Rosen Rides In, Sees Squirrel, Yells Bear!

Sounds Alarm While Alarm’s Turned Off

Nevada’s own Senator Jacky Rosen recently visited a Reno business with a good story and a bad case of nerves. She arrived with cameras and concern, tellin’ of catastrophe and calamity brought on by President Trump’s tariffs — those fearsome duties squeezing the lifeblood out of plucky entrepreneurs.

But as with many a political tale, there’s a mite more shadow than substance once the dust settles.

The business in question, Orucase, is the creation of one Isaac Howe, a fellow who started broke, hungry, and possessed of a sturdy dream–to fly with a bicycle without having to pawn his shoes to pay the baggage fees. He turned that notion into a company that makes high-end travel cases for athletes and set up shop–with a heart full of hope and a warehouse full of goods from Vietnam.

Mr. Howe says he’s concerned—nay, nearly paralyzed—by a 46 percent tariff the Trump Administration proposed months ago on imports from Vietnam. He wrote to Senator Rosen, soundin’ the alarm, and she showed up wavin’ the torch of justice and promisin’ to fight the big fight against those mean tariffs–only one small problem–those tariffs in question got suspended.

Done away with. Set aside like last year’s campaign signs.

You’d think this small but crucial fact would’ve earned a mention from the good Senator–with truth being the currency of trust and all. But no—Rosen chose instead to hoist the panic flag and march around, hopin’ nobody’d peek behind the curtain to see that the tariff got laid to rest already.

“I have cargo on the water,” Mr. Howe said as if the administration might spring a policy change like a jack-in-the-box once his crate touches port. But that’s politics for you — always seein’ for storms on a sunny day.

Rosen claimed she got deluged by “thousands and thousands” of messages, which, if true, means either Nevada’s business community has suddenly discovered the art of copy-and-paste email or the Senator’s inbox is a little more dramatic than reality requires. She paints a picture of economic doomsday but forgets to add that the sky she says is fallin’ has been patched up and braced for now.

So what we have here, dear reader, is the classic art of molehill magnification. Senator Rosen findin’ a man in Reno with jitters, declarin’ emergency surgery’s needed–while the cause got the cure already.

I ain’t sayin’ tariffs ain’t worth watchin’— they are, but I do say it’s hard to take a fire alarm seriously when the buildin’ ain’t burnin’–and the fire marshal’s already gone home to supper.

The difference between a real problem and a political one is that the real problem usually shows up without a press conference.