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White House Promises Farmers More Help Monday, No Help Tuesday
Farmers can’t tell if Donald Trump is coming or going. On Monday, Trump’s economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Trump’s ready to hand out more buy-off checks to the farmers he’s sandbagging with tariffs:
“We have allocated $12 billion, some such, to farm assistance. And we stand ready to do more if necessary,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had previously ruled out a new round of aid for 2019. As of March, more than $8 billion was paid out as part of last year’s program. On Monday, the department said it had extended the deadline to apply to May 17 [Jeff Mason, Humeyra Pamuk, and Peter Cooney, “Trump Administration Eyes More Aid to Farmers If Necessary: White House Aide,” Reuters, 2019.04.29].
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had previously ruled out a new round of aid for 2019. As of March, more than $8 billion was paid out as part of last year’s program. On Monday, the department said it had extended the deadline to apply to May 17 [Jeff Mason, Humeyra Pamuk, and Peter Cooney, “Trump Administration Eyes More Aid to Farmers If Necessary: White House Aide,” Reuters, 2019.04.29].
Yesterday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue came out in Iowa and said, no, not really:
“I think that there possibly could be some miscommunication. The president and I have not talked about that,” Secretary Perdue told reporters here.
Perdue added, “We were very forthcoming last year with the $12 billion in the Market Facilitation Program. We did extend the time of getting that money, so people could prove their 2018 yields. But I’m afraid the newswire report (regarding a new round of aid) is not accurate to that degree” [Mike McGinnis, “More Farm Aid Is a Miscommunication, USDA’s Perdue Says,” Agriculture.com, 2019.04.30].
Perdue added, “We were very forthcoming last year with the $12 billion in the Market Facilitation Program. We did extend the time of getting that money, so people could prove their 2018 yields. But I’m afraid the newswire report (regarding a new round of aid) is not accurate to that degree” [Mike McGinnis, “More Farm Aid Is a Miscommunication, USDA’s Perdue Says,” Agriculture.com, 2019.04.30].
To his credit, Secretary Perdue says he has told Trump “several times” that farmers “can’t pay their bills with patriotism.” It’s too bad Perdue, Kudlow, and the other fawning cowards in the White House can’t tell Il Duce that farmers can’t pay their bills with Trump’s egoism, doltism, or jerkism.
Read more: http://dakotafreepress.com/2019/05/01/white-house-promises-farmers-more-help-monday-no-help-tuesday/