June, 2015’s another chance to do the right thing:
According to Veronique De Rugy of George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, 97 percent of last year’s Ex-Im loan guarantees were targeted to benefit 10 multinational companies. No. 1, by far, was Boeing, with 8.3 billion dollars of assistance, followed by Caterpillar, Bechtel and other corporate names you’ve all heard of. Do these companies really need help in promoting their exports? Or is there something else going on?
Lest you think Ex-Im is an object of Democratic wrath that the "progressive" left has been trying valiantly to kill only to be thwarted by evil Wall Street Bankers who have Congress in their pocket, think again. In 2008, candidate Barack Obama correctly denounced Ex-Im as "little more than a fund for corporate welfare." In 2014, President Obama enthusiastically supports it.
Even worse, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, darling of the progressive movement and author of its noxious "11 Commandments of Progressivism," now kisses the Ex-Im ring. Repeat after me: Wall Street bad, Ex-Im good.
Fortunately, there is a bipartisan coalition of libertarian conservatives and liberal populists, in Congress and in the electorate, that has been trying to kill Ex-Im for years. Ralph Nader wants it gone. So does Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. So does the Club for Growth. So do some Congressional Democrats. Maybe, just maybe, they can get enough traction to let Ex-Im die in June.
Via FAGIN: Crony capitalism or the free market? Congress must decide.