The excitement is building. Only a few more weeks until the long-awaited midterm elections, which Republicans hope will mean they take over the Senate and smite President Barack Obama even harder.
And, so, we wonder, what is impassioning the voters who will make this momentous decision? Is it the killer terrorists of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (although true followers of Islam want nothing to do with it)? Is it the treatment of young black men by police? Is it Obama’s milquetoast version of “bringing it on”? The border crisis with young children being sent on hazardous journeys to the United States without their parents?
For millions, especially in Tea Party strongholds, it is the riveting matter of the fate of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
It is difficult to imagine a conga line of protesters waving banners: “Ax the Ex-Im.” But, really, these people are passionate about this.
Most countries have export-import banks to make loans to foreigners to buy their products. The U.S. bank charter written during the Great Depression says its purpose is to assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets. If Congress does nothing by Sept. 30, the bank will run out of money and close its doors.
Hurrah, say some conservative Republicans, who argue the bank is a monster running amok, one form of the kind of corporate welfare and crony capitalism that they oppose. (But they like some forms, such as low taxes on corporations.) Whoa, say most Democrats, who rightly think the bank could be reined in but who say its demise would hurt thousands of American businesses and cost U.S. jobs when the fragile economic recovery is still struggling to sit up in bed.
Broad support 2 years ago
The Heritage Foundation argues the bank is “beset by mismanagement, dysfunction, and risk” inevitably the “result of government assuming a function far beyond its proper purview and one that rightly belongs to private business alone.”
Ah, the vagaries of time. Two years ago the bank was reauthorized with overwhelming bipartisan support. That was then; this is now.
But the bank’s own overseers admit there are problems that need fixing.
There is a chance Congress may do a short-term extension to keep the bank operating until after the election and then work out a better solution. But in the polarized climate on Capitol Hill that’s a long shot.
Ann McFeatters is an opinion columnist for McClatchy-Tribune. Readers may send her email at amcfeatters@nationalpress.com
