Posted on 11/02/2015 9:09:04 AM PST by Kaslin
The millions of dollars of corporate lobbying for reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank seems to have finally paid off. Despite the fact that taxpayers won a victory when Congress allowed the beleaguered, corruption-laden bank to expire on June 30, a group of weak-willed Republicans, led by Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), joined with Democrats and used a little known and rarely used tool called a "discharge petition" to resurrect the Bank from the dead. The House of Representatives has abandoned common sense as Boeing's Bank may be coming back.
The discharge petition circumvented the authority of the House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), whose committee had jurisdiction over the bill and rightfully decided earlier this summer to let the Bank expire. The discharge petition allowed the bill to come directly to the House floor for a vote. Thanks to this underhanded political maneuvering, the House voted to reauthorize the bank’s charter Tuesday.
This maneuvering is outside of general order and demonstrates a break with usual decorum within the Republican Party. Rep. Hensarling responded with disappointment to the move. "Signing a discharge petition sets a very serious, very dangerous precedent for our Republican majority that goes far beyond Ex-Im. At a time when our Republican conference is divided, this will divide us even further," he told reporters. Historically, despite the 107 attempts that have been lodged over the past decade and a half, only two bills have been successfully discharged from committee. Unfortunately, it appears that the only time the country can get some congressional consensus is to support corporate welfare. It is clear that money, or aggressive lobbying, can buy everything.
The Ex-Im Bank was created in the 1930s as a New Deal-era agency in order to subsidize American exports abroad. As part of its own mission statement, the Bank was intended only to provide loans to companies who would otherwise struggle to find private financing elsewhere. Fortune 50 companies like Boeing, General Electric and Caterpillar should NOT qualify as such. Except that they do. Between 2007 and 2013, Ex-Im subsidized a staggering $66.7 billion in sales by Boeing, $8.3 billion for General Electric and $4.9 billion for Caterpillar and its subsidiary. Less than 20 percent of the Bank’s financing benefits small businesses, and 98 percent of American exports don’t receive credit support from Ex-Im. And yet those companies manage to get along just fine.
But the Bank has sure been lucrative for big business, lobbyists and politicians. Boeing has spent upwards of $69 million since 2012 lobbying for the reauthorization of Ex-Im. Top Boeing exec Tim Neale admits, "We have been lobbying a lot on this because it’s a very important issue for us." Clearly. As the fight wound up this year, from April 1 to June 30, the total lobbying for Ex-Im topped $46.9 million on lobbying. This was over the course of two months. Corporate cronyism at its finest.
The ball is now in the Senate's court. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has promised he would stand firm and not bring a standalone bill to reauthorize the bank to the floor, and he himself opposes Ex-Im. The question is whether he too will acquiesce to big business and lobbyists, or if will he support taxpayers and stand firm in stopping corporate welfare. Let's hope he stands firm on his principles, and doesn't bring a bill to the floor to revive the Export-Import Bank back from the dead.
“...weak-willed Republicans”
Hah! He calls pushing something through that their constituents hate weak-willed? It’s going to take a strong will to lie and a lot of will to sway conservative rating groups to beat back primary challengers. What the GOP is pulling off is nothing short of masterful politicking.
“... has promised he would stand firm and not bring a standalone bill to reauthorize the bank ...”
Notice what he did there? In other words, he will allow it to come up for vote on a non-standalone bill.
We need the Ex-Im bank. It makes money. And it helps American Exporters compete against the special financing foreign companies get from their governments.
Killing the Export bank was one of the stupidest things the GOP has done this year.
I want to know how much lobby money the GOP got from China to kill the bank in the first place.
This puts us in a very weak position when it comes to cutting back welfare programs for the Gimmedats.
When they can point at our party cramming through freebies for the likes of GE and Boeing it becomes a near-impossible argument to make.
Yup. I saw that too.
He won't allow it as a standalone bill, because he wants to protect the crony capitalists from having to actually go on record against it. There will eventually be some parliamentary maneuver made, that will miraculously pass with one or two votes, and it will be attached to a "must pass" bill.
Weak-willed? The man got his way.
I’ve read the “make’s money” claim is an accounting trick.
““The Ex-Im Bank doesn’t cost the American taxpayer a dime,†the U.S. Chamber of Commerce posted on Twitter on May 20”
This does it for me. Kill it. The CoC is now an enemy of the united states. IMO.Crony corporatists can KMA.
No the losing money is an accounting trick. The makes money is actual cash returned to the treasury.
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