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Editor's Note: César Grajales has 10 years of experience in different fields of politics. He is the founder of Bridge 305 INC. He is also a registered lobbyist and coalition director of the NGO The Free Initiative. He participates weekly as a political analyst in different media. The opinions in this column are those of the author.
(CNN Spanish) - August went so fast! Although the last days before writing this column they felt like a ritardando in a musical piece, thanks to Dorian. A hurricane that has threatened us in Florida with blowing category 4 or 5 winds to our palm trees, and mercilessly plucking wild parrots that fly free in Miami.
On the other hand, September is loaded with many pods. On the one hand, the Congress (I mean that of the United States for which it reads this column in other parts of the world), resumes activities on September 9 after its summer vacation. Congressmen return to legislate on a variety of issues ranging from health to possibly immigration, and perhaps to resume the issue of the impeachment, or impeachment, as it is said in English, of President Donald Trump. Also, September 12 will be the third Democratic debate by the presidential primaries in Houston, Texas. Only ten candidates qualified on this occasion. It will be an interesting debate to see since Senator Sanders, Senator Warren and former Vice President Biden will be on the same stage; situation that had not happened in the two previous debates.
Among so many issues to follow in September, there is one that speaks almost nothing or nothing, especially in Spanish, and that has to do with state capitalism, our taxes and a federal program that has been reauthorized for eighty-five years. Too much time.
The Ex-Im Bank, an acronym used in English to refer to the official export and import credit agency of the US federal government, is an institution that was founded in 1934 by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt; partly as a response to the desperate call of US exporters who did not find clients abroad or who found them but without funds. Recall that in 1934, the Great Depression struck the entire world economically. The bank fulfilled its function at that time, but like any government program, this has been difficult to dismantle and has been reauthorized 16 times more by Congress, and has ended up being the bank of politically connected groups and the focus of some cases of corruption
The way in which this bank operates, backed by our taxes, is as follows: an American company has a product that it wants to export, it finds an interested customer but it does not have funds to buy the product or simply does not want to risk its own. Then the American company returns home and knocks on the door of the Ex-Im Bank in Washington, asking him to lend the money to the foreign company to buy his products.
Yes, you read that right, we lend our taxes to foreign companies to buy from American companies. Countries like China, Mexico and Canada have been the most benefited. One might be tempted despite the fact that if this investment helps our small businesses grow, we somehow contribute to the development of our country, but the truth is that those most favored by this subsidy have been huge corporations like Boeing, which by the way is the one that has taken more money from this program. Only from fiscal years 2007 to 2017, 34% of the assistance provided by the Ex-Im Bank to US exports went to that company. General Electric and Caterpillar are also some of the other companies greatly benefited.
Like every government program that has become entrenched and has generated favoritism, it has not been without controversies, mismanagement of funds and corruption. As we saw in the case of a loan officer of this office, who in 2015 pleaded guilty to a federal court for having accepted more than US $ 78,000 in bribes in exchange for recommending the approval of loan applications to companies that do not They qualified. One of these companies had previously breached 10 transactions guaranteed by the bank, which caused the Ex-Im Bank to lose almost US $ 20 million. Yes, US $ 20 million of our taxes.
This September 30, the Ex-Im Bank is supposed to expire and cease to exist if Congress does not reauthorize it again as it did in 2015. But as in the past, lobbyists representing large corporations are already trying to influence lawmakers to This program does not expire. Some argue that keeping this program alive helps the country's exports and that eliminating it would kill jobs.
MIRA : United States generates 130,000 new jobs in August
But the reality is that in the last 4 years in which the program worked at half-machine, since it did not have the quorum necessary to approve budgets greater than US $ 10 million, the country's exports were not affected or unemployment grew as those who support this program argued, in fact, the economy has strengthened and unemployment has remained at record lows. As the US Census Bureau says, exports of goods and services in 2018, US $ 2.5 billion, were the highest recorded in recent years. Strong argument against those who favor the existence of this office.
There is no doubt that the Ex-Im Bank is a case of state capitalism where a few have been benefiting from the generosity of many, for years. This time, there is something very easy that Congress can do so that this program does not continue, and that is, simply do nothing. Yes, by not discussing, debating or considering reauthorization, it will cease to exist.
In the past, Democratic and Republican politicians have spoken against the program and then contradict themselves a while later and advocate in favor, as was the case of former President Obama during his 2008 campaign, and President Trump during his 2015 campaign.
September comes loaded with a lot of political activity; I hope the political game does not intervene in the extinction of this vestige of the time of the Great Depression, because 85 years of betting our taxes is too much.