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August 29, 2019 09:19 AM UTC

Gardner Growing Nervous About Trade War, Farmer Backlash

  • 22 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Well, look, if I wasn’t doing everything in my power to help farmers, then why would I be posing in front of a bunch of tractors?

American farmers are mad.

“I couldn’t vote for him. I have to protect my business,” Ohio soybean farmer Christopher Gribbs told CNBC earlier this month. Gribbs voted for Trump in 2016 and was once part of the President’s midwestern base, but no longer. “The geopolitical problems that we have with the Trump tariffs have weighed on market confidence and the market just can’t move.”

Trump’s trade war is costing American farmers BIGLY — and they’re going to be returning the favor in 2020; a survey from Farm Journal found that Trump’s support from farmers has dropped to 71 percent. As the New York Times explains:

More than a year into the trade dispute, sales of American soybeans, pork, wheat and other agricultural products to China have dried up as Beijing retaliates against Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. Lucrative contracts that farmers long relied on for a significant source of income have evaporated, with Chinese buyers looking to other nations like Brazil and Canada to get the commodities they need. Farm bankruptcy filings in the year through June were up 13 percent from 2018 and loan delinquency rates are on the rise, according to the American Farm Bureau.

The predicament of farmers is becoming a political problem for Mr. Trump as he heads into an election year. For months, farmers have remained resolute, continuing to pledge support to a president who says his trade policies will help the agricultural industry win in the end. While there are few signs of an imminent blue wave in farm country, a growing number of farmers say they are losing patience with the president’s approach and are suggesting it will not take much to lose their vote as well. [Pols emphasis]…

Via The New York Times (8/27/19)

President Trump’s trade war with China has farmers speaking out with increasing levels of anger. You can tell that these concerns are getting through to Republican lawmakers, because Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is now pretending that he is riding to the rescue (spoiler alert: Nope). In a recent interview with Bente Birkeland of Colorado Public Radio (CPR), Gardner said some words:

“It is tough for businesses to plan and that’s why we need to have a resolution. And that’s why I have from day one even before, long before they went into effect said ‘Hey, you can’t do this. Don’t move forward on this,'” Gardner said. “And that’s why I support efforts to take that power back by Congress.”

Say what? If Gardner has said any of these things “from day one,” he has said them under his breath. The only thing Gardner has really said publicly is that tariffs are “a bad idea,” and he has repeatedly demurred when pressed for specifics.

As we all know, Gardner doesn’t push back against Trump on anything. There are a number of Republican Senators who have strongly opposed the Trump tariffs, but Gardner is most certainly not among them. Here’s what Gardner actually said about the tariffs earlier this summer, via Marianne Goodland of the Colorado Springs Gazette:

Gardner told Bloomberg News Monday that tariffs are “a bad idea, plain and simple.” His office declined to comment about whether his opposition would include any efforts to overturn the President’s authority under IEEPA. [Pols emphasis]

And this from Politico (June 7, 2019):

Several Republican senators are warning the president they would vote to overturn the new levies, though Gardner has not explicitly said he would go that far. [Pols emphasis]

You’re really giving him the business, Senator!

There’s Cory!

This has been the extent of Gardner’s “opposition.” He won’t even hint that he might support legislation to curb Trump’s tariff powers. But now that farmers are finally getting fed up, Gardner is putting inserts in his shoes to look taller.

Here’s more of Gardner’s pablum from Colorado Public Radio:

GARDNER: That’s why I oppose the tariffs, and that’s why I continued to try to find a solution that involves more trade opportunities, a more open trade without tariffs, to surround China and the bad actions that they have with a significant portion of the global economy so that they can’t pick our friends off and try to undermine us. And this isn’t just an interest of the United States to make sure that China behaves good. It’s an interest of the entire world to make China behave fairly when it comes to trade. I think the tariffs approach is the wrong way to do it, but we ought to continue our efforts to change their bad behavior while opening up Colorado opportunities.

“We ought to continue our efforts to change their bad behavior while opening up Colorado opportunities.” Shermanesque, he is not.

BIRKELAND: And so would you push President Trump to find a trade deal sooner rather than later?

GARDNER: I have already pushed President Trump to find a trade deal sooner rather than later. I’ve been meeting with the groups of senators over at the White House for well over a year and a half, bringing people like Sen. Ernst and Sen. Fisher to ag states, Sen. Graham and Sen. Alexander, more manufacturing based states, to the White House to talk about how we need a trade agreement. We need to enter into things like the Transpacific Partnership. We ought to have a European free trade agreement. I passed a bill called the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, and the president signed it into law on December 31 of this past year. And in that legislation, it directs the administration to pursue multilateral and bilateral trade agreements, hopefully the first of which we’re starting to see with Japan.

Trade agreements with Japan, eh? Trump recently dismissed sales of wheat in Japan, saying the country was only buying from American farmers as a favor to the United States.

Got anything else, Sen. Gardner?

No?

Well, then, let’s give the last word to an actual farmer:

[mantra-pullquote align=”center” textalign=”left” width=”90%”]“If [President Trump] doesn’t lose 100 percent of [votes] from the farm belt then people are kind of crazy because this is not going well for farmers at all.”

