The
President has decided, after spending trillions of dollars, that it was time
for an “effective, lean government.” Like most of the promises he made, the
intention is suspect. He wants Congress to give him greater power to merge six
major economic agencies into one.
The
six departments in question are the Commerce Department, the Export-Import
Bank, the Office of U.S. Trade Representative, the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation, the Small Business Administration, and the U.S. Trade and
Development Agency.
To
support his move, Obama uses a bizarre example to exemplify government
inefficiency. “The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in
fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in
saltwater. And I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked.”
For
starters, the Interior Department is not in question. The administration says
that 1,000 to 1,200 jobs would be cut through attrition and the merger would
save $3 billion dollars over ten years.
Considering
the out-of-control spending this administration has engaged in the last three
years, $300 million a year is a drop in the bucket. It is more about “smoke and
mirrors,” a political attempt to help the Obama re-election by portraying him
as an advocate for a lean and effective government.
Combining
organizations is not about simplifying government but the political appearance
of reducing the size of government. The move is tied to Obama’s National Export
Initiative (NEI) and the Executive Order of March 2010. The Senate did not fund
the NEI in the 2012 Commerce Appropriation. He thinks Congress will fund his
NEI if it appears that he is streamlining his outlandish spending.
The
National Export Initiative (NEI) is a plan that he unveiled in the 2010 State
of the Union address. Obama promised to “double U.S. exports over the next five
years and support 2 million American jobs” by creating an export promotion
cabinet (to oversee government programs and special financing for farmers
seeking overseas market opportunities) and tougher enforcement of international
trade laws.
Congress
is also resisting reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. It is my opinion
that a bank should remain independent of a six-organization merger. Should a
bank be tied to such a powerful combined organization?
Brendan
Buck, spokesperson for House Speaker John Boehner, said, “American small
businesses are more concerned about this administration’s policies than from
which building in Washington they originate.”
The Commerce
Department
controls domestic and foreign business, trade, economic development,
technology, entrepreneurship (job creation), and business development. The
Commerce Secretary, with a budget of $7.6 billion and 47,000 employees, also
covers divisions such as Census Bureau and the National Institute of Standards
and Technology.
The
Export-Import Bank,
the official U.S. export credit agency founded in 1934, finances the export of
U.S. goods and services. The official export credit agency of the United
States, the Export-Import Bank has a budget of $89.9 million and 391 employees.
Export-Import Bank does not compete with private sector lenders and guarantees
loans from U.S. banks to foreign businesses that buy U.S. made products.
The
U.S. House of Representatives delayed a long-term reauthorization of the
Export-Import Bank and the decision to raise the lending cap to $135 billion
from the current $100 billion limit.
“Airlines
of America (AFA), the trade union that represents leading U.S. carriers, insist
that Congress make fundamental changes to how the bank operates as part of any
increase in the lending cap. The group argues that the bank finances loans to
foreign carriers at favorable terms unavailable to domestic carriers, putting
U.S. airlines at a competitive disadvantage.” Foreign airlines with investor
grade credit rating should secure financing from other banks, not the
Export-Import Bank. (USA Today)
General
Electric’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt and Boeing’s James McNerney wrote to House
leaders that failure to increase the lending cap could lead to the loss of
thousands of U.S. jobs. Boeing is
arguing that the Export-Import Bank terms help Airbus.
Obama’s
administration supports the higher cap. The President cited the Export-Import bank
for funding a multibillion-dollar deal for Indonesia Lion Air to buy 230 Boeing
jets. A $636 million direct loan from the Export-Import Bank to finance the
sale by Siemens Energy of gas and steam turbines to be installed in Saudi
Arabia was hailed as a success of “in-sourcing” 825 jobs in North Carolina. I could
be mistaken but Siemens is a corporation with high credit rating that can
borrow money from the private sector, not from a taxpayer-sponsored bank.
“Reauthorizing
the bank and expanding its lending cap is an administration priority, and we
will continue to work closely with Congress to get this done,” said Amy
Brundage, White House spokeswoman. (USA Today)
Office of U.S.
Trade Representative
advises Obama on trade issues, develops and coordinates international trade
policy and oversees negotiations. Ron Kirk, the U.S. Trade Representative, is
Obama’s Cabinet member since 2009. His office has a budget of $51.3 million and
a staff of 227 employees.
Interestingly,
Ron Kirk, the U.S. Trade Representative is also the Vice Chairman of the Board
of Directors of the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC), a non-voting member of the Export-Import Bank Board of Directors,
a member of the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and
Financial Policies, and is on the Board of Directors of the Millennium
Challenge Corporation. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is “an innovative
and independent U.S. foreign aid agency that is helping lead the fight against
global poverty.” Isn’t “global poverty” one of the favorite pet projects of
liberals and UN Agenda 21?
It
appears that Ron Kirk is a very influential man in three of the six government
agencies that Obama wants to collapse into one.
Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC) is presented in the mainstream media as
helping U.S. businesses to establish a presence overseas. In actuality, they
lead the way to Sustainability and help the implementation of UN Agenda 21. The
OPIC Annual Report of 2010 states that “OPIC support projects that:
-
Are
environmentally and socially sustainable
-
Are
compatible with low- and no-carbon economic development
-
Respect
human rights, including the rights of workers and affected communities
-
Avoid
or provide mitigation and compensation for any negative impacts
-
Provide
timely project information to affected people
-
Are
undertaken in countries that are taking steps to adopt and implement laws that
extend internationally recognized worker rights”
It
appears that OPIC is more concerned with implementation of UN Agenda 21, low-
and no-carbon economic development, thus eliminating fossil fuels, and
international worker rights.
According
to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) environmental and social
policy, “OPIC and its partners and stakeholders work together to further the
common aim of bringing sustainable prosperity to developing countries around
the world,” at the expense of U.S. economy and its citizens. It appears that
this corporation, created in 1971, with a budget of $54.9 million and 215
employees is busy leading the way to UN Agenda 21 sustainability and
elimination of fossil-fuel based economy.
The U.S.Trade and
Development Agency
(USTDA) gives grants to open emerging markets for increased exports of U.S.
manufactured goods and services. Since our net exports, exports minus imports,
is usually a negative number and thus a drag on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the
Trade and Development Agency’s work with its $50 million budget and 50
employees has little positive impact on U.S. net exports. We have imported more
than we have exported for years and the trend is not likely to change.
The
agency claims that they have identified $3.6 billion of U.S exports directly
attributable to USTDA-funded activities. The agency also boasts that for every
dollar spent by the agency, USTDA’s export measure grew to over $58. It is not
clear how they arrived statistically at such a claim. The agency’s projects
focus on clean energy, transportation, telecommunications, and environmental services.
This leaves out agriculture and other manufacturing sectors.
The Small
Business Administration oversees the U.S. small businesses that “create 90
percent of new jobs and receive 23 percent of all federal contracts congressionally
mandated by the Small Business Act.” Karen
Mills, the SBA administrator, would be elevated to Cabinet-level rank, an insignificant
and deceptive move. Instead, the SBA’s budget should be increased substantially
and federal program significantly for America’s main job creator.
As
the evidence clearly suggests, President Obama’s attempt to merge six federal
agencies into one is just a smoke screen for other agendas – it is not about
streamlining government, saving $300 million a year for ten years, or just a
transparent attempt at getting re-elected. More complicated relationships,
interests, and outcomes are at stake.
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