Political Quotes

“Representative Tonko, thank you. I was just thinking through that Export-Import, and the buzz inside the Beltway here in Washington that it only helps the big companies-- General Electric and Boeing. The fact of the matter is, yes, it certainly helps those companies export airplanes and jet engines and whatever else, but it is the small companies that really take advantage of it. It is the start-ups and the growing companies that need that support. I asked my staff, actually an intern, to do some research on the kinds of financing mechanisms that China, Japan, and Korea use to export their ships that they make. The great shipbuilding industry is no longer in the United States, it is in those countries. There are one or two European countries that are also involved, but each of those countries support those shipbuilding companies with programs that are exactly the same as the Export-Import Bank, which is a loan guarantee. And it works.”