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02.28.2012 1

Obama’s IMF bailout dodge

By Rick Manning

As originally published at TheHill.com.

Human Events political editor John Gizzi got an interesting sidestep by Obama deputy press secretary Josh Earnest on Friday. When queried about Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’s (R-Wash.) legislation that would rescind the IMF’s ability to access $100 billion directly from the U.S. Treasury without any congressional approvals, he feigned ignorance of the legislation, agreeing with Gizzi’s statement that “additional tax dollars are off the table.”

Congress needs to take the White House at its word immediately and bring the McMorris Rodgers legislation to the floor, forcing the president to either support a massive raid on the U.S. Treasury to bail out Greece and other socialist countries in Europe or allow the funds to be rescinded.

The truth is that in 2009, the Pelosi-Reid Congress, with President Obama’s signature, established a $100 billion drawing account that allows the IMF to simply withdraw funds directly from the U.S. Treasury. According to the IMF website, $7.2 billion of that money has already been taken and used in the past few months.

So Earnest really didn’t exactly lie, as the administration views those funds as already committed and spent. So that is the dodge — almost $93 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars are currently at risk, and Obama knows it.

Politically, Obama would prefer the quiet draining of $100 billion rather than a robust discussion on Capitol Hill on whether U.S. tax dollars should be spent to prop up failed socialist states.

McMorris Rodgers, a respected member of House leadership who has been mentioned as a potential vice presidential choice, has spent months urging her colleagues to act, and it is time they did.

Politically, it is a no-brainer. When talking to the public, it is not uncommon to hear about how if we just cut foreign aid, we could wipe out our budget deficit. McMorris Rodgers hands House Republicans the ability to go home and truthfully say that they had voted to cut almost $100 billion in foreign aid alone, keeping their 2010 campaign promise.

Imagine Obama having to publicly argue and defend spending $100 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars to bail out the failed socialist state of Greece and the greedy bankers who enabled and promoted the socialist policies that have brought the cradle of democracy to her knees.

Imagine the squirming in those 22 Democratic Senate seats that are up for election this year as incumbents like Joe Manchin (W.Va.) have to answer questions from constituents on why he allowed Obama to use our tax dollars to bail out Greece when we have so many problems here at home.

McMorris Rodgers has teed this up for her Republican colleagues so that any European bailout proposals get due consideration from Congress rather than a quiet bank withdrawal that goes undiscovered for months.

What is hard to imagine is why House Republicans haven’t already acted to force transparency in administration efforts to throw good U.S. taxpayer dollars after bad in bailing out Greece and the enabling banks.

Rick Manning is the communications director of Americans for Limited Government.

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