Free Markets Beat Tariffs and Bailouts Every Time

Tariffs always come with a predictable sequel. First, Washington imposes new taxes on imports in the name of toughness. Then, when the economic damage becomes impossible to ignore, taxpayers are asked to clean up the mess. That cycle is playing out once again in American agriculture.

A recent National Review op-ed by Dominic Pino explains the problem clearly. In “Trump Bails Out the Farmers He Kneecapped With Tariffs Again,” Pino details how tariffs raised costs, shrank export markets, and left farmers worse off, only for Washington to step in with taxpayer-funded bailout checks.

This is not an isolated policy failure. It is a recurring pattern. Tariffs operate as hidden taxes that ripple through the economy. Farmers face higher prices for equipment and inputs. Foreign buyers turn to other suppliers. Revenues fall. Washington then claims credit for “helping” farmers by distributing bailout money that would not be necessary absent the tariffs themselves.

There is a simpler and far more effective alternative. No tariffs. No taxpayer-funded bailouts designed to offset the damage caused by tariffs.

That approach is called the free market.

The free market is the most powerful wealth-creation engine in human history. It allows farmers to sell to global markets, purchase inputs at competitive prices, and respond to real consumer demand rather than political incentives. It rewards productivity, innovation, and efficiency instead of political favoritism.

Bailouts do the opposite. They distort incentives, entrench bad policy, and turn independent producers into dependents of the federal government, all while shifting the cost onto taxpayers.

If policymakers genuinely want to support farmers, the answer is not another round of checks. The answer is to stop harming them in the first place. Ending tariffs and expanding market access would allow farmers to compete, grow, and succeed without government intervention.

That solution may lack political theater, but it delivers real results. Unlike tariffs and bailouts, it strengthens the economy without creating new problems that Washington later claims it must fix.