Farm-state Republican blasts Trump administration: 'They screwed us'

[riversedge]

Source: dailykos


Monday August 19, 2019 · 12:42 PM CDT

Chuck Grassley's not happy with his president.



Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa's Republican senior senator, blasted the Trump administration Friday for EPA biofuel rules that have hurt Iowa farmers. "They screwed us ... when they issued 31 waivers,” Grassley told Iowa Public Television Friday. The waivers he's talking about are waivers to 31 small petroleum refineries who have been exempted from a rule requiring them to use corn-based ethanol in their products. Grassley pointed out that fewer than 10 waivers were granted during "all the Obama years—and we thought that was bad." Grassley continued, "What's really bad isn't a waiver, it's that it's being granted to people that really aren't [in financial] hardship," while farmers are really hurting, facing a record number of bankruptcies. The "buck stops at the Oval Office," he said, putting this one on Trump rather than EPA bureaucrats.

He was referring to a Reuters report that Trump told EPA head Andrew Wheeler (the former coal lobbyist) personally to grant the waivers. "The president has heard from all sides and in the end, he has had enough of it. He called Wheeler and gave him the green light," a source told Reuters. Trump's EPA has more than quadrupled those waivers, according to Reuters. Some of the refineries that have been granted those waivers are run by oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron, corporations that have also done very well by Trump's tax law. Which Grassley was happy to vote for.
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Grassley is in a safe place to criticize Trump. But his junior senator, Joni Ernst, is not. She's running for reelection this year, and is already on the wrong side of many voters for refusing to act on gun violence.

Read more: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/19/1879980/-Farm-state-Republican-blasts-Trump-administration-They-screwed-us?utm_campaign=trending

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August 16, 2019 / 6:06 AM / 3 days ago
Trump intervention triggered EPA's surprise biofuel waiver decision: sources


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biofuels-trump/trump-intervention-triggered-epas-surprise-biofuel-waiver-decision-sources-idUSKCN1V610F
Humeyra Pamuk

4 Min Read

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump last week ended a nearly two-month-long review of the nation’s biofuels program, three sources familiar with the matter said, with the White House siding in favor of oil refiners over corn growers. ...................................................



Trump’s call triggered a flurry of action within the EPA, leading up to a surprise Friday afternoon announcement, after weeks of negotiations between U.S. government agencies failed to make progress in addressing farmers’ concerns. .................................................................

The White House has sought to make changes to the nation’s biofuels laws since the beginning of Trump’s administration in early 2017, but found themselves caught between the powerful oil and corn lobbies, both of whom have allies in Washington in Trump’s Republican Party.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. Joni is a Trumper....This will HURT her bigly....

Because like with Minnesota, Iowa grows a lot of Corn and Soybeans. Minnesota farmers are dropping like flies, as I am sure they are in Iowa. Compound the hard Winter and rains, no wonder farmers are a bit nervy.

[paleotn]

2. But, but, but....we didn't know he was a con man.

Now, where is that itty bitty tiny little violin?

If anyone should know, it's farmers....you reap what you sow.

[MyOwnPeace]

4. If anyone should know, it's farmers....you reap what you sow.

Oh, THAT is gonna' hurt!

Amazing response!

[onetexan]

29. yup, as someone said, once it hits their pocketbooks that's when they turn on him

Forget the morality, forget the abortion bent, forget the nazi-supporting business, any of those character flaws don't matter. It comes down to him taking away their livelihood for them to turn on him.

[MyOwnPeace]

33. Sad, but true.............

Let's keep them in our corner and get this fixed!

[3Hotdogs]

11. But, her emails and Bengazi.

[MyOwnPeace]

3. Every day...........

more and more people wake up to find the truth - IQ45 doesn't give a ROYAL F**K about them!!!!

We really did try to warn them - right?

[abqtommy]

5. Don't feel too bad, Mr. Grassley,

since we're a democracy tRUMP has lied to and screwed the majority of us. What I'd like to know is if you're gonna help get rid of him and his supporters.

[Scarsdale]

15. Chuckles very gladly

took HIS share of the farmer bail out money. He is a hypocrite. Already a multi millionaire, he still grovels for taxpayer "welfare".

[Wellstone ruled]

27. Understand He and his Son's

Farming operation cashed in with a six figure bailout check. BTW,this bio-fuels deal will and is having a massive effect in Corn and Bean Country. Appears the forward contracts for delivery to Ethanol Plants as well as Bean Crushers are in limbo. Couple Ethanol Plants have already gone to Idle Status due to lack of orders from the Blender's.

We are about six weeks out until full Harvest gets rolling. Going to get damn ugly in the Cash Cropper States. Going to be Corn Piles all over the Mid West this Winter.

[RainCaster]

6. Were you expecting Vaseline with that?

You knew he was a snake, when you voted for him. Don't come whining to me, because I don't give a shit.

[Perseus]

7. Chuck Grassley???? Please assh&*, you have defended the creature at every turn

So now he is pandering to the farmers in his state as if the creature did this all by himself...well Mr. Chuck Grassley, you are part of it, and I hope the farmers in your state know it...I don't believe this...now he wants to pretend he didn't know what the creature was doing. The creature doesn't do anything he is not told by Stephen Miller, Putin, and some other republicans, maybe even Chuck Grassley, so I hope those farmers learn the truth, or know the truth...wishful thinking on my part, I know.

