TED CRUZ AND AMERICAN JOBS

Ted Cruz takes great pride in claiming he speaks for the Tea Party.  While the Tea Party was born and inspired by those patriots who dumped tea into Boston Harbor, the newly formed group should remember the patriots only threw the tea in the harbor, they didn’t sink the ships which brought goods to the fledgling nation of America.

If you listen to Ted Cruz talk, it sounds like he considers himself one of the few real American patriots left in the United States.  Unfortunately, Mr. Cruz seems to forget a majority of Americans voted for and elected Mr. Obama president of this country.  A person so selected deserves the respect of all American citizens, including those who disagree with his programs.  Unfortunately for those here in Texas, Mr. Cruz’ zeal to demonstrate his conservative credentials is not serving us well.

A case in point of how Mr. Cruz’ misdirected war on government is counterproductive is his current crusade to abolish the Mbank.  Most Americans would ask, “What the heck is the Mbank?  The Mbank is short for export/import bank, an agency of the United States government.  

The export/import bank was formed 81 years ago in 1934 under the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt.  It will provide loans to foreign corporations who choose to buy goods manufactured in the United States.  The bank will also assure manufacturers and sellers in this country they will be paid if they contract with overseas customers. While Mr. Cruz wants to classify this as corporate welfare, the agency has served America well.  

Unfortunately, there is little free trade throughout the world.  Most other industrialized nations such as Japan, Germany and certainly China, subsidize many of their companies with whom American manufacturers must compete.  The Mbank gives American manufacturers dealing in the export of products some measure of relief and allows them in many cases to compete.  Prime examples are Boeing Aircraft and General Electric, both of whom deal on the international market for aircraft engines and various heavy industrial equipment.

To its credit, the Mbank is one of the very few federal agencies that makes the nation money.  In return for extending credit to their customers and guaranteeing payment, American companies pay Mbank an annual fee.  Losses to the bank are rare and all in all the bank operation is self-sufficient, costing the taxpayers nothing.

If Mr. Cruz is sincere in his quest to find corporate welfare, he should take a look at the subsidies throughout the nation we are paying to big oil who for the last several years have made huge profits while destroying many parts of our environment.  

Or perhaps, it would be in order for Mr. Cruz and his fellow conservatives to explore the reasons pharmaceutical companies are allowed to gouge Americans — particularly, senior citizens.  The administrators of Medicare are prohibited by federal law from even negotiating for a better price.  Maybe he should even look into why it is that Americans are not allowed to order manufactured drugs from Canada which has a safety review process pretty much equivalent to ours. 

Mr. Cruz claims to be a great Bible scholar and to hear him tell it one of the few real Christians serving in politics.  Perhaps Mr. Cruz has forgotten the phrase in the Bible about straining gnats and swallowing camels.

While Mr. Cruz makes bold statements about how he wants to help the middle class create jobs and prosperity in this country, his actions  would result in shutting down government, not paying the nation’s bills and doing away with an agency that is assuring America that our exporters will continue to provide good jobs for our citizens.