Posted on 07/24/2015 2:56:15 PM PDT by Isara
In a fiery floor speech Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) railed against a seemingly obscure agency he derided as "corporate welfare" for our nation's biggest corporations.
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Supporters say the bank helps level the playing field for U.S. companies against competitors in Europe and China, who get significant help from their governments. Detractors call the bank crony capitalism that mostly helps big business.
But really, as Cruz's speech showed Friday, the bank has become a proxy battle for something else entirely: Government's place in business. And it appears those who want government out of business have won this battle -- for now.
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My colleague, Philip Bump, wrote Cruz's speech Friday was perfectly timed to fit the endorsement of prominent conservative celebrity Brent Bozell, and the "Washington cartel" and corporate welfare have been a major theme of his campaign.
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Pro-business and Republican-leaning groups like the Chamber of Commerce are lobbying heavily on Capitol Hill to keep it. And they're surprised that this is even an issue they have to lobby so hard for: The relatively obscure bank has always had its critics, but it's never risen to such a prominent debate before.
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That will throw at least a little wrench in the U.S. business community, but its impact is more notable in the political realm. The bank's (possibly temporary) expiration is a huge win for the right wing of the Republican Party like Cruz & co. They've succeeded in convincing the highest levels of government that the bank is a symbol of big government and has to go. The war on the Ex-Im Bank is the beginning of the end for government welfare programs that don't abide by the free market, they hope.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
How much you want to bet that the Washington Post Corporation doesn’t benefit in some way from the Ex-Im Bank.
Don’t forget that the WP isn’t “independent” any more (as if it ever was). It’s owned by Jeff Bezos now, the founder of Amazon. He bought it for $250 million (which is pathetic) back in 2013.
How much you want to bet that Bezos doesn’t benefit in some arcane way from Ex-Im Bank activity? The guy is one of the wealthiest men in the world.
No, it helps the unions, which in turn help the politicians, which in turn help favored businesses.
The key to this particular deal is the involvement of Maria Cantwell. She has been facilitating the construction of a coal terminal in her home state of WA, to ship Peabody Energy’s Powder River Basin coal to China or wherever they can induce a country to buy the product, whose value is now less than dirt, literally. A short ton of sub-bituminous coal is now valued at less than a load of top soil, a lot less. They need the help of the export -import bank to get taxpayers to pay other countries to take it off their hands and pay the shipping costs.
McConnell comes from a coal State, but this coal is not bituminous coal from privately owned mines. This coal from leased land, managed by the government and owned by Indian tribes.
There is a lot of cronyism and an out of court settlement with Obama’s EPA, as well as Richard Trumpka involved that has led to the Democrat push for this coal tournament, but they couldn’t do it without McConnell. So the question is what did McConnell get for it?
I'd go further than that. The left only "hates capitalism" publically because they know that by mouthing populist anti-capitalist BS they inoculate themselves from scrutiny and grabby fingers.
Look at Warren Buffett, at Bill Gates, at any number of mega-billionaires. With few very notable exceptions, they are all public liberals. In some cases, virulently so.
It costs them nothing to push the liberal line in public, and doing so buys them a lot of friendship in Washington.
The government role of controlling role in commerce is called Fascism. Without invoking the term that defined the political philosophy, this article and those their believers are marching in formation with Hitler and Mussolini. It's simply another variation of Marxist, Communism, Fascism, Progressism. It all leads to the same cesspool.
Why? He'd be too drunk to know and if he did figure it out he'd just start crying and run to 0bozo for comfort.
The worthless b@stard
Cruz was able to do this because Trump has been softening the DC cartel up with his carpet-bombing.
It sure would be sweet, if some his shadows, were exposed. Who knows? It could happen.
Yes, that’s true. The good cop, bad cop routine.
Cruz savaged McConnell because McConnell looked him in the eye and lied.
Cruz has the support of people that put the majorities in on his side and that should make all the true conservatives unafraid. We are disgusted that we have nice majorities now, but a Harry Reid Republican in control. McConnell is disgusting.
Exactly. I think people who are concerned about Trump’s lack of solid conservative principle and/o history are overlooking this very important factor. He’s like the right’s version of the Bolshevists (the destroyers of the existing system) before the advent of the Communists (the constructors of the new system). I know there’s a better metaphor but I can’t think of it right now.
This is good. It will give us a feel for Cruz’s ability to work on his agenda. If he can kill the Ex-Im, he’ll have done something and made it stick.
I’m Cruz all the way. I’ve been sending him money. But having Trump run interference makes him a lot more effective.
Democrats, liberals and the media (and many Republicans) hate the truth. Lying is the ‘norm’ for these people. Evil is on the Throne while Good (decency and truth) is on the Gallows. And the sad part is much of the public does not seem to care.
washington compost lives up to that name.
“......Can someone now please savage Boehner?”
“Why? He’d be too drunk to know and if he did figure it out he’d just start crying and run to 0bozo for comfort.”
But WE would know and that’s all that matters at this point. :)
Let’s face it, nothing in Washington is going to change, so we might as well enjoy the occasional RINO/lib/media savaging while we can. That’s why I’m enjoying the Donald Trump show so much. Just love those beatings he’s throwing around. I just hope he outlasts my bowl of popcorn.
McConnell is like one of those wimpy little boys who stab people in the back because he can’t deal with them face-to-face...sorta like Heinrich Himmler or Lavrentiy Beria.
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