[Talitha]

12. I like how you call the orange anus 'the creature'.

Fits perfectly - best description yet!

[Midnightwalk]

8. No grassley you screwed your constituents

You supported trump. You are in a position to helo stop him but you enable him every chance you get.

Talk is cheap. Do something besides flapping your gums.

[JI7]

9. did he hurt the wrong people or something ?

[sakabatou]

10. We told them, we warned them

but did they listen? No.

[NNadir]

13. Well, Chuck Grassley screwed the entire planet.

First of all, he's into, like the rest of his disgusting racist party, into climate denial.

That is not going to play out well for Iowa, nor will it play out well for any other place on the planet.

Secondly, he has helped to destroy the United States by white washing a "President" who is clearly indebted to, and under the influence of a foreign power.

Finally, he has participated in advancing the rape culture, demeaning half of the world's population by endorsing a suspected rapist to the Supreme Court.

Tough shit Chuck. Oh, and corn ethanol doesn't do shit for the environment, by the way.

[Botany]

14. Gee, Chuck too bad there were no examples of Trump screwing people.

[Marcuse]

30. And there was:

[Botany]

31. Ah Trump U. which had part of its business model stealing the death benefits and VA checks from ...

.... the widows and widowers of G.I.s who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Want to make good money and stay @ home with the kids too? How about real estate?"
That was Trump U's pitch. Slimy fucking pig grifting bastard. Don T. deigns that he knew
anything about Trump U. but he (aka Russia) paid off $25 million in settlements.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

16. this isn't about Grassley. it's about the farmers that are getting hammered...

and Grassley is simply having to say what he said to appear sympathetic.

the story is the farmers and how the irresponsible rich kid who had to be bailed out financially himself (repeatedly) is screwing them to a friggin brick wall.

they have families. they have bills. they have pride. Trump is stripping all of that from them.

[PandoraAwakened]

17. "You sow what you reap."

I defer to paleotn's comment above:

They're farmers. Of all people, they should know that "you sow what you reap."

[WhoWoodaKnew]

18. oh, it's the farmer's fault for voting for Trump but the real story is

they're getting hammered.

Trump is hammering the farmers. There is no way that the ones that can't pay their bills or go belly up vote for him again.

[PandoraAwakened]

19. Unfortunately,

talk radio is so embedded in their daily lives (on the tractors, in the barns, in the homes), they will blame whoever the hate mongers tell them to blame, and it will not be tRump. Even as they sign the bankruptcy papers, they will be blaming those "damn lib'ruls," those "evil Clintons," and, don't forget, the "deep state."

I say this as someone who has farming relatives in Indiana who are going under right now, but who cling to their conspiracy theories and refuse to blame the creature. It is truly a cult phenomenon for which there is no hope.

[Zorro]

20. Let them eat soybeans

[WhoWoodaKnew]

21. Yeah, I don't believe that. Trump's trade war is too public.

Rush and Hannity, who have ruined this country, can preach all they want but when it hits a person personally they changed their mind. Just like a person who preaches against gay people their entire life and then has a gay child. They change their mind or at least stop to think.

When farmers can't afford to give their daughters a prom dress they won't be voting for Donald Trump again

[PandoraAwakened]

23. Yes, it would be nice if it were so black and white.

Unfortunately, the psychology of cultism doesn't work within such neatly defined parameters. If so, Jim Jones' followers would never have murdered their own children.

Also, as someone having much interaction with homeless LGBTQ+ teens, I can assure you that, sadly, not all bigoted parents of gay children are magically enlightened upon learning of their own offspring's gender identity. In fact, parental rejection is a leading cause of both homelessness and suicide within the LGBTQ+ youth community.

Finally, whether someone stops to think, i.e., whether a person bothers to determine actual cause and effect for something impacting their life, really depends on how steeped they are in the propaganda silo. If they've been listening to hate radio every day for 10-30 years, chances are, no, they won't stop and think. They already know why they're going bankrupt---it's because of whoever/whatever Rush or Sean says it's because of, end of story.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

25. Has no one been watching Trump's numbers tank?

It's all well and good to assume that a certain % of voters are gonna vote for the crook/Republicans up until the time they come home and have lost the family farm and can no longer pay the house payment, car payment and have to actually go meet with a lawyer to draw up bankruptcy papers.

Then that person is depressed, possibly gets a divorce and has to look for a job that may or may not exist (for them).

If this thing were more vague I'd tend to agree that farmers could blame Obama/Hillary/Democrats. But Trump has been BRAGGING about his trade war that directly affects those people.

When you have to tell your kids that you can't buy them a pair of jeans during Trump's trade war, or you have to apply for government assistance, some just don't go vote for him again. They at least sit it out.

[Botany]

22. As they ride around in their climate controlled cabs (very good thing) they are listening to ...

... hate radio all the time along with their fellow farmers and on Sunday they hear the evangelical
republican Jesus talk from their pastors.

[SharonClark]

24. Grassley only has sympathy for Big Ag, gun nuts, and Trump

He doesn't give a damn about the rest of us.

[Freethinker65]

26. Thoughts and prayers, asshole

[muntrv]

28. Sending thoughts and prayers.

[Nitram]

32. LOL. What did Grassley expect? He supported a sociopathic moron for president.