GOP Targets U.S. Export-Import Bank
March 15, 2012
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In a move that illustrates how GOP leaders oppose any initiative that could reflect favorably on the current administration, regardless of how many jobs could be saved or created, House Republican leaders are pushing for legislation to eliminate the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
Established by President Franklin Roosevelt during the height of the Great Depression, the Ex-Im Bank provides loan guarantees to large foreign companies that agree to purchase U.S.-made goods and services. The bank has helped broker thousands of deals that are responsible for creating or sustaining millions of American jobs, and at no cost to U.S. taxpayers.
The GOP’s current effort to shut down the Ex-IM Bank comes as a wave of increased export activity brings the bank closer to its annual funding cap. With $32 billion in deals currently in the pipeline, the bank is expected to exceed its $100 billion cap in a matter of months.
Under the proposed GOP legislation, the bank’s charter would be extended for one year only and would “set a long-term policy goal to eliminate these [financing] subsidies going forward.”
The GOP effort to strangle the Ex-Im bank is being fueled the right-wing Club for Growth and by Delta Airlines CEO Richard Anderson, who recently filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to block the bank from providing loan guarantees that would allow Air India to purchase U.S.-built Boeing aircraft.
