Pre-Election Conservative Agenda Item: Stop Ex-Im Bank Extension

conservativehq.com ^ | 9/8/14

[cotton1706]

As Congress returns to Washington from the month-long August recess, sources are telling POLITICO that Speaker John Boehner and House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (TX-5) have a private agreement to act on a short-term reauthorization of the government-sponsored international trade finance bank.

However, Hensarling spokesman David Popp told The Hill, “There is no agreement.”

The Ex-Im Bank’s charter will expire on Sept. 30 and as The Dallas Morning News observed, Hensarling’s committee holds the keys to any bill that would keep its doors open. He has supported the bank’s closure, calling it a form of “corporate welfare” and “crony capitalism.”

Supporters of the bank trying to sway Hensarling say that it provides essential tools for international trade, and note that in Texas, over 1,500 companies have used the Ex-Im Bank since 2007, supporting over $24 billion in exports. That’s more than any other state.

The Ex-Im Bank also turns a profit. It transferred over $1 billion to the U.S. Treasury in fiscal year 2013.

Hensarling said that the good times won’t last forever.

“Fannie and Freddie didn’t run a deficit, until they did. The federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. never ran a deficit until it did,” he told The News’ Michael Lindenberger in July.

Hensarling has also questioned whether the bank is a boon for small businesses.

Over 70 percent of the companies that used the bank in 2013 were small businesses. But they accounted for less than 20 percent of the total assistance it authorized. Big companies such as Boeing and Caterpillar used the rest.

Conservative groups such as the Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation have joined Hensarling in criticizing the bank.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Crony Capitalism at its worst. However, we have bigger fish to fry over the next 2+ years.

[kidd]

I’m not sure that the Ex-Im bank is a “conservative” issue.

The posted article notes that theExIm bank brings in foreign business and is operating in the black. It makes the unconvincing argument that the ExIm bank should expire because it might go bad like Fannie Mae.

Some argue that independent financing should be sought rather than government financing. And this is a good point. But only for smaller trades.

What bank do foreign entities go to for large trades? Airplane orders. Power plants. Oil tankers. Independent financers simply don’t have the means to back a $10 billion loan.

Calling it ‘crony capitalism’ simply ignores the difficulty in financing large trades.

[PoloSec]

Boehner and his ilk are all about crony capitalism, while participating in the communist take over of America.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

The posted article notes that theExIm bank brings in foreign business and is operating in the black. It makes the unconvincing argument that the ExIm bank should expire because it might go bad like Fannie Mae.

Yeah, I caught that too. There were plenty of red flags that Fannie and Freddie were in trouble. Are there any similar red flag about Ex-Im? If not, then "Fannie and Freddie didn’t run a deficit, until they did" is a pretty terrible argument against Ex-Im.