2014’s Sleeper Issue: A Bank Nobody’s Heard of - Eric Bradner
Both parties are seizing on the bank in big races, including in North Carolina, where Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan — one of the most vulnerable senators in the country — is touting her success in adding a representative of the region’s textile industry to the bank’s advisory board.
Hagan’s rival, Thom Tillis, says he wants to eliminate it — a view in line with the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, which is pumping millions into the race.
(Also on POLITICO: Ex-Im bank may be tied to funding bill)
The emergence of the Export-Import Bank as a hot topic this year is a reminder of the growing polarization between not only Democrats and Republicans over how much government should be involved in the market but also within the Republican Party, where the fault lines between the pro-business and the anti-establishment wings are getting deeper.
Eliminating the bank is “not as cute as everybody thinks,” said Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue to reporters on a conference call. He promised he won’t let the bank “fade quietly into the sunset.”
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