is not much interest or enthusiasm on the fate of Social Security or Medicare.
5
The problem as I see it is that independent farmers could easily be ruined by by this stupid tariff war in just one season. When the independent farmers go down the factory farms will come and buy them out for pennies on the dollar.
Who will get this money? You know 45 will give it to the company farms before the family farmers. He loves to give money to rich people not the people that need it.
VOTE GOP OUT!!
6
I am a New Englander.
Where's the bail out for the lobstermen?
For the cod fishermen?
For the apple growers ?
Why is the WH picking winners ?.
What happened to the bible of St. Ayn Rand ?
13
More welfare for white Republican Trump voters. What a country!
16
Funny, how conservative Republican farmers who rail against welfare for the urban (non-european ancestry) poor grab their own special welfare, agricultural subsidies, with both hands.
8
US taxpayer is paying for Trump's poker game. NOT his money, funny game.
3
did not Obama funnel billions to the health insurers to prop up Obamacare? where was the outrage from the left on that?
2
One difference being the health care act was not enacted to just benefit individuals who voted for the president in office. Can you say the same of the 12 billion being offered up to farmers?
7
@rob The left doesn't shriek about paying taxes and gripe about taxes helping people who need it, call them lazy and accuse them of making bad choices and claim to be so against government, etc., etc., etc. And the need to subsidize health care via Obamacare was not the result of a stupid policy decision by Obama. See? Big differences.
2
Republicans tell us we don't have enough money to pay for Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid or to make health insurance affordable but we DO have enough money to "help" farmers whose business has been hurt by tariffs imposed by the President? Give our tax dollars a break! Don't waste them! The President's advisers and every other economist says trade wars are STUPID. Blowing up.existing trade agreements without replacing them first is STUPID. Why should tax payers pay for STUPID?
16
Any bailout they get should be deducted from future social security payments, tax refunds, etc. I guess if you’re white and a Trump voter, then welfare is okay.
8
Welfare provided by US taxpayers for farmers who voted for Trump so Trump can claim a "win" for a problem that he created. How is this making America great again? The EU, Mexico, Canada, China and every other country hit by Trump's stupid tariffs are moving forward on trade without the US having a seat at the table. Sometimes stupid is as stupid does.
9
Corporate welfare is okay. Putting kids in cages is okay. He has no real understanding of economics. His life has always been run by short term bandaids.
13
Trump reminds me a lot of a horse named Bucky. Bucky, for some unknown reason, was terrified of backing up and he was forever getting himself into pickles that he couldn't get out of. It's of note that we haven't been in a pickle like this since the Great Depression, and for the same reason. MAGA is looking a lot like 1929.
11
Is Trump being stupid, or is this part of the Russian invasion of the U.S.? He couldn't do a better job of destroying our economy and our national unity if he tried--or is he trying?
5
Ah, where is the 12 billion dollars--or better, the 100 billion dollars for Puerto Rico to recover from Maria?
You take care of your voters after you figure out that they know that you have screwed them. After all, they vote and you need Kansas and Iowa and the Dakotas and...
But those brown-skins?
Don't make me laugh. Why should you help those takers?
Better give it to the takers in Nebraska.
"Oh no," bleats out Sarah Sanders, "He meant to say, 'Give it to the givers in Nebraska.'
There. All fixed.
7
I think this is called, "Buying Votes." And what happens next year and the year after that? Is the buyout money bottomless? What about all the other industries that will suffer because of Trump's ego-ridden tariffs? Will he buy their votes, too? Sure, trade wars are easy...if you happen to be rich enough to be able to afford the higher prices for everything and don't need to work.
1
Trump himself is causing this trade war and is now using federal emergency relief funds to offset the farmer's losses? Therefore taxpayers are paying for the tariffs.
6
Good to see that these Trump supporters who are so opposed to government assistance programs will be able to harvest big bucks from the public trough. Are any of them refusing to accept government handouts, on principle?
10
Trump is successful in placing farmers on welfare. Every country has a protectionist tariff or two. But not every farmer has a customer to sell their crops to. Before Trumps finished with his first four year term,has any economist figured how much our national debt will increase? How much are the jobs Trump is creating costing us per job? I predict that Trump will go bankrupt in his personal wealth again. No one will want to stay at his hotels or buy his condos that still have his name on them. To the farmers,you are receiving the care & affection of Trump.
1
Longer this trade war goes on, the more likely we'll start losing market share . Trump may need to give 'hand outs' to the farmers (&other Markets) indefinitely. Bye, Bye mid west farmers, hello Brazil.
6
Now, the Farmer's are seeing Donald Trump the businessman, showing the same expertise that presided over 4 Bankruptcies.
1
Why only farmers Senator? The only reliably-pro-trump voter base.
4
Let's see, tariffs raise prices for all of us. But some are hurt by them so the administration wants to give them taxpayer money. So we all pay more to benefit a few.
Sounds like insurance - the contributions of many pay for the losses of a few.
Trump voters... consider the above and realize that you've elected a closet socialist! Maybe now you can see that some collective policy is healthy even when it when it doesn't benefit you... e.g. health insurance.
2
Big Agriculture is just that: enormous corporations farming enormous tracts of land. The small, family farmer is a dated Rockwellian myth. And because these are huge corporations with huge lobbying budgets, they get whatever they want whenever they want. They are paid not to grow certain crops and are subsidized to grow other crops. They have generally constructed a fail-safe business model based on direct payouts from Congress. Sort of a centrally-planned government-directed economy.
Didn't they used to call that Communism?
3
And so the Republicans and Trump, who purport to hate big government, are producing big government!
They are setting up a government office to charge tariffs (taxes) on imported goods. And adding to this, another government office to pay out money to farmers. It looks like big government to me and we are all looses by it because there is no productivity in this.
Why oh why do we have such a deficit of brain power in Washington?
3
Are the farmers going to pay back this bailout in full?
The auto industry paid back their loans to the government in full when the industry received a bailout from the Obama Administration that saved GM and Chrysler due to the Republican lead financial meltdown of 2008.
Where does the money come from. Certainly not new taxes cause the Republican administration just exploded the deficit with a 1.2 trillion dollar unfounded tax cut intended to put more money in the average Americans pocket - yet 70 percent of the tax cut goes to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. Are factory workers, office workers, retail workers to pay more out of their pockets to subsidize agriculture that is predominantly owned by large and wealthy multinational corporations?
When will the madness end. No logic to Trump. Irrational policy followed by more irresponsible policy that is entirely motivated by politics and not the welfare of the American people.
8
Our America Today:
CORPORATIONS = Federal welfare in the form of tax cuts.
FARMERS = Federal welfare in the form of a 12 bil. bailout.
AVERAGE JOE = More lower-paying part-time jobs. More expensive education. More expensive health care.
14
Many of these $ will go to very large and wealthy corporations. Certainly not all of the $ but lots.
Will "president chaos" require that these handouts be repaid with interest when times are good?
3
Farmer's have been subsidized for a long time.
we have a 500 billion dollar deficit with China and something has to be done. China has done it's fair share of manipulating for years. Along with stealing our intellectual property. Finally someone is addressing this. Once China realizes they are the big losers maybe they will open up their markets more. Do they have a leg to stand on crying about us?
1
What do you mean by $500 billion dollar deficit. Do you think they owe us money? We buy more from them than they buy from us because we are richer. It's not a win lose situation . Plus we buy more because US corporations moved their operations to China to take advantage of cheaper labor. They were not forced to move.
1
Trump says his end game is to force other countries to make better deals with the US.
I have a feeling that's not gonna happen.
Suppose farmers have to end up selling their farms to salvage their losses.
I'm almost sure this land will be bought by big businesses who just might be Russians.
I also remember during the debates, Trump said something about should the US not be able to pay its bill, we could file for bankruptcy.
I have a feeling that because of Trump's 'overtures' to Putin, it's highly possible that in order for Trump to get out of his own depts, he is willing to take this country down with him by destroying our economy.
Are we truly ready to become another Venezuela?
I hope people will stop thinking about the money Trump says he will bring and start thinking about the money we stand to lose because of his policies..
1
Hmmmm thought the government was running low on cash. They gave so much to billionaires in the tax scam they are already trying to cut health care again because "we can't afford it".
Is he going to subsidize Harley Davidson and all the other companies who were also hurt? How does welfare for more people ( yes this is a form of welfare he is causing ) supposed to improve trade or our economy?
6
So now my maker tax dollars are going to a bunch of takers?
8
This cynical and politically motivated move will raise taxes (Republicans, remember small government and lower taxes promises?), increase the budget deficit (Republicans, remember all your talk about controlling deficits), and try to retain Trump support in the heartland for the midterms.
However, trade relationships take years or decades to establish and maintain. In the absence of trusted and reliable and secure relationships, importers will continue to find alternative sources not subject to Presidential whims, and will stay with them if they are happy.
So what happens after this year to our hard-working farmers? Nothing good. Trump is the enemy of dependable, secure trade, whether the bilateral deals he craves or the global relationships he despises.
Everyone, remember to vote in November!
2
Is anyone else tired of paying handouts to these welfare farm queens?
We need a law that prevents taker states from receiving more in federal benefits than they payout.
10
This is crazy stuff that makes me realize how small the world is. My local recycling place no longer accepts “mixed plastics due to market forces”. I am told that China no longer accepts these due to trade war. Until I figure out what to do, I have thrown out plastic bottles. I hate this. Ripples from the stone (or rock) throw of the 2016 election don’t seem to stop. They just get bigger.
3
The farm subsidies are already one of the largest payouts in all of Americas industries. Trump just made it difficult for this industry to survive based on its overseas sales. Then he favored legislation that drastically cut back of food stamps which were one of the few ways to support farmers that also helped other citizens.
All this will eventually make US citizens envious of the investors who lost a comparative pittance on Trumps casino bankruptcies. New Yorkers have seen through him for decades, not the rest of America is about to.
11
The tariffs and subsidizes created this year by Trump will cause economic ruin in the near future. Americans should prepare for another recession or worst, high inflation.
8
In short, we will now increase the deficit by paying for Trump's trade war.
12
I'm from Nebraska and I personally assure you those farmers do not need a dime of that money. Worse yet, I was homeless at the time and they were savage with me, each and every one of them. Don't give them a dime, not one dime!
19
Yeah? So what about Puerto Rico?
Trump's adding to the deficit, based on yet another of his lousy decisions--tariffs. Congress handled this whole affair very lazily, because only Congress can place tariffs, according to the Constitution.
But instead, they ho-hummed and let Trump use his Executive Power to say our trade issues were problems of national security. They were not.
Trump and his favoritism for Russia, combined with all hus efforts at of scurrying for cover from prosecution for these "friendly" relations, seem to be the U.S.'s biggest security threat.
In the meantime, the farmers are holdng up far better than the Puerto Ricans, who still lack electricity and clean water.
Trump's priorities are very much askew, abetted by Congress. He should never been allowed to have place those tariffs for such dubious reasons, and now they're hurting farmers.
But what about bailng out Puerto Rico? Is it an out of sight, out of mind issue, a brown skin issue, or the fact that he didn't lose a golf course in the hurricane?
17
How is this not the blatant purchasing of the farm vote?
18
Yessiree boys, this is what you voted for.
Ignorance, incompetence, hubris, you got it in spades.
What makes you think your foreign customers are ever coming back? They have now established other sources for their needed agriculture products, ones they can rely on in the future, not capricious sources with a leader who constantly lies and double crosses on established treaties.
Be sure to vote for his Congress toadies again in November so he can continue to increase your welfare payments while he destroys your customer base and health care.
Or wise up and get all your pandering Republicans out of office and replace them with representatives that will neuter this disaster of a president.
17
A fine example of a subsidy that hurts your friends. Australia has largely been exempt from Trump's tariffs but this will hurt all agricultural exporting countries especially us.
1
Voice of sanity here! Let's get some perspective, folks. Trump still hasn't committed the ultimate sin of having a personal email server or wearing a tan suit, so just calm down, open your wallets, and bail out the government-hating, taxes hating rugged individualists who continue to support the president who caused their mess, like any intelligent person would!
17
Trump’s. Stupidity will no doubt cost the taxpayers money. If he hadnt put through his vengeful thoughtless tariffs the farmers would not be suffering. The man knows nothing of politics and besides his ignorance he is mentally ill.
9
Let’s see…
They can’t sell $12 billion of goods to us because of our trade barriers.
We can’t sell $12 billion of goods to them because of their retaliation.
So then we give $12 billion in taxpayer-money to make up for our lost sales.
Explain that please…
12
Republicans gotta buy those red state farm votes.
2
I'd rather my tax dollars go to helping American farmers than to keep allowing other countries like China and Germany to continue building their balance of trade surpluses with America with unfair tariffs on American imports.
2
Oh, that Welfare State. Very few “family” owned single farms now. Even family farms comprise many formerly small farms.
Big Ag is set to receive the Corporate Welfare so common from republicans, while they systematically dismantle the system of safety nets that help the most poor, ill and needy in this country. End the tariffs. End the defunding of schools, social safety nets and Medicaid.
7
This article makes this a good time to look back at the positions, during the campaign, of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, on food, farming, and agriculture. I just did, and once again, I'm shaking my head as to how willfully ignorant too many Americans are, who they vote irrationally and emotionally and profoundly uninformed. To read their platforms now is to scratch one's head as to how any farmer or laborer of any kind could have not only voted for the labor-hostile Donald Trump, but NOT for the labor friendly Clinton.
9
Buying votes to support bad a policy. Trump does not get it!
1
How does it feel America when Trump uses your money (other people’s money) to clean up his mistakes?
9
Well, buying votes is what the GOP is famous for. As he has done for his entire career, Trump will cheat others (tax payers) and take their money to pay for his sins.
I don't know what god those Evangelicals are praying to and praising for having given them Trump, but I don't like him one bit and wouldn't pray to him, as apparently he is a great deceiver. I smell sulfur, with more than a faint hint of rot.
