July 2015: The Export-Import Bank Needs to Stay Dead

Jim DeMint / @JimDeMint / July 23, 2015 / 2 comments

The Export-Import Bank is dead. Let’s keep it that way. This hoary relic of the Great Depression has been plagued with corruption and fraud. Its lending practices primarily benefit a handful of wealthy American mega-corporations and, far too often, unsavory interests abroad.   Ex-Im’s charter expired on June 30, but special interests continue to press Congress to revive it. Lawmakers wishing to keep this monument to crony capitalism dead and buried can draw some valuable “how-to” lessons from past successful efforts to resist wasteful special-interest pleadings.  In 1988, Congress established the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) Commission to close unnecessary and expensive military bases. For years, successive administrations had treated basing decisions as political bonbons, keeping certain bases open for their friends while closing others.....To Read More

Senate GOP Resurrects Export-Import Bank -  by Mike Flynn  26 Jul 2015
Sunday, the Senate voted to attach a revival of the Export-Import Bank to the “must pass” highway funding bill. The move was the fulfillment of a promise Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made to Democrats for their support of Obama’s trade policy. The vote to resurrect the federal lending agency was 67-26, with two dozen Senate Republicans joining Democrats to preserve the federal program. Twenty-six Senate Republicans opposed the measure, offered by Republican Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL).  Two of the biggest recipients of taxpayer-subsidized lending by the bank are Boeing and Caterpillar, both based in Illinois. Boeing, in fact, received 40 percent of the total bank’s lending last year......

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) once again slammed McConnell in a Sunday floor speech:

Senate leadership consists of the McConnell-Reid leadership team. They operate as a team. They support the same priorities. If you look at what has occurred in the United States Senate since the Republicans took a majority, we immediately returned after winning a historic majority to pass a trillion dollar ‘cromnibus’ bill filled with corporate welfare and pork. Then, the so-called Republican majority voted to fund Obamacare. Then, the so-called Republican majority voted to fund President Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty. Then, the so-called Republican majority voted to confirm Loretta Lynch as attorney general. Then, just moments ago, the so-called Republican majority voted to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, an egregious example of cronyism and corporate welfare.

Every one of those is the priority of the Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). Every one of those is the priority of the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell. They operate as a team, expanding Washington and undermining the liberty of the people.