Texas congressman attacks corporate welfare

Tim Carney:

A Republican congressman bashing “crony capitalism” and “corporate welfare” is no longer a new thing. A Republican congressman actually trying to do something about corporate welfare, however, is nearly unprecedented.

So it's a sign that the GOP could go in a new direction when the Republican chairman of the House Financial Services Committee sets out to derail some of Wall Street's favorite federal gravy trains and “reform the corporate welfare state.”

Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling, who chairs the House banking panel, gave a call to arms at the conservative Heritage Foundation on Tuesday afternoon, imploring his colleagues to “reject the Washington insider economy and embrace the Main Street competitive economy.”

“Business's interests are not necessarily freedom's interests,” said Hensarling, who laid out an anti-corporate welfare agenda in a talk that borrowed its title from Ronald Reagan: "A Time for Choosing."

Hensarling called for reform of the “Byzantine” tax code, telling his fellow Republicans, “We may have to tell some people on K Street ‘No’.”

“Let the next farm bill be the last farm bill,” he declared. He singled out the government's protection of the sugar industry, lamenting that every apple-pie baked in the U.S. is baked with “Soviet-style sugar.”

Hensarling also called on Republicans to continue the ban on earmarks, and to kill the government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that are so beloved by the U.S. banks they fund.

Mostly, Hensarling went after the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Ex-Im is a federal agency that finances U.S. exports by giving taxpayer-backed financing to foreign governments and companies so they can buy U.S. goods. This subsidizes exporters, their foreign customers and the banks who get loan guarantees.

Ex-Im’s charter expires this fall. Hensarling’s committee controls its reauthorization. Many Republicans want to quietly reauthorize Ex-Im. Hensarling said he wanted an election-year fight over the agency, which he calls “a boutique export-credit agency for some of the largest and deepest-pocketed corporations.”
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I am with him on this fight, but overcoming the lobbyist will take more than just one congressman.  It is going to take a political fight that could define the issues for the 2014 election.