Conspicuously absent in the campaign pitches of Midwestern GOP politicians are enthusiastic statements for President Donald Trumps trade policies. Nowhere are the damaging economic effects more acutely felt than in the nations farm belt. At a time when Republicans are scrounging for every possible vote to stave off embarrassing midterm defeats on Nov. 6, Trumps base in the rural Midwest is decidedly underwhelmed as livelihoods nosedive.
Two recent Post-Dispatch reports underscored the extent of the economic pain being felt as Midwesterners head to the polls. Reporter Bryce Gray reported Sunday that farmers in Missouri and Illinois feel as if theyre being hit on all fronts. Prolonged drought has decimated their crop yields as falling commodity prices are chopping their incomes. Trumps tariff war against China has been particularly brutal.
China retaliated by imposing a 25 percent tariff on certain U.S. agricultural exports. Soybeans, the biggest export product from Missouri and Illinois, took a particularly sharp blow. A third of Missouris soybean harvest is sold to Chinese buyers, as is an estimated 25 percent of Illinois soybean crop, worth $1.75 billion.
A bumper crop in other parts of the country, combined with the loss of China sales, has glutted the soybean market. A bushel that sold for $10.20 in June 2016 was down to $8.59 this August. Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, acknowledges that the tariff war just completely knocked the stuffing out of the markets. Yet the bureau consistently supports Republican candidates and stands behind a Trump plan to send out $12 billion in farm-aid checks.
We dont want to earn a living from the mailbox, counters Ronnie Russell, a soybean farmer from Richmond, Mo.
Who needs these headaches? Americas Heartland certainly doesnt. The 19 American Heartland states, including Kansas, identified in a recent Brookings Institution and Walton Family Foundation study lead the country in production and exports, due largely to the agricultural output of states like Missouri and Illinois. Yet those states are the ones most consistently neglected by politicians in Washington.
In the 2016 campaign, Trump pledged to turn that around. Indeed, wages are slightly higher and poverty rates are slightly down. But the Heartland study also shows that the region continues to be poorer, with lower educational attainment and higher rates of obesity and opioid use.
No doubt in 2016, many of these imbalances factored in Midwestern voters decision to experiment with Trumps brash new approach. But the experiment isnt paying the dividends he promised. The GOP politicians who backed Trump unquestioningly, driving up the deficit and ruining export markets, need to get the message on Nov. 6 that theyve had their chance to deliver results. Now its time to get out of the way.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
