Weekend Must Reads: Heidi Heitkamp’s Trade Stance is Hurting North Dakota
During commercials of the Sunday shows and football games, be sure to check out this local profile of a North Dakota farmer and Congressman Kevin Cramer’s new op-ed on trade.
Steve Kirch of “Dickinson News” profiled North Dakota farmer and Trump supporter Wayne Gerbig to hear his position on trade. Some key points of the article:
- Some ranchers on the Western Edge of North Dakota are optimistic about how the market looks … One Slope County rancher said he feels good … Wayne Gerbig is a fourth generation rancher, and he and his family lease land on the H-T Ranch in Amidon, ND for their Black Angus cattle, and he said right now he feels pretty good about the cattle market.
- He is optimistic about the recent trade deal between the U.S. and Mexico, which President Donald Trump said will be “Great for our farmers. . . workers.”
- Overall, Gerbig said he still stands behind President Trump … “The administration’s before have never brought forward the imbalance of trade.”
This farmer’s views on trade mirror Kevin Cramer’s, who penned an op-ed for the Bismarck Tribune expressing not only his concern for North Dakota’s agricultural community, but also his support for the President’s overall efforts and his work to end this dispute. Some key points:
- In his recent visit to North Dakota, President Trump said the United States is the “bank” that other countries are robbing, and he is right … It is time for the world to start playing fair with us.
- China’s unfair practices result in a $376 billion trade imbalance and an additional $50 billion lost each year to their piracy of technology and intellectual property. We know their abusive trade practices are also affecting North Dakota’s farmers and ranchers … they unfairly stifle innovative American agricultural science, like genetically engineered crops.
- The President’s use of tariffs on Chinese products is not my preferred trade negotiation method. The collateral damage [of] China’s retaliation … is placing political pressure on the President to back down. … They are purposely agitating the President’s supporter base in hopes the internal strife will make us drop our actions to develop fair trade with them.
- I was the sole member of Congress to testify before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during two public hearings. I shared how China’s retaliatory tariffs impact North Dakota’s agriculture community and manufacturers. I have made it my mission to communicate clearly and directly with administration officials to ensure they fully understand the impact of China’s retaliatory tariffs. I will continue to urge the president and his administration to bring countries like China to the table to find a free, fair, and reciprocal solution.
- I believe the best way now to serve North Dakota is to offer solutions and I believe the best way to end a trade war is to win a trade war. When this is successful, our nation and our North Dakota agriculture community and manufacturers will benefit for generations to come.
Kevin Cramer’s work on trade is a stark contrast to Heidi Heitkamp, who inexplicably believes undermining President Trump every step of the way, while offering no real solutions, will somehow end this standoff.
Barack Obama Rebukes Heidi Heitkamp’s Lies
When facts don’t support your argument, you resort to fiction; and with her campaign on the brink of failure, Heidi Heitkamp did just that. Here are just a few examples from this week where the Heitkamp machine chose a false narrative over clear facts:
Fiction: Kevin Cramer is “nowhere to be seen” on the Farm Bill.
Fact: Kevin Cramer was addressing the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association to detail the progress on the Farm Bill.
Fiction: Democrats falsely claim that “nearly 300,000 North Dakotans with pre-existing conditions would lose protections [if Obamacare were repealed over overturned] that prevent insurance companies from denying them insurance entirely or charging higher premiums.”
Fact: 92% of insured North Dakotans are covered by their employer or the government, so their coverage would be unaffected. Their 300,000 number is entirely inaccurate on multiple fronts, and Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign was fact-checked for peddling this claim by the Associated Press ~weeks~ ago:
Fiction: Kevin Cramer “has promised to be with the president 100% of the time, even when it’s bad for North Dakota.”
Fact: Kevin Cramer listed policy issues- tax cuts, deregulation, abortion- where he supports the President, and said, “On these very important North Dakota values, you’ll never have to wonder where I’ll be; because I’ll always be with them, and I’ll always be with you.” Unlike the Democrats, we’ll provide a link. Cramer never made this claim, in fact, he told NBC the opposite, “If Donald Trump is with North Dakotans 90 percent of the time, he and I are going to be with North Dakotans that time, and I’m going be with North Dakotans the other 10.”
Fiction: To respond to Cramer’s new energy ad, Heidi Heitkamp told the Washington Post, “You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Washington who worked on this issue who would say that he helped lead any of” the oil export repeal. Her campaign spent all week pushing comments from Energy Committee Chairman Joe Barton.
Fact: Chairman Barton told NBC News that “Cramer can fairly claim some credit for the law. He was there early and he actually showed up when we needed things to get done.” Kevin Cramer did in fact help lead the repeal of the oil export ban. Unfortunately for Heidi Heitkamp, Chairman Barton is still in Washington, and it still takes more than one lawmaker to pass a law.
As former President Barack Obama said, “When facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter — that at that point we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.”
It sounds like the former President- who Heitkamp stood with nearly 90% of the time and called “amazing“- would be disappointed in the lies and fiction pushed by her campaign this week.
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