The Washington Post reports the Tea Party’s new target is the Export-Import Bank, “the little-known government agency provides tens of billions of dollars annually in financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. planes, trucks and other goods.”

“What began as a pet issue for a handful of conservatives is now turning the GOP on its head. The fight over the obscure agency has pitted traditional lawmakers backed by big corporations against tea party conservatives, who, still fuming over bank bailouts of 2008, insist that supporting free markets is not the same as supporting business interests.”

A new NBC/WSJ poll notes that when asked what is the bigger cause of poverty today, 46% cited “circumstances beyond people’s control,” versus 44% who said it was due to “people not doing enough.”

First Read: “That’s a big change when the poll last asked this question in 1995, when 60% said it was due to people not doing enough, and when 30% said it was because of circumstances beyond people’s control.”

NBC/WSJ/Annenberg survey: “Exactly half of Americans say that Democrats or Republicans in control of Congress won’t make much of a difference in improving the economy. That’s compared with 25 percent who believe the economy will improve if Republicans control Congress, and another 23 percent who believe it will improve if Democrats are in charge.”

Wonk Wire: David Brat (R), who toppled Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) in a primary yesterday, argued in an academic paper in 2005 that the key to a strong economy is Protestantism.

Wonk Wire notes a proposal to link stadium funds to the performance of professional teams.

“The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter of 2014, the latest stumble for a recovery that has struggled to find its footing since the recession ended almost five years ago,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, contracted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.0% in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Thursday. It was the first time economic output contracted since the first quarter of 2011, when it declined at a 1.3% pace.”

Gallup: “American voters rate the economy as the most important issue to their vote for Congress this year, and give the Republicans in Congress a slight edge over the Democrats as best able to handle it. Voters give four other issues lower, but still above-average, importance — the federal deficit, taxes, the Affordable Care Act, and income and wealth inequality. Voters see Republicans as better able to handle the first two, while Democrats have the edge on the latter two.”

“I think we ought to raise it, because frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay, and I think communicating that is important to us.”

— Mitt Romney, quoted by the Washington Post, urging Republicans to increase the minimum wage.

Rick Santorum said that the Republican Party’s hard-line stance against minimum wage increases “makes no sense,” the Huffington Post reports.

Said Santorum: “I don’t understand. This is one I don’t get. If the Republicans want to go out and say, ‘We’re against the minimum wage,’ then go out and make the argument to the American public and 80-some percent of the American public believes we should have the minimum wage. But they’re making arguments about why we shouldn’t have any increase.”

Wonk Wire notes a stronger than expected jobs report in which the unemployment rate fell to 6.3%.

Reactions to the jobs report suggest it’s a weird one.

Wonk Wire notes that if not for Obamacare, Q1 economic growth would have been negative.

“The U.S. economy slowed in the first quarter to one of the weakest paces of the five-year recovery as the frigid winter appeared to have curtailed business investment and weakness overseas hurt exports,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Wonk Wire: The rise in low wage jobs

A new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds that 44% of Americans think poor people are poor mostly because of a lack of opportunities, while only 30% said it’s mostly because of their individual failings.

“While Democrats and independents in the new survey were more likely to think the rich, poor and unemployed got where they are mostly due to outside circumstances, Republicans in the poll largely said the opposite. They tended to think the poor are poor because of individual failings, rather than lack of opportunities (48% to 23%), and that they have a poor work ethic rather than good jobs being unavailable to them (49% to 21%).”

Wonk Wire: Phyllis Schlafly says women won’t find husbands if paid the same as men.

The U.S. economy began growing again in June 2009, but Wonk Wire notes a majority of Americans still think we’re stuck in a recession.

“Five Senate Democrats and five Republicans unveiled a deal on extending expired unemployment insurance benefits for five months, which should be enough to overcome a GOP filibuster and get the package out of the Senate later this month,” Roll Call reports.

Politico: “The behind-the-scenes horse-trading was so furious that the deal was not finalized until minutes before the 4:15 p.m. announcement. Many senators were unaware that their colleagues had just struck an agreement on jobless aid that has evaded the Senate for weeks.”

Wonk Wire: Only one country recovered from the financial crisis faster than the United States. 

Speaker John Boehner “is so against raising the minimum wage that he once said he would rather commit suicide than vote for a ‘clean’ increase,” The Hill reports.

Boehner made the comment in a 1996 interview: “I’ll commit suicide before I vote on a clean minimum-wage bill.”