This Is What Crony Capitalism Looks Like: Boeing Is Threatening To Move Abroad If

[applegrove]

It Doesn't Get To Keep Its Ex-Im Subsidies

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/418624/what-crony-capitalism-looks-boeing-threatening-move-abroad-if-it-doesnt-get-keep-its

"SNIP...............

When has crony capitalism really gotten out of control? How about when a major U.S. corporation (a huge defense contractor, no less) is publicly threatening government officials to leave the country if the federal government doesn’t continue to boost their profits through government handouts:

Boeing is stepping up pressure on opponents of the US Export-Import Bank with threats to shift manufacturing abroad if the agency that finances purchases by foreign customers is killed off next month.

The threats come as a new push is being made in Congress to find ways of wresting reauthorisation of the bank from a committee controlled by one of the agency’s fiercest opponents.

Scott Scherer, Boeing’s head of regulatory strategy at Boeing Capital, said the aerospace and defense group would “not sit idly by” if the ExIm Bank’s mandate was not renewed by the end of June. “Boeing is not going to let itself be hurt by the lack of an ExIm Bank,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “If it means sourcing … to other countries who will support us we may have to look at that. Other countries have more aggressive export policies. We will find an alternative.”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/418624/what-crony-capitalism-looks-boeing-threatening-move-abroad-if-it-doesnt-get-keep-its


...............SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Looks like even the republicans in congress don't like to be bullied.

[L0oniX]

2. Extortionists?

[Initech]

3. Why don't we just end *ALL* corporate welfare? That would solve that.

I mean come on these companies make billions in a quarter and do nothing with it, and they want more? Fuck them!

[Major Hogwash]

4. Sounds good to me.

GE could pay for a quarter of our budget.

[Initech]

15. And the billions we pay endlessly for planes that the Pentagon doesn't want...

Could also go toward balancing the budget.

[TxVietVet]

5. They are only loyal to profit.

This will bite the US taxpayer harder in the end.

[tritsofme]

6. You posted an article from National Review?

I don't have a strong opinion on Ex/Im Bank, but I certainly don't trust anything from this outfit.

[applegrove]

7. They may be trying to paint themselves as not cronies. Because the mood of the base

towards crony capitalism is not good.

[JonLP24]

13. This is it in a nutshell

[applegrove]

14. Their building a narrative that they are anti cronyism when they are all about plutocracy.

[GummyBearz]

8. Hilarious bluff

As a former aerospace engineer for a boeing competitor, the amount of money from "closed area" programs is way way way more massive than anything done in the open areas. They can't move the manufacturing/engineering/management SCIFs out of the country. Maybe their "capital" division will take his ball and go elsewhere... I have no idea what that implies regarding tax laws. But if they want to keep their legacy billion dollar programs their bluff is pathetically weak.

[JonLP24]

11. Exactly

There is a Boeing plant here in East Mesa and giving them a subsidy won't change a thing.

[earthside]

9. Maybe Boeing needs to make a huge contribution to the Clinton Foundation ...

... that would probably help.

[JonLP24]

12. Clinton leads all candidates from both parties in donations from the private defense industry

something obvious there with the countries that donate and the weapons deals that follow which isn't illegal to contribute to a non-profit charity (and why repressive regimes are interested in charity is a mystery) unless there is smoking gun proof of a quid pro quo (legalized corruption is what I call it) but that is because it is a loophole.

The State Department does not disclose which individual companies are involved in direct commercial sales, but its disclosure documents reveal that countries that donated to the Clinton Foundation saw a combined $75 billion increase in authorized commercial military sales under the three full fiscal years Clinton served, as compared to the first three full fiscal years of Bush’s second term.

The Clinton Foundation has not released an exact timetable of its donations, making it impossible to know whether money from foreign governments and defense contractors came into the organization before or after Hillary Clinton approved weapons deals that involved their interests. But news reports document that at least seven foreign governments that received State Department clearance for American arms did donate to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary: Algeria, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Thailand, Norway and Australia.

---

Sales Flowed Despite Human Rights Concerns

Under a presidential policy directive signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995, the State Department is supposed to specifically take human rights records into account when deciding whether to approve licenses enabling foreign governments to purchase military equipment and services from American companies. Despite this, Hillary Clinton’s State Department increased approvals of such sales to nations that her agency sharply criticized for systematic human rights abuses.

In its 2010 Human Rights Report, Clinton’s State Department inveighed against Algeria’s government for imposing “restrictions on freedom of assembly and association” tolerating “arbitrary killing,” “widespread corruption,” and a “lack of judicial independence.” The report said the Algerian government “used security grounds to constrain freedom of expression and movement.”

That year, the Algerian government donated $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation and its lobbyists met with the State Department officials who oversee enforcement of human rights policies. Clinton’s State Department the next year approved a one-year 70 percent increase in military export authorizations to the country. The increase included authorizations of almost 50,000 items classified as “toxicological agents, including chemical agents, biological agents and associated equipment” after the State Department did not authorize the export of any of such items to Algeria in the prior year.

During Clinton’s tenure, the State Department authorized at least $2.4 billion of direct military hardware and services sales to Algeria -- nearly triple such authorizations over the last full fiscal years during the Bush administration. The Clinton Foundation did not disclose Algeria’s donation until this year -- a violation of the ethics agreement it entered into with the Obama administration.
http://www.ibtimes.com/clinton-foundation-donors-got-weapons-deals-hillary-clintons-state-department-1934187

It certainly is an ethics problem whatever the case

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

10. Cut every one of their tax giveaway

subsidies. And cancel any and all contracts with the the US Military. To hell with them.................. If they do that

[Scuba]

16. Simple. Nationalize the company if they try to pull shit like that.

[TexasBushwhacker]

17. I just don't see anyone in Congress falling for this

Does Boeing REALLY think that they'll get the same number of fedral contracts if they move overseas? Especially when they're at least $1Billion over budget on the refueling tankers they're building.

[pampango]

18. Tea party people in the House are trying to shut down the Export-Import Bank. "Democrats are united

in support".

An ideological battle is brewing in Congress over a tiny government program most people have never heard of, targeted by Tea Party-inspired Republicans in a largely symbolic gesture against "corporate welfare."

The Ex-Im Bank has become a favorite target of Tea Party groups who argue that it is a prime example of "crony capitalism" — government assistance for well-connected companies.

Democrats are united in support of the bank.

Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on Hensarling's committee, said Wednesday that she was disturbed that the fate of the bank remained uncertain. She accused Hensarling of "a continuation of the intransigence that has already bred uncertainty and instability among the thousands of businesses who rely on the Export-Import Bank to create jobs, grow their businesses and stay competitive."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/21/export-import-bank-conservatives-battle/27662629/

Koch Brothers Battle Against Export-Import Bank Heats Up Again

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a group backed by the Koch Brothers, is re-launching its effort Monday to end the bank when its charter expires at the end of June.

Backed by a six-figure digital ad buy, as well as efforts to organize a conservative coalition, the group is trying to put a stop to what it terms “cronyism and corporate welfare.” Already several Republican presidential candidates oppose its reauthorization, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, as well as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

http://time.com/3753650/koch-brothers-export-import-bank/

[TBF]

19. Let them go - and every employee of that company loses US citizenship.

Can't have it both ways.

[n2doc]

20. Well, if they do, ban them from defense money

That threat alone would put a quick stop to this bs.