6
Mr. President, how about a subsidy to all the Walmart shoppers who will now be paying higher prices for appliances, shoes, and clothing manufactured in China? These are people who voted for you, yet you are hurting them in the pocketbook.
And while you're at it, Mr. President, why don't you fire your Fake Economic Advisors, Peter Navarro and Larry Kudlow?
2
Those billions coulda went to building that wall. Now, what are we gonna do?
3
Payments made from taxpayers to support others. This looks mysteriously like welfare to me. Oh wait...its from the Trump GOP so it's not.
14
What we have here is welfare for the white people that voted for Trump. Where is the Republican outrage about spending, like they displayed with the affordable care act?
6
"Red" States lookout! Your Representatives back Mr T's cozy slide toward the Commies and even the NRA has partnered with them. The next step is to collectivize the farms, where you must sell your produce to the Center, and be paid with money borrowed from China. The last time there was a Republican President, they stripped our savings and gave all the money to the same banks that, now, own our farms!
2
This is just disgusting. This amounts to corporate welfare which besides being completely unnecessary in a "free market" is just adding and adding to the deficit.
Additionally, these aren't directed at small farms, they're for corporations running large scale farms which is utterly reprehensible.
6
“This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers, and the White House’s ‘plan’ is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches,” said Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska. “This administration’s tariffs and bailouts aren’t going to make America great again, they’re just going to make it 1929 again.”
“Tariffs are taxes that punish American consumers and producers,” Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said on Twitter. “If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers — the answer is remove the tariffs.”
Don't forget that these guys both voted for the 0.1% Corporate Welfare Tax Cut that we, the taxpayers, are also paying for. Lip service--if they really wanted to show their bona fides, they'd change parties.
9
Its astonishing to hear these "5th ave" farmers continue to support Trump......even close to bankruptcy BECAUSE of Trump. Its an enigma the spell this man has cast on half the nation.
1
Conservatives believe in nothing at all: exhibit #9,763,256.
6
White farmers have always received aid from the U.S, Department of Agriculture. But blsck famers were denied such aid from USDAG through the second Bush administration. When black folks get government welfare they are dismissed as ignorant, lazy and immoral and violent.
Trump won 58% of the white vote including 62% of white men and 54 % of white women. Hillary won 95% of the black vote including 92% of black men and 98% of black women. Trump's white farm voting base deserves to suffer. And they should not be begging and whining about their welfare, MAGA!
14
@Blackmamba
Remember Shlrley Sherrod!
1
All you Trump supporters keep ranting and raving and screaming and yelling about how you want the government out of your lives; to just leave you alone. Well then, turn down the money, folks, he's just buying your votes anyway. It's my tax money, and I thinks it's a monumental waste being spent on the likes of you. You wanted this man, now deal with it. He'll getting rich on your backs. Happy now?
13
Oh okay just worked this one out, Putins need to distress and divide the United States of America, we are so "foolish" after all!
1
This is all window dressing. If we can only stop women from having abortions, everything will be all right.
9
November comes soon. Get out the vote. Tie the fool's hands. This too shall pass, hopefully.
5
What a bleeding mess this president is causing. Trumpism is a 24/7 nightmare. It appears that that old saw still holds: in the land of the blind, the one- eyed man is king.
Thank you, heartland! You created this monster we all have to live with now.
$12 billion? That's just for openers. Trump gives trillions in tax breaks to the 1 percenters and now he wants us to pay for his trade wars? For godssakes, wake up, heartland.
Rather, open your eyes!
5
Donald Trump who is the most unqualified unhinged person to occupy the WH is admitting that his tariff is hurting people. Why these farmers get rescued fromTrump’s stupidity? I bet the most of farmers, especially those voted for Trump, are white and not Hispanic or black. Would there be more relief fund for those working at manufacturing lines that are affected by the tariff? Where does this end?
Hard working farmers turned into Welfare recipients.
4
Trump uses OUR tax dollars to subsidize his ridiculous tariffs and keep the farmers quiet. We really have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.
5
Trump has found a way to funnel $12 billion to his rich friends who have gobbled up all the small farms. His excuse for robbing the treasury is the trade war that he started. This is not leadership, it is a heist.
11
Simply pathetic. No policy, bully tactics, temper tantrums, and now we pay more?
6
More welfare for farmers! Trump is using federal money to buy votes in red states.
16
@Grover I think they'll refuse it. They don't like government handouts, taxes, all that liberal stuff, right?
3
Mr. "president" do you recall that ad from Avis- "we're no 2, we try harder..."??
Since you made soy and corn and other ag products more expensive to the world markets with your idiotic tariffs, you have now opened the door to counties such as Brazil to come in and scoop up that business.
Is that smart? Letting your competitors in the door. These "new" sellers are currently establishing favorable relationships with new suppliers and cutting deals with the likes of China and importing counties around the world.
I don't think tofu is staple food item in the US, not yet anyway.
Do you like soy ice cream Mr. president? I doubt it.
1
Republicans should pay out of their own pockets the 12-Billion dollars !!! 12-Billion dollars wow, and they do not have enough to do health care and many other basic care even third world countries offer their citizens. And are talking about cutting and taking "Our" Social Security...SS is not a government benefit it's every single American's hard earned wages....Vote these idiots out Nov. 06 !!!!!!
3
How about me, the consumer, who is paying higher prices? Will you tax the farmers to give money to me?
6
How to make America Great Again: when Capitalism fails, fall back on Socialism.
I have to believe even Bernie despises this dishonest (troubled) tariff negotiating tactic Trump is using to protect his mid-term votes with his core.
Trump's voters should be (but likely won't be) as appalled about themselves for taking this handout, as much as they abusively condemn honestly needy people for taking welfare or food stamps. The double standard validating difference between mythical urban welfare exploiters and farmers is simple--these new needy welfare recipients who are suffering from Trumps troubled, static tariff negotiations are Christian, white, core Trump voters. So that validates taking what amounts to a welfare handout. Yet, isn't this tactic a sign of failure to win the trade war?
As usual: more public dishonest and shameful behavior from an alleged President who knows no shame and continues to validate shamelessness as a new American value to Make America Great Again.
2
At the local food coop in Brooklyn NY which with 17,000 working members, is the largest of its kind in the country, the members have approved a policy mandating buyers to give preferential treatment to local producers. That is, producers within 500 miles of the coop. This is an expression of the will of the people. People are sick and tired of not knowing where their food comes from or what's in it and would prefer to support their friends and neighbors rather than some big corporate food vendor.
The so-called free trade movement is overwhelmingly the creation of Big Ag and Big Business. As funders of both newspapers and politicians, these interests ensure that the institutions they control also support their agenda. But the people when given an opportunity to express themselves, support local produce over imported produce.
So who's running the agenda folks? The people who support Trump and his relocalizing efforts, or the corporate interests that control our "free" press and our "elected" officials?
Everything we hear and read discusses where the $12 billion will be spent and why it is necessary. I read nothing about where the $12 billion will come from. Perhaps it's from a contingency fund to help farmers endure droughts, torrential rains, wildfires or other disasters that is no longer necessary since this administration has declared climate change to be "fake news." Or perhaps there is a special contingency fund to be used to help mitigate the disasters caused by the Trump regime. Maybe that $12 billion could be put to better use in Porto Rico where hundreds of people are still dying after 10 months of suffering.
3
How much of this largesse will go to the big corporate farmers like ADM?
4
Unintelligent, misguided, incompetent and just plain mean. Those are the adjectives for the policies creating this situation. Once again, Trump and his minions create a massive problem, and then rush in to “solve” it, with taxpayer money, expecting accolades and admiration (and VOTES) for doing so. Agribusinesses, at least the family-owned farms, don’t need or want any of it. My Scandinavian immigrant forebears have farmed for five generations in Minnesota and Iowa. I am not sure how corporate farms work, but for family farms, even the existing “handouts” some readers reference do not cover shortfalls. Recent high rainfall in northwest Iowa has wiped out some entire crops, and crop insurance will not begin to make up for those losses. In this new tariff situation, one-time payments may supply a bandaid to Trump-caused carnage, but what of next year? The tariffs will result in cancellation of existing contracts between farmer co-ops and long-time, reliable customers in Canada and elsewhere. The biggest markets will be lost. Who will replace those? Americans who live on the comfortable, thriving coasts and urban areas should take a look at the price of a combine, or the costs of shipping grain and livestock. These Trump policies, made by uninformed people for political gain, will ruin family agribusiness in this country. Perhaps that is the goal. Despicable.
8
@Mary Lenihan
The "Americans who live on the comfortable, thriving coasts and urban areas" didn't vote for Trump. Maybe the mid-westerns should re-consider who they are voting for and why as they accept their welfare payments.
2
Great! So, we have to pay higher taxes to support farmers, pay higher prices for cars, electronics, homes thanks to tarrifs-the average American is beaten again. Thank you republicans!
6
Since this will support commerce to China despite the 25% tariff, isn't the $16B mostly going to the Chinese in the form of discounted soybeans? Is this the genius businessman?
2
This man's ignorance of anything governmental or diplomatic is breathtaking. Next he'll likely want to damage Social Security, Medicare and more to make up for the corrective billions he'd like to give to various constituencies to insure a win in the midterms. Just add all this to the trillions he gave away to the 1% and corporations with his "tax cuts." He's a criminal, in so many ways.
3
Donald Trump, the businessman, was able to turn to bankruptcy six times to salvage his own business, while turning to Russian money when US lenders labeled him a poor credit risk. Now Donald Trump, the president, is taxing Americans with his tariffs and paying off these taxes with taxpayer money. Americans sure elected a "shrewd" businessman to steward the nation's macro-economy.
3
Does no one see the irony--and hypocrisy--in these farmers taking yet another handout from the government, when most of them are die-hard Republicans who sound off about the need for smaller government? Let's not have the federal government interfering in our lives, but hey, it's ok for us to reap the benefits when they do!
2
By unleashing a foolish trade war, the President has severely damaged America's farmers. The small family farm of yore was driven out of business by big Ag but numerous productive medium sized family run enterprises have survived, whose owner/managers are people you see on TV imploring Trump to stop his trade war.
At the end of Trump's version of Smoot-Hawley, only big Ag will survive. The $12 billion of emergency subsidies (perhaps illegal under world trade rules) will serve only as a temporary palliative. Like everything in Trumpville its distribution will be botched and corrupted.
By now, the trade war has started to accelerate the business cycle which Trump claims to repeal (e.g., by jawboning the Federal Reserve) but can't. An earlier recession is in the cards, stimulated by the damage to America's agriculture and manufacturing from his ill-begotten tariffs. Historians will call it the Trump recession.
@Frank McNeil depression. There s not enough slack in the economy domestically or globally to limit it to a recession.
Headline should be, "Trump Buys Votes in Midwest with Tax Money from Coastal Cities."
And by the way, has congress authorized this expenditure? As keepers of the purse and all.
3
"...Mr. Trump said Americans should “just be a little patient” with the pain they may be feeling from the trade war, arguing that his actions were forcing other countries to the negotiating table to cut deals that would be better for them in the long run."
What Trump apparently is unaware (ignorant?) of is, nearly everything the US makes and exports has counterpart providers elsewhere on this globe. It is not beyond the realm of possibility to see the countries of the world shunning business with America altogether, laying siege to the United States in a war it cannot win.
3
He defines arbitrary and capricious. Completely unprincipled.
2
So many good comments highlighting the hypocrisy of free traders, anti- welfare conservatives, etc. But surely this fiasco reveals the danger, and yes, the threat to national security, of global trade, global supply lines, markets.
Old stories from the beginning of global trade, of African nations with multiple crops for their people, beginning to grow one, two crops all for export. And the people go hungry. Equally, anger at some European nations wanting to protect their valuable sectors of distinct farming, vineyards, small farming traditions. Now add in supply lines of steel, aluminum, rare earth minerals.....that are dependent on unfriendly nations, just like Europe and Russian energy dependence.
This trade war disaster is the tree. Look at the forest. At what we’ve lost in the race for global trade, the race to the bottom on jobs.....which are not coming back from China, Bangladesh, .....
I have to go to the small, local farmer’s market to buy local, organic while millions of acres are dedicated to GMO soy beans, corn. For export. Oh and have I mentioned lately...we import- toothpicks. It’s the forest.
Give this joker, Trump, anther 6 years and this nation will be in complete shambles. His twelve billion proposal is another burden placed upon the tax payers.
A vicious cycle: Joe Blow pays higher prices due to tariffs--farmers suffer by retaliation--Joe Blow pays farmers for their losses.
Joe Blow's infrastructure continues to crumble due to lack of funding, Now that is a round robin to write home about.
3
If farmers cheer for Trump’s relief program they make it clear that they want aid, not trade. Grassley is simply wrong about that; these farmers are transforming themselves into welfare queens.
And the rest of us have to pay the price for their folly in voting for Trump in the first place. This should not stand. It is putting a bandaid on a stab wound, when the stabber was the same guy who is providing the bandaid.
1
If you think this policy is crazy, vote all "D" in November, from dog-catcher on up. Let's take our country back from this Walking, Tweeting Disaster.
2
There is no art to Trump's deals. Just look at his business history. A lot of bankruptcies. Now he brings his special business acumen to his Presidency. He is going to bankrupt this country industry by industry starting with the farmers. Sad.
1
I am curious. In a seriously cash-strapped government, where does the administration find $12-Billion, especially at a time of massive tax cuts for the wealthy? And, what about next year when the farmer's can no longer get on a viable economic footing because of the administration's behavior? What is the source of the bail-out money?
4
Grew up in Northern Illinois, NW of Chicago. Very fertile farmland. Farmers have always been subsidized, as our agriculture complex produces far more commodities than is needed. Remember government subsidies, not to plant hog corn, on a rotating basis.
