STRIKE A BLOW AGAINST CORPORATE WELFARE

STRIKE A BLOW AGAINST CORPORATE WELFARE

Baylor Myers is Ohio state director for Americans for Prosperity

In the past week, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner of West Chester Township both weighed in on the future of the Export-Import Bank. This time last year, few politicians – let alone Americans – could tell you what this federal agency does. Today, with the bank’s charter set to expire in less than two months, it’s one of the most talked-about issues in Washington.

No wonder. Many lawmakers now recognize Ex-Im as the corporate welfare slush fund that it is. In theory, the bank is supposed to use taxpayer money to boost American exports. In reality, it spends tens of billions of our hard-earned tax dollars propping up a tiny number of multinational corporations with massive profit margins, supporting only 0.7 percent of Ohio’s exports in the process. Rarely will you see a more obvious example of special interests feeding at the taxpayer trough.

Fortunately, a growing number of representatives and senators don’t think Washington should spend our tax dollars this way. They’re now willing to let Ex-Im’s charter expire June 30.

Kasich is now on board with letting Ex-Im expire. As for Boehner, he’s almost there, but not quite.

The governor was unequivocal: “I’d get rid of it.” Boehner, on the other hand, expressed a desire to see the bank disappear, but also warned that its sudden expiration could cost “thousands of jobs.” He then urged his colleagues in the House to come up with a plan that either reforms the bank or “winds it down,” rather than eliminate it outright.

His fears are understandable, but they’re also misplaced. It turns out the bank isn’t really supporting jobs anyway – and it’s actually destroying some, too. According to the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan federal agency, Ex-Im supports a job in one industry at the expense of a job in another. Ultimately, employment stays the same across the wider economy.

That’s what happens when the federal government tries to pick the economy’s winners and losers. And with Ex-Im, there are many losers.

The bank’s mission is to help foreign businesses purchase American products. Yet this necessarily gives some overseas companies in one industry a competitive advantage over American firms in another industry.

Some of this hits close to home.

Look at Ex-Im’s support for foreign airlines. In the Cincinnati area, one of the biggest losers is Delta Air Lines, which must compete with Ex-Imfunded airlines in Asia and the Middle East. According to the Air Line Pilots Association, American taxpayers’ unwitting support for those airlines has ultimately cost at least 7,500 American jobs.

This helps explain why more and more lawmakers, at both the state and federal level, oppose Ex-Im. Yet perhaps the biggest reason is that the bank is a blatant example of corporate welfare. In the last 10 years, it has used nearly $215 billion in taxpayer money, most of which benefited a tiny number of companies. In 2013, for instance, nearly two-thirds of its financial support helped only 10 multinational companies.

Unsurprisingly, those same companies are the ones now lobbying Congress in a last-ditch attempt to keep the taxpayer cash flowing.

It’s time for Congress to end this.

If our legislators in Washington let the Export-Import Bank expire this summer, they would strike a powerful blow against corporate welfare.

Kasich is on the right side of this issue. Now it’s time for Boehner to join him in putting Ohio’s interests above special interests.