Senate Republicans on Tuesday showed little enthusiasm for a Trump administration plan to provide $12 billion to farmers whose exports are being hurt by a trade war prompted by President Trump’s tariffs.
But none said they would oppose the plan that the Department of Agriculture was set to announce Tuesday.
“So, you create a policy that causes people to need to be on welfare and then you provide the welfare,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said when asked about the aid package. “It would be much better to just reverse the policy that’s creating this.”
No Republicans said they would try to block the aid, which the White House said Tuesday would be given to U.S. farmers to help them compensate for retaliatory tariffs that China, Europe, and other countries imposed to retaliate against U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.
But the senators argued it would be better for Trump to end the trade war by eliminating the new U.S. tariffs that prompted the retaliation.
“I appreciate the fact that they realize farmers are being hurt by this, but taxpayers are going to be asked to write checks for farms in lieu of trade policy that actually opens up more markets for farmers,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the GOP conference leader.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the emergency aid package did not win applause in a closed-door Senate GOP lunch on Tuesday. “I think the agriculture community has made it clear,” Roberts told reporters. “They much prefer trade rather than aid.”
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said the $12 billion isn’t enough to help farmers substantively and sets up a new government program that doesn’t help all industries.
“This does establish a precedent,” Kennedy, R-La said. “If you are going to help one you’ve got to help everybody.”
Another reliable Trump supporter, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., was also critical of the tariffs, but said he supports the aid.
“To do this, it’s punishing farmers,” Inhofe said of the tariffs. “My personal feeling is just the farmers. They are the ones that are getting hit the hardest on the individual basis.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska., suggested other industries hurt by the trade war should also receive emergency aid including the seafood and energy industries, which are prominent in Alaska.
“Farmer are hit, but others are hit by these tariffs as well,” Murkowski said. “Where do you draw that line?”
Republicans have grown increasingly impatient with the trade conflicts, which would presumably end when Trump works out new trade agreements with the other countries. But those deals have not materialized, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a frequent Trump critic, told reporters Tuesday.
“It’s not happening,” Flake said, arguing that agricultural markets are shifting, perhaps permanently, in a way that will cause U.S. industries to permanently lose markets to sell products. “Once you lose those markets or become unreliable, you’ve lost those markets forever. That’s a concern a lot of people have.”
