Wall Street Journal - Trump Has Been Bad for Farmers. Bankruptcies are way up, in part because of his immigration and trade policies.

What I wrote at the Wall Street Journal:

This article is more evidence for the idea that Trump is an idiot, he's incompetent, and he needs to be thrown out the window.

Of course Trump is not going to read this article because he would rather watch TV. He doesn't read anything. He goes out of his way to know nothing.

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I also wrote this for the fucktards who still like Fucktard Trump:

Trump fans: What part of this don't you understand?

"American farmers will lose to their competitors. China, the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans, has reduced American soybean imports by 90%. Brazil is rushing to fill the void."

Trump is a know nothing idiot.

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Wall Street Journal - Trump Has Been Bad for Farmers

Bankruptcies are way up, in part because of his immigration and trade policies.

The Trump administration has been bad for American farmers. In 2018 farm incomes declined $9.1 billion and total farm debt rose to $410 billion, the highest in nearly 40 years. Bankruptcies are more frequent than during the Great Recession, and they are up 59% in the region that includes my home state of Colorado, compared with 2008. Low commodity prices, persistent drought and labor shortages have pushed many farmers to the edge.

Farmers have responded to these challenges with typical ingenuity—diversifying crops, introducing new technologies, and generating income from their land through conservation and recreation. But the administration’s reckless trade and immigration agenda has made matters worse.

It didn’t have to be this way. Although I disagree with President Trump on many things, I agree we need a tougher approach to end China’s unfair trade practices. He could have pursued that goal in concert with America’s allies to maximize pressure. Instead, he slapped Canada, Mexico and countries in the European Union with tariffs, leaving the U.S. isolated.

The predictable retaliation against tariffs by China and many U.S. allies left American farmers to bear the brunt of a sprawling trade war. As a consequence of the President’s policies, farmers saw crop prices drop even further and the expenses like fertilizer and equipment spike. Corn and wheat prices have declined 15% since May 2018 in Colorado, in line with national trends.

The longer the president’s slapdash trade policy persists, the more opportunities American farmers will lose to their competitors. China, the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans, has reduced American soybean imports by 90%. Brazil is rushing to fill the void. Wheat growers stand to lose precious Japanese market share to Australia and the European Union. The administration recently tried to distract from the damage by touting a tentative agreement with China to purchase 10 million tons of American soybeans—less than half of the 27 million tons they bought last year.

Mr. Trump has also pursued an immigration agenda designed to stoke his political base, not fix our broken system. Colorado’s farmers and ranchers have told me they need a steady flow of skilled workers. Last year, two farmers handed me advertisements for their farm equipment, which they’re selling because they can’t hire the labor they require.

If the White House were serious about helping American farmers, it would embrace comprehensive immigration reform, like the proposal we put forward in the 2013 Gang of Eight bill, which earned 68 votes in the Senate. And it would work across the aisle to make real investments in rural water and transportation infrastructure.

The spike in farm bankruptcies should be a wake-up call for Washington to treat the future of American agriculture with the same thoughtfulness and care that our farmers and ranchers apply to their work every single day.

Mr. Bennet, a Democrat, is a U.S. senator from Colorado.

Appeared in the March 7, 2019, print edition.