Brenda Lawrence on Free Trade

Oppose TPP, NAFTA, and similar trade deals

Brenda Lawrence: I do not support any trade deals that take jobs out of the US, or allow currency manipulation to cheat the US. While we do live in a global economy and we must resolve to balance the scales. We should not enter into any agreement that would allow any other country or countries to be given an advantage in trade that will take jobs and financial benefits out of the US.

Marcia Squier (Green Party): I absolutely do NOT support the TPP, the TTIP, the TISA, or any other similar trade deal! They will eliminate jobs, not create them. Those of us from the Motor City know how disastrous NAFTA was and is to the auto industry. The TPP is known as NAFTA on steroids.

$25B more loans from Export-Import Bank.

This bill raises the cap on outstanding loans, guarantees, and insurance of the Export-Import Bank of the United States for FY2015-FY2022 and afterwards. The Bank shall:

• Provide technical assistance to small businesses on how to apply for financial assistance from the Bank;
• Establish programs under which private financial institutions may share risk in the loans, guarantees, and other Bank products in exchange for receiving fees received from program participants.
• The Bank may enter into up to $25 billion worth of contracts of reinsurance, co-finance, or other risk-sharing arrangements on its portfolio or individual transactions with insurance companies, financial institutions, or export credit agencies.

Opponents reasons for voting NAY: (Washington Examiner, 12/2/12): The Export-Import Bank is a taxpayer-backed agency that finances U.S. exports, primarily though loan guarantees. You'd think the bank would spread the money around to nurture up-and-coming businesses. You'd be wrong, very wrong. In fact, 83% of its taxpayer-backed loan guarantees in 2012 went to just one exporter: Boeing. Welcome to the "New Economic Patriotism," where the big get bigger and taxpayers bear the risk. Ex-Im is at the heart of Obama's National Export Initiative and is a pillar of the economic patriotism that Obama pledged in a second term. When government hands out more money, the guys with the best lobbyists and the closest ties to power will disproportionately get their hands on that money. Obama has spent four years pushing more subsidies, more bailouts and more regulations. "New Economic Patriotism" basically amounts to a national industrial policy -- Washington championing certain major domestic companies and industries, as if the global economy were an Olympic competition.