Here are highlights from Stage 8 of the Tour de France.
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Cycling
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President Donald Trump tweeted on March 2, 2018: “. . . trade wars are good, and easy to win.”
Since Mr. Trump made this ill-informed statement, he has initiated or threatened tariff wars with China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, the European Union and India.
Mr. Trump doesn’t understand tariffs. A tariff is a tax on goods coming into a country. Who pays the tariff on Chinese goods subject to Mr. Trump’s tariffs? It’s the U.S. consumers who want finished goods or U.S. companies that want materials in order to build their products. When U.S. manufacturers’ costs go up, U.S. consumers pay more.
When China retaliates by imposing tariffs on U.S. exports, like soybeans, what happens? China buys its soybeans from Brazil. U.S. soybean exports to China have dropped 80% since the trade war. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue recently admitted that American farmers are “one of the casualties” of tariff wars. Because farmers were important Trump supporters, Mr. Trump is giving soybean farmers a $28 billion bailout to compensate them for the harm his policies have caused.
To summarize: (1) Americans pay Mr. Trump’s tariffs, (2) prices for U.S. goods rise, (3) U.S. exporters lose sales, and (4) Mr. Trump bails out his supporters with our tax dollars.
In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which greatly increased tariffs on foreign products. Experts believe that these tariffs worsened the severity and length of the Great Depression. Hoover, Sen. Reed Smoot and Rep. Willis C. Hawley were all thrown out of office in 1932.
Karl Kline
O’Hara
Note from KBJ: Donald Trump has forgotten more about trade than Karl Kline will ever know. Tariffs are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Trump knows what he’s doing.
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Now Playing
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94% Approval Rating in the Republican Party, an all time high. Ronald Reagan was 87%. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 13, 2019
Presidential Tweet
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Animal Logic II (1991).
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Here.
Ten Years Ago Today in This Blog
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Here.
Dilbert
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Here are highlights from Stage 7 of the Tour de France.
Cycling
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Almost daily, I see the continuing controversy regarding a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. The solution is so simple.
If you are living in the United States and are not a citizen, be sure to complete the forms. When you get to the question about citizenship, just think of what the president would do: Lie. He is able to get away with it, and so will you.
The Census is a count of the total number of people living within the borders of the United States. No one can take away your right to be counted as a legal resident, whether you are a citizen or not.
If you are a non-legal resident, you’re on your own. Gain legal status or leave. Citizens and legal residents are footing the bills for your kids to go to school and your medical care.
For the Trump administration to still be seeking to add this question to the Census, when the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the administration cannot, is outrageous.
This will go on until Congress and president work on resolving the major immigration issues that the United States have faced for decades.
Charles Peters,
Miami
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Wow, @CNN RATINGS HAVE CRASHED. LOST ALL CREDIBILITY!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019
Presidential Tweet
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