Letter to the Editor: Need Ex-Im Bank

Diane Katz of the Heritage Foundation argued we should eliminate the U.S. Export-Import Bank because it only accounts for 2 percent of U.S. exports (May 14 Opinion). But American companies export more than $2 trillion a year. Slashing 2 percent of those sales would tear at least a gaping $30 billion hole in our economy.

Katz made two further mistakes. First, she assumes that if her political allies succeed in shutting down the Ex-Im Bank, private lenders will fill the gap. But Ex-Im is barred by law from getting involved in a deal if a commercial alternative exists. Shutting down the bank means every transaction it supports – large or small – will be lost to U.S. business, and snapped up by our rivals overseas.

Second, she believes Ex-Im only benefits large businesses, because its biggest users are strong companies such as Boeing and Caterpillar. But nearly 90 percent of Ex-Im’s transactions are with small businesses. Large products such as airplanes or construction equipment depend on the work of smaller suppliers and vendors. My company, McGinty Machine, has made machine parts and assemblies for the aviation majors throughout the United States over the past 67 years – so attacking Ex-Im because it helps Boeing and other companies sell planes is also attacking my company and my employees.

I might just be a businessman from Kansas, but I know how our economy works better than a pundit from Washington, D.C. And anyone who cares about business in our state must support the Ex-Im Bank.

Don McGinty
President/owner
McGinty Machine Co.
Wichita