2
Some call this welfare; it may be. But I would rather see this money go to farmers, who actually work for a living, than to those who do not. President Trump is not paying the farmers not farm; he is providing them with a supplement and, in some cases, buying their product. The comments demonstrate that most Americans do not understand how the government subsidizes farmers. Most Americans understand government subsidies as welfare, well in that sense, consider what is being subsidized. I’d rather subsidize farmers, the backbone of rural America, than urban blight. The President’s measure will provide hardworking farmers with the economic cushion needed until the tariffs take effect, and force China, Canada, and Mexico to the bargaining table. Foreign counties, aided by US liberal economic policies, have taken advantage of US markets for too long; it is time for that to stop and finally, we have a president who has the courage to stop it. I support the President. I support Trump. Thank you.
4
@Southern Boy This is a very short-term fix and does nothing substantive to relieve the situation Trump created. What will happen next year? What about all the other industries that will be hit hard by Trump's tariffs?
And why do you think this will bring other countries to the table when many of them are already making better deals with new suppliers?
Please bear in mind that there exist government subsidies going to farmers to not plant. And most of the benefits are going to huge agricultural conglomerates, not family farmers. Of course, since their migrant workers can no longer get temporary work visas, a lot of farms can’t get labor either, so they might as well get paid for not farming.
5
Farmers are the backbone of America; no argument about that. Let's just follow the money trail and see how much of the $12 billion goes to ADM and Monsanto. It's one thing to subsidize farmers to produce less and keep prices high, and quite another thing to destroy markets via tariffs and then pay the farmers for their losses.
3
Dear MAGA farmers, you're welcome. From, a taxes-loving, welfare queen, sucking-from-the-government-teat, made-bad-choices, lazy, Kumbaya singing libtard who voted for the candidate who wouldn't have put you in this position in the first place but who did once have a non-hacked personal email server. Good thing my awful liberal state pays more in federal taxes than we get back so that we can continue to carry the states that pay out fewer than they get, huh?
37
I was in business in the import/export business for over 20 years. Here is a simple business lesson for Mr. Trump and his advisers. It is almost impossible to get back a customer when you lose them. Those customers that the American farmer is losing to Brazil or Russia are not coming back for now. They will make long-term contracts, as I did with non-perishables.
So, how long is the Trump Administration willing to subsidize our farmers? How long are our farmers willing to accept charity from the government? Will the Trump Administration extend the same benevolence to others who will be hurt in his trade war? And finally, what is Trump's end goal anyway?
34
@Sherlock trump's end goal is to become the dictator of our once great country.
Vote the GOP out this Nov. It won't get rid of trump but it will be a big step in the right direction.
6
Okay here is my problem with this. The tax cut has been done and now trump would like 12 billion dollars to give away. Where is the United States going to get the money to pay the farmers. Who by the way would not need the money if trump had not started this trade war.
16
Trump's harebrained "war of choice" will not survive long. The corporations and wealthiest Americans that push the levers of government policy will not sit idly by if it hurts their pocketbooks. Ownership of farms in Iowa is trending towards Mega Farms.
Des Moines Register
Will rural Iowa wither as big ag becomes bigger, squeezing out farms in the middle?
August 10, 2017
Donnelle Eller
“Roughly one-quarter of Iowa's 88,000 farms controlled nearly 70 percent of its cropland and drove 80 percent of the state's agricultural sales, which totaled $31 billion in 2015…”
“About half of Iowa's farms are small hobby farms…”
“Most vulnerable are the farms in the middle, growing crops on 800 to 1,000 acres. They're relying most heavily on debt to make it through the recent downturn, and they're at greatest risk of being squeezed out in coming years, experts say.”
10
So not only do we, the American tax payer, have to pay more for goods we purchase from other countries because of Trump's tariffs, but now we have to enter into yet more welfare for business - no thank you.
15
Sounds like a lot of money, that the US treasury could have saved just by not calling longstanding partners national security threats. How much is the overall subsidization of US farmers, though, to which this subsidy is now, pre-election, added?
9
I hear, on good authority, that the administration is moving ahead with its plans to bring back Blockbuster and, if that goes well, Studebaker.
I had a soft spot in my heart for the Nash, here's hoping for the best!
Yes, winners and losers coming soon to a theater near you.
14
He was losing their vote . He scrambled to think of something . Just hope it will end here but history does not back it up.
5
Oh. My. Gosh. Trump supporters never cease to amaze me.
How they can "think" this is "temporary pain" shows us how utterly clueless they are.
A simple internet search revealed the world's top producers of standard products American farmers export. The USA may 'lead' some of these categories. But plenty of other nations are right behind.
So all those other nations will simply start trading with each other (TPP, anyone?).
Please, Trump supporter: why would any "temporary pain" felt by American farmers (and thus EVERY American tax payer) give any other nation pause. Why would I negotiate a 'fair deal' for your product when I can get it elsewhere?
I sincerely hope any 'blue' states do not provide their money for these bailouts. These rural states made their bed, and they have to lie in it.
15
Of course blue states pay for it. That $12 Trillion (so far) isn’t coming from select states. The rich don’t care —they got their tax break. I wonder what next industry is going to get a bail out. What lobbyists are ponying up to the Administration today? Tomorrow? I’m hoping that those senators from farming states finally get a spine. Oops — those senators just saved a pile of money on their own taxes and get to keep their great health care.
3
Typical of Trump. Create a program on the fly with no planning and then invent a fix and take credit for solving the resulting crisis.
Unfortunately, typical of government programs, unforeseen consequences followed by a cosmetic bandaid. As Ben Sass (R Iowa) pointed out the 12 billion would maybe aid soybean growers, leaving corn, pork, beef, dairy and pecan industries without succor.
Just remember, Trump is on a mission to destroy the international order in general and America in particular, leaving it broke and ungovernable at home and impotent abroad. Whether h is actions are a result of his cynical manipulation his base, his own twisted psyche or directions from Putin is immaterial.
11
Trump clearly does not know what he is doing.
This trade war is making imports more expensive to consumers and producers who use them as production components. Strike one.
This results in lower production in this country, possibly moving some production offshore. Fewer jobs in this country. Strike two.
Now Trump is using taxpayer money to throw a bone to farmers in an attempt to hold on to their political support. A waste of money, completely avoidable, and it won’t be enough. Strike three.
You’re out Trump. Leave this game to someone who knows what he or she is doing.
13
@DS Not only all of this, but Trump said he would use taxpayer to buck up coal companies and forcing electric companies to buy more from coal plants, since, for some odd reason, coal is not coming back.
2
Isn’t that like putting farmers on welfare, the thing he and his supporters were always criticizing?
13
There is only one strategy here: create chaos by shredding our national trade policy to shreds, act impulsively on an ad hoc basis with actions that confound deficit hawks and economic experts. All the while Trump says “don’t worry, we are going to win and I alone have the plan—not the Chuck Grasselys, not the media —and certainly not the Democrats.
You create crisis after crisis—improvise and claim victory for fixing them, as we just saw with NATO, Brexit , Putin —praise yourself and condemn all criticism. Also lie constantly about what you’ve just said 5 minutes ago.
Those who think in terms of “right”and “left” and “centrist” policies for candidates to carefully craft for their candidacies this November are entirely missing the only point that matters: this autocratic, would-be dictator must not be allowed to run our beloved country.
George Will gets it: deficit hawks, traditional conservatives, country club Republicans , globalists, and libertarians can survive whatever damage a Democratic House and Senate will do to their aspirational ideologies—but they can’t survive in a country where an autocratic dictator is its leader. Will realizes they can save their party and their principles by voting Democratic.
12
Trump is just engaged in plain vote buying using other people's money (the taxpayer) to placate farmers hurt by his very own actions.
18
Government now about to buy farm products to stock pile then eventually throw out....the milk and cheese scenario now applied to soy and corn....
Trump does not know what he is doing. His "gut driven" decision to start a tariff war was wrong, wrong, wrong. The country is facing a calamity of stupidity-driven, knee-jerk "policy". We do not have another year, two or ten to work this self-inflicted mess out.
There are other established pathways available to our government to deal with trading partners. We need the strength of character to engage them. Don the Con lacks any true sense of what is best for this country. His public lies are now blatant demonstrations of just how "bought" he is with Putin. Is it treason yet?
10
who are we talking about here, the three family farmers left in America or Archer Daniels and Monsanto getting a hand up?
Of course, this is nothing like a welfare hand out. Oh, wait, it is...
17
Mr. Trump defines the division and conquer concept everyday, a twit tweet at a time ~
3
This would be welfare, no?
12
Yes. Meanwhile, Trump is happy to take food out of babies’ mouths by reducing benefits from the SNAP program. But it’s ok to give farmers welfare in order to further and support his STUPID trade war. Congress, where are you??????? VOTE. EVERYONE.
2
Folks voted for him based on his amazing business abilities...he is now running the country based on how he ran his businesses. And we all know how that turned out. Maybe we can borrow money from the Russians and bail ourselves out from this mess...heck, maybe that's where he is getting the money.
I hope all the folks who saw what he has done all these years and voted for him anyway are happy...our tax dollars are now paying for his mistakes. I am just plain angry this morning.
19
I hope that the bulk of this money goes to actual farmers who are working their land, and not to big Agricultural businesses such as ADM and ConAgra for example. So if China sees how much the tariffs are hurting American farmers what is their incentive to work with Trump? The U.S is not the only soybean producer in the world. If countries find other sources tor imports, what reason would they need to resume trading with American farmers.
9
@JER. China already signed a trade agreement with Brazil and the EU signed an agreement with Japan. More to come.
2
This is sort of like when the robber breaks into your house and shoots you, then takes you to the hospital and then brings you a get well card and flowers--you call him a great guy!
11
Democrats won't like this. They are depending on China to target red states and influence the election.
1
They don't have to, elections have consequences. They should not get 1 penney.
Yes, this Democrat (moi) doesn’t like this at all. He is looking on in horror as China starts to target his farmer friends in the red territory around him because of Trump’s tariffs. Who will lose many times the aid that Trump is proposing.
1
'Target'? More accurately, 'retaliate against'.
the same people that cried crocodile tears for the poor Farmers hurt by Trump are now saying : stop moving the target.
I think most people don't mind the aid to farmers, but the problem is that Trump's idiotic policies caused the problem. So I'm going to list the responses that the right would use if this was a program to help poor nonwhites:
1. How are we going to pay for this?
2. The deficit!
3. These lazy freeloaders have to stop relying on the government to help them.
4. Here's some boot straps...now shut up and go lift yourself!
34
Will Trump ask the farmers to sign a non-disclosure agreement about this payment, to keep them quiet about how he them to screwed them to begin with?
7
When politicians talk about farmers, I think they'd like us to visualize the idealized yeoman, independently tilling the soil to provide for his family and community, "a nation of farmers." These days, of course, agriculture is dominated by big businesses that buy up those family holding and manage millions of acres. I scoured the article, but could find no statistics on how much of this aid package will go to smaller independent operators and how much to large-scale agribusiness interests. I did read this: "direct payments to the producers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and hogs, who would be compensated according to the size of their harvests this year. It will also include government purchases of surplus products..." That would suggest most of the money will be going to big business rather than to small-scale family-run holdings.
19
Help someone , will it include government purchases of surplus ? Will the farmer receive money and the buyers or does that mean farmers will receive for their surplus as well
We impose tariffs, the government pockets the tariff money, farm business is hurt, we reimburse the farmers for their losses. This makes sense?
10
So we are providing 12 billion in subsidies to farmers, borrowing 12 billion from China.
Who is holding who hostage? In this scenario?
9
Doesn't Congress have to appropriate the $12 billion? This is just another Trump payoff to keep someone from talking. However, most soybean farmers are not Playboy models.
11
@Eric F Unfortunately, Trump is using money already appropriated in the Dept. of Ag budget.
"...farmers could begin signing up to receive the federal money in September, just weeks before voters go to the polls."
Here's hoping they remember why they need the handouts and who and what put them in this position and not see it as Republican largess in return for their vote.
13
Most of the “farms” receiving this aid will be giant corporate farms. More corporate welfare while cutting programs like SNAP.
7
This is "wealth redistribution," plain and simple. But I guess it's okay when Republicans do it.
18
In all of the discussion of propping up the farm industry with subsidies, I do not see conversation about the impact on the many workers in meat packing or other agricultural processing who are sure to lose employment.
In the tobacco subsidies days, only the owners benefited from the subsidies. Farm workers were forced into deepening levels of poverty.
14
Many Americans would agree that Trump is generally ill-informed and in some cases his actions suggest that he is not even completely sane. Yet whatever her decides is the trade policy for the US is implemented with no input or oversight from Congress or business or the citizenry. The imperial presidency in the US has clearly gone way, way to far and it is time to reexamine our form of government. Thomas Jefferson proposed regularly reexamining and rewriting the Constitution to meet the needs of each generation. It seems obvious to me that ours is 220 years or so out of date and due for a tuneup.
13
I like the idea but not now . The wrong people are in power and trump is just feeding the gators
4
Times have changed not necessarily in favor of US global strategic trade/economic position.
Donald Trump has started a trade war imposing higher tariffs on high-valued products imported by the US from the EU, China, and Japan. Those countries, in turn, have imposed higher tariffs on US agricultural products, including wheat, and soybeans.
The US has become an exporter of commodities and importer of high-value manufactured goods and services.
A trade pattern associated between advanced economies and resource-based third world countries. The terms of trade of such position always work against a commodity-exporting economy.
Of course, the US has not become a commodity-exporting country. The most prized US export, demanded by the global economy, continues to be $100 dollar bills. It remains to be seen for how long.
2
Mr Trump has always bought what he wanted, only now he is using our money.
22
Trump would 'fail' a Basic College Econ. class. Smart as a whip, though, in playing the 'old shell game' in knowing most farmers will only remember who rode to the rescue with aid and will more than likely forget who threw them all under the baler.
19
What did you expect from the guy who managed to bankrupt casinos?
15
Six times bankrupt? Not revealing his tax , what kind of people would hire a business manager like this
3
I thought Republicans were the party of personal responsibility. That they didn't pick winners and losers. Sadly, farm subsidies are the worst form of welfare because they're paid by American taxpayer and ultimately just props up the prices of commodities. Shameful redistribution of wealth akin to the communist manifesto.
