GOP rep skirts question about 'inflationary' Trump policy: 'I’m willing to pay more'
Rep. Derrick Francis Van Orden (R-WI) danced around a question asked by CNN's Boris Sanchez regarding Donald Trump's latest tariff plan — which experts say will result in higher prices for items like clothes, gas, and even avocados.
"There are serious concerns about the way that these tariffs could wind up hitting consumers, and there's a belief that these tariffs could be inflationary," Sanchez began, "not just on one hand — the tariffs — but also the potential for disruption of supply chains, if Donald Trump's mass deportation plans were to take effect."
The CNN host then noted, "There are estimates from the USDA that show nearly half of all agricultural workers in this country are undocumented, including by at least one count — a majority of dairy workers."
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"How is the Trump administration planning to mass deport those workers without disrupting the nation's supply of food?" Sanchez asked Van Orden.
"Here's what's really been inflationary: The last four years of the radical out of control [President Joe] Biden spending with this Inflation Reduction Act," the Wisconsin congressman replied. "That's what has caused inflation. And if it means that I have to pay more for guacamole, but fentanyl poison does not come across the Canadian and Mexican border, and our mothers and sisters and brothers and daughters aren't poisoned to death by this chemical that's coming across the border, then I'm willing to pay more for guacamole, as is the rest of the United States of America."
Sanchez said, "Congressman, I wholeheartedly understand your point about fentanyl poisoning. I, myself, have friends who served in the US armed services who are no longer with us because of it. It is an epidemic. But it doesn't completely answer the question about keeping the food supply chain in tact, if you're going to deport roughly half of that workforce. How is that going to work?"
The Republican lawmaker replied, "Let's remember, for the first time in the longest time, we are a net importer of foods so under Biden's war on agriculture, which is what it's been from the war on energy, because the input costs are what's incredibly important. That goes from fuel to seed to nutrients. We have become a net importer of food, so when we get rid of the disastrous Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's Green New Deal war on agriculture, we're going to be able to produce enough food here in the United States for ourselves.
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