The economics of the Export-Import Bank are pretty bad, but the politics are, in some ways, arguably worse.
Think about the outlook that Republicans communicate with their persistent and sometimes furtive support of Ex-Im: “We’re generally against activist government when it comes to domestic economic matters, against corporate favoritism, in favor of free markets and free enterprise, and all that. But we’ll make exceptions. For you? No, not for you, loser. But we’ll make exceptions for Boeing.”
It’s like congressional Republicans have considered the cartoon versions of them put forward by Bernie Sanders et al. and said, “Yeah, let’s be those guys.”
Maddening.