18
Let's see: Soybeans are healthy. Obamacare helps people preserve their health. Plan on tariffs/taxes isn't working, Obamacare which we hate is working. Keep people healthy with soybeans and if they aren't available because we plowed the farm business under, we'll give healthcare money to the farmers. Another good plan.
5
Your tax dollars at work,people. Trump using our money to make sure his base keeps voting for him. Maybe it won’t be long before this company declares bankruptcy
15
By September it maybe too late. Where is the money going to come from, taxes on the poor?
12
Where is the farmers’ welfare money coming from? Cut back SNAP $$$.
1
trump is buying off farmers. Welfare with no work!
17
I'm a little confused. Doesn't Congress control the purse strings? Did they vote for this yet or have the republicans given this lying crook a blank check?
17
It usually takes some time and a lot of hard work to establish a fair and consistent market for your products. When for whatever reason, that market is lost, and more reliable providers make their entry, the players that were shoved aside, usually don't make a comeback. Russia, Brazil, and Argentina gladly took up the soybean slack. By targetting soybean farmers, China's teaching Trump that Trade Wars are not "easy to win." And taxpayers are discovering that $12 billion in government aid to keep soybean farmers from going under, will simply hike the national debt. Blustering and blundering! #MRGA!
18
Wow, 3067 comments.
I can add nothing new, except to agree with my Americans who say " Let's not give Trump another victory. "
10
Let me get this straight... taxpayers are going to bail out farmers hurt by a trade war initiated by the federal government, which by all counts is increasing the prices of many consumer goods, which most taxpayers have to buy on a daily basis...
So this is a double whammy on taxpayers. And that includes you, Trump voters. Pay more for your weekly shopping. Pay more for your gas. Pay more for your car parts. And now see your tax money disappear to bail out businesses that Trump has crippled through his unilateral actions.
I hope this Trumpy thingy is working ok for y’all...
28
DJT has a solution for that too - another tax cut before Election Day, of course.
3
I am happy for the aid farmers will be receiving for these tariffs cut into their profit and the ability to keep their enterprises growing.
If you believe trump did this out of caring the least bit about the damage these tariffs have caused, I have that bridge to sell you.
What I want to know is where this 12 billion dollars is coming from. My guess is health care, social programs like SNAP educational funding.....
9
So the farmers, land rich and crop rich with nobody to sell it to, get welfare to soothe their injured pocketbooks. What a laugh from the people who have arrogantly proclaimed their self-sufficiency and consistently condemned aid for the poor in the USA!
27
I'm a public librarian. It's well-documented that Republicans want to de-fund libraries (every proposed Republican wish-list budget includes the elimination of IMLS). So when I, along with thousands of others, lose our jobs due to their actions, will we get billions in aid?
No? I didn't think so...We're not likely to parade around in MAGA hats. So disloyal, you know...
27
The U.S. has a structural debt. of at least 22 TRILLION dollars. China/U.S. trade imbalances are a big reason why. Hate China, not the United States.
2
The national debt has absolutely nothing to do with our trade imbalance with China. The debt is the accumulation of annual budget deficits funded by borrowing. The trade imbalance is due to Americans demand for cheap goods, and manufacturers moving overseas to pay cheap labor. We will always have a trade imbalance without a stronger manufacturing base than we currently have. If you look back at the economy of the 1950s and 1960s, we had a strong manufacturing sector with high paying union jobs, and higher maximum income tax brackets. It worked, but don't let that little secret out!
Wasn't it foreign government's subsidising steel and aluminium exports to the US that started this?
4
This is how we operate now. The government make irresponsible decisions that impact all of us, and then we're asked to prop up those lousy decisions in some way. Another example is the tax break for the rich which increases the national debt substantially, so Congress is looking at gutting social security and medicare to pay for it. If my father wasn't dead already, this stuff would kill him.
13
The extent of my knowledge of "farming" begins and ends with my ten tomato plants. I have less knowledge about "trade policy." Reading this article, all it sounded like to me was a roadmap to business bankruptcy...something personally familiar to 45.
Our USA farmers, their families, and their way of life providing food for our country and beyond is threatened by this ill conceived 45 behavior. Congress, you need to do your job and get this "trade war"stopped. This is about not just a livelihood, it is about peoples lives....all our lives. This country cannot afford financial bankruptcy over an elected officials incompetency.
12
What a bizarre way to run the country. First- get us into a trade war that makes no sense. Then charge the whole country for the sins being visited upon just one group by these policies. Do we not have a better use of 12 billion dollars, like bolstering food stamps instead of cutting them? For a party that wants less government setting up a new bureaucracy with no rules in place to pay people in the world of agriculture makes no sense. What is next- when car tariffs hit do we pay money to the car companies, or cheese makes or bourbon makers???
7
The working & middle classes need money; the elderly spending down their money after age 75 need money; indebted students need debt release; poor people need aid to.
Hey Congress! Send everybody below a $50, 000 income $ 350, 000.
It will cost the taxpayers peanuts but make for a much happier, Greater America Again - you betcha. A new version of American greatness through an American Government Largesse program!
I had a fine free college education which made me happy, happy happy!
5
I'm all for helping farmers through these difficult times, but what about all the other industries that are being hurt by Trump's tariffs? Will we do the same for them?
And what is going to happen the next year, after these farmers and industries have lost their overseas markets to growers and manufacturers from other countries? Do we do this all over again next year, putting farmers and industries on the permanent dole?
Trump created this problem. Now he is "fixing" it by throwing tax payer money at it.
So, the Republican Party has not only blown up the deficit, they are now spending more tax payer dollars to fix their leader's absurd mistakes.
7
Let us remember the tariffs and farm bailouts ( for starters) are the new GOP trade policies. It's their President and their GOP farmers.
And hearing Grassley whine about WH interference is especially rich.
5
The elephant in the room has to be the local bankers who provide the annual AG lines of credit. They are the " good guys".... but will soon be the bad guys when the banks are stuck with carry overs and have to decline further credit!
2
Trump is right about the principle; the USA has been too tolerant about China, NAFTA and the EU riding on its back.
We must put this right, trade has to be fair but China is the mother of all trade thieves of technology and they WILL impoverish the USA if we let them.
We need to be calm and calculated about this because the likes of China will not agree to a deal unless they are made to agree.
The trade war will stop when the counterparts will realize that they will lose it, this is what Trump is aiming at, the USA is rich enough to support those who are hurt by the trade war.
I look at it like any war, people are hurt, we give them the best care we can and restore them (if possible) to health.
I'm a physicist not a farmer
@PaulDirac I bet you never said that about the War on Poverty.
5
So what happens next when the soybean farmers permanently lose their biggest market in China? Soybeans are grown in other countries, Mr. Trump,
2
I bet the ones who do get the payments from the govt are the big farmers, the ones who have the resources to go through the bureaucracy to fill out the forms and meet the criteria, etc etc. Good luck to the 500 acre soybean farmer.
2
This $12B plan will rely in large part on a 1933 program called the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), a division of the Agriculture Department created during the Great Depression to provide financial backup for farmers.
It is not lost on me that this program was created as a consequence of the Tariff Act of 1930 which most certainly helped in precipitating the Great Depression. History is repeating itself. Buckle up America. Rough times ahead.
11
One'd think the GOP stood for self-reliance, when they even try to make the disabled to work for poverty level assistance.
Perhaps this is unfair to the hardworking family farmers. They did not ask for the trade war Trump initiated. And $12B will not help them in the long run.
However, if you look at the situation, Trump & the Republicans are a thousand times worse than the Democrats. Not only they blow more money but the resources are grossly misappropriated.
The saddest thing is the Trump true believers still think they have found their messiah, when all the flimsy conservative and libertarian rhetoric about small government, self-reliance and free market come tumbling down
2
Can Trump do this unilaterally? OR does it require Congress to vote on it?
If the former is answered in the affirmative, its a done deal and more to come.
1
This is simply hush money & pay outs back to farmers & agricultural conglomerates that are being directly impacted by Trump’s vengeful Tariff game. Effectively a buy your vote in 2018/2020 scheme. Tax payer funded relief should only be considered for large scale Natural catastrophes where crop & livestock losses destabilize markets & commerce long term. Corporate farms shouldn’t expect the taxpayers to bail them out. Groceries are already more expensive since Trump & company have come to town - gas prices too. Thank you Michigan, Ohio & Wisconsin for delivering the votes that gave us this waste of a human being. I hope the nation can recover from the collective ignorance of those voters.
17
The stable genius at work was right again:
You can easily win trade wars.
He just did not say who was going to win and the way it looks, the losers are the US tax payers and the US economy.
And just as a "side effect" he is still in full campaign swing, burning tax payers money for his own personal gain at the next election.
Man that guy really will make America Great again, that is Great in terms of debt.
And that too was some kind of neglectable omission...
6
Amazing how one man and ruin an entire country.
17
It's not his money, it's our tax money. This only ads to the growing cancer of the total corruption of Trump and his cohorts.
11
What a success by Trump that he has to give over $12 billion
to farmers who have lost money, because their product
have been targeted for other countries tariffs.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
How long can Trump and the Republicans give taxpayers money to farmers, and possibly other industries, when their failing tariff agenda is a complete failure.
This tariff war against other nations is just a political stunt
to cause external enemies for home consumption.
Look to history how totalitarian regimes use external
enemies as a tactic to control their internal population.
15
@PropagandandTreason
MSNBC reported that Putin didn't really want an ease to the trade block on Russia, as Putin uses this "attack" upon Russia by foreign nations to excite the population that they must fight and resist an external enemy.
Russia is a totalitarian dictatorship that needs external enemies to control the population with nationalist propaganda.
Trump is using the tariff war in a similar way.
3
Talk is cheap. But that is that is the only currency the Republican party has given it is ideologically, ethically, and morally bankrupt. Until they can stiffen their spine, stand up to the president, and actually take action to counteract these policies their withering impotence will continue the inexorable erosion of what is supposed to be an equal branch of government.
3
Talk about bribing your base with cash! How low can this government go. This is OUR tax money being used as a campaign contribution. This warrants a revolt.
9
A grifter like Trump will resort to all sorts of shady, underhanded tactics to reward himself, his family, friends, and his supporters and punish those who question those tactics. He will continue to debase the office of the Presidency and this great nation until he and his enablers in the GOP are turfed out by the voters.
9
'frugal' living in era of Trump & GOP's MAGA, never have thought that it's going to be a new American's reality ...
1
I’d rather eat dust than feed these farmers with my tax dollars. They got what they voted for. Why should I pay for it?
14
Don't forget who is taxing US agricultural products, not the Trump authorities, the Chinese government is doing this. When they gained a lot of Us dollars through unequal trade, they don't repent, they are waiting to beat you down .wake up, don't do anything, you will be finished!
Republicans for welfare. But only to buy voters. MAGA. Betraying all republican values again. Republicans are treacherous to everything and everybody in America.
4
“We’re opening up markets. You watch what’s going to happen.” I’m sure Trump made similar remarks before having to take money from his father to keep his failing casinos open Atlantic City. We know how that story ended. In this case, we’re borrowing money from foreign countries (most notably, China) to fund a trade war with the very same countries he’s fighting against. This is insane!
7
“What this will do is provide some hope to farmers and ranchers that the president and the secretary do have their back,” Greg Ibach, the under secretary of agriculture for marketing and regulatory programs, said of the aid package. “We’re hoping that other countries will see that we’re serious now about negotiations.”
This is fundamentally wrong considering the human psychology. The only signal the US is sending out to the other countries is that the reteliatory tariffs they impose show the intended effect. Why would they want to loosen the thumbscrews when a) the US is the one demanding a change to the current way of trading and b) keeping up the tarifs could lead to a situation that would bring Trump into serious trouble in November. Remember, after all that happend in the last year China, Canada, Mexico as well as the EU wouldn‘t mind seeing a new POTUS rather sooner than later.
As almost everybody agrees a trade war is a stupid thing to start with loosers on both ends. If ever a country decides to still go for it you better pick a country whos economy is smaller than your own and make sure you have strong support from your allies.
Hence, the worst thing you can do, especially in a globalized world, is starting a trade war with multiple counterparts at the same time and hardly and support. Even if economically the US outperforms all other countries individually, collectively they can hurt the US much more than most US citizens can and are willing to imagine...
4
I thought Republicans didn't pick winners and losers in the marketplace. If Trump's tariffs hurt farmers, well, don't Republicans believe that is the farmer's problem? This is the same party that did not want to approve loans to the auto industry, preferring to let it go out of business during the economic crash of 2008. What is the difference? (Other than a president who has no clue how the economy works.)
7
Hope that the US government takes all that money from the HUGE 25.0% tariffs that the US government has been for decades charging to foreign manufacturers who wish to import light trucks into the US. It is a total lie that the US is being hurt by tariffs from foreign countries when we are charging foreign manufacturers a lot too. Lies to fire up the base, since like Trump, the base does not bother with facts!
5
This is a desperate play for the mid terms. I would not believe he would pay up after the promises. Remember the tax returns he promised to release after the 2016 election? He didn't do it. Remember the contractors whom he did not pay.
He is desperate to not leave the presidency because the minute he is a private citizen he is exposed to the accusations of assault from multiple women.
If he loses in 2020 he will not leave. He is dangerous. The White House has been provably altering transcripts of Helsinki. Watch out.
5
Where will the money be when hurricane season gets going. Do the farmers get assistance before our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico. What constitutes an emergency.
8
So, let me get this straight. French (or any other) subsidies for farmers mean unfair trading practices, directed against the United States. US subsidies for US farmers mean easing the pain from the (unnecessary) trade war (of choice). The logic of the Trumpean Empire...
10
So, We the Taxpayers were already providing subsidies to farmers and now we are going to provide more because of Trump's ignorance about trade. The farm belt is Trump country. I guess those folks don't think of these subsidies as "welfare", but they are. In fact, many Americans, even the rich, are on "welfare" in some form or another and I'm pretty sure they aren't all black as many white people seem to think people on welfare are. I don't mind helping my fellow countrymen in time of need. But, I do mind my tax dollars being used to buy votes.
