House Republicans Brag About Their Quest to Kill American Jobs & Ex-Im Bank
Republican hard-liners predicted Tuesday they have the votes to stop a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank…The bank's charter is set to expire at the end of June.
"I believe the momentum is in our favor," said House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).
The emphatic statements of Hensarling and other House conservatives set the stage for yet another potential showdown between Boehner, an Ohio Republican, and his right flank. Democrats want to reauthorize the bank and say it would pass if the speaker allowed a vote, but that would mean defying the wishes of a majority of the GOP conference.
Hensarling, along with Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Raúl Labrador of Idaho and Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, said enough of the 245-member Republican delegation are opposed to preserving the bank that House Republican leaders should let the agency die on June 30.
If Boehner moves to renew the bank, he would be opposing nearly his entire GOP leadership team, as well as Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and the bulk of hard-line House conservatives.
At a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers from both parties said without the Ex-Im bank, their districts could experience major job losses.
Why Majority Leader McCarthy, Whip Scalise, and extremist Republicans want to cripple the U.S. economy, kill American jobs and do "nothing" at this critical time is beyond us. But here are the facts: since 2009, the Bank has supported 1.3 million private sector American jobs. In FY 2014, the Ex-Im Bank returned $645 million back to American taxpayers. It approved over 3,700 transactions with a total estimated export value of $20.5 billion, sustaining 164,000 American jobs. And also in FY 2014, approximately 90 percent of all transactions went to American small businesses!
Speaker Boehner, it's time to listen to Americans who support this essential job-creating Bank. Instead of supporting unpaid-for $269 billion tax measures for the wealthiest of the wealthiest, end this Republican manufactured crisis and join Democrats in supporting American jobs. Give us a vote!