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The message on the website resembles a death notice of a well-known person. In legalistic prose it explains that the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is no longer providing new loan guarantees for U.S. exporters or insurance against loss. That program is in effect dead.
For years the Bank filled an important role in the export finance market by taking a 95 percent stake in loans applied for at and managed by a commercial bank. You could call this " corporate welfare" but nobody credibly has, because the conventional thinking around export financing is that it's too risky to appeal to banks unless underwritten by somebody else, such as the U.S. Government.
Enough Republicans in Congress believe that the Government shouldn't be in this business, though they haven't said, or seem not to care about what happens when the market fails to provide the needed funding. Instead they pummel Boeing and GE, the alleged benefactors of taxpayer largess, referring to EXIM’s nickname as “The Boeing Bank.” The argument that Boeing's many subcontractors will be hurt and jobs lost with that source of financing now gone has largely fallen on deaf ears.
It's really a double loss for U.S. business because the small and midsize companies that make things and sell direct to foreign buyers will no longer have the funds to offer terms, pay for raw materials or help buyers pay for finished goods. Instead, companies from Japan, China, and Europe-- whose governments operate banks similar to EXIM--will happily rush in to fill the void.
The other defense of the Bank, which has gotten nowhere with its critics, is that it has an industry low default rate, covers its costs, and remits a profit to the Treasury. Can't say that for many government programs.
So why all the fuss? Because this is one way for conservatives to show their mettle by attacking a program that periodically comes up for reauthorization. Since Republicans control the House, they can block a reauthorization bill from being considered. Both the Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader want the Bank dead and gone.
Beware of potholes
Will they succeed? The business community and not just corporate titans support the Bank and have blitzed Capitol Hill for months. Small businesses that export only because the Bank exists have come to Washington and visited their representatives in their home districts. Faced with this pressure from the grass roots, the critics have wavered but not broken. Not yet.
If you haven't weighed in to support the forces of common sense, it's time to do so now. The timing is perfect because in days or more like a couple of weeks, a vote will be taken on funding for the nation's highway infrastructure, never mind that political dithering has brought us to the point where the Highway Trust Fund is nearly broke. A measure to reauthorize the Bank is tucked into this bill and the Senate Majority leader agreed to let the bill come to a vote.
The EXIM is part of the nation's export and competitive infrastructure, which is now perilously close to falling into a sinkhole of our own making.
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| NUKRT90X/3AS NTN | 30 | 90 | 37 |
| NUKRT80X/3AS NTN | 30 | 80 | 37 |