Slouching toward partisanship

There are limits to ideology, practical limits. As the Export-Import Bank, the 80-year-old institution that promotes U.S. exports, slouches toward implosion, hidebound partisans are cheering.

So much for the “sensible center.”

Congress has until Sept. 30 to OK the Ex-Im Bank’s reauthorization. What should be a no-brainer — a boost to manufacturers and workers in trade-dependent states like Washington, and a program that doesn’t whack taxpayers — is a political football (if only Franklin Roosevelt hadn’t left his fingerprints, tea party Republicans might be receptive). Per the gridlocked new normal, reauthorization could come together at the 11th hour, after multiple horse trades, hitched to a bill with zero bearing on exports.

Fasten your seat belts and take your beta blocker.

On Tuesday, freshman U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Olympia, introduced the Protect American Jobs and Exports Act of 2014, which extends the bank’s charter until 2021, and stretches the current cap by $5 billion a year.

“If we abandon this resource, we are allowing China, Russia, and European countries to gain ground in export deals previously made with us, the economic equivalent of forfeiting in the World Cup when we know we have the best team,” Heck said in a statement.

Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, who shepherded the bill reauthorizing the bank in 2012, noted that, “in my district, the bank supports thousands of jobs at companies of all sizes by helping these businesses sell their products overseas. The bank successfully finances billions of dollars of exports without costing taxpayers a dime.”

Washington’s Congressional delegation appears united, with strong support from Rep. Suzan DelBene, although Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, did not sign a pro-Ex-Im bank letter from 42 House Republicans addressed to the Speaker of the House and the new majority leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy, a tea party conservative, is opposed to the bank, as is the new House whip, Rep. Steve Scalise.

“Failure to reauthorize Ex-Im would amount to unilateral disarmament in the face of other nations’ aggressive efforts to help their exporters,” pro-bank Republicans write with Reagan-esque flourish.

Progressives don’t like helping big business (no matter that the Ex-Em Bank benefits many medium and small-sized exporters in the NW). The tea party prefers the government just keep out. The far right and the far left may succeed in sandbagging the Ex-Im Bank. And we all will be poorer for it.

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THis is an editorial cartoon by Michael de Adder . Michael de Adder was born in Moncton, New Brunswick. He studied art at Mount Allison University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting. He began his career working for The Coast, a Halifax-based alternative weekly, drawing a popular comic strip called Walterworld which lampooned the then-current mayor of Halifax, Walter Fitzgerald. This led to freelance jobs at The Chronicle-Herald and The Hill Times in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

After freelancing for a few years, de Adder landed his first full time cartooning job at the Halifax Daily News. After the Daily News folded in 2008, he became the full-time freelance cartoonist at New Brunswick Publishing. He was let go for political views expressed through his work including a cartoon depicting U.S. President Donald Trump’s border policies. He now freelances for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the Toronto Star, Ottawa Hill Times and Counterpoint in the USA. He has over a million readers per day and is considered the most read cartoonist in Canada.

 

Michael de Adder has won numerous awards for his work, including seven Atlantic Journalism Awards plus a Gold Innovation Award for news animation in 2008. He won the Association of Editorial Cartoonists' 2002 Golden Spike Award for best editorial cartoon spiked by an editor and the Association of Canadian Cartoonists 2014 Townsend Award. The National Cartoonists Society for the Reuben Award has shortlisted him in the Editorial Cartooning category. He is a past president of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists and spent 10 years on the board of the Cartoonists Rights Network.
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