Argument full of holes

To the Editor:

I am a retired farmer. My dad had a saying that I heard often. It was this: “Any idiot can tear down a barn, but it takes a dammed good carpenter to build one.”

President Trump has pulled us out of many agreements, such as NAFTA, GATT, nuclear treaties, environmental pacts, the list goes on and on. To get these amended agreements back together and signed into law isn’t easy, much like building a new barn takes time and talent.

Trump said he would reduce our debt and balance the budget in his first two years, with Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. He said Mexico would build and pay for a wall. You get the picture, right? Only one important promise has he kept: tax cuts, mainly benefiting the wealthy.

If anyone is responsible for lost exports to China, Mexico, Canada, it is the idiot who tore down the barn, Donald Trump. He is also responsible for the extremism in the other branches of government, namely the legislative and judicial.

Now, in response to letter writer Jerry Fast’s claim that agriculture isn’t being supported: Through crop insurance, the taxpayer pays two-thirds of the cost, which amounts to $68 per acre on a corn/soybean rotation. For every 1,000 acres, that comes to $68,000. Every year. Paid to farmers by taxpayers. There are lots of farmers that farm 2,000 to 4,000 acres. Do the math. So, how is that not support? Didn’t the farmers get $72 per acre to ease the pain of Trump’s China tariffs? That is another $72,000 per 1,000 acres this year.

Mr. Fast says he is a long-term board member on numerous boards dealing with agriculture. Maybe too long? Board members who stay on for more than two terms tend to get cozy with management and forget who they should be working for, namely the members. Much like long-tenured politicians. His whole argument is full of gaping holes. Would he care to tell Sentinel readers how much his government subsidy payments total? Perhaps he can tell us how much he despises socialism as he deposits his farm payments into his bank account.

Most farmers are hard-working businessmen and deserve some taxpayer support. I happen to pay the 25 percent income tax rate. According to President Trump’s own words, I pay 25 percent more than he does. Trump, the billionaire, pays nothing. Nothing toward the wall. Nothing to support the military. Nothing to help wounded veterans. Nothing for agriculture. Nothing.

Bradley Swanson

Lakefield