Dairy farming is dying. After 40 years, I'm done.

[sknabt]

22. My empathy is limited concerning dairy farmers

I know a dairy farmer who recently retired as well. So I'm well versed on the issues. While I'm empathetic to anyone suffering economic hardship, my sympathy gets stretched to the limit in the case of dairy farmers.

As long as I can remember - over 20 years - my dairy farmer friend has struggled financially. He largely lived off of government handouts. He got land tax subsidies suburbanites like myself would envy. He got subsidies on insurance. He got subsidies on licensing farm vehicles. I'm sure I'm forgetting many others he bragged about. That's before the government milk subsidies.

My friend, a rabid Trump voter rarely seen without his MAGA hat on, lectures supply and demand like most conservatives. Well, dude, that's what kept your wages around the poverty level for decades (his wife's job kept the family afloat). Farmers are producing more milk than there's demand for torpedoing prices.

Then farmers generally are Trump voters. What does Trump do to help them? Well, he starts a trade war with China. China's response is to raise tariffs on milk powder and skimmed milk powder a big U.S. dairy export. That's approximately a $200,000,000 dairy market flushed down the toilet.

According to farmer Goodman Trump is giving some small additional subsidy relief to larger farms. No surprise. Look at Trump's tax scam marketed as a middle class tax cut but, in reality, is nothing but a corporate gravy train.

What's the expression Republicans always spew? Oh, "Elections have consequences." Yep. Be careful who you vote for!