Do Our Legislators Want to Cut Spending?

By:  Edward Richardson, March 17, 2014, Berwick, ME

What is the “Export-Import Bank?”

If conservatives in Washington want to start rolling back the “corporate welfare state,” then Export-Import Bank is a great place to start.  Members of congress can take a stand, in an election year, which demonstrates that we are directly opposed to liberals by ending the relationship between big government and big business.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the “Export/Import Bank” in 1934.  The original intent of Ex-Im was to facilitate the export of American made products.  Now, instead, the Bank has turned into nothing more than corporate welfare.

Over the years, it has mutated into a way for members of congress to reward their supporters.  Some of the companies that have been “helped” by it recently include Gulfstream, Boeing, Siemens, General Electric, and the list goes on and on to the tune of literally billions of dollars.  Do these sound like companies that need financial help to increase exports?

The Ex-Im Bank’s charter is about to expire.  The Congressional Quarterly reports that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) are working on a deal, to the tune of $140 billion, to bulldoze conservative opponents of reauthorization in the House and, in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has pledged to bring a bill to the floor soon.

Even Barrack Obama, while serving in the Senate, regarded this bank is an example of failed government policy.  In 2008 he called the Ex-Im Bank "…little more than a fund for corporate welfare.”

Urge your member of congress to end corporate welfare and protect taxpayer dollars.