10
@kmgh And I really hate that my tax dollars are being used to make the privileged even more privileged.
2
@newsmaned Agreed.
Farmers interviewed on local news tonight said they did not want the bailout but preferred to take their chances on the world market. One wondered who was going to get most of the funds, seeming to imply it would be the big corporate farms.
5
The US is beginning to look like an emerging market. The spoils are given to political backers and key support bases while the majority of the population loses out.
4
Meanwhile any American who buys farm products will be paying more. The consumers will be bearing the brunt of this tariff policy--which almost all economists agree--is not as good as a free trade policy. Until trump, even the Republican party overwhelmingly favored free trade.
11
@shimr
While these Trump supporters got the hands out,
the tax payers have to pay the price for their games.
In New York City, all prices of goods at the markets, retails, and services around town has jumped through the roof! It is so insane, it is price gauging everywhere you go. Unfortunately, no news media seems to care, or aware of the situation?
1
https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-loan-programs/
It's called a loan.
Otherwise it would be #welfare.
3
A low to no cost loan that only "the right" kind of people would have access to you mean?
1
Even though everybody knows the truth including President Trump,that Tariffs are never solution to trade war ?? It is still ridiculous that the war go and go and it’s already damaging American economy.The only institution that benefits from Tariffs is the government and the end looser is the consumer and in some scenario the producers...Don’t make life too difficult for your people bro
7
President Trump has said and repeated; "A trade war is easy to win".
Apparently, it is not so easy, isn't it mister President? If you need more money to pay off your supporters, please send me an e-mail. I understand you won't use it as hush money, won't you?
7
Are the bourbon producers going to get support?
6
The farmers in Brazil must be ecstatic. They have just secured their new markets for the long term. Why on earth would buyers come back to an unpredictable source? All commerce is based on trust and it takes time to establish that trust. A foolish tweet is all it takes to destroy years of hard work!
28
Trillions of dollars in deficit so borrow a few billion more probably from the Chinese (oh the irony) to shore up the base vote. So very very sad to see a country like the US can be so divided by the action of one man who has himself front and centre.
14
So I guess it’s going to be us city folks (read liberals) that will have to foot the bill. Shocker...
31
My Congessman has received big Ag subsidies. He rubber stamps Trump’s policies. So now he’s going to get an even bigger hand out plus a big tax cut. Time for this fake president to get out.
26
This trade war will last
So are the sufferings of the US farmers
5
Who are the real welfare queens?
26
@Mike
The real welfare queens and kings are the Congress who take farm subsidies and crop insurance paid for by taxpayers and they aren't even farming!
This sounds like spending the tax payers’s money to bribe the farmers before November election in return for their votes.
29
Ahhhh: here comes the bribe.
“What wouldst thou do , old man? Thinkest thou , that duty shall have dread to speak
when power to flattery bows? - William Shakespeare
19
Groping in the light, now groping in the dark too. Nixon himself would be flabbergasted.
11
Where does the 12B come from, Deutsche Bank or Russian Oligarchs? Some business model.
12
Our taxes? The growing national debt? The future of our children?
10
IF what he is saying is true, then wouldn't it have been wiser to let us all in on his strategy before he started the war?
As it is, this looks like impulsive aggression followed up by crisis management. So, of course people are worried when Trump is not able to give meaningful reassurance that he knows where this is all going.
11
I thought the Ayn Randian Republicans wanted everyone to stand on their own feet. No more government interventions. Except when selected groups of their supporters are being harmed by their policies. No health care subsidies for people who can't afford insurance, even though they are working. But let's pay farmers to destroy the crops they grew, or the milk from the cows, or their production animals. Makes perfect sense.
31
@Kenarmy
It does make sense under capitalism; the point of capitalism is that the desire for profit is an "invisible hand" that generates competition which drives production. No bottom line, eventually no production. If you have just too much to sell--a surplus--you bottled water when it was freely available and clean and pure ( a long time ago), you would soon go broke. So you get rid of the surplus to make your product in shorter supply and more valuable. Destroying butter or milk or corn when you have much too much is makes sense under capitalism. And much more painful and hurtful is when you fire workers because you have much too much a supply of workers and can't make a profit on their labor.
1
This is madness. We're taking money from you then allowing you to pay for the money you lose. When are people going realize that the tariff idea is just plain bad business? This trade war idea is like Trump's USFL strategy. With the USFL, the existing plan before Trump entered the league was to schedule their brand of "pro" football during the time when the NFL was dormant, the Spring and Summer. The USFL owners made money with this strategy. Trump's idea was to go directly against the NFL by scheduling the USFL games to air the same time as the NFL games during the Fall. And we all know what happened to the USFL once they followed Trump's strategy.
12
Farmers become our newest welfare recipients with this bail out. Or course, they will not call it welfare; it will be called "aid". The word welfare is reserved for the urban poor. Aren't these the same people who voted for Trump and continue to support him? They are undeserving of this government help we taxpayers have to underwrite. After all, as they are so fond of telling us, elections have consequences.
41
We can thank the Republican Congress for the Congressional Budget forcasts: In CBO’s projections, the economy grows relatively quickly this year and next and then more slowly in the following several years. The federal budget deficit rises substantially, boosting federal debt to nearly 100 percent of GDP by 2028.
11
The U.S. has to respond to China's unfair trading practices and policies with respect to technology transfer and high-tech, not to mention its currency manipulation and gaping annual trade deficits between the two countries. China won't budge at all on the former and very little on the latter.
Unlike recent actions taken against Canada and Europe, American tariffs on China are an appropriate response. Doing nothing (ii.e., endless talk and empty promises from Beijing) isn't a long-term option if the U.S. hopes to have a viable economy in 20 years.
Of course, a counter-response from Beijing was inevitable, and the CCP is betting that Americans won't stand for the short- and medium-term economic pain that will result.
Sure, argue whether or not the govt. should support certain sectors/groups that are being targeted by Chinese tariffs, but don't lose sight of the larger picture: Americans need to endure substantial economic hardship to substantially rebalance their trade/economic relationship with China. They need to do so now and long past November.
4
And where do the tariffs against Canada, Mexico and the E.U. fit into this rationale?
12
Miriam Chua,
Did you read my second paragraph? The tariffs against China are legitimate; the tariffs against Canadian and E.U. steel and aluminum are not.
The U.S. doesn't have a trade deficit with Canada, even according to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Canadian steel and aluminum are not a "security risk" to the U.S. Even Wilbur Ross say so. If Americans are looking for reciprocal and fair trading agreements, they need partners like Canada.
Tariffs against Canada are a good example of bad policy. They have nothing to do with unfair trading practices or trade imbalances.
This actually does make sense if it is only for 1 year. Farmers analyzed their markets and decided what to plant, purchased their seed and worked long days getting their crops in the ground *before* trump started his trade war. There is no do-over possible for this year.
Most modern large farms are still family owned and operated. If they can't sell or have to sell at a loss they still have to keep paying for their machinery, for their land, for crop insurance and for health insurance. Then they still have to pay for next year's seed and fertilizer.
Next year they will have a chance to make different choices about what to grow, and should be fine on their own again - barring new trade war battle losses after the crop is in the ground.
4
Apparently you didn't think this through. What about the cattle and pork farmers? It's estimated that there will be tons of beef and pork that will not be exported because of Trump's tarriffs and will just rot.
13
Most large modern farms are not family owned. Where did you get your information.
10
Trump is the Munchausen president.
17
Imagine if President Obama would have pulled this nonsense, you would have had the Republicans screaming from every rooftop that Obama was pandering, buying votes, etc...This stupidity and immorality of Donald Trump goes on, and the cowardly Republicans stay quiet, of course.
32
Is trump going to bail out the rest of us that will lose our jobs because of his stupid tariffs? It's interesting that tiny little states can wield power far out of proportion to their population. Why should Iowa have as much power in the Senate as California or New York? The folks in the Midwest get all bent out of shape because the coastal population decided to pay attention in school and as a result, make a better income. They should not have the political power to drag the rest of us back to the 18th century.
24
@VR A bit hyperbolic, but probably more accurate than not. You dare to question the purportedly equal branches of government? That was designed. Years ago while living in Chicago I met an African from a coastal country who responded to my lamenting the attitudes of midwesterners (I was one) with the observation that people in the interior parts of continents were consistently more conservative than those on the coasts. Still pretty accurate.
3
@VR
As an Ivy League-educated, east-coaster, this might sound a bit ironic, but...you sound like quite an elitist. People don't become farmers because they didn't pay attention in school.
4
Hey, GOP! Isnt that illegal according to your ideology?
That’s a very leftist/socialist and therefore “bad” thing Trump did...you know, helping workers with entitlements.
12
Trump fatigue has begun. It was difficult to read this entire article, another day and another troublesome and ridiculous situation.
22
And of course, this govt. bail-out is perfectly OK with the Republicans now
24
So the world's most prominent republican is revealing his true color....RED!
If this isn't straight out of The Manchurian Candidate, I don't know what is. A hare-brained fascist demagogue is planted by the North Koreans to insidiously prime us for a communist takeover, relying precisely on the right-wing persona as the operation's cammouflage.
So here's this right-wing boob Trump getting himself elected on a traditional government-&-especially-any-hint-of-socialism-is-the-devil-himself platform, only to roll out the most socialistic scheme since the Soviet kullak, right in the heart of the America prairie.
I always had to correct my instinct to think blue-republican, red-democrat, because I habitually associate red, communism's color, with the left. Now red for republican finally makes perfect sense. I now see that under republican market worship lurks a spirit much closer to that of Lenin and Stalin.
What's possibly most interesting about this, by the way, is the epochal acknowkedgement by the republican-in-chief that the market is not, and cannot be, G-d after all, and that government and safety nets are and must be integral to our economy. Nothing could be more devastating to traditional republican dogma, or more trenchant ammunition for democrats in upcoming elections.
9
I was very sloppy here: Soviet seizure/collectivization of Kulak farms.
2
Create a financial disaster for farmers and then use borrowed money to show compassion for their condition while paying for their votes. Trump is bankrupting this country as he did his own businesses. People, wake up!
24
When did Congress approve $12 billion as a Trump campaign fund?
17
Socialism when it suits the GOP.
14
This is a gift to China? Will their banks net a profit by lending money for this "bailout"?
7
Well, these directed funds are really a form of price supports, no minor degree of socialism. This is Trump socialism.
But it's a bit worse than that, since he's really diverting money from places that it had been earmarked to help other people-in-need. Specifically, he wants to buy those crops farmers can't see and convert them into handouts to SNAP recipients and others in need -- as if Americans know what to do with billions of bushels of soybeans.
8
It's upside down. His policy causes the problem and he has to bail himself/us out of the problem he creates. Would wouldn't, children in cages, seperated families housed indefinitely, national parks drilled, endangered species threatened...these policies line the wrong pockets with money, private contractors. It's done to help friends in business, it's all about the money and not the week being of the country.
4
Nice! The federal government is now in the vote buying business.
16
And where is the money coming from may I ask? Taxpayers. Next time you purchase soy milk remember the hidden tax that goes along with it.....and don't forget in November.
7
The cost of Trump being too full of himself to admit the tariffs were a mistake? Why, 12 billion dollars.
7
It would seem that some comment writers think that when the tariff war is over and the USA has won, they will get their business back. That a chastened China will return to buying from them. But, China won't do that. They will find other food sources, or learn to get by without America's soybeans and pecans. If the trade war widens to include all products, as Trump intends to do, this problem will get hugely worse. US companies have sized their businesses assuming Chinese customers and Chinese suppliers. If US companies can't sell to their Chinese customers or buy materials they need for what they make in the US, it will be devastating to their profitability. But, their offshore competitors who manufacture in the EU will still have their supply lines intact and their China customers will now buy from them instead of US manufacturers. And, when the war ends, it will take five to ten years to return to normal. China trade needed fixing, but we needed the EU, Canada, and Mexico to be on our side of the war. Trump seems not to understand what allies are for. Nor does he understand that the Chinese people and government will never accept the loss of face that comes from bowing to Trump. They will simply do without until the EU, South America, and Asian nations take our place.
13
@Tim G
A competing newspaper posted in Washington had a great article about losing the trade war.
Come what may, we need to address the hollowing out of our manufacturing sector and our reliance on cheap labor rather than improved productivity--with corresponding pay--through automation.
In one sense, President Trump is right about our real leverage over China. He completely missed the boat, however, with his go-it-alone approach. If the EU, Canada, Japan and the USA _all_ decided to get tough with China, we could realize major restructuring of our trade relationships. The resulting crash of the Chinese economy could also push forward the democratic reforms Clinton et al. assumed would follow their shift to a market economy.
President Trump's strategy could work, if and only if he improves his tactics to make them multilateral. Too bad considers "multilateral" a bad word...
3
"The package includes direct payments to [various agricultural producers] who would be compensated according to the size of their harvests this year." Sounds fair and reasonable.
"It will also include government purchases of surplus products...that would be sent to food banks or other nutrition programs." Wow! Charitable and no waste.
"Some of the funding would go to a program in which the Agriculture Department works with private companies to develop new export markets for American farm products." Bold initiative.
I'm a hopeful Sanders/Warren or Warren/Sanders supporter - I detest Trump. But for the life of me I cannot jump aboard the outrage bandwagon.
What am I missing??
1
These are commodities. Food banks don’t buy rail cars full of soy, wheat and corn.
13
@SM Well, let's see. He caused a problem and is purporting to solve it by throwing money at those who are impacted by the problem he caused. But it's a no-cost benefit, since his MO through his life seems to be one of using other people's money for his own benefit. I see this as an almost pure example of political corruption. And because this is a Republican (why is he not called a RINO, since his conversion seems to have missed some basic points of the cause he converted to?), everything is now OK. I would seriously question whether the intended "small farmers" actually receive much. It's all for show. Check on where this program is in 6 months!
