The nation's farmers are "getting hammered" by the growing trade war with China, which are leaving prices "incredibly bad," Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who is also a farmer, said Wednesday.
"Family farm agriculture is in trouble, farm-gate prices are terrible," Sen. Tester told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Bankers will tell you we have a serious disaster on the horizon, and quite frankly some of these farms have been in the family for generations."
The crisis is "manmade," Tester said, and in a state like Montana, which depends on export markets for farm pricing, "this has just been a killer."
Further, Tester said he does not see a strategy from the White House to bring China to the table as part of a bigger deal.
"I think what they want to do is hold them accountable on stealing technology and that kind of stuff, but I do not see a strategy to get this over with and that's part of the problem," said Tester, who believes it would have been better to use the nation's allies to go after China financial system.
"That would bring them to the table quicker and you wouldn't be throwing away family farm agriculture in this country at the same time," Tester said. "That didn't happen. The trade war continues to go on and on and on."
President Donald Trump is "offering up" a $15 billion bailout, he added, but "most farmers don't want that. They want to get their check on the marketplace. They're not big on socialism and that's what this a form of."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.