Bost Boasts but Doesn't Deliver on Farmers

Mike Bost’s latest bulletin (10/18) boasts about all he’s doing to help farmers in Southern Illinois. He boasts about fighting against Washington, which, last time we checked, his party controls. The problem is that he is actually not fighting against the real threat from Washington, Donald Trump, whose tariffs and war with Iran are clobbering farmers in Illinois and across the U.S.

The GOP threats to Illinois farmers

Take soybeans. Illinois is the largest producer of soybeans in the U.S. But Trump’s tariffs against China led the Chinese, our largest export buyer, to stop buying from the U.S.; in 2025 Southern Illinois farmers had to sell their soybeans for less than it cost them to grow them, with losses as high as $100 to $200 an acre.

Trump spent $12 billion in taxpayer money to compensate farmers for their losses thanks to his tariffs, then backed off his trade war with China. China started buying again, and soybean prices have recovered, but farmers are still hurting. Overall costs for farmers are now at record highs, and farm incomes are down. Fuel costs are 28.5% higher, and fertilizer costs up 15.3%. The median farm in the US is now losing money—despite billions more in taxpayer subsidies.

Why are fuel and fertilizer costs rising so fast? We all know what the Iran war has done to gas prices: it’s even worse for diesel prices, which are up 65% since the war began. But the Strait of Hormuz is also a crucial passage for nitrogen-based fertilizers, and costs for those are soaring for Illinois farmers as well. To add insult to injury, the trade war with Canada has threatened potash imports from Canada, which provides 80%–90% of US imports. Potash provides the “K” in the N-P-K figures on fertilizer bags, and is crucial for soybean production. Good relations with Canada would guarantee a steady supply. Trump’s vanity project of making Canada the 51st state threatens our supply.

Bost sponsors bills that can’t even pass the GOP Congress

Mike Bost doesn’t talk about the real threats to Illinois farmers. He can’t, because they are coming from his own president and party, and he won’t dare to question them. Instead he goes on about what his own press release called a “small but meaningful update” to the USDA loan program. It’s not a bad bill, and it is bipartisan. But it’s still just a bill. Bost also boasts about cosponsoring the AFIDA Improvements Act; that bill hasn’t even made it out of the Agriculture Committee on which he sits. The GOP controls Congress and the White House, but all Bost can boast about are failed efforts at small reforms.

Bost boasts about an award from the Farm Credit Council, which routinely hands out awards to members of the Agriculture Committee of both parties. They are the same folks who called Bost’s bill “small but meaningful.” Congratulations, Mike!

Bost isn’t fighting for us

So how is Mike Bost fighting for Southern Illinois farmers? By backing bills that never become laws—despite his party controlling the House, Senate, and White House. And by staying silent as Trump’s ruinous war against Iran and idiotic trade war against Canada drive up costs for farmers—and for all of us.

Mike Bost rightly says that agriculture is the “backbone of Southern Illinois.” It’s time for him to grow a backbone and start fighting for our farmers and our economy.