Senator Obama was Right
John Tate
You and I have an opportunity to eliminate one of the US Government's biggest corporate welfare boondoggles and prevent the next taxpayer-financed Big Bank Bailout.
This month, the Senate will consider whether or not to reconfirm Fred Hochberg as head of the Export-Import Bank (Eximbank).
Eximbank is a little known "New Deal" federal agency that either loans money directly or "guarantees" loans to American businesses to support those business' overseas ventures.
If the company cannot pay back the loans, the taxpayer picks up the tab.
Loans made, or guaranteed by, Eximbank are inherently risky and market-distorting, since Eximbank's charter forbids them from "competing with the private sector."
Instead, Eximbank uses taxpayer funds to "assume credit and country risks that the private sector is unable or unwilling to accept."
You read that right.
Eximbank's whole purpose is to use YOUR money to support projects that could not get support from banks and private investors!
In 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama called Eximbank "little more than a fund for corporate welfare" that should be shut down.
But instead of shutting it down, President Obama has worked to expand Eximbank, using it to reward his corporate cronies and putting taxpayers even more at risk.
Your petition lets Congress know you do not want the Senate to reconfirm Fred Hochberg until it passes legislation defunding Eximbank and ordering Hochberg to take whatever actions are necessary to achieve Senator Obama's goal of ending this "fund for corporate welfare."
And if you can, please chip in to Campaign for Liberty's efforts to protect taxpayers with a contribution of $50, $40, $20, or even $10.
Large, politically powerful corporations have received the lion's share of Eximbank funding.
For example, in 2012, the Boeing Corporation received $12.2 billion in loan guarantees from Eximbank - which accounted for 82% of Eximbank's loan guarantees!
General Electric is another example of a wealthy company that benefits from Eximbank's taxpayer-funded "generosity."
In 2012, GE received over $1 billion in Eximbank loans - even though GE made over $150 billion in profit that year!
Eximbank even finances projects used to shut down American manufactures and open up plants overseas.
Clearly, the American people would be better off if Eximbank were shut down and the money returned to American entrepreneurs, workers, and families.
As Campaign for Liberty Chairman Ron Paul said in 2001:
Expenditures on the Eximbank distort the market by diverting resources from the private sector, where they could be put to the use most highly valued by individual consumers, into the public sector, where their use will be determined by bureaucrats and politically powerful special interests.
By distorting the market and preventing resources from achieving their highest valued use, Eximbank actually costs Americans jobs and reduces America's standard of living!
It is especially important to shut down Eximbank NOW because, with the perilous situation of the global and domestic economy, the question is not if but when Eximbank will be hit with a tsunami of defaults.
And when that happens, who will be on the hook for yet another bailout of big banks and foreign creditors?
That's right: you and I.
Fortunately, the upcoming Senate battle over reconfirming Eximbank Chairman Hochberg gives us our best opportunity in years to shut down Eximbank before that happens!
That is why it is so important you sign your "Shut Down Eximbank" petition today.
And if you can, please chip in to Campaign for Liberty's efforts with your most generous contribution of $50, $40, $20, or even $10.
I know Campaign for Liberty has been asking for your help a lot lately to fight statist assaults such as the National Internet Tax Mandate and the National ID scheme.
But I believe the Hochberg reconfirmation gives us a real opportunity to force Congress and the President to shut down Eximbank.
And unless we take advantage of it now, we won't have another opportunity for at least four years.
By that time, it may be too late to prevent another taxpayer bailout.
Taxing small business workers and families to subsidize risky loans to big companies like Boeing is the worst type of crony capitalism.
And unless Eximbank is shut down NOW, American taxpayers will once again have to foot the bill for poor decisions by government bureaucrats, the Federal Reserve, and the establishment's favored corporate interests.
Remember when the government and the Banksters said the combination of loose credit, federal rules mandating that almost anyone get a mortgage no matter their qualifications, and the taxpayers' guarantees to Fannie and Freddie would never cost the taxpayers a dime?
They even laughed at those, such as Campaign for Liberty Chairman Ron Paul, who raised the alarm about the collapse of the housing bubble.
You and I saw how that ended, with the economy collapsing and taxpayers on the hook for bailing out the large corporations.
So please sign your "Shut Down Eximbank" petition TODAY.
And if you can, please send your most generous contribution to Campaign for Liberty right away to help us lead this battle and mobilize millions of more Americans to shut down Eximbank.
In Liberty,
John Tate
President
P.S. The Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) takes money from hard-working Americans like you to make risky loans to politically powerful corporations like Boeing, GE, and Solyndra.
Eximbank also puts taxpayers at risk of having to finance another bailout of big banks and crony capitalists.
The upcoming reconfirmation of Fred Hochberg to head Eximbank gives us an excellent opportunity to force Congress to shut it down by demanding the Senate not reappoint Hochberg until Congress passes - and Obama signs - legislation shutting down Eximbank.
So please sign your "Shut Down Eximbank" petition today.
And if you can, please chip in to Campaign for Liberty's efforts to mobilize Americans on this issue with a donation of $50, $40, $30, or even $10.
john.f.tate@campaignforliberty.com