Ha! Trump's America First program is being blamed for the baby food shortage.

[Baitball Blogger]

His trade agreement created shortages because his deal prevents us from importing it from other countries. Our shortage was caused by a recall of Similac due to a defective product. And now Trump's deal has kept us from backfilling the shortfall from Canada, for example, who has a surplus of the baby food.

Editing to add that we all know why Trump didn't write in a stopgap measure to account for shortfalls in supplies. It's because Republicans don't believe in safety nets. LOL!

[Boomerproud]

1. Why isn't the media reporting this? The WH should be on this.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Just heard it on MSNBC.

Two young women reporters! They were both righteous! One had that, "Don't fuck with us. We know how the problem started. Now fix it and let me feed my baby!

[GoCubsGo]

17. They need to forward that to their parent company.

This morning's "Toady Show" was all about insinuating that Biden is somehow at fault here. No mention of Trump's re-negotiation of NAFTA, with it's tariffs on imported baby formulas. Barely a mention of why the one plant was shut down in the first place. Just the usual hysteria that is almost certainly driving people to horde the stuff. I will give them credit for not indulging in the "It's all going to illegal brown babies" conspiracies, though.

[Ligyron]

38. Oh, just you wait.

Early hours.

[RicROC]

9. The Repubs/Trump cast themselves as being good businessmen....

and again they screw up a business deal.

[paleotn]

22. One of the biggest, all time lies.

Trump would be vastly more wealthy if he'd simply put daddy's money in well balanced investments managed by those who know what they're doing and went off an played golf his entire life. There's a reason why pappa Trump considered him a moron. He is one.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. It's early. I read that as "pogrom' /nt

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Might as well be.

[paleotn]

24. You're not wrong.

[Tickle]

3. Can't an EO

reverse this?

[bucolic_frolic]

5. I'd bet they're working on it

but Republicans will have a field day with Canadian baby formula. They'll call it French and figure it's warping babies' minds.

[paleotn]

25. Takes time to reverse 4 years of idiotic EO's produced by the other guy.

The Trump admin was an EO machine. They printed them in mass like flyers.

[Tickle]

26. Years?

It could only be a couple of years . His EO should trump TFG EO I would think

[Buns_of_Fire]

32. Minutes. "All Executive Orders numbered 13765 through 13984,

inclusive, are hereby rescinded. /s/ Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States" Or however these things get worded.

It would be awfully tempting to add a sentence: "So eat it, fuzznuts." But that would be wrong, as Non-fat Nixon would say. (And it's just one more example of why I should never be elected to public office.)

The American Presidency Project: Executive Orders
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/executive-orders

[BumRushDaShow]

33. From right after being sworn on his first day, to date, he had already been doing this

and hasn't stopped since.

For example, here was a list from last year of what was done the first 100 days-

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/politics/biden-executive-orders/

There were 89 total so far through May 12, 2022.

For example, in one of his "day one" Executive Orders, he revoked 6 at once - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-revocation-of-certain-executive-orders-concerning-federal-regulation/

The next month, after another revocation, he revoked 5 more (plus a handful of Memoranda) - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/24/executive-order-on-the-revocation-of-certain-presidential-actions/

Then 3 months after that (still in 2021 - May this time), he revoked 6 more - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/05/14/executive-order-on-the-revocation-of-certain-presidential-actions-and-technical-amendment/

There's a list with links to his E.O.s here (includes the ability to "expand" the list to see all of them) - https://ballotpedia.org/Joe_Biden%27s_executive_orders_and_actions#Executive_orders_issued_by_Biden

[jmowreader]

53. You'll love this one

This is what Stephen Miller posted a few days ago:

There’d of course be no formula shortage if 45 were in office. But pretending there was: he’d have instantly issued EO, brought formula CEOs to Oval Office for public mtg, held Cab Mtg to break all logjams, told FDA head fix or be fired, made all staff work overtime till SOLVED.

