In Boeing country, Clinton rips Sanders’ rancor toward Export-Import Bank

(Seattle Times, Seattle, 22 March 2016) The obscure U.S. Export-Import Bank moved to center stage in Washington’s Democratic presidential contest, as Hillary Clinton and her allies chided Bernie Sanders for opposing the bank, which plays an outsized role in this state. Speaking Tuesday at the Machinists union hall in Everett, Clinton said “I just shook my head” when Sanders joined conservative Republicans in criticizing the bank as a vehicle for corporate welfare... In Washington state, the bank reports that 162 of the 238 exporters it has helped in the last decade are small businesses... But the vast majority of the bank’s help to Washington companies, in terms of dollars, has gone to loan guarantees for financing foreign buyers of Boeing’s planes. Since 2007, $64 billion of the bank’s $65 billion in insured shipments, guaranteed credit or loans disbursed for Washington companies has gone to help Boeing.