Posted on 06/10/2018 1:05:46 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
Dan Moore, a 58-year-old steel mill worker, gives the president an A+ on everything from tax cuts to foreign policy, but he is not so sure about tariffs.
"We need tariffs, but when it starts to impact the company where you work ... you're thinking, well wait a minute, time out!" he said.
Moore is worried the tariffs might cost him his job. The mill where he works, NLMK Pennsylvania, in the town of Farrell, not far from the border with Ohio, employs 750 workers and is a subsidiary of Novolipetsk Steel, or NLMK, Russia's top steelmaker.
But even though NLMK is creating American jobs, the company is being hit with a 25 percent tariff on steel because it imports raw steel slabs from Russia before turning them into coils in Pennsylvania and then selling that steel to customers that manufacture cars or pipes, for example.
Bill Almashy, a 48-year-old crane operator at the mill, worries that NLMK might not be able to survive the tariffs.
He knows what it is like to lose a steel mill job. This is the third mill he has worked at in recent years. One of the previous mills went bankrupt; the other moved most of its jobs to Mexico. Along the way, Almashy lost his home, his pension and his 401(k).
"A lot of steel in America is gone," he said. " Basically our politicians failed us."
And so when he first heard about President Trump's tariffs, he "applauded" the president. He says he still does but doesn't understand why his company should be punished for importing steel.
"Even if they're foreign-owned, but they have a factory in this country and they're employing American workers, to me, that's an American company," Almashy said.
To him, exempting this Russian-owned steel mill from tariffs would be a matter of putting "America First."
And that's the crux of the debate.
Moore voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, but during the last presidential election, he became enamored with Donald Trump's promise to bring back jobs and renegotiate trade deals. He thought tariffs in the abstract would be beneficial, but now that they could hurt the company he works for, he thinks the Trump administration needs to re-evaluate the idea.
"Tariffs — they may help some people, but they're gonna hurt a lot of people too. I don't know exactly how you balance that," Moore said. "Maybe it's not the right time for tariffs." Maybe, he says, the president ought to focus more on wages and jobs instead.
Moore is about to head into the mill down the road for his shift. He is wearing a dark blue work uniform shirt over his round belly and a Trump hat over his graying hair. It's a souvenir he picked up during Trump's inauguration.
Moore insists he has "no regrets" about his vote, even though he knows some might think that's strange given the precariousness of his current employment due to the very tariffs Trump introduced.
"President Trump was the better candidate," he says flatly.
Put a little WD-40 on that and it should be good as new.
I’ll bet the Russian factories supplying North Korea’s nosecones, fins and propellant are worried about Trump’s actions too.
Are there any smaller pictures?
That is so huge a file that it’s messing with my screen.
How does the headline reflect the article, which interviews a steel worker who supported Trump and still doees?
Oh wait ... NPR.
Ah, one of N instances (where N is a very large number) where NPR again demonstrates that it is a pathetic collection of folks who can only succeed in societies where productive folks have enough surplus to provide for the mentally weak.
How long will it take to get new mills built?
“That is so huge a file that it’s messing with my screen.”
Pres Ctrl and spin your mouse wheel. If it gets even bigger, go the other way.
Publisher: “Everything Trump does works out so well!”
Editor: “Well, we can write stories, before he does things, and make it look like the effects will be bad. Oh, and then not cover his success,”
Publisher: “Yes, I guess that’s the only way to get negative stories about him.”
If they’re worried now, they must have been suicidal during Obama’s 8 years of hell.
Buy American!
How hard is that to figure out?
I don’t recall the MSM being concerned about anything during the Obama reign of terror.
Concerned about Odumbo’s bracket picks. That’s about it.
They want to buy the cheaper Russian steel slabs? They need to start getting more creative instead of fretting . Then perhaps he will have a job for his son in 20 years too.
The answer is simple. Bring raw steel slabs from America.
Got it
A 2nd mill has re-started in Illinois, maybe they’re be next.
A typical response to tariffs is to move the production in country. The fundamental response needed from the U.S. companies is to improve their product or process to continue to win business without the tariff.
There is production in this country. This mill just needs to have its acquisition, of raw steel, come from in country, instead of from Russia.
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