This article originally appeared on Fox News on November 23, 2019.
The Democrats are so obsessed with obstructing the Trump administration that they’re throwing American workers under the bus in an effort to undercut the president’s agenda.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives recently passed legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im), a core tool of U.S. trade policy that Democrats have historically championed. But, it passed only after radical Democrats – who now seem in control of their party’s politics – torpedoed a bipartisan version that would have restricted the bank’s ability to do business with firms owned by the Chinese government.
Those restrictions were perfectly reasonable. Ex-Im’s primary function is to guarantee loans to foreign businesses in order to facilitate purchases of U.S. exports that would not otherwise take place. Boeing, for example, benefits immensely from Ex-Im financing of large aircraft purchases by foreign customers.
The Chinese government, however, is not exactly strapped for cash. Ex-Im loans to state-owned Chinese firms are essentially just a giveaway to the communist regime itself.
The only reason Democrats are so adamant about allowing Ex-Im to subsidize China is that failing to do so might benefit Trump.
The president is engaged in high-stakes trade negotiations designed to end China’s abusive trade practices. His strategy of imposing strategic counter-tariffs on Chinese imports is clearly working. China’s economic growth has plummeted to its lowest rate in decades, and the two sides are getting steadily closer to a deal – but Ex-Im loans could weaken the U.S. negotiating position and undercut that progress by offering a lifeline to struggling Chinese companies.
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