Ex-Im Bank vote shows Tea Party power, weakness

A bill to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and increase its lending authority cleared a key hurdle in the Senate Monday despite resistance from Tea Party Republicans who denounced the bank that promotes the purchase of U.S. exports as a form of corporate welfare.

Objections to the bank’s reauthorization have been rare in the past. But this time around dozens of Republicans in the House and Senate, many of them affiliated with the Tea Party, vowed to fight the bank’s continued existence.