The Ex-Im fight is an important test of the GOP’s commitment to free-market and small government over interest groups. We know they can talk the free-market talk when convenient, but will they walk the walk?
When it comes to the Ex-Im fight, the answer is apparently no. Even the steadfastly anti-Ex Im crowd is throwing in the towel and resigning themselves to a short-term reauthorization. Yesterday, House Republicans announced that they are prepared to extend the charter of the corporate-welfare program that is Ex-Im in the hopes, I assume, of killing it in the long-term.
From Politico:
Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday signaled the House will extend the Export-Import Bank’s charter, saying that one of the institution’s biggest critics is on board.
The Ohio Republican said he is working with Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the Financial Services chairman, who “thinks a temporary extension of the Export-Import Bank is in order.”
There are still many lingering questions. First, it’s not yet clear whether the extension will be part of a government-funding bill, that will be voted on this week, or whether it will be standalone legislation. Republican leaders and Hensarling have not decided how long the extension should run. Some believe it should last until Dec. 11 — Democrats have privately pushed for that. GOP leadership is also considering an extension into next summer, according to Republican sources.
Hensarling’s priority is separating the Export-Import extension from the government-funding bill, according to sources.
This morning, both the Hill and CQ report that the deal will give a nine-month lease on life to the Ex-Im Bank, supposedly making it easier to handle next June, when Republicans have control of the Senate.
Sometimes, politics binds our hands. However, too often politics serves as an excuse to preserve the status quo and cater to special interests. This compromise might be a warning that some are losing sight of what they are fighting for.
If the Republican leaders who are setting this strategy are doing this as a move to end the bank, they should publicly say it. Moreover, these leaders – Representative John Boehner, Representative. Kevin McCarthy, Representative Steve Scalise, and Representative Patrick McHenry — should come out and tell us that after this time, there will never be a reauthorization again.
Now, not every House Republican supports the same compromise. Support for the Ex-Im Bank from big-government Republicans comes in many shades. Representative Stephen Fincher is pushing for a five-year reauthorization legislation, to pave the way for a longer-term Ex-Im extension. That would be an utter defeat.
Fincher, who opposed Ex-Im reauthorization in 2012, appears to have had a miraculous change of heart. Why? The man who ran his campaign on a platform of “get[ting] the government out of the financial-services industry and return[ing] control of the financial markets to free enterprise” claims that this time around, Ex-Im reauthorization will be different. He believes that including some cosmetic reforms, like requiring Ex-Im staffers to disclose financial dealings and limiting the Ex-Im president’s term, could fix the program.
Too bad the 2012 Ex-Im reauthorization included a host of similar reforms that were willfully ignored by the bastion of bureaucratic blight that is the Export-Import Bank.
It’s clear that Democrat Ex-Im supporters (and their GOP allies) have hoped to put principled opponents of Ex-Im cronyism between a rock and a hard place. Fincher’s proposal could provide momentum for a longer-term deal after the uncertainty of elections and the possibility of a government shutdown passes with the enactment of a dirty CR. It’s rotten and typical and should make your blood boil.
There is simply no economic justification for the Export-Import Bank, as I have shouted from the rooftops again and again and again and again. It doesn’t “create jobs,” it doesn’t “boost exports,” it doesn’t “counteract foreign competition,” it doesn’t “create profits for taxpayers,” it doesn’t “promote development,” and it certainly doesn’t “help small businesses.”
All that the Export-Import Bank does is direct artificially cheap finance to politically favored projects and firms. It exists to prop up the profits of Boeing, General Electric, and Caterpillar. It is naked cronyism, it is unjust, and it is offensive to American principles and promises. It should make you feel sick.