Tom Cotton on Tariffs: Hey, At Least You're Not a Dead Soldier

By Rafi Schwartz  |  May 13, 2019 | 4:47pm
Congress

As the stock market nosedives amidst President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war with China—to which China has responded in kind—Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton has some words of comfort for the farmers watching their financial futures swirl down a MAGA-branded toilet bowl: Hey, at least you aren’t a dead in a war!

Speaking with CBS This Morning about Trump’s tariffs, Cotton admitted that, yes, the president’s plan will actually end up hurting American consumers who will be forced to pay more for imported goods (something the president either doesn’t understand, or won’t admit).

But, Cotton added:

That sacrifice is pretty minimal compared to the sacrifices that our soldiers make overseas that are fallen heroes who are laid to rest in Arlington [national cemetery] make.

What do the troops have to with Trump’s bass-ackward economic policy? Absolutely nothing—an inconvenient point Cotton awkwardly danced around after host Gayle King noted that the two types of sacrifices are completely unrelated.

“[Voters in Arkansas] look at the sacrifices that soldiers, sailers, airmen and marines make around the world, and they’re willing to bear some of those [economic] sacrifices in the short term to hopefully in the long term ensure our longterm prosperity and security,” Cotton insisted.

What???

It’s almost as if Cotton’s brain short circuited at the thought of Trump’s market-killing tariffs, and in a moment of panicked desperation, he reflexively sought refuge with that tried and true GOP hobbyhorse—the troops!—in the hopes that no one would notice that this whole thing stinks.

Trump, meanwhile, continued to insist on Monday that everything is all going according to his economic master plan. The Dow is down 650 points right now, by the way.

 
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