Tom Cotton Uses the Troops to Cover Up Trump’s Disastrous Trade War

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In which Republican Senator Tom Cotton likens Americans paying for Trump’s trade war fallout to soldiers dying in wars.

“The unexpectedly good first quarter 3.2% GDP was greatly helped by Tariffs from China. Some people just don’t get it!” President Trump tweeted Monday morning.

And by some people, he meant himself.

Because actually, some people who just do get it say the tariffs will lower U.S. GDP by 0.25%. That is to say, the Societe Generale’s U.S. chief economist said this on Monday.

Additionally, the stock markets tumbled Monday morning because Trump’s failed trade deal brought on recession fears and American household have paid an average of $419 for Trump’s tariffs. Now China is hitting back hard with a planned $60 billion worth of tariffs on U.S. goods, even though Trump told them not to do this.

It’s almost enough to make you wonder if maybe Trump isn’t a great negotiator.

Trump is also the guy who still claims to believe that China is paying for his tariffs. Of course, that is not how that works. Consumers and U.S. companies pay for Trump’s tariffs.

The New York Times reported Sunday evening that the Tariffs enacted last year “reduced the inflation-adjusted income of American consumers by $4.4 billion each month by November, according to one study. That loss, which arose both from the tariff and from more expensive or foregone imports, breaks out to about $419 per household over a year. The latest round of increases will push the per-household cost above $800, said David Weinstein, a Columbia University economist and a co-author on the research.”

Not to worry, guys. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) likened your sacrifice to that of fallen heroes on CBS This Morning.

“There will be some sacrifice on the part of Americans, I grant you that. But also that sacrifice is pretty minimal compared to the sacrifices that our soldiers make overseas that are fallen heroes or laid to rest,” Cotton said on Trump’s trade war with China.

Cotton’s Democratic opponent was not impressed:

Republicans are so desperate to cover for Trump’s self-inflicted trade war wounds — that do, as the “shared sacrifices” tend to do, trickle down like Republicans keep promising their economic ideas would — that they are reaching into jingles they usually save for their professed love for the troops they send to die in wars like the kind in which our own president bone spurred his way out of fighting.

Let us not forget, the trade war was not inevitable. It was not necessary. It was not smart. It was not endorsed by any two-celled economist. It was a stupid idea, enacted by a man who doesn’t bother to read history and has the intellectual prowess of fake grass. This is again, the man who lost THE MOST MONEY YEAR AFTER YEAR of any U.S. taxpayer.

Maybe when defending the silver-spooned, multiple bankruptcies, draft-deferment specializing, literal Greatest Loser’s latest way of inflicting pain he will never feel upon the American people, Republicans shouldn’t refer to our fallen heroes. Unless they are suggesting that their defense for our endless wars, many of which they started – some on false pretenses – is also crap, which is a conversation we also need to have.

And no, getting hit with more unnecessary economic problems is nothing like losing a loved one forever. Why the strawman?

But hey, if Cotton and other Senate Republicans want to keep muddying themselves to defend the Greatest Corrupter of Democracy Ever, please proceed. The American people are watching.

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