AFP Launches Accountability Ad Campaign Targeting Ex-Im, Corporate Welfare Votes of Missouri Legislators

Dec 5, 2019 by AFP

SPRINGFIELD, MO – Americans for Prosperity (AFP) today announced a six-figure direct mail, digital, and newspaper advertising effort to hold accountable 15 members of Congress who recently voted in favor of extending the controversial Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im). Targeted members include Ann Wagner, Sam Graves, Bill Long and Blaine Luetkemeyer, four prominent Missouri Republicans who voted to reauthorize the beleaguered institution. AFP has consistently opposed the reauthorization of Ex-Im, citing the bank’s history of corruption and fiscal mismanagement that rigs the economy in favor of a few well-connected companies.

Full-page ads criticizing the Mousouri legislators ran in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Kansas City Star, the Joplin Globe and the Springfield News-Leader.

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AFP-MO State Director Jeremy Cady issued the following statement:

“Members of Congress who voted to allow the Export-Import Bank to continue to perpetuate fraud at the expense of Missouri taxpayers should be held accountable. The Export-Import Bank has demonstrated a pattern of mismanagement and political cronyism that favors special interests. Moving forward, we will continue to urge all members to work collaboratively to unrig our economy so all Americans have more opportunities to succeed.”

AFP’s Ex-Im accountability campaign will also target Representatives McAdams (UT), Horn (OK), McBath (GA), S. Murphy (FL), Axne (IA), Finkenauer (IA), Davids (KS), Casten (IL), Kinzinger (IL), Wagner (MO), Luetkemeyer (MO), Graves (MO), Long (MO), and Fitzpatrick (PA) for voting “yes” on H.R. 4863, a bill to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank. Read AFP’s key vote letter to lawmakers here.

Background:

Ex-Im has proven to have fallen short of its goals for job creation, export promotion, small business growth, and increasing US competitiveness abroad.

The Heritage Foundation found that from 2009 to 2014 there were 74 cases of fraud allegations.

Ex-Im uses Federal Credit Reporting Act standards to justify its lending, arguing that it would save $14 billion from 2015-2024. But that is not an accurate representation of the bank’s finances.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, if Ex-Im were to use fair-value accounting principles — which are used by most of the government and most of the private sector — the bank would cost taxpayers about $2 billion over that same period.

Our economy doesn’t need the Export-Import Bank.

Earlier this year, AFP unleashed its multiyear “Unrig the Economy” campaign to end government favoritism and has sent more than 35,000 letters to Congress urging lawmakers to vote NO on the failed agency’s extension.

Read more about AFP’s multi-year, multimillion-dollar effort to “Unrig the Economy” here (CNBC).