You could say that Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran is rubbing salt in the wounds of everyone struggling with the rising cost of everything.
The senator put out a press release Wednesday patting himself on the back for convincing the Trump administration — locked in an increasingly bizarre and destructive trade war with Canada — to lift punitive tariffs on the importation of Canadian salt.
“Salt is a critical commodity in our state, particularly as we head into colder weather with local governments utilizing it to remove ice and keep Kansans safe on the roads,” Moran’s press release says.
News flash: We won’t be sliding off the Kansas Turnpike without Canadian salt. We have plenty of our own, thank you very much.
Kansas is one of the top salt-producing states in America, the U.S. Geological Survey says. According to 2019 figures, the most recent I could find, this state exports approximately 3.5 million tons of salt each year.
And we’ve barely scratched the surface of our underground salt deposits, which cover 45% of the state and are 500 feet deep in three counties, according to the Kansas Geological Survey.
Our 13 trillion tons of salt reserves are “enough to form a salt cube more than 10 miles long on each edge,” the KGS reports.
What’s next? Tariff relief for Arizona to import Canadian cactus? Who benefits? Not you.
There are exactly two Kansas beneficiaries to Moran’s campaign to lift Canadian salt tariffs. And you’re not one of them.
Moran went to bat for two salt industry titans, Morton Salt and Compass Minerals, which are headquartered in Overland Park.
Both companies own salt mines in Canada and import some of the salt they dig there to northern states for road ice-melt.
How nice it would be if we could all get the kind of service our senator provides to big business.
We wouldn’t even need to talk about this if President Donald Trump hadn’t upended international trade with chaotic tariff wars that he started on April 2 of last year — which he called “Liberation Day”.
About all he’s accomplished has been the liberation of more money from my wallet and yours.
I’m sure you have your own examples — my personal touchstone for tracking Trumpflation has been tires for my Smart car, a size that isn’t made by any domestic manufacturer.
The day before Liberation Day, I could buy imported tires for $58 apiece. The day after, they went up to $66. Now they’re $78.
