Blast From the Past: Export-Import Bank linked to "Mexican Drug Cartels"

After 66 years, It Is Time To
End this FDR Subsidy Program!
End the Export-Import Bank

Bill Smith, Editor: With recent, often boring discussions, about the Export-Import Bank, below is a news report from four (4) years ago highlights some of the problems with the Export-Import Bank activities. The Club For Growth shared this video. The original source was a Nov 8, 2008 news story by Byron Harris at WFAA-TV 8 News titled: Discredited bank to open branch in McKinney [TX].

"The man who lives in this posh mansion in Juarez took U.S. taxpayers for $8 million years ago and he's still living high inside.

And despite $213 million of bad loans to Mexican borrowers on the Texas border, the Export Import Bank of the United States is opening a branch in McKinney.

. . . A News 8 investigation found dozens of loans made to companies with nonexistent identities and addresses and to some people with connections to Mexican drug cartels which leads Congressman Jeb Hensarling to ask: why expand?

. . . Two months ago, a San Antonio man was convicted of fraud in Export Import transactions.

But dozens of other export import deals that have gone bad have never even been investigated. Congressman Jeb Hensarling has called for a congressional investigation. But so far, that hasn't happened."

We can now better understand why Rep. Jeb Hensarling has been urgent in expressing problems with the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank via H.R. 2072, the Securing American Jobs Through Exports Act of 2011. With Republicans in control of the House, Hensarling has been holding hearings on the Export-Import (Ex-IM) Bank.

A few of Organizations Opposing the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank:
Citizens Against Government Waste opposes reauthorization:

On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to oppose this legislation.

The Export-Import Bank was created during the Great Depression by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1934 in order “to aid the exchange of commodities and services between the United States and any foreign country or the agencies or nationals of any such country.” Today, the bank uses taxpayer money to subsidize borrowing by firms both in America and abroad, most of which are profitable and would have no trouble borrowing without the subsidy.

According to the Cato Institute, the Export-Import Bank “merely displaces private investment by funding ventures that would otherwise have taken place. Moreover, the vast bulk of the bank's financing goes to very large corporations that do not need handouts from taxpayers.” . . . The Export-Import bank is a salient example of corporate welfare and its termination is included in CCAGW’s Prime Cuts database. . . . According to Prime Cuts, shutting down the Export-Import Bank would save taxpayers $189 million in one year and $945 million over five years.

The Heritage Foundation advocates rejecting reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.

The Club for Growth shared the above four year old news report to remind us that the issues remain the same four years later. The Club for Growth previously announced its opposition to the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization (HR 2072/S 1547) because "the bank’s actions are market-distorting subsides that pick winners and losers in the private sector." Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said. "The Export-Import Bank is a prime example of corporate welfare that should have been eliminated years ago. By picking winners and losers, politicians and bureaucrats are distorting trade flows. It’s time to end the Ex-Im Bank for good."

Although I am pro-business and have supported various positions by the National Associations of Manufacturers (NAM), I am also for limited government! This time I must disagree with NAM's efforts to support the U.S. Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank. They argue that in the overall picture of things the Ex-Im returns $3.4 billion to the U.S. Treasury. Where is it? And what about the cost of associated government and heck if it is so successful, why aren't we seeing the National debt reduced by their success after 66 years?

The U.S Export-Import Bank is operating under a under an extension that expires on May 31, 2012. It is time clean-up the gross messes created by the government intervention into the lives of individual, families, businesses and business markets regardless of which political party originated them. We can live well with out the U.S. Export-Import Bank who's actions have supported actions and activities detrimental to both the United States and other countries.

The American taxpayers indeed funded this Export-Import Bank. Regardless of the argument that money returned winds up in the U.S. Treasury, the fact is that its does not reduce the scope of Big Government and it never arrives back in our pockets of the taxpayers. It is time to clean up another situation where American tax dollars are wasted and lost. And along the way, we should stop funding Mexican Drug Cartels! It is time for Export-Import Bank founded in 1934 by an FDR Executive Order and then by congressional law in in 1945 to be defunded and to end. The TVA programs ended in 1959 over 50 years ago. It is time manufactures export-import subsidies to end after 66 years.
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Related Article: Mounting Debate On Re-Authorization / Expansion Of U.S. Export-Import Bank
- 2010 Investigative Report: "Money for Nothing" - Details on fraud and losses at the Export-Import Bank

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