     — Bob Kuylen, North Dakota farmer (8/27/19)[/mantra-pullquote]

 

Here’s the full interview with North Dakota farmer Bob Kuylen on CNN earlier this week:

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22 thoughts on “Gardner Growing Nervous About Trade War, Farmer Backlash”

  1. It’s an interest of the entire world to make China behave fairly when it comes to trade. I think the tariffs approach is the wrong way to do it, but we ought to continue our efforts to change their bad behavior while opening up Colorado opportunities.

    It's really too bad we don't have a global alliance of democracies who could tackle this Jina problem? Maybe lead, not from behind or from an empty chair? 

    1. Actually, the Trans Pac ific Partnership would have been the ideal vehicle to make China obey the rules.  Alas, the wild-eyed protectionists led by Bernie Sanders wrecked it even before Trump.  As bad as Trump is, Democrats have often been irresponsible on trade issues.  Even Hillary, who knew better, groveled before the Sanders protectionist wing.  

  3. U.S. Farmers May Be Angrier, But Their Trump Love Is Growing

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-29/american-farmers-may-be-angrier-but-their-trump-love-is-growing

    "Support for the president rebounded in the past year, with 67% of farmers saying they’d back him for reelection in 2020, according to a survey of 1,150 growers carried out by Farm Futures between July 21 and Aug. 3. That’s up from last year, when backing fell to just under 60% following the introduction of Chinese retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans."

  4. You Can't Go Home Again…..

    I'm not sure Thomas Wolfe was thinking about Cory Gardner and his eastern plains friends he has burned. I'm guessing after he is forcibly retired next year, he goes to K Street or Koch Industries for employment and doesn't return to the farm.

        2. I thought he was a large animal vet? Probably not too many dogs or cats in his patient roster. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to try doing that thing with the thermometer to a sick bull.

  5. I truly wonder what it would take for these farmers, or any Trump supporters, for them to not vote for their Dear Leader. They talk a lot about threats of not voting for him, but when the rubber hits the road, they'll bend over and take it like the good sheep they are, never connecting all the bad stuff in their lives and jobs is because of Trump and the GOP.  Idiots.

    1. For some, absolutely nothing will get them to see reality. Some of them truly believe that Trump is working at making things right and everything that is going wrong is the result of:

      1.   Obama,

      2.   The Clintons, 

      3.   The liberal media,

      4.   Nancy Pelosi,

      5.   The Squad,

      6.   China, 

      7.   The E.U.,

      8.   The Deep State, 

      9.   George Soros,

      10.   Some, or all, of the above.

        2. Dadburn it.  We have Grandpa so wound up about these waivers that he's taken to the Twitter (be careful, your slip is starting to show). Publicly admitting the oily boyz have been getting special treatment in the tax code (depletion allowances, the only ones who got to use Master Limited Partnerships, etc,  you get the picture) may be a bridge too far for the next caucus meeting.  It's too bad you're not in a position to do anything about this (Chair, Finance Committee) and that you've voted 'thumbs up' for two of Trumps EPA appointees with backgrounds in fossil fuels and records of hostility to renewable energy.  In the meantime YOUR'E SABOTAGING THE HEALTH CARE OF 130 MILLION AMERICANS WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS. 

          In other news, according to #SecretarySonny talking to reporters at the Farm Progress show yesterday: "expect Japan agreement to be mostly the same as TPP – with a few minor changes".  

          Our #StableGenius has 'renegotiated' the exact. same. deal.

    2. In other news….(this could go under the Polis/COGA thread as well): after Twitler approved 31 of the 40 Small Refinery Exemptions (SRE) two weeks ago, farm county blow-back is severe enough the Sadministration is scrambling today to make yet another something-something announcement to soothe the wounds. Grandpa Grassley sounds like the old man on the lawn; Andrew Wheeler could't give a flying fuck about farm country…

      The small refinery exemption waivers were announced late on August 9th’s Friday afternoon after EPA received the phone call from The White House requesting to push the waivers forward and siding with the oil industry instead of agriculture, farmers and biofuels (my emphasis).

      “The president has heard from all sides and in the end he has had enough of it. He called Wheeler and gave him the green light,” a source familiar with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, but The White House declined to comment.

      …and Twitler? Well, he's busy yapping about Space Farce but he's about to come to the rescue with an “SRE Mitigation Package” (the problem he created two weeks ago that already needs mitigation).

      At least that's the story for this very moment.

      Jet lag has been brutal on the #ChosenOne:

        1. In addition six biodiesel plants have closed as a result of these waivers, the most recent being a 50 million gallon facility in Nebraska making biodiesel from the excess corn oil from distillers grains (the other five are in Iowa).

          This. Is. Nuts.  

          1. But Michael? Does this make you sad? The farmers are getting the short end of the stick for now, but if it can pry them away from The Screaming Yam, then it's a good thing, no?

             

            1. Not answering for Michael, but I think it will continue to sour the farmers on their "chosen one".

              I have been wondering how he was going to kill the corn market. The soybean market is in the toilet. Hog market is about to or has tanked. 

              I wonder when Harold Hamm will convince him to start dismantling wind generators and solar farms?

            2. Statistically we only need to shift those Trump swing states 5-6%. It’s folly to think we’d get a majority to turn on Drumpf (see R&R’s great list above). The party has so poisoned the well on most issues that you can no longer have a fact-based conversation with them. They’re too busy screaming socialism!! while they’re on their way to the bank to deposit their federal subsidy checks.  

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