August 6, 2018 — We wrote recently about the Trump administration’s plan to send $12 billion in emergency aid to American farmers to combat the ills of our current trade war with China (and just about the rest of mankind) and of subsequent political efforts to extend the plan to other industries, such as commercial fishing.
Those efforts have fallen on deaf ears, with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer slapping a hasty kibosh on the notion that anyone else is getting bailed out. Now we may know why.
According to a new U.S. Chamber of Commerce analysis, providing additional bailout funds to other industries impacted by the trade war would would bring the full price tag for U.S. taxpayers to about $39 million.
“The chamber’s analysis shows that on top of the $12 billion that could be doled out to farmers as early as this fall, another $27 billion would be needed to help other sectors such as fishermen, cotton and fabric manufacturers and makers of steel and aluminum,” according to a story in The Hill.
The chamber – not exactly a left-leaning crowd – proceeded to whack away at the Trump tariffs as if they were a row of pinatas.