One of the casualties in Trump’s trade war has been and continues to be American agriculture. That’s why the Deal-Maker-in-Chief manipulated the books a few months ago to find $12 billion of our money to “help” farmers and ranchers hurt by his tariff policies.
While clearly an admission that America is losing the “easy to win” trade war, this taxpayer-funded political payola was nothing more than a bribe to buy the votes of farmers and ranchers in November. It also doesn’t hurt that Iowa is the site of the first major contest of the presidential primary season which unofficially begins right after the midterm election.
Speaking of Iowa and the farm bailout, we recently learned about another beneficiary of Trump’s bribery scheme: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). Grassley, who garners a 68% (D) Liberty Score® from Conservative Review, was one of the first to remind Trump of how his trade war was hurting farmers and how it was his “responsibility to help.”
“If the Federal government takes action on trade that directly results in economic hardship for certain Americans, it has a responsibility to help those Americans and mitigate the damage it caused.”
Sounds noble, doesn’t he? Well, don’t be fooled.
Besides the fact that Congress could end the trade war today if they actually followed the Constitution — or at least passed Sen. Mike Lee’s Global Trade Accountability Act (S.177) — Grassley’s appeal for help was entirely self-interested.
Grassley and Democrat Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) — another “concerned” politician who called on Trump to rescue farmers and ranchers — are carving out their piece of the $12 billion pie to bail out their struggling farming and ranching operations back home.
And just how bad is their struggle? Well, in 2015 Grassley’s net worth was $3.3 million and Tester’s was $3.9 million. Man! Must be tough!
For the record, I have no problem with people being wealthy. But I do have a problem when politicians create policies and bend the rules to their benefit, such as we’ve seen from Trump’s use of his real estate properties for government business.
More than that, however, I have a problem when so-called conservatives scream bloody murder when Democrats violate our values, but hypocritically support Republicans when they do the same, such as we recently witnessed with the budget betrayal.
But that’s the political reality in Washington where the two-party #Unibrow is running the show. Regardless, I choose to persist in fighting for the Constitution and conservative values, and I will call out their hypocrisy whenever I find it.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His politically incorrect and always “right” columns are also featured on NOQReport.com.
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