Quote:
Originally Posted by crockett
Can anyone tell me why we need $28 billion in bail out during a "BOOMING ECONOMY"?
|
Yes, I can... and I think you'll enjoy my answer:
Firstly, the stuff you won't like. The reason (justification???) for Repubs not being outraged by these bailouts is because it appears that the government has made more from the tariffs (taxes) than the amount paid out, so technically, this is net positive for the Treasury. (Notwithstanding that Repubs, if they weren't hypocrites, would be "outraged" at these huge taxes, they aren't so outraged because the tax - I mean tariffs - are a tax on low income, so they don't care...)
But the truth is quite different. What's actually happened is simple if you strip out the BS.
- Trump taxes imports by 25%.
- China responds by tariffing (in China that means essentially, prohibiting the import lest you upset the State) Soybeans and other agricultural products.
- US farmers see prices collapse and need a bailout, so
- Almost all the tax revenue goes to farmers who then...
- Sell the Soybeans, etc. to China anyway under an agreement between US and China in which China agreed to buy more US agricultural products, BUT
- Since the prices have collapsed and are being subsidized, they get to buy the Soybeans that they would have purchased anyway, at a HUGE DISCOUNT.
So, in short, tariffs cost US taxpayers the cash, which goes to farmers so they can sell their Soybeans to China for far less than the cost to produce. China has gotten Trump to SUBSIDIZE THEIR IMPORTS on the back of US taxpayers.
It is brilliant jujitsu by China who is laughing all the way the bank.
Sadly, no one seems to have put this whole chain together on the Republican side. They don't think "math" or "facts" are real, so I guess this is what they get.