By Rick Manning — Republicans in the House of Representatives have chosen as a new chairperson for their Conference, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers from Washington State. McMorris-Rodgers is now the fourth-ranking Republican in the House.
McMorris-Rodgers, who was mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice for Mitt Romney, ascended to the position after receiving the votes of a majority of her colleagues.
The House Republican Conference Chairperson serves as the chief communicator for House Republicans, a post held by Speaker Boehner in the 1990’s.
The congresswoman has distinguished herself as an expert in the arcane workings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and has been the leader in the effort to withdraw legislative authority for the IMF to access up to $100 billion from the U.S. treasury to bail out failed European socialist states.
The legislation, which enjoys the strong support of groups like Americans for Limited Government (ALG), would roll back IMF spending authorizations that were enacted in 2009 while Congress was enacting the cash for clunkers program.
Her legislation was stalled in the House Financial Services Committee, but with incoming Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling having co-sponsored the legislation earlier this year, analysts are giving it more than a fighting chance to pass the House of Representatives.
ALG President Bill Wilson commented, “With Hensarling becoming the Financial Services Committee Chairman it is much more likely that McMorris-Rodgers’ efforts to stop the IMF’s raid on the U.S. Treasury will get a hearing and pass the House of Representatives. After that, we’ll take our chances in the Senate.”
In an exclusive interview earlier in 2012 with Americans for Limited Government’s Frank McCaffrey, McMorris-Rodgers was adamant that Congress needed to debate the IMF funding measure saying, “We are basically, as a country, borrowing money from China, 43 cents on every dollar right now, so that we can help fund this European Union bailout.”
Now that McMorris-Rodgers has been elevated to the top messaging post within the House GOP, the IMF debate should be coming to the House floor next year. The discussion is expected to be vigorous, but it is exactly the kind of big picture debate that Americans expect their elected officials to have on Capitol Hill.
With McMorris-Rodgers in the lead, it is clear that the question of whether our nation can afford to continue giving the IMF a virtual blank check, when the U.S. has an even worse financial balance sheet than some of the countries they are helping bail out, should get a full and honest debate.
And with the Republican’s chief messenger in the lead battling for stopping the IMF $100 billion blank check, maybe some fiscal sanity will prevail.
Rick Manning is the Director of Communications for Americans for Limited Government.
