Bernie Sanders, twice this decade, was the only Democrat in the Senate to vote against the Export-Import Bank, a federal agency that subsidizes U.S. exporters (mostly Boeing), their foreign customers (mostly the Chinese government), and their lenders (mostly J.P. Morgan).
As the Ohio and Michigan primaries approach, Hillary Clinton and her friends in the super PAC and K Street worlds are attacking Sanders for his opposition to these corporate subsidies and Wall Street handouts.
Friday, in a speech, Clinton reportedly attacked Sanders for his consistent opposition to the agency. She’s sending her proxies out to make this attack, too. In one campaign release, General Motors lobbyist-turned-congresswoman Debbie Dingell, together with Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan attack Sanders for opposing Ex-Im.
One of the pro-Hillary super PACs, Correct The Record, lays out a bunch of Ex-Im talking points to attack Sanders for opposing corporate welfare.
Ex-Im is corporate welfare for Wall Street, which gets a taxpayer guarantee from the agency. “There’s nothing that a commercial bank loves more than guaranteed financing,” Citigroup executive director Michael Eckhart said at a recent Ex-Im annual conference. “That’s a good thing!”
By far, Ex-Im’s biggest domestic beneficiary is Boeing, which has a very special relationship with Hillary Clinton.
Correct the Record is funded by Priorities USA, meaning that indirectly it is funded by George Soros, who through his former stake in Petrobras, is a recipient of Ex-Im financing. Tim Ryan’s best corporate sector for fundraising is the financial sector (after unions and “miscellaneous”).
Expect Clinton to attack on this front in Sunday night’s debate.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
