Thanks, but no thanks

An Orange County, California businessman says, I may have been a crony, but I believe in free enterprise;

The Export-Import bank has been good to Dan VanderPyl.

For the past 15 years, VanderPyl, president of Sonic Air Systems, a small manufacturer in Brea, has used the bank, a federally-funded agency, to insure exports of his high-speed industrial air blowers.

But VanderPyl is also Ex-Im bank’s worst nightmare: an ungrateful customer.

As Congress wrestled this week over whether to renew the bank’s charter, an intense battle that has split the Republican Party, VanderPyl refused pleas from fellow manufacturers to lobby for it.

“Ex-Im is arguably another form of corporate welfare,” VanderPyl said, echoing criticisms of small-government advocates.

He was willing to pick up the $50 bill if it was just lying there on the sidewalk, but not to coerce the taxpayers into providing more of same;

“I understand bigger companies want that cheaper money for their customers to buy planes and bulldozers,” he said. “But should the taxpayers fund that?”

VanderPyl said if Ex-Im goes dark, his firm would discontinue receivables insurance. If a new client came along that required it, he expects he could pay a bit more to get private insurance.