2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHillary Clinton Unloads on GOP Over Export Bank
Hillary Clinton is out of patience for her Republican rivals and their opposition to an export-assistance program. But she still isnt taking a position on a Pacific trade deal that has become politically linked to the Export-Import Banks renewal.
The Democratic Presidential candidate on Friday unloaded on her GOP foes, calling them cowards who do not make up their own minds and default to the loudest and most extreme voices in the party. The former Secretary of State told an invite-only crowd in Hampton, N.H.. that Americans jobs are in the balance, and Republicans would rather scuttle workers paychecks than to tell the truth about the Export-Import Bank, which provides financing for U.S. exports.
Clinton said the banks opponents are looking to score political points and are shameless panderers who really should know better. She did not single out any of her GOP rivals by name, but Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul have all opposed keeping the agency around.
Across our country, the Export-Import Bank supports up to 164,000 jobs, Clinton said. It is wrong that Republicans in Congress are trying to cut off this vital lifeline for American small businesses.
They would rather threaten the livelihoods of those 164,000 jobs rather than stand up to the tea party and talk radio.
The agency is a favorite target of small-government tea party activists, who claim it is corporate welfare for giant corporations like Boeing. The bank has been a flashpoint for conservatives and it almost lost its charter in 2012 and again last year. Lawmakers secured a nine-month extension for the bank last year, but conservatives are pushing to let the lenders authority expire this summer.
more...
http://time.com/3894747/hillary-clinton-export-import-bank-trade/
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)okaawhatever
(9,462 posts)benefit from it, but the problem is all countries with airplane manufacturers offer a similar program so if the bank were to close Boeing's wouldn't be price competitive and would probably lose some contracts. With the World Trade Organization only certain government incentives can be used and an export/import bank is one of them.
It helps Boeing, but it also helps smaller manufacturers who don't qualify for the loans needed to export products. It also helps smaller countries that we export to because most banks won't guarantee loans going to smaller & less stable countries. (Think most of Africa and parts of Latin America). If the ex/im bank were to close either those countries wouldn't get the products or they would pay a higher price for them. I doubt any regular bank would guarantee loans for meat going to Somalia or the Congo, for example.
The reason the tea partiers don't want the bank is because their primary backers (like the Kochs) can qualify for loans without ex/im, by killing off the ex/im bank they're killing off their competition. Of course the tea party voters believe the ex/im bank is like the United Nations and it messes with our soverignty or something like that, they don't know what the real motivation is.