Export / Import Bank Abuses Free Market Innovation : Senate Fails Taxpayers

Why would our government, the United States Senate, controlled by Republicans, vote to continue the Export/Import banks that has such a disastrous record of financial abuse of free markets and taxpayer dollars?

What's missing here?

As a Global Leader, America Should Ditch the Export Import Bank
Source:   Allen West, "As a Global Leader, America Should Ditch the Export Import Bank," Townhall, July 28, 2015.

July 29, 2015

The Senate voted late Monday night to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, by tagging the reauthorization onto the highway bill. This is effectively using strong-arm parliamentary tactics to promote crony capitalism, says Allen B. West, president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

The Export-Import Bank is corporate welfare because:

• It duplicates private venture capital activities.
• It has an unfair advantage over private lending industry because it can artificially lower credit prices by shifting the cost of credit risk to the American taxpayer.
• More than three-quarters of Export-Import Bank assistance goes to just a handful of big businesses.
• The Bank finances less than two percent of American exports.

The Bank is also perverse foreign aid because it encourages foreign countries to delay or avoid needed anti-corruption reforms. It sets a bad example for foreign governments, instead of promoting free markets based on sound economic principles.

By favoring some corporations over others, the Export-Import Bank likely hinders innovation. The United States should leave this 80-year-old New Deal program and lead the world towards a better system of free trade, low taxes and minimal regulation.