Wefare Republican Style

We all are keenly aware that the Republican administration raised taxes on imported steel and aluminum and our major trading partners responded in-kind with taxes of their own on American-produced agricultural products.   

The fallout is that prices of most US-produced commodities have plunged faster than a turd in a toilet bowl.        

United States agribusiness is being held hostage by all of this winning and the entire obscenity has been inflicted-upon US farmers and ranchers by Republicans.      

Yes, you read that correctly.  A Republican administration did this.  And American farmers certainly did not send an invitation..

Sure, the Republicans have characterized this as unjustified trade retaliation by foreign nations.   Hence the afore-mentioned turd.  The result is that most everything from soy beans, ginseng, apples, pork, cheese, cranberries, orange juice, sorghum, cherries and Tennessee and Kentucky whiskey have been impacted.  President Trump and his Republican allies have made sizeable gains in their efforts to fray and possibly break trade relationships assiduously-fostered over many years.  The end game to all of this economic genius is that markets previously supplied by US producers may seek suppliers from Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe and elsewhere.                 

Even more perplexing is that the answer to this state-sponsored meddling in an imperfect capitalist economy is the Republican adoption of depression era Roosevelt administration rules to make billions upon billions upon billions of dollars in welfare payments to farmers to assuage the economic loss they have inflicted-upon hard-working people.   

Yes, you also read that correctly.  The first wave of welfare payments started with applications beginning last month with a down payment of $12 billion in welfare payments that Republicans will make to producers who have suffered financial loss at the hands of their tax increase.  

Don’t take my word for it – I’ve been receiving regular, weekly emails heralding the arrival of the gravy train.  And get this - as long as your average adjusted gross income for tax years 2014, 2015, and 2016 is less than a paltry $900,000 you might just be eligible for another $125,000 of cash money.  Free for nothing.  Courtesy of Republican government.      

And because China is the largest foreign purchaser of US Treasury securities this can be distilled down to one basic factoid:  Republican government is going to borrow from China (and pay the Chinese government interest) so they can pay farmers not to sell pork, soybeans or most anything else to China. 

Who’d a thunk any of this economic brilliance was possible three or four years ago? 

Excuse me while I step thru the looking glass again….