When The Tea Party Becomes The Me And My Well-Heeled Cronies Party
Veronique de Rugy blogs at NRO about Republican and tea party-backed members of the House and their letter to press the House leadership to agree to the Export-Import Bank reauthorization, which de Rugy says "represents corporate welfare at its finest; in this case, the beneficiaries are the largest businesses in America."

She points out that it isn't the role of our government to prop up a few selected company and shelter them from the adversities of competition -- not even when that competition comes from companies helped by foreign governments:

The letter repeats many of the usual half-baked claims about the bank, such as the idea that because the French government provides support to Airbus, like other governments do for their large manufacturers, it means the U.S. government should support its aviation manufacturers. (I would like to argue that if the French government does it, we probably shouldn't.) First, there is no evidence that Boeing (the biggest Bank beneficiary) wouldn't be able to compete or couldn't sell planes without the government loans, even if it claims that's the case. Boeing took in over $64 billion in revenue in 2010, with $31 billion of that money coming from commercial-airplane sales. Are these guys really saying that this is a company that needs taxpayers' support? Or are we saying that it is the role of taxpayers to guarantee that Boeing makes the largest possible earnings?