In Paris it is called ‘cochon.’ In Moscow it is called ‘svena.’ But no matter the country, no matter how you slice it — the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is simply all-American PORK!

Fortunately for the taxpayer, however, the House defeated reauthorization legislation (H.R. 3759) that would have boosted funding for this corporate welfare by a vote of 157 to 260 on September 11.

Under OPIC, Uncle Sam provides subsidized loans and low-rate insurance that private lenders will not. These loans subsidize the expansion of profitable businesses into often risky overseas markets. By backing firms with taxpayer money, OPIC encourages profitable corporations to make questionable business decisions.

H.R. 3759 would have increased the size of OPIC by doubling the program’s cap on investment insurance from $13 billion to $25 billion and doubling OPIC’s loan authority from $9 billion to $20 billion. Incredibly, OPIC puts $8.7 billion of taxpayer money at risk. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that H.R. 3759 would have increased federal spending by $932 million by 2002.

Recipients of this taxpayer-subsidized welfare include many Fortune 500 corporations. DuPont received $200 million in loan guarantees. Coca-Cola received a loan guarantee of $165 million. And Citicorp, with a net income of $35 billion in 1995, received $842 million of OPIC insurance. Other recipients include General Electric, US West, Motorola, Pepsi Cola and McDonald’s.

Champions of this taxpayer victory in the House include Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-OH), and Reps. Ed Royce (R-CA), Scott Klug (R-WI), Robert Andrews (D-NJ), Collin Peterson (D-MN), Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Bernard Sanders (I-VT). H.R. 3759 was opposed by many fiscal conservative organizations including National Taxpayers Union, Citizens Against Government Waste and the CATO Institute.

Read our lips: “No $3 million pork for George Bush!”

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) and other members of the Texas Delegation are proposing to honor former President George Bush with a special $3 million earmark for Texas A&M University to establish the George H. W. Bush Fellowship Program. Endowments are normally funded through private channels. Kudos to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) for protesting this pork-barrel plan.