Posted on 06/16/2003 6:24:10 AM PDT by harpseal
OPIC – A US Govt. agency exporting capital
I have been concerned with the US economy’s health since the late 1990’s.
Many manufacturing operations have gone offshore and more move offshore every day.
I have followed the threads on Free Republic and have followed up looking at the details of our trade policy. It seems on Free Republic there are two primary views about trade policy. First, that what is happening to American companies is somehow not right and the result of government action. The second is that the lazy Americans can not complete in a global economy and it is just the free market causing these dislocations. I believe the Democrat position is that people have a right to jobs and government should employ them and if all the greedy corporations went offshore so much the better. As I followed the threads over the months I found out about OPIC, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, A US Government agency. Credit should go to Hedgetrimmer for the research that found out about it. The purpose of OPIC I copied from their website,
“OPIC's mission is to is to mobilize and facilitate the participation of United States private capital and skills in the economic and social development of less developed countries and areas, and countries in transition from nonmarket to market economies. In accomplishing its mission, OPIC will promote positive U.S. effects and host country developmental effects. OPIC will assure that the projects it supports are consistent with sound environmental and worker rights standards. In conducting its programs, OPIC will also take into account guidance from the Administration and Congress on a country’s observance of, and respect for, human rights. In accomplishing its mission, OPIC will operate on a self-sustaining basis.”
Now this is a US government agency that provides political risk and currency convertability insurance to companies build facilities outside the USA as part of our foreign aid program. This means your taxpayer dollars are at work to subsidize the outsourcing of every business activity in the USA. If one reads the authorizing legislation (link is provided on the OPIC website http://www.opic.gov/) one sees that OPIC is only required to take regard of sound insurance accounting practices in a manner consistent with its mission. Its primary asset is the guarantee of the full faith and credit of the US government.
Now I know insurance is a dry topic that most people do not like to go into too much but Insurance is an item of value. Anyone who has paid for automobile or homeowners insurance is familiar with the concept. So the US government is giving companies loans and insurance in order to move investment capital offshore. The authorizing legislation allows OPIC to ignore the economic and employment goals of the USA if such conflict with its mission.
Now, I have previously posted a letter I have sent to the White House about two issues on our economy. The first was OPIC and the second related issue was the H1B and L1 visa abuses. This essay is limited to OPIC. I have seen comments stating that OPIC does not cost the taxpayers a dime because its current operations are self sustaining. If this is truly the case then why does it need the authorization of Congress and the full faith and credit f the US Government. Most insurance is private enterprise. If this were a sound financial operation it would be private enterprise. If the risk guarantee were sound they would not need the full faith and credit of the US government. If the basis of the loans made to finance overseas investments were sound they would be made by the private sector. Yet they are a US Government agency. In short they are American taxpayer dollars being spent to support the investment of capital in foreign nations. This capital is no longer available to generate American jobs. This capital will not be used to create or upgrade American manufacturing, IT, healthcare or any other economic endeavor.
Clearly it is past time to get this function out of government. It is past time to allow American workers to benefit from the free flow of the capital market. This agency operates as a reverse tariff to American industry. American workers are the most productive in the world when the free flow of Capital givens them the opportunity. The American political system provides stability that attracts capital. When the government pledges its guarantee against the risk of political instability of other nations it subsidizes their business activities. It is a whole lot easier to make a profit if one has insurance against the some of the reasonable probabilities of loss and one does not have to pay the fair market value for that insurance.
Is OPIC constitutional? I am not enough of an expert on the details of the authorizing legislation and Constitutional cases on point to make that argument. I do not think it is but I am willing to let others discuss the matter without my involvement.
Is OPIC a reasonable action for the US government to be doing in the face of current unemployment in many sectors of our economy. Clearly it is not. Clearly it harms businesses which do not invest overseas by rewarding their competitors. Clearly the US government must get out of subsidizing the layoffs of Americans for the benefit of other nations. I urge everyone who reads this to research OPIC and then contact every one of their elected public servants and remind them of their duty to the people of the USA.
Therefore, I pass the torch: You continue to serve as the FreepMaster on this cause. I stand ready to assist.
They state that they are self-funding; therefore this is not a solution. What needs to happen is that the official US government seal, and the status as an arm of the US government, needs to be revoked.
They have the right to exist in their efforts to destroy America, much as the Democratic party does. What they don't have the right to, is the tacit approval and validation of the US government.
I say make it a private fcorporation that must answer to stockholders and do it without the full faith and credit of the US government. However since funds for OPIC's operation must be appropriated by Congress it si time to defund it make it a private company and charge appropriate rates for tehinsurance it iffers. Let it raise and maintain the capital needed to provide this insurance.
We've been set up like bowling pins and the ball is coming down the lane, while everybody is playing, "We're right, and you're wrong, twit!" in this nation.
This relates to the FReepmail I sent you earlier. The warriors must rise now and leave the wimps babbling and calling names, while the people who know the Truth and facts gotta get the job done...
The OPIC website had the following info:
-> projects also support American jobs and exports—over 280,000 new U.S. jobs and $65 billion in exports since 1971
-> OPIC charges market-based fees for its products, it operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to taxpayers.
According to them, defunding OPIC would not shut it down.
It is set up by Congress according to authorizing legislation it was given initial funding and it is given an annual appropriation of funds.
If it is a good idea let some entrepeneur do it.
Let us see now that is 8,750 new jobs per year. How many of them were temporary jobs just getting factories packed and moved offshore? If a company lays off a thousand then hires two hundred peopel to work for a month shipping the equipment offshore is that 200 new jobs. I guess so.
That's an Amen! The investors, the movers and the shakers, forsee the baby-boomers getting on up there and with the skyrocketing taxes needed to fund their Social Security and Medicare, the investors and the large corporations had the baby-boomers fund the means to move to the new frontiers when this house-of-cards collapses.
According to them, defunding OPIC would not shut it down.
Lets try a test if defunding OPIC would not shut it down and it would continue to operate, lets see if that is true. If we withdraw the government backing of their guarantees lets see how much the market cherishes their guartee without the call on treasury funds. If they are capable of being self sustaining then surely they could operate as private enterprise. Lets test their claims.
If they are telling the truth it will have no negative impact on them or the export of Capital. If they are lying well then I am even happier to have them out of the Federal government.
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