The Milwaukee Post

April 28, 2017 • Milwaukee County Post • 9 The more Trump talks, the clearer it is that he must no longer be president To the editor: President Donald Trump, put your money where your mouth is. Why are you wasting taxpayer money and coming to the Rust Belt, and to a Kenosha factory mega-years old? You had to make it before it can be sold? Besides, we bowed to China many years ago. Trump's talk of "Buy America" is just wind. Instead of coming to the Rust Belt, he should go to Silicon Valley where the money is — and prob- ably some of his fortune. He should should start up a "Buy American" factory, and not just spout hot air and sign those phony laws of his. He may be the president, but not ours. He's a phony, like his followers. He's just on an ego trip. With each day comes another of his stupid TV appearances or statements. He loves himself. I can't believe our news peo- ple report his lies. What he will do is lead us into a nuclear war with his mouth. This guy has got to go. Impeach is the word. Gracie Schrank Oak Creek OPINION LETTERS TO THE EDITOR By OWEN B. ROBINSON Dozens of Wisconsin dairy farmers with thousands of cows received a letter a few weeks ago that spoiled their year. Grassland, the company that had been buying their milk, told the farmers that they could no longer buy the farmers' milk because of a new Canadian policy that has dried up the demand for American milk. The calls for government action throw kin- dling on the friction between Americans who believe in free trade and those who support protectionist policies. The price of milk for Canadian dairy processors is set by the Canadian Dairy Commission. The way they set prices was based on a complicated process, but the end result is that the price that Canadian dairy farmers received for milk was sub- stantially higher than in the rest of the world. By comparison, a Canadian dairy farmer received almost 50 percent more for his or her milk than an American farmer. This artificial pricing sounds great for Canadian dairy farmers, but economies are dynamic and protectionist policies rarely have the desired effect. Canada's participation in the North American Free Trade Act and trade agreements with the European Union and other entities give other countries fairly free access to Canadian markets to sell their goods — including milk. While the high price of milk for Canadian dairy farmers sounds good on paper, the actual result is that Canadian dairy processors were buying most of their milk from American dairy farm- ers because it was cheaper. In other words, Wisconsin dairy farm- ers were directly bene- fiting from what was supposed to be a pro- tectionist policy by Canada to prop up prices for their own dairy farmers. The new pricing policy from the Canadian Dairy Commission would allow Canadian dairy producers to buy milk at whatever the global price is. The new poli- cy is arguably promoting freer trade by dropping an artificial price of milk and allowing it to fluctuate with global supply and demand. Canadian dairy farmers will no longer get the higher prices for their milk, but they will be able to sell more of it. Canadian dairy processors and con- sumers will benefit from saving the cost of transporting milk from distant places. Wisconsin dairy farmers are being hurt by the policy because the artificial demand for their product that was created by the old Canadian policies has now dried up. While the new policy is arguably freer than the old policy, there is no question that it favors Canadian dairy farmers over foreign ones. With so many Wisconsin families hurt- ing, one question is what, if anything, should our government do in response? In an increasingly rare bout of bipartisan- ship, both of Wisconsin's U.S. senators are calling upon the Trump administration to do something about the new Canadian pol- icy. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has called the policy an "unfair trade scheme" and Sen. Ron Johnson said Wisconsin dairy farm- ers should not be "victims of a trade dis- pute they didn't start." What should the American government do? Should the Trump administration demand that Canada reinstate artificially high milk process for their own dairy pro- ducers? Should America enact retaliatory protectionist policies on other goods? The free trade of goods and services in a market economy has proven to be the most efficient and economical way to align sup- ply with demand. The United States has been a perfect example of this. Our large, diverse national land mass means that our nation has a diverse and robust internal economy that allows for specialization. Instead of Wisconsin having to try to pro- vide our own milk, beef, oranges, wheat, iron, copper, etc., the lack of trade barriers with other states allows Wisconsin to focus on developing the natural abundances within our state and buy the natural abun- dances of other states. As Adam Smith said, "never attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy." The same is true in a global economy. Free trade is the most efficient, economi- cal and fair way to allocate scarce resources to the greatest benefit of the most people. But getting to that greatest benefit means that some folks will feel the sting when they are slapped by the invisible hand. Problems arise when we react to that inevitable sting by trying to protect that which the market no longer needs. Wisconsin's dairy farmers have benefit- ed for years by an ill-conceived Canadian milk pricing policy and are feeling the sting of that policy being changed. Our reaction should not be to enact fur- ther barriers to trade and further distort the market. Instead, our reaction should be to help our dairy farmers find a new mar- ket for their milk, or help them reallocate their resources to produce something for which there is market demand. (Owen B. Robinson is a West Bend resi- dent whose column appears occasionally in The Milwaukee County Post. He can be reached at owen@bootsandsabers.com.) Canada's price controls will have a chilling effect in Wisconsin Dairy farmers feel slap of the invisible hand Robinson Putting Wisconsin taxpayers first with $8 billion in tax relief By Gov. Scott Walker We are putting Wisconsin tax- payers first. With our latest state budget, we will provide more than $8 bil- lion worth of tax relief over eight years. That's right — $8 billion. Once our state budget plan passes, property taxes and income taxes will be lower in 2018 than they were before we started in the year 2010. For a typical family in Wisconsin, the cumulative reduction in income taxes alone is more than $1,500 over eight years. That's real money. We even e l i m i n a t e d an entire tax in our budg- et. For the first time since 1931, there will be no state tax on your property tax bill. We are reducing the burden on the hardworking tax- payers of Wisconsin. In fact, from 2010 to 2014, we outperformed 43 other states in lowering our overall tax burden. Thanks to our Reform Dividend, we are able to contin- ue to lower the tax burden while still providing historic levels of support for K-12 education across the state. If you want lower taxes and more funding for schools, please contact your state lawmaker and let them know what you think of our state budget. (Gov. Scott Walker was first elected in 2010.) Walker

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