Iowa

Today China announced an additional $60 billion in retaliatory tariffs sure to keep squeezing Iowan farmers and workers — and Rod Blum is yet again failing to stand up for them. 

President Trump is punishing farmers, manufacturers, and small businesses across Iowa with lower profits and higher costs. Iowan farmers deserve members of Congress who will stand up for them against reckless policies that hurt their bottom line, but Congressman Rod Blum – who last week went as far as to thank Trump for the policies that are devastating Iowa’s farmers and causing layoffs – is failing that critical test.

On July 27, when Trump came to Peosta, Blum praised Trump for pursuing the trade policies that are slamming the heartland, saying, “Thank you for having political courage.”

The Hawkeye State can’t afford that kind of cowardice.

“Last week Rod Blum turned his back on the Iowa farmers, workers, and small businesses whose livelihoods are under attack – putting his politics above his suffering constituents,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “Now the costs for Iowa’s families are rising and Blum still won’t act. With every passing week that Blum fails Iowa, more families are reeling from the impact of this disastrous policy.”

But on Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s administration announced it will provide $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers impacted by steep tariffs that have contributed to increasingly low commodity prices.

“I think I’m probably like most farmers who just received the information with mixed feelings,” said Schrock, a corn and soybean farmer in Oakville. “I’m relieved that we’re finally going to have a little bit of good news to take to our lenders.

“But on the other hand,” he continued, “I’m discouraged that it had to come to something like this. Bailouts never end too good.”

Read the full story here.

Pig prices are plunging – so, too, those of American soybeans.

America’s heartland farmers, in states largely supportive of President Donald Trump, say they are starting to feel real financial pain from a tit-for-tat trade war Trump once promised will be “easy to win.”

“We have loss of confidence in our products and we have loss of price,” said hog farmer Gregg Hora of Fort Dodge, Iowa. “Pig farmers are currently losing about $25-30 per pig.”

Read the full story here.