Trump farm bailout costs more than double the auto bailout that GOP slammed

Bloomberg News reported that Donald Trump’s trade war has now cost American taxpayers at least $28 billion in bailouts to famers — whom Trump has sought to appease after his tariffs on China led to steep losses in the farming industry.

That $28 billion is more than double the $12 billion that the auto industry bailout ultimately cost taxpayers back in 2008 and 2009, when the Great Recession threatened to sink American auto giants General Motors and Chrysler.

Republicans panned that bailout, saying that “free market” principles should have let the American auto makers to go under — taking with them thousands of manufacturing jobs from the kinds of blue-collar workers Trump has courted.

“Unless Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors become lean and innovative and competitive in the market place, this is only delaying their funeral,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) said at the time. Shelby, however, supports farm subsidies.

However, Republicans haven’t put up a fuss to Trump’s farm subsidies — which, unlike the auto bailout, do not include provisions that they be paid back to the Treasury.

Instead, they are merely an effort to stave off losses for farmers, who have taken a massive hit after China stopped buying billions of dollars worth of pork, soybean, and other American crops, thanks to the trade war Trump started with the economic giant.

And there is no sign of the farm bailouts ending, as Trump’s trade war with China marches on.

Most of the subsidy payments are going to larger farms, according to Bloomberg.

Senate Democrats also released a study showing that farms in the South, in states that voted for Trump, received more money than farms in the Midwest, in states that did not support Trump in the 2016 election — suggesting Trump is using the subsidies to aid his reelection hopes.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.