The policies and politics of the Export-Import Bank

A little-known Washington lender, the Export-Import bank, made a debut in President Barack Obama’s weekly address on Saturday.

“More small businesses are selling their goods abroad than ever before,” he said. “We should be doing everything we can to accelerate this progress, not stall it.”

“One place to start is by supporting something called the U.S. Export-Import Bank.” 

The bank, known as Ex-Im, provides loans and insurance to foreign purchasers of U.S. products. It helps companies, like Boeing, General Electric and Caterpillar, get more foreign companies to buy their planes and machinery.

At 80 years old, the bank has traditionally been supported on both aisles of Congress — until now.

Some Republican critics on Capitol Hill now say the bank is a form of crony capitalism that picks winners and losers. For example, Delta can’t get the bank’s help to buy Boeing planes because it’s a U.S. company, but its competitor British Airways can.

This friction has made its way out of Washington and onto the nation’s midterm election campaign trails. In North Carolina, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan is using her support of the bank as a slam against her Republican opponent, Thom Tillis, who is against it. In Louisiana, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu supports the bank, but her challenger, Rep. Bill Cassidy, is more skeptical.

Last year the Ex-Im and its partners say the bank supported $37 billion in transactions and 205,000 jobs. The agency’s charter will expire in a few weeks, and its future is up in the air. On this edition of “Inside Story,” we ask a panel of experts for their take on the politics, economics and ideology crashing at the bank’s doorstep.