Don Bacon
speaker
127 appearances
7 recordings
5 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 30 Apr
Don Bacon’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 2.
Appearances
I mean, you know, many a holiday, we've all gotten our Omaha Steaks box, right? So we would probably— still has some markets in Asia, but even then we're putting tariffs on them and they're going to reciprocate that. And so it's going to, the ag industry suffers in a trade war because this is the low-hanging fruit for other countries to go after when it comes to America.
Nobody can produce beef, pork, corn, soybeans at a price that we can in the Midwest because we do it at a scale that nobody else can do it at. You know, we have one rancher here in Nebraska that has 200,000 head of cattle. Our governor does like 1,500 piglets every day born. It takes 1,500 to the market.
But we do it at a scale that most people can't think of, which gives us a great price and it makes us very competitive. But if we don't have trade, it would really hurt the Midwest economy. It's not just Nebraska, Iowa as well.
You know, it's a good question. First of all, I love the history of I'm a history guy. So, you know, the Republicans are very protectionist, particularly in the late 1800s. We wanted high tariffs. Was the smooth... The – I can't think of the last name.
Smoot-Hawley. They were both Republicans, and they passed this high tariffs in 1930. And that really put us in a deep depression. And the Republicans have ever since said, you know, we learned our lesson. Free trade is the right way to go. In fact, that's how you provide the best merchandise, you know, the best – product, if you will, at the lowest cost in the most efficient manner.
And it keeps our manufacturers short because you've got to compete. We've bought into this. Now we're going back to our roots. It's funny. The Democrats were more protectionist, you know, 1970s and 80s.
I think you're right because we're following the president's lead. But, you know, I'm philosophically a Milton Friedman guy. I read I read the Smith on free trade in the invisible hand. Yeah. All the kind of stuff that I buy into it. But it's funny that the Democrats sound like Republicans. The Republicans sound like dumb crap. And that's sort of, yeah. And also on Ukraine and Russia, same thing.
So I call a lot of my peers who are so-called right-wing Republicans, I call them their George McGovern Republicans. And they go, who's that? I go, well, that guy ran for president in 1972, and he sounds just like him. On all these same policies, yeah. Let's make a deal with the Russians. Let's have protection, yeah. Yeah. But this is how I see this happening. We're going to...
We submit this bill from Monday and already Sir Grassley and his Democrat colleague, they've already submitted the Senate. They got Southern Republicans already are co-sponsors. You could see a pathway to 60 here, depending on how the market goes, inflation, unemployment based off what happens with these tariffs. I think it's going to be a lot longer for the House to get there. I get that.
But if the Senate ends up passing it and we're not seeing good traction in the economy, you're going to see people say, okay, this isn't working. And We've got to restore our authorities. In the Constitution, it says Congress has the authority for tariffs and taxes. And by the way, some Republicans are in denial. Tariffs are a tax on consumers. There's no other way around it.
That's just what it is. We have that power, but we gave it away approximately a century ago, an emergency. If it was an emergency, then the president could do it. So the Congress sees, OK, this is being abused. It's not an emergency. This is a sole policy being written. Or is it possible the courts will intervene here? I was just going to ask you about the courts.
The courts may take a look at it, too.
And so I think they're interpreting the Constitution the way I read it. And so I think our court's done a great job, despite all the criticism that you hear from time to time. But this is how I see this bill. This bill will probably take a little longer in the House. And I think if... We don't see traction in the economy, and we continue to see a slide in the market.
We may see some inflation come out of this when people have to raise prices. People may say, you know what, this is the Congress role. So I think I have this down as something that I believe, okay, it's very possible that it could pick up steam in a couple months, and we'll have it ready to go.
I welcome the president trying to bring peace and a ceasefire there, but it's got to be a just peace. It's got to be one that respects Ukraine's sovereignty and also their ability to align themselves with the West, have altruism. I mean, these are kind of things that are, I would say, red lines in my world for Ukraine. I believe it's our national security interest that Ukraine remain independent.
If they don't and they fall under the Russian thumb, like Moldova will be next. likely Georgia and some other countries on the periphery. Worst case scenario, maybe the Baltics or part of NATO, and they're very vulnerable. And so I just think we should have moral clarity. Russia is the invader. Putin's the dictator. He's killed all of his opponents, political opponents. Ukraine is the democracy.
Zelensky was elected by a free election, and the president at times has muddled those waters, and he's had, I would just call it moral ambiguity on how this war started and who's the bad guy, who's the good guy. And I say it's American, but I think this is maybe a traditional Republican. I believe in peace through strength. I believe in standing up for freedom, free markets, rule of law.
Doesn't mean we have to fight every war. Don't want to fight every war. But we help out countries who are trying to do this in their own borders and defend themselves against an invader. I can't think of a more righteous fight than Ukraine right now. It's beyond me how some of our party does not see this with moral clarity. Putin's the bad guy. Zelensky's the good guy. Russia's the invader.
Ukraine's the defender. And I just want to have that moral clarity. And I want us to provide the weapons and economic support to Ukraine and also the economic punishment to Russia. We should try to choke them of every penny. Well, they were spared tariffs. How do you feel about that? That's a little ridiculous. I don't understand it. And it's indefensible.
It's hard to judge motives. I've been careful in my life to be... Very fair. It's very fair.
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