The Ex-Im Bank: Do You Side With Hillary, Warren, and Reid?

The United States Export-Import Bank was founded in 1934 as yet another one of FDR’s misguided “New Deal” programs. For the past 80 years, the Bank has been an instrument of corporate welfare, handing out taxpayer-backed loans to big corporations and special interest projects, such as green energy.

The Ex-Im Bank’s charter expires at the end of June, and all Congress has to do to end an entire corporate welfare program is not vote to reauthorize it.

Of course, every good idea has it’s opponents, and in the case of the Ex-Im Bank there are some people, some powerful people, some scary people, some economically illiterate people, who want desperately to keep it going forever. Here are their faces:

Hillary Clinton

“I’m a very strong supporter of the Ex-Im Bank, because it is a tool for us to be competitive in order to support our businesses exporting.”* – Hillary Clinton

*No it isn’t.

Elizabeth Warren

“Senator Warren believes that the Export-Import Bank helps create American jobs and spur economic growth”* – Spokesperson for Elizabeth Warren

*The Senator believes incorrectly.

Harry Reid

“[F]ailure to reauthorize Ex-Im would amount to unilateral disarmament and cost tens of thousands of American jobs.”* – Harry Reid

*Not true.

If there’s a barometer of bad ideas in politics, the opinions of Harry Reid, Elizabeth Warren, and Hillary Clinton are about the closest thing we have. If they think the Ex-Im Bank is good, you can bet your bottom dollar that it’s not.