Washington GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers introduced legislation on Wednesday to oppose awarding any U.S. funds to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for European bailouts. Rodgers told Fox News’ Neal Cavuto the recent charges of sexual assault filed against former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn make her resolution timely.
“Oh, we just introduced the bill — we are looking for co-sponsors — and I am very optimistic that the reaction will be positive,” McMorris Rodgers said. “And what we want more than anything is transparency and accountability from these European Union countries. The IMF has authorized hundreds of billions of dollars . . . over $100 billion to Greece, $100 billion to Ireland, $100 billion to Portugal.
“And much of that is U.S. taxpayer dollars — and, as has been mentioned, we are borrowing from China in order to bail out these countries,” she said. “And so our legislation would say, until these European Union countries start stepping up and making the changes that it would take to even join the European Union, we are not going to continue to participate and, we are urging the Obama administration to stop supporting these bailouts.”
Cavuto noted that acting IMF Director John Lipsky said the bailout policy will not change.
“Well, we — we must deliver the message that this is not a blank check, that America is not giving them a blank check,” she said. “In order to join the European Union, their debt-to-GDP ratio is not to be more than 60 percent, their deficit not more than 3 percent — they have to meet that criteria.
“It further begs the question why we are borrowing money in order to help bail them out.”
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