Trump's star dims in Iowa's GOP ag country
Trump's call for tariffs creating anxiety in the farm belt
HOSPERS, Iowa (AP) — In Sioux County, where swine barns interrupt the vast landscape of corn-stubbled fields, exports of meat, grain and machinery fuel the local economy. And there's a palpable sense of unease that new Chinese tariffs pushed by President Donald Trump — who received more than 80 percent of the vote here in 2016 — could threaten residents' livelihood
The grumbling hardly signals a looming leftward lurch in this dominantly Republican region in northwest Iowa. But after standing with Trump through the many trials of his first year, some Sioux County Trump voters say they would be willing to walk away from the president if the fallout from the tariffs causes a lasting downturn in the farm economy.
"I wouldn't sit here today and say I will definitely support him again," said 60-year-old hog farmer Marv Van Den Top. "This here could be a real negative for him." (Read it all)
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Last week, Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on a range of Chinese goods, a move aimed at punishing Beijing for stealing American technology. The Chinese government responded with a threat to tag U.S. products, including pork and aluminum, with an equal 25 percent charge.
That sent a chill through places like Sioux County, which ranks first among Iowa's 99 counties in agricultural exports. In 2016, the county sold $350 million in meat, grain, machinery and chemicals overseas. Far closer to the sparsely populated crossroads of South Dakota and Minnesota than Iowa's bustling Des Moines metro area, Sioux County is home to just 34,000 people, but more than 1 million hogs, 6 million chickens and nearly as impressive numbers of cattle and sheep.
"I wouldn't sit here today and say I will definitely support him again," said 60-year-old hog farmer Marv Van Den Top. "This here could be a real negative for him."
If the tariffs make this country become self sufficient, he'll be selling the same amount, and maybe for a higher price.
"Made in America" ALWAYS COST MORE......for some friggin reason.
If.
There's an olde saying:
If my grandmother had a wheel and two handles, she'd be a wheelbarrow!
If . . .
Hire an "Illegal". They're cheap slaves !
Besides, if she "HAD" those things, she would already HAVE 85% of a wheel barrel. All she would need is the tub. I've never seen a human being shaped like a tub.
Ace Hardware sells wheel barrel tubs.
So, it seems as if the Chinese have decided to give up eating. Farm products can easily be sold to other countries. Unlike manufactured goods, they are essential to sustain life.
Or else they've decided to get those food products elsewhere...or even find ways to grow new products themselves.
Wouldn't that be a hoot if we grew and raised for us first....others second.
No one else has food products in the necessary quantities. The word most associated with Chinese food growing for the last 1,000 years: FAMINE. The Soviet Union, who had a very large steppe country suitable for farming, were, in the end, unable to feed its own people. Collective farming under Socialism doesn't work very well. A commissar can't just order crops to grow (see: King Canute ordering the tides to stop).
Brad Te Grootenhuis sells about 25,000 hogs a year and could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars if the tariffs spark a backlash from China. He said it's possible he would abandon Trump if pork's price decline continues and lasts.
"Any time you're losing money, nobody's happy," the 42-year-old farmer said. "I've got payments to make, plain and simple."
When Russia invaded Afghanistan back during the Carter administration we imposed a grain embargo on Russia as a sanction which had a devastating effect on mid-western farmers. While race may have been the deciding factor when many southern Democrats defected to the gop just before then that grain embargo and the effects on farming accomplished the same in farm states. Dems lost the mid-west over that embargo. Carter lost the Presidency.
Carter lost the presidency because he was in effective, incompetent and inept. He is the worst president ever although bho is making a run for that title .Besides that Ronald Reagan was the better candidate and was an infinitely better president.
Back away from the Kool Aid.
no look aid just facts. I know you don't like facts.
Reagan won 489 electoral votes in 1980 and beat carter by 10 points. The election made obama Mccain look like a nail biter. The idea that the grain embargo made a difference is laughable.
True.
But since the new tariffs targeting Jim Jones Kool Aid, most people can no longer afford it!
(They have to settle for Walmart Kool Aid instead
If that's intended as a personal attack, its a pretty feeble one-- surely you can do better than that!
no it called the truth.
And the Soviet Government was no longer able to feed its population and fell from power.
What I find ironic about Trump's obsession with increasing and/or instituting tariffs is that the conventional Republican/Conservative position has been for free enterprise with no gov't interference . . . and that includes free trade. (The Conservative position has been strongly opposed to tariffs).
To put it another way, Conservatives believe the best way to go is to "let natural "market forces" exist and that that approach will be the best for all. (Democrats, OTOH, generally belief in more government action, (such as tariffs).
And ironically,support for tariffs has always been a liberal position (i.e. more government "meddling" in the free enterprise system).
Of course Trump is by no means a Conservative (as more astute observers of politics well know). So its no surprise he's often for bigger government....and more government meddling with free market forces...
Well........ duh!
So how are you offended Bob? Most pork stays local unless you are a commercial farm.
If the local price in my village market is lower than the global I am cool with that.
Offended? What are you talking about?
Trump's asinine tariff policies are only going to make things worse with time:
The Chinese government fired back at the Trump administration’s tariffs on steel and aluminum on Monday by enacting its own tariffs on 128 American-made products including wine, fruit, and pork products. (link)