CNN’s Romans on Trump’s Claim China Will Pay for a $16 Billion Farmer Bailout: That’s Not a Fact

EXCERPT:

ROMANS: "Okay, fact check. That’s not a fact. China is not paying for the farmer bailout, just like Mexico is not paying for the President’s border wall. Trump doesn’t have a magic bank account with tariff revenues and charges to China that he can then write a check from. It just doesn’t work like that. The program, the USDA, the ag department wants to use as a depression era emergency facility meant for disaster, economic disaster, essentially confirming the President’s trade war is an economic disaster for American farmers. Farmers, by the way, will not even remotely be made whole by this. The bailout won’t even cover enough of what they lost because of a trade war. And the National Corn Growers Association said the last bailout amounted to about a penny a bushel for corn. Also, farmers don’t want bailouts. They want access to global markets. And they aren’t the only one paying the price of the President’s tariffs. The New York Fed reports the latest increase on tariffs is costing the average American household $831 a year. Ironically, in the biggest capitalist economy in the world, the President of the United States is picking the winners and losers. He’s essentially affecting a transfer of wealth from American consumers, that’s who pays tariffs ultimately, to farmers who are being hurt by his policies."