None of which would have worked. OTOH, he could have done what President Biden did - dispatch FDA personnel to the contaminated plant to work with them to get it back in operation.

[Samrob]

4. Wonder if FOX will explain to its viewers how Trump trade policies have come back to bite babies?

Once again, the reaction to NAFTA in the beginning was focused on the wrong economic factors. Trumps changes to NAFTA were shortsighted and really aimed at just raising profits for his buddy conglomerates and not increasing good paying jobs in the USA. How will the media report on its relation to the baby formula shortage now? How will the Democrats use the information? Now is a great time to educate the voters about the possible ramifications of trade policies. Wonder how much Abbott contributed to the Trump campaign? Therein lies the rub.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. I just don't understand why there weren't stopgaps written into the NAFTA contract.

Making America Great doesn't mean that America is infallible. Ah, I know why. Republicans don't like safety nets.

[Samrob]

11. We also made a huge mistake not joining in th TPP, we killed it. China was given free reign when we

bowed out. Obama was correct about pushing it but its opponents will never admit it. In fact, Trump used its patent provisions in his renegotiation of NAFTA..but who reads, who cares?

[reACTIONary]

15. +100 nt

[Demsrule86]

47. The TPP allowed countries with slavery to join...so no we didn't. You start favoring outsourcing

again as a party and kiss the Rustbelt goodbye.

[KS Toronado]

13. We don't need safety nets in this country

This is America where everyone can pick himself up by the boot straps and stand on his own 2 feet w/o
government help, even those in wheelchairs according to repugs. The only empathy they have is
directed towards the wealthy giving them more tax breaks.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. The reality is that they have community welfare that comes from their own churches

and neighbors. Sounds like a good deal, but it's a very selective group. I've even seen them help out some very nasty kind of people, until I put it together that he supported their causes, and of course he would come across as a nasty piece of work to me. I was the target and his derision towards me earned him loyalty points with the others.

[KS Toronado]

18. I know exactly what you're talking about

[EYESORE 9001]

16. Until they're personally afflicted in some way

Then they pull out the stops to gin up sympathy for their plight.

[KS Toronado]

19. You got that right

[AllyCat]

30. There are dangerous idiots all over Twitter hawking recipes

For “homemade baby formula” like grandma used to make!

[IronLionZion]

34. There are idiots recommending raw unpasteurized milk

it's like these people don't bother asking their pediatrician anymore

[AllyCat]

41. More SM misinformation. More dead people.

And more dead babies.

[IronLionZion]

21. They're telling their idiot viewers that Biden is sending formula to immigrant babies at the border

not a peep about Trump preventing imports from Canada and Europe. The Europe issue is because of their labels don't meet US FDA standards. The formula itself is probably safe, it's just the labels aren't good enough. The Canada issue is pure Trump idiocy.

I don't know why the Biden admin doesn't just end the Canada restriction through EO but they have chosen to encourage increased American production which takes longer to ramp up. They've also loosened restrictions on WIC so moms can buy more brands if available.

American babies are the latest casualty in the "pro-life" party's war on globalism.

[AllyCat]

31. Met these idiots on Twitter. They are horrible people at Faux.

[Wednesdays]

10. Blamed by whom? Us on D.U.?

If it's not talked about elsewhere, this "blame" is just a fart in the wind.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. It was on MSNBC. Katie Phang, who just started on April 9th.

[33taw]

23. Agree - until it is on more than MSNBC - the right will not hear it.

[Mr.Bill]

45. It'll never be on Fox or OAN.

[paleotn]

20. Exactly. The domestic supply chain was "hand to mouth"

We simply don't have the domestic capacity anymore. Capacity takes time and money. It doesn't appear like fucking magic. Something idiotic Rethugs and their moronic voters just can't grasp. For someone like me who's dealt this these supply chain issues pre-Covid, it hits close to home. For certain things there's simply limited domestic supply. In many cases ZERO domestic supply. The capacity to produce those things died and was offshored 30 years ago.