6
@SM
Nothing. You're thinking independently. It's nice to know there are still a few out there.
1
A few years ago the Times ran some unusual photography of American street scenes taken by the actor Dennis Hopper in the 1960s. What was unusual was that all the people in the photos were thin. No fat people, no obesity.
I think you could combine America's rising obesity rates and graph them against subsidies for farmers over the last 50 years which end up reducing the price of food and supporting people eating too much. Or maybe you could just graph the subsidies to the sugar and grain carbohydrate industries against the expansion of obesity over the last few decades.
I also hope that these new subsidies won't be given to dairy farmers so that they can survive Trump's tariff wars against Canada subsidizing its dairy farmers! That would be the height of irony. But we live in an age of irony and gaslighting.
2
can you elaborate oN why the dairy industry should not be further subsidiezed??
1
Because Canada is our ally and we do not have a trade deficit with Canada, so why fight them.
Isn't the GOP that constantly harangues the public with "No ONE! wants food stamps!"
"No one wants to receive government aid!"
Isn't it their thinking that even if the government can help people who are in desperate need of assistance that the humiliation of having to depend on such a (hostile) government is reason to reject such aide?
What I resent is that President Trump speaks to the U.S. public as if we are small ignorant children.
"Be patient.."
"Don't try to be cute."
"What do you have to lose?"
All of democracy. That's what voting for you gave us.
5
Trump is subsidizing his base at the expense of other industries. He's picking winners.
Americans should bear the full cost of Trump's policies whether they are good or bad.
Tariffs are taxes that punish American consumers and producers,” Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said on Twitter. “If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers — the answer is remove the tariffs.”
Agriculture should not be subsidized.
6
In fact it’s the President’s stupidity that’s being subsidised. The American taxpayers are being asked to pay for his blundering policies, and hey, $13 billion is a hefty slug.
10
What percentage of this emergency relief is going to corporate farms?
12
Good question
3
Farmers pay taxes too, so they're paying for their own bailout.
1
@Paul English
That's ridiculous and is not backed by a single statistic which is of course why you didn't include any actual information to back up your claim.
7
what about non far,ers who pay taxes???
7
Actually farmers have so many tax breaks that it is ridiculous and they have special accounting and taxation that gives them an edge. They are also incorporated so their taxes are 21% max compared to many of us being taxed at 35%
1
Who are we going to borrow from to pay the farmers, now that Trump has alienated most of the countries we used to do business with? Who's buying our debt now? I guess we can always ask our good buddies, the wealthy nations of Russia and North Korea, for a loan or two. Meanwhile, our supposed trade enemy, China, holds an enormous amount of US debt. Way to not play it well at all, Trump.
9
@Allison As of May 2018, China held $1.18 trillion, that's 19 percent of the $ 6.2 trillion in Treasury bills, notes, and bonds held by foreign countries. I would venture to guess that China has some leverage on us.
6
So now the unrepresented majority living in the coastal states and providing the largest percentage of tax dollars to the United States government will be required to pay Trump supporters to remain Trump supporters.
Stick. Fork. In. Eye.
21
Trump the welfare king..........and the republicans smell it but are too afraid to call it for what it is. More proof the republicans are unfit to govern and lead. The United States of America will be better off without republicans and their hypocritical programs of destruction of what went before, with no construction for a better education, work, life and retirement. With the republicans it's everyone's on their own. Not as a nation but as a loose fitting of individuals that will eat their own to gain an advantage at the microphone.................
11
Trump is showing that when things are not working he will dig into a deeper hole. His ego is too large for him to admit he is wrong. I predict we will see a great amount of Trump shoveling in the future. It is obvious he lacks a plan. If he is such a deal maker why doesn't he own any od his original real estate? He owned the West side shipyards in NYC. That was a great buy back in the late 80s and 90s. Fools and their money are soon parted. Now it's tax payer money. Holld tight everyone.
5
This is outright bribery and buying of votes - something that the US says other countries do? USA is moving to the goal of being the most corrupt in the world?
22
In the meanwhile, Fox News is doing a dang good job of forgetting to mention this story altogether.
8
I have no sympathy for those people that voted for Mr Trump and his Republican supporters and are now affected by Mr Trump's tariffs. The rest of the US should not have to pay for their poor decision. As many have stated, free trade and open markets is preferred over handouts. It would be interesting to know the number of "agricultural welfare" recipients that are corporate agricultural operations rather than family farm operations. Mr Trump has at least got it right regarding subsidised agriculture in the EU which protects inefficient, poor farming and environmentally bad farming practices. This makes it difficult for produce to be sold into the EU competitively.
6
@cjdaus The US subsidizes farmers as well. Just sayin.
1
@cjdaus, two things:
1. The Eu doesn't support inefficient, poor farming practices or those that hurt the environment. In fact, EU farming regulations are a lot stricter than those of the US, which is one reason why many US farming products can't be sold here (because they don't conform to these stricter requirements, i.e. hormones/drugs in beef).
2. Supporting farming is standard practice in many countries around the world, and that includes the US, which has long been subsidizing its own farmers. So no, Trump didn't get that one right either.
1
A tax reformers and the fiscally conservative? Whose paying for the border? I didn’t vote for Hillary beacause of their democratic tax and spend ideas. I’m confused about what conservatism means and what they stand for anymore. God bless the farmers who have to deal with this mess, but remember it’s not their mess to begin with.
1
It is their mess. They voted for it and should not be bailed out. There's going to be many more lose their income, insurance, homes, etc. BECAUSE OF THEIR VOTE. Who's going to bail the rest of us out?
13
Some see this as necessary evil because of past "bad trade deals".
Bad trade deals? They allow low inflation and therefore low interest rates that in turn bring a lot of money for Wall Street and the rich. But the money is not distributed equally. The workers get low wages. That is what we need to fix.
8
@Taichi Go, you hit the nail on the head. The problem isn't that jobs move abroad, or globalization. The real problem is that governments have allowed for the top 1% to reap all the benefits and leave the rest on their own when savings from moving a factory to China should have been used to re-train Americans so that they can move to better-paid jobs. But this never happened.
1
How many of these farmers are huge corporations?
11
This sure smells like fascism.
12
Republicans make me sicker by the hour.
15
Trump is buying votes.
He worries that the farmers who get hurt by his ill-conceived trade wars will turn against him. So he will pay them billions of dollars.
This is deficit spending of the worst kind.
21
Well, who says a person can't buy votes?
20
This is really welfare for us folks. Everyone sayin' it here. He's tryin to pay us off. We'll take the money and then not vote for him.
20
@TeaPartyfan1, seriously, by all means take the money and keep it, as long as you promise to not vote for Trump or the current version of the GOP ever again.
Definitely the end of the GOP as small government party.
Welcome to USSR-style command economy.
7
Funny, the remedy for the unfairness of subsidized by Chinese government goods competing with American goods is Socialism. Its always been so much more complicated than what McCarthy leftovers like Reagan wanted us to think. So, why did anyone ever get killed for the threat of the Domino Theory? If you ask me its "Leaders". Those charismatic, ambitious types who just have a need to tell everyone else what to do, especially now when the dumbest of us have managed to capture hearts and minds and take control.
Monocropping farmers who cover the prairie with commodity cattle-feed should use this as an opportunity to diversify.
Grow only organic food crops Americans can actually eat.
Or, maybe Zinke can find a way to sell off all their topsoil & what's left of the ogallala aquifer to the Saudis if China decides to permanently source their grain elsewhere.
8
I feel the pain of farmers, also the pain of those without medical insurance or whose insurance premiums are increasing and coverage decreasing, also the pain of refugee parents whose children were essentially kidnapped by the US government, also the pain of a free press who is degraded daily by a US president, also the pain of the American people living through a daily barrage of lies and disinformation from the White House - Americans whose wages are stagnant and whose jobs are threatened by ignorant economic moves by the administration and under a tax cut that was of no benefit to them, also the pain of dedicated federal law enforcement and justice department employees who are degraded for doing their jobs under the mass of a vengeful, vindictive president, also the pain of those who cherish individual rights and freedoms that are threatened by this president and administration, also the pain of this country crying out for citizens to remember the Constitution and that Americans do not crown kings, crying out to Congress to use their constitutional authority to check the abuses of power of this president and administration, crying out to stop a president who threatens our economic and national security through corruption and conspiracy. Farmers are being paid off for their silence and fealty. Farmers should be fighting back, demanding sound policy.
26
Search Results
Featured snippet from the web
As of 2008, less than 2 percent of the population is directly employed in agriculture. In 2012, there were 3.2 million farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers and an estimated 757,900 agricultural workers were legally employed in the US.
6
I didn't realize that Trump is Robinhood. Robs from the rich by increasing their taxes in the form of tariffs and then gives to the poor farmers.
1
Because, you know, too much big government and high taxes and socialist welfare and federal spending on entitlements.
6
How this Republication Congress puts up with this nonsense is beyond me. They could easily reverse the trade war. No ethics.
11
The fact that the President can unilaterally imposed tariffs and then unilaterally without Congressional approval spend $12 billion demonstrates how much power Congress has abrogated to the Executive.
18
This is completely absurd. Most farmers are multimillionaires. These tariffs are part of Trump’s treason.
12
“Remember, we are the ‘piggy bank’ that’s being robbed.”
Not sure how a country, that runs on debt and consumes 25% of world resources, can make such a statement.
US, at the moment, looks more like a Trump casino than a piggy bank!
5
Harry Truman, 1948, St. Paul, MN: (Emphasis is mine, to leave those segments in context):
" ... I have discovered where the Republicans stand on most of the major issues. Since they won’t tell you themselves, I am going to tell you.
They approve of the American farmer — but they are willing to help him go broke ...
They believe in international trade — so much so that they crippled our reciprocal trade program, and killed our International Wheat Agreement ..."
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Or, as an evangelical might put it, "There is nothing new under the sun."
5
This is nothing more than a handout to buy votes. Pure and simple. How about just take the stupid tariffs off?
12
International trade deals take years of hard and expensive work to put in place.
How willing will other countries be to invest in potential trade deals if they can be undone by a tweet?
6
You cannot transform the economy by propping up sectors that are producing too much supply. If - for example - you used to export agricultural products and import steel and you stop doing both, then you need to transfer resources from agriculture to manufacturing. If you get in the way of markets doing what they need to do, then you gum up the works. In a society where almost everybody gets - at least - a high school education, the transfer from agricultural work to industrial work is not that difficult. In fact, I would argue that folks who grew up on a farm are probably a lot better-suited for manufacturing work than are the overweight video game junkies that are growing up in America's suburbs.
5
This hardly seems genuine. On net, farmers are still losing money. With trump headed to Iowa, this seems highly political.
3
So! Now I have to pay the additional cost of trump's-tariffs, pay an additional sales tax on the tariff amount above and beyond the sales tax on the consumable itself, and pay additional tax to pay farmers who voted for trump because trump's tariffs are shortchanging their profits. Really?
I thought Republicans were against increasing taxes and welfare.
12
This may get the farmers through a rough patch BUT their customers in China and elsewhere are not coming back. They found friendlier, more reliable producers than what the Americans have become. Unreliable and unfriendly.
The farmers aid will come to an end but their customers are gone for good..
11
Just the evidence we need to show that there are no winners in a trade war. Now the American Taxpayer is burdened with having to subsidize these poor farmers. What next?
6
I'll say first this is madness, adding to the debt, but typical Trump--make a bad mistake and pay with other people's money.
But Toomey (unfortunately, my Senator) and the others were all for $1.5 trillion-with-a-T that went mostly to the rich. $12 billion for 'regular folk' is step too far.
And frankly, words are meaningless. Do something to stop it.
The entire government is just broken. Tragic.
14
Seems that everyone who isn't a red state Republican is experiencing a lot of taxation without representation.
7
The arsonist offers a few buckets of water to douse the fire he started, and the home owners applaud. Sad.
12
So, a handout to buy votes for November - after initiating a now-escalating trade war that's hurting wide swaths of our economy, including these very farmers.
Trump knows nothing about international trade or economics, but of course, that doesn't stop him from attempting to bully his way into these complex matters. He just doesn't get it that other powerful nations and leaders cannot be bullied by the "great almighty Trump" or by the U.S. for that matter.
Trump wants to party like it's 1929. Seems he and his supporters forgot or never learned that was a very bad year for farmers - and for 99% of the rest of us.
The other history lesson they skipped is that trade wars tend to turn into shooting wars.
11
of course, farmers are 'real' americans who are deserving of help from the federal government.
BUT not poor americans
americans who need healthcare
american children who need health insurance through programs like CHIP
americans who need food stamps, or poor mothers who need WIC
Puerto Ricans who need hurricane aid.
So glad trump is looking out for the real americans.
10
The American People could do a lot with $12,000,000,000. Instead it will be used for buying pesticides and other agricultural chemicals by the wealthy farmers who receive the cash. Sad!
3
Not even half way through the Trump administration and we’ve got a bailout on our hands stemming from bad economic policies. This is a blatant attempt to buy rural votes ahead of the midterm elections. This is a total conflict of interest and misuse of tax payer money!
6
Isn't it interesting that there is always money available for connected special interests.
3
And guess who lends us the money to pay for farmer welfare and the corporate/rich person welfare that is the tax cut?
China.
And guess who can call those chits in when the time is right...?
6
$12B for farmers, $26B for the wall, $1.5T for the tax cut. Sooner or later is this going to add up to real money? If you want to see a stable genius, go watch "Mr. Ed" reruns.
7
If farmers voted for Trump and his harebrained “policies,” the predictable consequences any fool could have predicted, why should they be protected from the consequences of that vote? Where’s the logic, or justice, in that? The rest of us, who voted for the sensible, experienced candidate, are paying for the disastrous results of the folly of the 63 million. Who else does he plan to protect from the painful consequences of his absurdities? Auto makers? Airplane manufacturers? Manufacturers who use imported steel? Where does it stop?
