Wa. Examiner: Globaloney in Print

 As we have noted several times, the Washington Examiner is a NeverTrump outfit.  Owned by Phil. Anschutz, it is a Globaloney outfit.

Thus their editorial today which contradicts the facts we posted yesterday, (thanks to the work of Sundance & Co. at The Last Refuge), but even more important, the editorial ignores an overriding reality about trade:  national security requirements.

...In 2018, DeSantis, then a member of Congress, supported Trump’s tariffs as a mechanism to extract concessions from Beijing. However, if Trump failed to do so, DeSantis said, “You will see some economic consequences.” Trump failed, and those consequences indeed ensued. The tariffs inflated prices and staggered domestic industry. China, meanwhile, instituted retaliatory measures and skirted its trade commitments.

“[T]he trade war has hurt the U.S. economy and failed to achieve major policy goals — resulting in a peak loss of 245,000 jobs,” reads a report from the Atlantic Council. “Specifically, the U.S. tariffs have been paid, not by China as the Trump administration claimed, but by U.S. importers and consumers.” Moreover, American agricultural exports in 2018 totaled little more than a third of 2017 levels, recovering only barely in 2019. The reeling agricultural sector required unprecedented federal subsidies simply to keep pace....

 The tariffs certainly did not "inflate prices," as US inflation remained below 2% following the imposition of the Trump economic regime.  Further, China may have 'gotten around' Trump import regs--by using Canada as a cutout--but China also devalued its currency to make its products price-competitive.  That meant that Red China was 'paying the price', not US business.

Also note that the Examiner is unhappy about dropping US ag exports, which also displeased Big Ag (the combines which effectively set ag prices for their benefit.)  However, dropping US ag exports made far more ag products available within the US, and prices dropped accordingly.  (All that was reversed at the advent of Bidenomics, as all of us who eat know.)

As to semiconductor- (and pharmaceutical-) manufacturing, the Examiner complains that it's just too damned expensive to build the buildings required to manufacture those goods.  Yah, it is expensive.  But so is not having working telephones, computers, televisions, trucks and cars.  War is not always fought with soldiers, sailors, and guns.  Starving an enemy of essentials such as pharmaceuticals and chips is just as devastating as nuking its major cities.  The Examiner's editorialist is far too young to understand that; he should ask his grandfather about why people who lived through World War Two hesitated to purchase foreign cars well into the 1970's.  He may learn something.  As Sun Tzu said:  The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

It's one thing to be NeverTrump.  But at least be honest in building your case.  Take into account all the facts and circumstances, not just the ones which line certain people's wallets.

Have a nice day.