| Supports Export-Import Bank Reauthorization | Opposes Ex-Im Reauthorization |
|---|---|
| Chamber of Commerce | Freedom Works |
| National Association of Manufacturers | Heritage Action |
| Business Roundtable | Cato Institute |
| American Petroleum Institute | Club for Growth |
| Aerospace Industries Association |
To liberal partisans, we all look the same. “Right-wing,” “pro-business,” “anti-government,” “big money,” all get blurred into one giant crowd by some in the liberal media and by many in the liberal activist world.
They can’t tell the difference between the Chamber of Commerce and the Club for Growth. Between K Street and the Tea Party. Between Trent Lott and Jim DeMint. I’ve written about this difference plenty of times. The former all are Republican-leaning and pro-business. The latter are all Republican-leaning and pro-free markets.
This is lost on much of the Left.
Here’s liberal writer Jane Mayer, in Barack Obama’s favorite magazine article ever, referring to Koch-funded and founded organizations, including the libertarian Cato institute, as advancing a “pro-corporate agenda.”
Here’s the Center for American Progress calling Freedom Works a “corporate front group” created to “promote big business priorities.”
Here’s People for the American Way listing “pro-corporate players in American politics” such as the Club for Growth.
This may just be dishonest partisan smear tactics by these liberal groups. But in case they actually believe these characterizations, this week should provide a nice lesson.
The House is set to vote this week on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Under any definition of the words “pro-corporate” or “big business priorities,” you would include Ex-Im. The agency exists to subsidize U.S. manufacturers mostly through taxpayer guarantees of loans by private banks, and two-thirds of the long-term loan guarantees subsidize Boeing.
The Chamber of Commerce is telling all members of Congress that it will score Ex-Im on its annual scorecard. A vote against the agency is a vote against “Enterprise.” Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation and the Club for Growth also have Ex-Im reauthorization on their scorecard — but with those groups, members are graded up for opposing reauthorization.
The chart at the top shows some groups actively lobbying on reauthorizing this federal “bank.”Center for American Progress may have no interest in acknowledging the difference between the lefthand column above and the righthand column — especially because Obama is on the “pro-corporate” side of this one — but any honestly confused liberals should study this chart.