As Trump supporters are fond of saying, “Elections have consequences.” Time to feel the real effects of your choice at the polls. It’s only fair.
13
Remember, Trump loves debt and has a history of going bankrupt. Only problem for the farmers is they don't have Wilbur Ross to bail them out. But the buzzards of corporate farma will be circling and waiting for the feast.
2
So instead of overseas buyers paying farmers, the tax payers will pay them. Are you tired of winning yet?
15
Just really, really tired.
5
The most grossly incompetent leader in history. Trump is a joke. We’re the punch line.
9
The tariffs and subsequent negative economic impact can not be mitigated by a few paltry, targeted payments. What will other affected industries think when the farmers get a payment to offset losses and they don't? Can the economy stand more deficit spending? Guess this is another valuable lesson in Republican economics.
If the Democrats ever again control congress, I don't want to hear any Republican ( including Rand Paul) about deficits, national debt or welfare give-aways.
7
Sorry farmers. Mr. Trump is going to ride this trade war train until you are just a skid mark on the bottom of Brazil's shoe. Make you angry? Me, too.
5
Buying votes with welfare for farmers.
7
I suppose Trump now expects the Nobel Prize in Economics...
4
He seems to think his base is as susceptible to bribery as ... well, as .... well, you finish the sentence.
5
I'm not clear on how this is different from welfare. ???
6
Why thank you Blue States and Counties for your generosity. As the red states are undeveloped. Cotton, Soy, tobacco and rice.
Yes siree bob. Just drive west from Dallas and feast your eyes on useless subsidised cotton fields. Watch as the towns become depressingly poor. And the homes have a tilt to them.
Red Argyle Texas is demanding a road paid for by Blue Dallas. It never stops.
7
Shouldn't these funds be administered by Donald's Dept of Welfare?
8
This is robbing Peter to pay Paul. And I'm Peter.
12
I would like to know how much of the farm relief will go to family farmers and how much will be paid to corporation farms. The corporation farms received sizable tax cuts, so they should not need direct aid. Only family farms should receive aid.
19
Why should anyone who voted for this nonsense be rewarded for it? Like getting a prize for shooting yourself in the foot.
3
So where will the money come from to aid our farmers when there is a natural disaster now that it’s been spent on this “man made” disaster? What a waste.
11
Republicans , this is what socialism is and this is what welfare is. If you have any self respect left tell your man to stop trade war. It’s not your war it is his.
22
So if you need food stamps you need to work.
What to farmers need to do to get their money?
Talk about all those undeserving people.
7
@Fred P You don't think farmers work??
My relatives in Ohio did very well with soy beans during the Obama administration under the trade agreements that Trump has now cancelled. Here in Washington the fruit orchards did equally well. Trump's erratic and ill informed tariffs and trade policies are going to decimate the farmers and the fruit growers. Trump's answer? Farmer welfare. No thank you. They were doing very well on their own before Trump stepped in and make a mess of it. As Republican Senator Sasse says, Trump is making it 1929 all over again. In 1929 tariffs pushed the world economy over the cliff. For Trump everything including this gratuitous economic damage comes down to white nationalist nonsense.
43
It's amazing how Red State farmers, who rail against big government, have no ethical qualms about accepting government hand-outs. They get apoplectic over the welfare mom on food stamps, but feel entitled to their tens (sometimes hundreds) of thousands of dollars in subsidies. In 2016, New Yorkers paid $47 billion (that's billion) more in federal income taxes than the State received back through various federal programs. Guess where our $47 billion went. Even rich Red State Texas netted more than it paid in federal taxes.
27
Where are these funds coming from? Social Security?
15
Where oh where have the deficit hawks gone? Tax cuts, increased security spending and now increased subsidies for farmers. Debt, debt, debt. Less for healthcare, no big increases in education, very little for infrastructure.
16
@JRoebuck: my sentiments precisely!
$12BN ... that's a LOT of healthcare for poor people - perhaps for every farmer in middle America. Somehow, the money is there when Trump's ego is on the line
27
Great. America’s new welfare queen...the american farmer..
35
Trump is starting to see that "winning" trade wars come at a significant cost to average American's, not his billionaire cronies. Hopefully average Americans's in states that voted for him are calling their Republican congressman/congresswomen and senators - and telling Trump to stop the tariff insanity.
11
Trump said the Trade War would be easy "no retaliation" - now he's turning Framers into Welfare recipients
30
I like your Freudian spelling error! Magic!
2
More National Debt, Print Dollars vs Security from abroad, would have been easier to import cheaper without Tariffs, now you have costlier imports and increased national debt.
10
The Extortionate Piggy Theory of Economics
Trump acts as if he believes that belligerence which increases the friction of world trade systems will enhance our national economy.
It seems that in the zero-sum interval between his ears, Trump's America wins when everyone else loses.
9
Interesting to see all these complaints from the places like NY, Charlotte and SF that are home to big banks that got bailed out for enormously more money after they wrecked the US economy in 2008. These farmers are the target of backlash by Chinese and others and not the cause of their own distress unlike those from the big bank communities who now complain.
5
@Dan
This situation is willfully created and easily reversed by dropping tariffs.
The financial meltdown from 2008 was not.
16
@Dan Funny how the 2008 crash happened after 8 years of Republican mismanagement, war and deregulation. Now farmers are in trouble as another Republican administration engages in mismanagement, trade wars and deregulation. It likely will get much worse as it's only been 1 1/2 years.
11
You do not like bail-outs, do you? The farmers are getting a bail-out. That is not good. The trade war was not started by the Chinese and others. It was started by Trump.
5
I wonder if there will be subsidies for others hurt by Trump's ill-conceived economic policies? My health insurance is going to go up by 40% thanks to Trump & his GOP enablers. We'll all be paying more for imported goods and without the little perk of the tax cut bestowed on Trump's Minions, we won't have anything to soften the blow.
So much for "trade wars are easy to win".
15
This won’t be called Welfare for farmers, but that’s exactly what it is.
23
So who is next -- there are many economic victims of his tariff "strategy". Car makers, whiskey purveyors in KY - but not the wine growers in that blue state of CA. Appliance makers, but not lobster fisherman in the blue northeast. How is this not a payoff at taxpayers expense-- something we did not have to foot the bill for until he went on his tariff tirade. Entitlement for the friends.
18
Giveaways to agribusiness. As for workers, let them eat cake.
14
The American myth is over, and the rest of the world knew it first.
17
I want decent healthcare. Where is $12 billion for that promise?
41
1. Why do we have to subsidize farmers who feel the pinch of trade retaliation but not the rest of our small business producers?
2. Why do we allow export of subsidized crops?
.a. Almost every trade negotiation stumbles over agriculture subsidies. Our subsidized ag exports hurt the rest of our industries by taking away our negotiating positions.
.b. Agricultural subsidies must ONLY help AMERICAN CONSUMERS! How much are you willing to pay in taxes to make rice, soybeans, cotton, pork, et al. cheaper for Red China?
3. We should tax ALL raw materials exports to maximize domestic value-add. Colonial powers import raw materials and export finished goods. Why should we act as a colony? It's unconscionable to _subsidize_ our raw material exports.
.a. Wheat should be exported as flour.
.b. Corn as meal, syrup or other end products.
.c. Cotton as fabric and cotton seed oil. Our garment industry may not be competitive, but there's no reason we can't automate ourselves to competitive milling.
If farmers want subsidies, they MUST pay back any and all subsidies when their products get exported.
17
Will the farmers be drug tested, required to have a job, or means tested?
23
I have a question and a solution. One is there is a lack of customers for our food? I guess global hunger is fake. Two, if we give billions in cash assistance to countries to buy food, half of which is rediverted by tyrants. Solution is buy 12 billion in farm products from our farmers and deliver them to starving people. farmers dont get hurt, taxpayers dont get hurt, dictators dont get to steal our money, and starving people get to eat.
8
What will the lines be for the next Civil War? The middle states will fight on two fronts.
6
The reality: trade war causes farmers to lose their market, if not forever, at least for a long time. Trump may come up with the money to buy farmers’ votes, and then that’s it. Think about three years down the road, can you imagine our government will spend billions on farmers year after year? We are no longer in the pre-Bush, pre- Iraq and Afghanistan war era, where do we borrow more money from?
19
@La Ugh you’re right. $12 billion is just the start. It’ll be trump’s fifth bankruptcy. This time America.
3
We will borrow the money from the Chinese.
3
For decades now, U.S. farmers have allowed GOP officials to describe them as a fiercely independent group who are:
(1) possessed of rugged individualism and stringent self-reliance that eschew gov’t intervention (despite a history of annual gov’t farm subsidies stretching back to at least the New Deal).
(2) the antithesis of recipients of gov’t aid, whom the GOP describes as "freeloaders," "takers," and overwhelmingly urban (notwithstanding the critical role that gov’t aid plays in the rural U.S.).
(3) loyal enough to U.S. Conservatism to quietly absorb GOP policies that devastate small farmers and their communities (e.g. the farm policies of the Reagan Administration).
U.S. farmers, you now have the chance to heal the historical contradictions of your “yeoman farmer” characterization -- and rescue other U.S. industries from Pres. Trump’s tariffs while you’re at it -- with a true act of rugged badassery:
Refuse the proffered $12 billion bail-out and demand that Pres. Trump instead invite reps from China, Canada, Mexico, and the E.U. to the White House immediately for an exhaustive meeting that resolves the U.S.’s current, Trump-generated trade impasses -- including the long-delayed NAFTA fix -- before the harvest.
29
How would you like to be the Trump supporter at the steel mill who said in the NYT article yesterday “if my family and I have to take a salary cut to support Trumps trade war, so be it- you have to look at the long picture” and you wake up today and read that this con man Trump is going to take your tax money and hand out 50 billion dollars in government welfare to a hand full of millionaire Republican farmers?
Sorry my friend there is no long picture, just lies and corruption paid for out of your income and your family’s future.
Wake up America you’ve been conned and Trump is going to milk every last penny out of you.
28
What this reveals is that Trump's trade strategy is a dangerous house of cards that will ripple through the US economy. Soy bean, corn and dairy farms will plow under and dump milk. Watch for cut backs or cancelled orders of machinery by bankers, increases of farm machinery equipment repossessions. Followed by a increase of non performing loans in rural banks.
Like the waves from a rock thrown into a pool farm machinery and the farm service industry will report declines in sales, cut backs in hiring and layoffs, followed by more repossessions.
Twelve billion? Triple or quadruple that number when combine sales crater banks get stuck with failed loans and the FDIC has to step in to recover failing banks.
12
"...trade wars are good, and easy to win." - Donald Trump, March 2, 2018
3
@Jed
"Tariffs are great!" - Donald Trump, today.
All of us need to get aid ..to ease the pain of dealing with you know who.
12
$12B won't help the American farmers when they permanently lose market share. Eventually there won't be enough money to compensate the American farmer for their losses and they'll no longer have a market for their crops even if the tariffs are lifted.
17
@flyfysher
Thank you for so concisely explaining the folly of this entire exercise. The markets will be gone for good because there are other providers who making deals among themselves and are not very motivated to deal with the Trumpian idiocracy.
Donny's October Surprise:
Dow down more than 30% - Dollar up more than 15% ... What a way to destroy beneficial commerce, Donny boy, yer doin a heck of a job:(
2
Geez, if I wanted everyone to go on government welfare, I thought I was supposed to vote for a Democrat! Now I am really confused.
21
Trump is buying rural votes with $12 billion taxpayer dollars.
21
Well, when Democrats take the House and Senate, they'll be able to redistribute the wealth some more by passing universal healthcare bills and infrastructure bills. And Republican hypocrites can cry about it all they want, but nobody's going to care by then. They've lost what little credibility they had left in the category of fiscal responsibility They are setting the precedent for astronomical spending on the grandest of scales.
16
@Allison This isn't about redistributing the wealth.
The trade war will help these people in the long run but will hurt them now and will make many of them bankrupt.
They need this money to stay in business.
The money they will get will not cover the losses they will have because of the trade war.
How can you therefore equate this to redistributing the wealth.
This is more like what happens when there is a hurricane
like there was in New Orleans and the government helped those who suffered financial losses.
That wasn't a redistribution of the wealth and neither is this.
The cascading effects of tariffs begins. Next will be the bailout of the transportation sector that provides the delivery of those exported farm products and imported consumer goods. As the dominoes fall, the economy will also fall. All the while, Republicans will begin dismantling Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and what remains of the Affordable Care Act.
21
China smells blood. They know now that they will win this trade war.
32
Trump has a lot of personal business going on in China. He'll win either way.
1
Somebody of power and influence, please call for the big rally to shut down DC. We need to go down there and lay on the streets until this guy resigns. His hatred has been bad enough and now his stupidity. I have had enough.
30
Dude, you are that guy and you just did. Own it!
Wow, what an accomplishment - the trade wars make goods more expensive for U.S. consumers, and now the U.S. taxpayers get to fund increased subsidies. Double hit for the U.S. under the "America First" melee. The President needs an Economics 101 lesson.
Just because he doesn't pay his bills, doesn't mean the rent of us don't pay ours.
32
Bad policy creates more bad policy. Get the NAFTA changes done, see if the EU is really interested in free trade and move on.
4
Why is it that Red states & conservatives, that receive a disproportionate amount federal money via social programs compared to blue states, always fail to see this as welfare. Why do they always cheer when Trump says he’s going to gut social programs? Do they really not realize they’re cheering on their own demise?
31
Maybe they are being patriotic in a backhanded way. Maybe they realize that the survival of the Republic depends on their demise. Maybe they're just daft. I give up.
5
So while the socialist French farmers were protesting insufficient remuneration from the EU during the Tour de France today, socialist Trump doles out dollars to American farmers because of his failed trade war that is costing Americans billions that could have been better spent on infrastructure.
19
@Paolo
Why would you think this war has failed when it just began.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
You have to have some patients.
@lucky
Patients indeed.
We are all patients now.
The entire planet is undergoing a surgery performed by a failed real estate/reality show semi-celebrity.
