Senators Grassley and Ernst were among seven Republican Senators who sent a letter to the White House asking President Biden to repeal tariffs and other trade barriers that Trump implemented during his time in office affecting a wide range of industries, including agriculture, carmakers and manufacturers.

The letter said, “An important first step would be to reduce barriers to trade with our allies and by doing so, we can stop damaging actions and retaliation and mend relationships while listening to businesses across the country that have suffered from the negative economic consequences.”

Where were Grassley and Ernst when Trump implemented the tariffs and barriers? Instead of demanding the repeal of these barriers, as they’re doing now, they chose to merely ask the federal government to pay for the shortfall farmers experienced. Of course, the federal government spent tens of billions to cover the shortfall with no concern expressed by them as to the impact on the federal debt. As long as their base was covered, that’s all that mattered. In the meantime, of course they deflected blame and put it on the “Communist Chinese” rather than on Trump.

Now that we have a Democrat in office, Grassley and Ernst can demand the repeal of the tariffs and raise concerns about the debt. That’s what Republicans do.