The Wall Street Journal has a useful story explaining the fight over the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Delta airlines is complaining that the U.S. government is making it possible for foreign airlines to buy American-made Boeing planes at lower prices than domestic carriers who in some cases compete on the same routes:
Delta has the backing of the airline industry's main trade group, Airlines for America, for which Delta CEO Richard Anderson serves as chairman. The group says financing credits from the Export-Import Bank allow Boeing customers overseas to finance jets at an interest rate at up to half the cost of U.S. carriers. That amounts to an annual saving of roughly $4 million and $5 million on the purchase of a $261 million Boeing 777 aircraft, the airline trade group has said. For an order of 100 jets, that could potentially mean $500 million a year in savings.