Radio Silence from Zach Lahn on Tariffs Raising Costs on Iowans
DES MOINES – It’s been three days since Washington announced a new 50 percent tariff on Canada, Iowa’s largest trading partner, and Kansas carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn has yet to speak out.
Canada buys $5 billion of Iowa’s exports, including 16 percent of farm goods, and total trade between Iowa and Canada amounts to $9 billion a year. Now, chaotic tariffs are set to hike prices on everything from “building materials, liquors and certain kinds of clothing,” but Lahn has repeatedly defended tariffs and even claimed they don’t raise costs on Iowans.
Lahn has a record of supporting chaotic, cost-hiking tariffs:
- Lahn defended tariffs and said they “worked as intended,” even though tariffs have pushed Iowa’s agriculture industry to the brink of another farm crisis, as farmers are already struggling under the weight of a four-year downturn and filing for bankruptcy at the highest rate in the nation.
- Lahn claimed tariffs don’t raise costs, even though tariffs cost the average household more than $1,700, inflation has hit a three-year high, and Iowans are paying higher prices on everything from groceries to medicine.
- Lahn lectured Iowa farmers cut off from export markets, telling farmers to “diversify crops and livestock” instead of selling their goods overseas.
- Lahn dismissed farmers struggling with high input costs, saying “the tariffs are not the issue.”
From Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson Terra Hernandez:
“Kansas carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn is so out-of-touch with Iowans that he supports tariffs that are raising prices and hurting our state’s economy. If Lahn is too weak to speak out against tariffs now, he’s lost all credibility when it comes to lowering costs for Iowa families and farmers as governor.”
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