[Baitball Blogger]

27. +1

Agree. We are just scratching the surface of the vulnerabilities we created with the outsourcing/offshore years.

[Tickle]

28. You are so correct

We killed it 30 years ago so we could buy cheap. What I don’t understand is for two years we have faced the bad part of outsourcing and yet what have we done to change it?

[DBoon]

46. "The capacity to produce those things died and was offshored 30 years ago"

Under the reign of Saint Ronnie, to destroy the living standards of American manufacturing workers, destroy their unions, and convince them Democrats are evil.

[Wounded Bear]

29. repubs don't like 'safety nets' because they hurt their ability to price gouge during crises...

[Demsrule86]

35. I think we should make our own goods and not trust imports...we need to make our own stuff.

[In It to Win It]

37. If the country has a shortage, there aren't many options for immediate relief

other than importing it.

[Demsrule86]

40. I do not believe in importing vaccines or things like baby formula there are factories that

could be reconfigured to make baby formula...sending manufacturing overseas is a national security issue.

[AllyCat]

42. Sure. But that takes time. Open imports would help the immediate

Issue. Then we have supply in the months it would take to retool a factory.

[Demsrule86]

48. It can be done. And I dated a guy who worked for Bristol Meyers...some of that baby food

made overseas is not great quality...he quit over a bad batch. We need to make our own stuff. It is a national security issue.

[atreides1]

52. It can be done

But who's going to do it?

Which company is going to pay a livable wage to American workers so that products can be manufactured here?

These are two very important questions that need to be answered...

[In It to Win It]

43. I don't disagree with you but that's a long term view.

The shortage is happening now. Reconfiguring factories would require a lot of time and capital that not many people would be willing to risk, and I'm assuming you're referring to unused large scale factories. Unless the company is already a big and established player, many financing sources wouldn't consider funding a factory reconfiguration.

Let's say that the general consensus is that importing baby formula is a national security issue. To me, that would also make only having 3 companies be the primary producers of baby formula for the entire country also a national security risk. If just one company stops producing for any reason, that causes is a nationwide shortage just like the one we are experiencing now.

A new baby formula competitor to the established companies can't pop up overnight, or over a few months. It would take years for a company to be a true competitor to the existing players. That would apply to most of the major industries that require physical large scale manufacturing, like vaccines and baby formula.

To ease the pressure on a shortage immediately, a country would have to allow imports... or if not, suffer through it in the meantime.

But once the shortage stops, I'm pretty sure most people will go back to not caring.

[Demsrule86]

49. No, because companies want the lower cost manufacturing...bowl of rice manufacturing as

I call it and will deliberately spike shortages to continue...get a food factory and reconfigure for baby formula. Already baby food imported has been shown to contain arsenic.

[In It to Win It]

50. Ok, so what do you do in the meantime?

Reconfiguring a food plant takes time, planning, and money. Somebody has to be willing to go through the task of reconfiguring a factory. The government isn’t gonna do it. Who do you get to do that right now when it counts?

My point is that a choice has to be made, either you suffer through the shortage and not import, or you import during the shortage. Reconfiguring a factory will take time, and therefore it won’t solve the problem right now. What choice do you make to fix the problem right now?

[In It to Win It]

36. Funny you mention that, I just saw this 😂

Link to tweet

[Baitball Blogger]

39. Oh, please post your own thread!

This is important information!

[Number9Dream]

44. The same apply to the shortage of cat food??

[pecosbob]

51. Two companies manufacture all the formula

Anytime you consolidate production you create a potential breakdown in supply. Regional manufacturing facilities for critical goods would not a bad thing. Centralized food production and distribution often leads to mass distribution of contaminated product. Companies make more money and their products are less safe to consume.

[Rhiannon12866]

54. Please pass this on to Elise Stefanik and Stephen Miller!