When he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama criticized the
Export-Import Bank as "little more than a fund for corporate welfare" and suggested it was an example of a federal program that ought to go.
Upon entering the White House, however, Obama reversed himself and morphed into a cheerleader for the bank, say conservatives and libertarians who are working to persuade Congress not to reauthorize the program, which seeks to help U.S. companies sell their products overseas by guaranteeing loans to foreign customers.
The Export-Import Bank's charter expires June 30 unless Congress votes to reauthorize it.
Critics argue that some of the bank's activities actually harm American companies and help U.S. competitors.
As
The Wall Street Journal noted last year: "One of the unfavored is Delta Airlines, which must compete with the foreign airlines that Ex-Im assists through its loans to Boeing and General Electric. As Delta put it…'Ex-Im is inflicting real and lasting harm on the U.S. airline industry and American jobs' by helping Delta's foreign competitors buy cheaper airplanes."
One argument frequently heard in support of the Export-Import Bank is that other nations provide similar financing schemes for their own export businesses.
Supporters of the bank – ranging from the Obama administration to the National Association of Manufacturers, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and even many Republican members of Congress – argue that the U.S. private sector needs the program to "remain competitive" with other nations which provide even more generous largesse.
Critics like House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan regard the bank as an example of "crony capitalism" benefiting large companies that do not need taxpayer subsidies.
The Club for Growth announced Thursday that it
will run ads in the congressional districts of four House Republicans urging them to join conservatives in voting to kill funding for the bank.
The ads will air in the congressional districts of Republican Reps. Buddy Carter of Georgia, Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, Bill Flores of Texas, and Stephen Fincher of Tennessee.
The six-figure ad purchases in all four congressional districts "include broadcast and cable TV in Memphis, Raleigh, Waco and Savannah," the Club announced.
The ads are brief, blunt, and to the point,
The Washington Examiner reported.
They highlight the fact that supporters of the bank include Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton and that leading Republican contenders like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz are opposed.
"Members of Congress who continue supporting the Export-Import Bank are on notice: conservatives have had enough… enough of the corruption and fraud, enough of the corporate welfare, and enough of loaning billions of our tax dollars to foreign companies," said Club for Growth President David McIntosh.
"Members have to make a choice – will they stand with conservative leaders like Bush, Cruz, Paul, Rubio, and Walker, or will they stand with the failed Democrat leadership of the past, like Hillary Clinton?"
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