Speaker Boehner & House Republicans Refusing to Protect American Jobs
Op-ed by Joe Nocera in New York Times:
Over the last few months, the bank…has been under intense assault from conservative Republicans opposed to its very existence.
In the House of Representatives, Jeb Hensarling, the Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee — and is an implacable foe of the bank — has made it plain that he is eager to see the bank die…
There are dozens of countries that have so-called export credit agencies like the Ex-Im Bank. They all do the same thing. They help finance some of their country's exports. Some countries, like China, use a variety of other techniques to push their exports. Guess how many of those countries are following America's lead in trying to wind down that assistance? You guessed it: none. On the contrary, they're rather enjoying watching the U.S. cut off its nose to spite its face.
Conservatives argue, for instance, that the government has no business guaranteeing loans if the private sector isn't willing to make them. But this defies reality. In the real world, there are plenty of perfectly good loans that the private sector won't make. Small companies that want to expand abroad have a terrible time getting loans.
Over the last half-dozen years, Republicans have done many things that have hurt the American economy and the American worker, including the debt-ceiling crisis of a few years ago. If they succeed in eliminating the Ex-Im Bank, you'll be able to add that to the list.
Op-ed by General James L. Jones in USA Today:
Many opponents of reauthorization base their arguments on a world that doesn't exist, where markets are untrammeled by state-supported export finance. The reality is that throughout the world approximately 60 export credit agencies are jockeying to offer enticing financing terms with a view to winning more and more sales for the companies domiciled in their respective nations, often at our expense.
Op-ed by Rona Rahlf, President of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce in the Salt Lake Tribune:
Without implementing long-term reauthorization, Congress is jeopardizing thousands of local jobs. If the charter isn't extended, small businesses will have a much harder time breaking into foreign markets and attracting overseas customers.
Industrial exporters say that without credit support from the Ex-Im Bank, they'll be at a disadvantage to foreign rivals who receive similar assistance from their home countries.
"Ex-Im is an important competitive issue for us and for all of the workers in our vast U.S. supply chain," said Tim Neale, a Boeing spokesman. Many exporters share those concerns about the effect of Ex-Im's closure and "have been actively lobbying Congress on this issue."
Boeing employs about 80,000 people in Washington state, nearly 15,000 in Missouri and 8,000 in South Carolina.
CNBC:
John Rice, the vice chairman who oversees the U.S. conglomerate's international operations, also expressed his frustration with the potential closure of the U.S. export credit agency in an interview with CNBC's Hadley Gamble aired Monday.
"It just doesn't make sense to me that the U.S. would want to be the one major country out there that doesn't have an export credit agency," Rice said. "I don't understand it…I think there are a few people in Congress who believe in a world that speaks for small government and don't see the need for ExIm," he said.
The GOP's extremism toward the Ex-Im Bank even caused one Republican Member to resign from the Republican Study Committee.
The fact is Republicans have produced no jobs bills, failed to provide long-term certainty to the Highway Trust Fund, flirted with a Republican DHS Shutdown, voted to deport DREAMers and separate families – and recently generated some jarring, unpopular reviews from Americans in just the first 135 days. This so-called ‘New American Congress' is not only demonstrating its inability to govern, but it's showcasing its refusal to protect American jobs.