LA CROSSE (WKBT) — Fighting for American workers.
That’s the message from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Congressman Van Orden at a visit to Trane in La Crosse on Monday.
During a press conference, Lutnick announced the city of Fennimore was receiving over $3 million in federal aid for a project to revamp an industrial park.
$23 million in private investment is supporting the project.
Lutnick said projects like that are crucial to the president’s economic vision.
“So private investment committed $23 million. And the federal government was sort of the incentive base: if you guys commit, we’ll go build the infrastructure for you. So this is a classic Donald Trump move, right. Use the federal government to incentivize private to come in so now you have almost a $27 million project in Fennimore,” he said.
As part of Monday’s event, Lutnick said President Trump’s tariffs are also accomplishing the goal of fighting for the American worker.
“We want to protect the factories that are where? Right here,” Lutnick said.
While most economists say almost all of the tariff cost is passing through to American consumers, Lutnick doesn’t agree.
“We’ve all seen that the tariffs in America protect American manufacturers and don’t get paid by the American consumer,” he said.
“You put a 10% tariff on something. You have the importers. They if they could raise their price they would. So they don’t they eat it. The distributor here eats it. And the consumer–they don’t pay it.”
The American worker nationwide is also seeing higher grocery prices, and a gallon of gas in Wisconsin is still a dollar higher than before America’s war with Iran.
News 8 Now asked Lutnick how the administration can justify a conflict in Iran that’s spiking prices and hasn’t yet achieved major strategic outcomes.
“Yes, for a little while we had, you know, Strait of Hormuz closed. But where are we now? Oil below $70 a barrel coming down, gas prices below $4, heading towards $3 and back to $2.50,” Lutnick said.
The secretary said the administration’s top goals are for Iran to never have a nuclear weapon, and for Iran to never again fund terrorists globally.
When asked when those objectives can be achieved, Lutnick said the people should trust the president to deliver.
Said Lutnick, “[Success in Iran] will create the kind of golden age of fundamental prices that we will all enjoy. So the president understands this is a months-long battle, but he has wiped out their militaries, wiped out their navies, wiped out their air force. They are coming to the table and oil prices are coming, smashing down just like the president said.”
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