WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans are poised to deal a sharp blow to their traditional allies in the business community by allowing the federal Export-Import Bank to go out of business at the end of the month. But it may only be temporary.
The 81-year-old bank is a little-known federal agency created during the Depression that makes and guarantees loans to help overseas buyers purchase U.S. products, from airplanes to bridges to baby clothes. Over the past year it’s also become a surprising test of GOP purity, as Tea Party-backed lawmakers and outside conservative groups have denounced the bank as crony capitalism and vowed to get rid of it, pressuring fellow Republicans to go along.
“It is the purest form of corporate welfare, where you have a government agency that basically exists to subsidize Boeing airplanes and GE engines and Caterpillar tractors,” said Dan Holler of Heritage Action for America, one of the conservative groups pushing congressional Republicans to stand against the bank.
Supporters at the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups disagree, arguing that the agency helps many smaller companies and is necessary to keep U.S. businesses competitive, especially because key foreign competitors like China have generous export credit agencies helping their home-grown industries.
