[blueplum]

1. We don’t have free trade with China.

then why even argue free trade principles when it comes to exporting to China?

2. You appear to be objecting that we are shipping stuff to China.

Nope. They can have all the alfalfa they can afford - at a hugh premium, called tarriff-added = which won’t affect local prices since it will be the gubment collecting it. Now if they want brocolli...

In the midwest last year, alfalfa prices doubled (blamed on the drought but hey, maybe it was China demand). What small farm is not going to be hurt with feed costs doubling in one year?

http://brownfieldagnews.com/2013/05/03/alfalfa-hay-prices-up-substantially-in-the-midwest/

and what happened at the local grocery store in response? Well let me ask, seen any 99cent/lb USA ground beef lately????.

So how is that free-trade working for us, exactly, when it’s not free trade? And how’s the associated tarriff-free policy working out for to our benefit (which is what capitalism is all about, right, our benefit)? Not so well. And yet we argue for continuing to apply free-trade principles anyway and expect things to sort itself out somehow? Mkay. Let me ponder that while I bite into the steak that just cost me $7/lb.

[1rudeboy]

then why even argue free trade principles when it comes to exporting to China?

Who is doing that? I would imagine that a farmer knows best how much to charge for his product. No need for the government, or you, to get involved.

Beef is more expensive, we all know that. Do you want to blame "free trade," or do you want to consider what is making beef more expensive?

[OftheOhio]

Most free traitors ignore cause and effect. If their countrymen get the shaft so much the better. Conservative doesn’t = patriot in their eyes.

[Toddsterpatriot]

They can have all the alfalfa they can afford - at a hugh premium, called tarriff-added

You want to add a tariff to exports?

[Sherman Logan]

They can have all the alfalfa they can afford - at a hugh premium, called tarriff-added = which won’t affect local prices since it will be the gubment collecting it.

Sorry. Great misunderstanding here on what tariffs are, widely shared by neo-confederates who think we taxed exported cotton to oppress the South in the 1850s.

Fact: Tariffs are and always have been on imports, never on exports.

This is primarily because the Constitution specifically prohibits taxes on exports.

Article 1, Section 9, Clause 5. No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.