How the trade war is changing minds in a Senate battleground

[Snellius]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Jimmy Tosh’s sprawling hog farm in rural Tennessee is an unlikely battleground in the fight for control of the U.S. Senate.

Yet his 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) two hours west of Nashville showcase the practical risks of President Donald Trump’s trade policies and the political threat to red-state Republican Senate candidates such as Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn.

Tosh, a third-generation farmer who almost always votes Republican, said he’s voting this fall for Blackburn’s Democratic opponent, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, in part because Trump’s trade wars are hurting his family business — a sizable one with some 400 employees and 30,000 pigs. The cost of steel needed for new barns is up, Tosh said, and the expanding pork market stands to suffer under new tariffs.
...
Similar concerns are roiling high-profile Senate contests in Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania and North Dakota and forcing GOP candidates to answer for the trade policies of a Republican president they have backed on almost every other major issue.



https://apnews.com/9e5a5c74b8b84ada8a676eb3ac7eebb6/How-the-trade-war-is-changing-minds-in-a-Senate-battleground

[secondwind]

1. GOP has set aside 5 billion in aid to farmers.

I hope he does what is right for the country

[wasupaloopa]

2. Those "farmers" are corporations.

[MyOwnPeace]

3. Of COURSE they are!

F**k the little guys!!!!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Just because Chik-Fil-A & Hobby Lobby are corporations doesn't make corporations evil

Nor does a farmer being smart and successful make them evil either.

He's a better business person than tRump.

[bitterross]

8. Chill out and note the quotes around "farmers"

The way I read that wasn't that wasupaloopa was talking about the real small, family farmer like the gentleman in the article.

I read it as wasupaloopa being right that "farmers" in the GOP dictionary means huge corporations like Smithfields, Tysons, and Cargill. Those are the "farmers" who will get the big breaks from anything the GOP does.

[wasupaloopa]

9. Yes but they insinuate that these are poor

farmers who need financial relief.

They are corporations sucking off the government teat while they cut money for poor families.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. The 400 workers there don't count?

[wasupaloopa]

10. Sure they do but the owners will get bailed

out while social programs are cut.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. The problem is cutting the social programs.

I'm less enthusiastic about subsidies for farmers (including corporations that have farm workers) but I'm persuadable about some forms of policy.

[wasupaloopa]

12. So government exists to bail out failing corporations. I must have forgotten to get mine back when

I owned a business.

These folks voted for trump most likely because they thought he would enrich them. Now that his policies hurt them we should bail them out? No fucking way! Voting has consequences.

[Duppers]

13. I thought the Farm Bill failed...

"In blow to GOP, House fails to pass massive farm bill in face of conservative Republican showdown"
May 18, 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/05/18/house-moves-toward-vote-on-farm-bill-with-outcome-uncertain-in-dispute-over-immigration/?utm_term=.b9ac55274761

[beachbum bob]

4. All republicans are enablers of trump and his dismal policies...

And why democrats can take back the senate.

[DoctorJoJo]

7. And to Help Matters, We Have Marsha Blackburn As Opposition, Who Has ...

... parlayed her Home Economics degree and beauty pageant chops into the House, where she has become a regular joke on Cable News shows. I'm guessing Phil tromps her this Fall!

[Duppers]

14. We all hope. nt

[MBS]

15. Fingers crossed. n/t