Monday, June 30, 2014

For every winner Export-Import Bank creates, there's also a loser

Subsidizing exports benefits the subsidized exporters. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. - Timothy P. Carney/Washington Examiner @TPCarney

This summer and fall, we'll see a serious debate over an 80-year-old federal agency called the Export-Import Bank. Ex-Im subsidizes U.S. exports by extending taxpayer-backed loans and loan guarantees to foreign buyers of American-made goods.

A vast majority of Ex-Im’s financing subsidizes the 10 largest exporters in the country. Yet nearly all Democrats (who supposedly hate the privileges of Big Business) and many Republicans (who supposedly believe in free enterprise) defend the agency.

Ex-Im’s defenders in Congress and on K Street reliably charge their opponents with dwelling in an imaginary world — of dealing with ideas instead of reality....

The Export-Import Bank's corporate welfare: War by other means - Timothy P. Carney/Washington Examiner @TPCarney
Delta Air Lines' Export-Import Bank proposal: Stop giving subsidies to our foreign competitors - Timothy P. Carney/Washington Examiner @TPCarney
Export-Import Bank is a Petri dish of corruption and graft - Timothy P. Carney/Washington Examiner @TPCarney

Welcome to Dave Brat's America: Majority Leader-elect Kevin McCarthy says Kill the Export-Import Bank - Timothy P. Carney/Washington Examiner @TPCarney

House Majority Leader-elect Kevin McCarthy says Congress should let the Export-Import Bank expire, the biggest blow yet to the imperiled subsidy agency whose charter expires this fall.

On "Fox News Sunday," host Chris Wallace asked McCarthy if he agrees with "conservatives who say that the Export-Import Bank is a form of crony capitalism and it should be put out of business -- allowed to expire."

McCarthy responded by tying Ex-Im to "one of the biggest problems with government," using taxpayers' "hard-earned money," to do things the private sector can do. McCarthy supported Ex-Im's reauthorization in 2012, but he argued on Fox News Sunday that this was a vote to "wind down the Ex-Im Bank."