Keith Hennessey was director of the National Economic Council in George W. Bush’s second term. He was also a top GOP Hill aide for years. He’s no flame-throwing Tea Partier. His resume is thoroughly establishment Republican. But he’s also smart, serious, and honest about how federal policy affects the U.S. economy. And today Hennessey writes: “Export subsidies should be eliminated and the Ex-Im Bank should be killed. Export credit finance should be done, without subsidies, by private markets.”

His argument is crystal clear and, in my view, devastating. In short, he argues that U.S. export subsidies help the exporter and the country to which the export goes, while hurting the U.S. economy as a whole. “There’s a difference between what’s good for America and what’s good for one firm in America.”