Great.
Cannot wait for the post-op to begin.
What’s the plan? He’s going to impose tariffs on all of the $500 billion of Chinese exports to the US? And give money to every US sector hurt by higher prices? Or is the plan only to aid farmers and other parts of his base?
20
@Abe The Trump GOP plan is to stay in power as long as possible, and drain the national piggy bank dry.
2
A billion here, a billion there, and soon it's going to add up to some real money, someone once said. But, how, Mr. Trump, will the U.S. pay for a tax cut, pay for losses in sales because of tariffs, and still fund billions of dollars to keep the farmers quiet? All of this is going to come courtesy of Republican "deficit hawks," right?
34
and how are those golfing trips going to be paid for? Will the Czar cover that cost?
4
He's running the country like he ran his businesses - right into bankruptcy.
2
@John
A billion here, a billion there.
Ah, Senator Dirkson, of Gallant Men fame.
And where are the gallant Republican Senators now?
1
The headline should read - farmers' votes bought and paid for.
27
This is WELFARE.
27
Let's see how much of this 12 billion will end up in farmers' pockets and how much in Republican officials' pockets. Hard to imagine that the Trump admin will let this money flow easily to those who need it when there is graft to be had.
5
I live in California. I'm going to be paying more federal income taxes next year because of the GOP tax bill. Can I get a subsidy?
14
Not too often do you see such an obvious attempt to buy votes.
6
Several Republican senators told Trump to buzz off on tariffs. One has to wonder if this would have happened so swiftly had it not been for the NATO/Helsinki fiasco.
7
So, let's see...
He starts a trade war that no one wants. The consequences of the trade war are that markets the farmers have spent years developing are now closed off to said farmers. To ease the pain arising from the trade war and now closed off markets, the farmers are now on welfare, rather than being able to trade their product around the world.
Oh, and need I mention the $2.5bn worth of meat that's sitting in cold storage because we can't sell it abroad due to his insane trade wars that he started for no reasons, which no one wants?
And this $12bn bailout is timed to happen just before the mid-terms. As the Church Lady would say, 'How conVENient!'
15
@Susan
I want it and everyone who understands that the USA has been losing jobs to other countries should want this trade war.
I'm missing something here: First he installs tariffs that hurts the farmers and then he subsidizes them with 12 billion in aid. What is wrong with this picture? 2 words. Donald Trump.
12
I am shocked - SHOCKED - that this administration would rely on us taxpayers to subsidize their mistake. I would suggest Mr. Trump to use his own money to cover this faux paux. He is just buying votes, after all...
26
I don’t understand how this money can be given out without it being budgeted and approved by Congress. If Trump can do this on his own, what is the need for Congress. Please, someone enlighten me. $12B is not chump change; it’s taxpayer money!
16
It will be paid for with the proceeds from a yard sale for all the stuff Scott Pruitt bought for his office.
9
And who gets the bill? Us the Tax payer. Economic slow down, American isolation, tariffs that start a trade war with the one country that holds the majority of our debt or our allies, tax cuts for those who don't need it, writing checks he can't cover, welcome to trump economics 101. By the end of his term, I bet our national debt will have at the very minimum tripled, unemployment will be around 8%, America will be in a full blown recession.
Thanks republicans, you are so fiscally responsible and such deficit hawks....
17
I haven't had the time to read ever single comment on this article, but the dozens I did review seem to be arm-chair commentators and have probably never farmed a square acre of dirt like the hard working American farmers who have fought for market share against agricultural subsidies from China to Europe to Latin America for decades. Little does the public know but that 2% of American workers who are the farm industry sow the bread basket for our country every year and not only feed our own people, but produce a vast surplus to feed many millions around the world. Be careful not to bite the hand that feeds you...lest you get get off your high horse and get your hands dirty to contribute to the American harvest.
4
Really the farmers get more subsidies than anyone else , so is everyone who who is affected by these subsidies will be compensated
2
Jeremiah, California and Mexico feed the country. The Midwest feeds cattle and China.
1
Fine, I'll be your huckleberry. I lived in Kansas and know plenty of small wheat farmers. I've been out on combines, too. And I'm not an armchair commenter - I've worked in DC and have a degree in economics. And successfully ran and consulted for many businesses. This welfare is benefitting big agribusiness. And where the money's coming from to do it? From you, me, and other taxpayers - while we take away health care and other essentials from citizens of this country.
7
Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth that would come from red states were $12 billion of debt forgiveness granted to those weighed down by student loans?
38
I believe this is know as "taxation without representation". Which led to some serious consequences a couple of hundred years ago.
Put bluntly, I think Trump is sowing dragon's teeth. When they come to fruition, he will reap the consequences.
10
This looks to me like the introduction of Latin American style corporatist politics to the United States of a sort used to support authoritarian regimes. Dangerous.
9
Great. More corporate graft.
This time to Big Ag.
They have the staff to deal with the paperwork for these subsidies. Small farmers do not.
This is just more cash to big companies that won’t even have to plant crops while they wait for the value of their land to increase. Saves them dealing with buying water too.
Thanks Trump.
Plus no more buying those big John Deere machines either. Or paying property taxes on equipment and inventory. A gift that just keeps on giving.
Small farmers won’t do so well with this - but big farms will.
Just what we all wanted to buy with our income taxes right?
16
Yep...can you say Monsanto soybeans?
1
If the tariffs are hurting farmers, then they weren’t vetted properly. The tariffs make no sense. It’s part of the Putin Playbook: find an enemy, even when there isn’t one. Instead of actually offering policy, the Trump Administration offers blame: blame somebody. This does not solve problems. It’s up to the American people to decide if the Russian route is where they want to go. True, it is more simplistic to just blame others for your troubles and to be reactive, but I would hope we are better than Russia, a country which has never really known freedom and rule of law that works. Paying farmers with taxpayer money is not a good idea and has never been a good idea. All it contributes to is more tax burden on the middle class, and widening the gap between the very rich and the rest of us. Do we as a people want that? I hope not.
6
The wrong of all this is the circumventing the CONGRESS OF THE US and making another law/policy thru the executive process only. Our Government is not of One branch but of Three with Checks and Balances.
Have we really lost our ways here in America? It would Appear So!
David Brooks why not right about this new process of governing instead of which policy the Democrats should chose.
Does your question even seem to matter?
3
Huh. Maybe to wipe out the student loan debt we should all become farmers.
4
So first you destroy their livelihood, then you put them on welfare. Makes sense.
5
So we are taking away from domestic programs to fund the trade war? Pathetic and so uncalled for. Think of your grandchildren.
10
As usual, Trump is playing with other people's money.
7
Welfare for big-Agra but cuts to food stamps.
17
Remember this on April 15, 2019, when you are filling out the
nightmarish new 1040 form.
3
This temporary measure is not going to work. We need a good long term trade strategy with China. How to handle a cheating China? We can't feed in 12 billions to farmers every year.China is urgently in need of our soybeans and wheat. There are1.4 billion hungry Chinese mouths waiting for American farm products. Chinese like eating toufu bean curd dishes. Are we stupid or Trump is too emotional and a China hater?
3
Sorry farmers, you voted in a political neophyte with little understanding of how (or why) global trade works. You don't deserve handouts.
7
I thought these farm belt Trump supporters don't like handouts.
10
Let me make sure I understand. Mr. Trump creates a problem for farmers, many of whom supported him. His solution to the problem is to make the taxpayers pony up enough money to satiate said farmers so that they continue to support him. The taxpayer ends up paying to support the idiocy of one Donald J. Trump and supposedly everyone is happy. Well, except maybe me - I'm not too happy, I just don't like being ripped off by a carnival barker and charlatan...
15
@Tom
How can you not understand that this will not make any of those farmers rich.
The money they will get will help them because they will go out of business if they do not get this help.
This will not make them happy as the money they will get will be less than the amount they will be loosing because of this trade war.
This will therefore not help Trump.
1
To the 4,489,235 voters for Gary Johnson and the 1,457,226 voters for Jill Stein, let's hope that you are happy that you voted your consciences. BTW thanks for the tax cuts. The Dow, while volatile, is doing just fine, as am I.
Before the next election, do get on board with the ranked-choice-voting movement that is working very well in Maine.
See www.fairvote.com
3
This is a bribe to his farm-base voters to look the other way, and to compensate them for his gross failures.
6
Nice payoff for votes. Swampy.
11
Hey, you Republicans! We thought you were all for the "free market," and against "socialism" and "big government interference in the markets."
But apparently, you're all for socialism and big government interference if our tax dollars are being poured into your pockets!
One thing this Republican administration and Congress has demonstrated to the rest of us multiple times is that you're a bunch of selfish hypocrites.
23
When President Carter imposed his embargo on Russia it destroyed the farm economy for 10 years and lead to widespread depression not only of commodity prices but also farm land prices. The end result was widespread foreclosures, bank failures, farm equipment manufacturers closing down, and abandonment of farm areas unseen since the Great Depression.
The money that the President will put into the Farm Program will need to be sustained for years to come if he does not want to see the American farm economy totally collapse.
4
I grew up in Indiana, on a working farm, I don’t recall anything like your comment during the Carter administration.
But can you imagine the Republican outrage if Carter handed out 50 billion dollars in corporate welfare to a hand full of millionaire farmers?
6
Dear Trump voters, and Russian propagandists (and hackers too): Gee, guess what? Donald Trump really is unfit to be President. This has been plain to see for anyone with half a brain and one third of a spine. Americans need to take to the streets and demand his resignation until it happens.
8
Great more tax dollars going to people who vote against their own interest and hold back this country from progressing forward. Most of these people support homophobic racist policies.
4
Payoff before midterms coming out of our pockets.
16
Sounds like socialism to me.
15
So then he will subsidize the SC BMW plant once the load goes down?
And it will.
4
Where does Trump think the money to subsidize these farmers comes from? When he was in the private sector, he relied on OPM (other people's money) and simply declared bankruptcy when he made stupid business decisions. But now he is CEO of a nation and is just taking money from his left pocket (stupid trade decisions) to try to reimburse the money he took out of his right pocket (farmers' income). In economics there is no such thing as a free lunch. Trump's corrupt shell game can't work when he is both the swindler AND the dupe, but he is too stupid to understand this.
5
"Welfare queens driving new [combines]" ?
11
I didn't vote for the spendthrift in the Oval Office, and I don't want to pay for his stupid economic and political mistakes. To echo the Republican comment often seen in the Times' forums, he's awfully generous with "other people's money."
9
Very USSR; who’d you learn that from?
7
Time to end welfare as we know it.
2
We should have a tariff on presidential stupidity. We’d have enough money for everything.
12
Did Congress approve?
3
A foolish policy requires a foolish bailout. He tell us to be patient, so why doesn't do the same with the money? I suppose he'll be bailing out the auto dealers next.
2
Does anyone realize how sick this is? Trump invented this problem and crisis with his stupid tariffs and trade wars!
Now, the taxpayers are on the hook for $13BILLION ! HE IS A LUNATIC! He will destroy the great economy Obama created and put the US in a hole. Does anybody care? Think what that money could go for? Infrastructure, medical care, education. Instead waste and more waste by an insane person! It will get worse. trump is waging war with everyone and everything ! He must be removed and or neutered ! How many billions more for his stupid wall or parade...This is sickening !
11
Only Trump can force industrious farmers to accept welfare from the federal government. What a mess!
4
The American people are in a daze and are otherwise distracted by their own life challenges.
3
I'll give the Republican Party some credit. At least this handout isn't to the one-percent.
1
Is this like the plan he had to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it? Can you believe 63 million people actually believed that?
14
$12 Billion subsidy: sounds like socialism to me.
12
How much of this money will make it to Manhattan, NY and not Manhattan, Kansas? The rich will syphon this money away and taxpayers will pay the bill. This is just more robbing the poor to pay the robber batons.
3
Just another bit of political prestidigitation by the masters of distraction, fooling no one and done by mean-spirited Russian puppets to enrich themselves and the rich.
3
Tell it to Sec Ag Sonny Perdue at:
https://www.usda.gov/tellsonny
don't let the form scare you.
3
Welfare kings and queens. Kick them off the public dole! And then kick their benefactor out of the Oval Office!
12
If Clinton was president we wouldn’t be sending money to US farmers cause of tariffs. We would be sending it to the EU to fight climate change. Wow
3
If Clinton were President, foreign and domestic policy would be in favor of American farmers, workers, Mother's and children with out the need for this extra payment to support the rich. Do you really think this money is going to the farmer or to the farm owner on Fifth Avenue? Follow the money.
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@Jim: That's right. Because we wouldn't be fighting ridiculous, unfounded trade wars. And we'd have someone in office who believes in global climate change and not oil and gas company mumbo-jumbo.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
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So basically taxpayers are paying for Trump's tariffs?
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Gosh, there goes the balanced budget idea. Are Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan even watching? Or did they sneak off to look at old National Geographic magazines?
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This is stupid. Consumers pay more fore imported goods and higher taxes to pay for subsidies. Protectionism and socialism.
8
Free handouts from the government to the farmers. What ever happened to the supposed Republican values of "self-reliance" and "fiscal restraint"?? Why not just add another trillion to the federal deficit?
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... And meanwhile, we can't have universal health care in this country, because we "can't afford it." Not if we're handing out billions to subsidize the average Trump voter, apparently.
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Small positive spin. If we have to pay taxes to fund Trumps war, at least it’s not a shooting war.
Not yet. Trade wars often become real wars, especially when it concerns food and resources. Read up on Hitler’s motivation for the land grab of Eastern Europe. It wasn’t for beachfront property on the Baltic.
1
Brown Puerto Rico gets tissue thrown at her, white American farmers gets billions when trump sneezes.
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40 years we listened and brainwashed what is the socilaism and Communism bla bla bla
Now US goverment is literally subsidizing the loss.....
Republicans are so brazenly OK with that.....
What was the word I was looking , in Obama time they were calling the people who is collecting Government handout, Moochers.
So Who is moocher now?
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