Is corporate welfare an easy sell on the campaign trail? In Arkansas, embattled Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor is “traveling to a Hot Springs water company to talk about jobs legislation he’s proposed and to call for the reauthorization of the Export-Import bank.”
Our Veronique de Rugy calculated that Arkansas businesses received four-tenths of one percent of Export-Import Bank expenditures from 2007 to 2014. The largest share, by far, was Washington state — more than 43 percent! — because of Boeing, one of the bank’s biggest beneficiaries.
The Export-Import Bank backs 1.5 percent of exports generated in Arkansas.
Mark Pryor may not be so great at representing Arkansas, but he sure gives 100 percent to help big companies in Washington!
Our John Fund called the Export-Import Bank “essentially a form of corporate welfare for giant multinationals,” and called the coming fight over the bank “a moment of truth on corporate welfare.”
Pryor’s rival, Rep. Tom Cotton, offered potential reforms for the Export-Import Bank at a 2013 hearing.