Friday, March 11, 2016

Donald Trump thinks Obama's failed Cuba policy is "fine"

"I think it’s fine. I think it’s fine, but we should have made a better deal. The concept of opening with Cuba — 50 years is enough — the concept of opening with Cuba is fine. I think we should have made a stronger deal." -  Donald Trump, The Daily Caller, September 7, 2015
 
Trump backs deal that will cost Americans billions
The Obama administration beginning in 2009 pursued an opening with Cuba that has worsened the human rights situation there, marginalized dissidents, coincided with collapsing trade numbers with Cuba, and now promises to ship manufacturing jobs to Cuba
 
 
Donald Trump complained, with good reason on CNN on June 28, 2015 that: "We have to take it back, we have to take our country back. We've lost our jobs, we've lost our money." This leads to the obvious question: How is it good for Americans to have trade with Cuba drop from $711.5 million in 2008 under the Bush administration with sanctions that protected U.S. taxpayers from picking up the tab to 2015 under the Obama administration when trade dropped to $180.3 million in 2015 and in January 2016 opened up financing for the notorious deadbeat nation?

Under the old policy, which Donald Trump and President Obama both agreed it was time to abandon, American companies made over $5.2 billion while other countries had to forgive billions in debts owed to them by the regime in Cuba. This means that taxpayers in those countries end up picking the tab. If Obama/Trump succeed in ending the embargo then the trade in goods with Cuba will descend into negative territory with businesses not getting paid by the Castro regime and manufacturing jobs shipped to Cuba. (Businesses will get their money back through taxpayer bailouts.)
 
At the same time the Castro regime got a hold of a U.S. Hellfire missile in 2014 and refused to return it to the United States for almost two years turning the U.S. into a laughing stock internationally and raising ominous questions about U.S. national security.

How is this good for America? It just seems to be more of the same old game played out at the expense of American jobs and treasure. I hope that candidate Trump can explain his defense of Obama's failed Cuba policy.

No comments:

Post a Comment