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Hensarling: What Kind of Economy Are You Looking For?


Washington, May 19 -

 

Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) joined several other conservative House members and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) at a news conference on Tuesday to call for an end to the Export-Import Bank.

Noting that business organizations in Washington appear to be fighting harder for the continuation of Ex-Im’s subsidies than the benefits of free trade, Hensarling challenged the nation’s business community to advocate for greater opportunity through free trade agreements rather than lobby for government subsidies, bailouts and special interest favors.

“This is a critical question that so many in the business community must ask themselves today:  what kind of economy are you looking for? Are you looking for one of privilege and subsidy and backstop and bailout? Or are you looking for an economy with even greater opportunity that trade could present?” Hensarling asked.

Hensarling also turned the question to his fellow Republicans.  “What is it that our party stands for? Do we stand for free enterprise and its hope, its fairness, its opportunity or do we stand for business interests? The two are not identical.”

Highlights of other comments Chairman Hensarling made at Tuesday’s news conference:
  • “I want to thank our leadership within the House for committing themselves to regular order, which is due process, fair process.  The Senate will be holding an Ex-Im hearing the first week of June.  We’ve already had a couple of hearings in my committee with Oversight and Government Reform.  We’ll have another hearing in June.  Members will be heard.  Momentum is in our favor because ultimately the American people do not want privilege and subsidy.  What they want is freedom and opportunity and that’s what this fight is all about.”
  • “I believe the momentum is in our favor.  I think every day that the facts are out about the corruption, the cronyism, the political lending, the ideological lending of this bank, more and more members of the House Republican Conference are saying, ‘You know what? I don’t want to be a part of that.  I don’t want to have my name associated with this effort.’  And so I’m optimistic that hopefully we can be victorious.”
  • “What members are awakening to is the corruption of this institution, and I use that in two different facets.  One, the criminal corruption.  31 ongoing investigations.  One individual pleading guilty to 19 counts of bribery.  But also corruption in the sense of corrupting our values and allowing free enterprise to get besmirched by cronyism and confusing the American public about what all this is about.  It’s one of the reasons why I think you see entrepreneurial startups at a generational low, that people are uncharacteristically pessimistic about the future because they see the unfairness of cronyism in the Washington context.  So if you’re asking me have I added up the figures on advertising campaigns? No, frankly I don’t know what they are.  But let’s put it this way, I’ve certainly seen, I think, the Chamber, NAM or Boeing’s work or somebody’s work in the fifth district of Texas, so I know they’re spending a fair amount on this.  Once again, I’d urged them to maybe take those resources and work on Trade Promotion Authority instead.”