Key Vote NO on Co-Sponsoring the Reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank, H.R. 597

As one of our over 6.7 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and urge him or her not to co-sponsor H.R. 597, a bill that would reauthorize the Export Import (Ex-Im) Bank of the United States.

The Ex-Im Bank is an antiquated program which grants taxpayer-backed loans and loan insurance to subsidize exports. The problem is, the program by definition is supposed to back exports which cannot find loans in the private market – meaning that they are higher risk, with taxpayers covering the losses if the projects fail.

In addition, the overwhelming majority of Ex-Im’s funds go to a small number of massive multinational corporations which don’t need our taxpayer dollars to subsidize their exports. Boeing, General Electric, Caterpillar, and Bechtel don’t need us to help them compete abroad.

Conservatives have a rare opportunity in a divided government to actually end an entire corporate welfare program by merely doing nothing and letting its authorization expire on July 1st. There is absolutely no reason – no excuse – for not doing so.

Thus, I hope that you’ll tell your representative not to co-sponsor or otherwise support this bill to re-authorize the Ex-Im Bank, which just authorizes another period of corporate welfare, with taxpayers bearing the risk. We will count co-sponsorship of this bill against their score in FreedomWorks’ Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2015. The Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes members of Congress with voting records that support economic freedom.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO,
FreedomWorks