Staff Reports
Conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity is staunchly opposed to government cash helping pad corporate coffers.
Most recently, the group came out against an extension for the Export-Import Bank, or Ex-Im, a federally backed lender that provides short-term credit to companies in cases where the private sector cannot or will not.
AFP pointed to dozens of fraud allegations levied against the bank in its dissent while also noting that the program costs taxpayers billions.
Though the measure passed, AFP isn’t walking away — it wants voters to know who cast some of the deciding votes, and it’s putting six figures behind a multimedia ad campaign to make sure they do.
“If your member of Congress voted to give away billions of your tax dollars to big business and special interests, they need to hear from you,” AFP Vice President of Economic Opportunity Russ Latino said in a news release.
“Ex-Im perpetuates the culture of cronyism and fraud that puts special interests ahead of hard-working Americans. Those members who voted in favor of financing risky taxpayer-backed loans for politically connected big businesses and wealthy foreign state-owned firms will be held accountable. We urge lawmakers to work together to unrig the economy so all Americans can succeed.”
One member of Florida’s congressional delegation is among the 15 targets AFP listed for the newspaper, digital and direct mail ad blitz: Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy.
AFP’s mailer heading out in Murphy’s Central Florida District claims she “voted for another boondoggle” that “unfairly extends taxpayer-backed-handouts to foreign companies such as Air China and Saudi Aramco” and “provides an unfair advantage to large handpicked companies.”
The mailer asks recipients to call Murphy’s office to tell her “she should fight against outrageous waste like the Export-Import Bank.”
The sample mailer is below.
