As I have mentioned before, there’s an underlying assumption that the GOP leadership’s plan to give the Ex-Im Bank nine more months of life is intended to get us closer to killing the bank. But we really don’t know if that’s the case since the GOP leadership has never actually explained how this strategy would work, and hasn’t even said publicly that this is the strategy.

And there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. For one thing, many Republicans don’t seem to understand that there is a fundamental difference between being pro-free-market and being pro-business. Many of them support any crony program that comes their way because it’s supported by some business group – think about their support for farm subsidies, their refusal to kill green-energy subsidies, or any other federal handout to corporations.

Moreover, there still isn’t widespread and vocal support for killing the Ex-Im Bank in Congress. In fact, it seems that many Republicans prefer, most of all, to avoid the topic. With the exception of Majority Leader McCarthy, the GOP leadership hasn’t come out against the bank.

Finally, while the debate over helping the Syrian rebels and authorizing air strikes in the Middle East took attention away from the Ex-Im fight, it shouldn’t have ended opposition to the bank. Democrats wanted to support the House spending bill that included the Islamic State provisions in order to back the president. So the introduction of that debate reduced Democrats’ leverage for opposing an Ex-Im-free CR, in the House and the Senate and made a government shutdown a lot less likely. The Hill has a piece that seems to confirm this point:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Senate passage of the House continuing resolution is necessary to prevent another government shutdown.
“It’s not perfect, that’s for sure,” Reid said on the Senate floor Thursday. “But the funding resolution before us is infinitely better than the alternatives, another government shutdown.”
On Wednesday, the House voted 319-108 to approve the $1 trillion bill that will keep the government funded through Dec. 11. The House added an amendment authorizing a program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebel groups to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
If the Senate fails to pass the measure, the government could shut down on Oct. 1.
Some lawmakers oppose lumping the two issues together, but it was done in part so lawmakers could leave town by the end of the week to campaign for the midterm elections.
“Breaking up the legislation the House sent us is not a viable option,” Reid said.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on the CR around 5 p.m. on Thursday before adjourning until after the midterm elections.

The fact that House leadership didn’t remove Ex-Im authorization from a CR some Democrats had to vote for suggests that this wasn’t about avoiding a government shutdown at all.