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Romano: Stop Bailing Out Europe With U.S. Tax Dollars

MORE THAN $6 BILLION ALREADY AT RISK …  || By ROBERT ROMANO ||  “The United States has never lost a dollar of our contribution to the IMF.” That was the U.S. Treasury bragging as recently as March 2014 that no U.S. taxpayer funds had ever been lost on loans made…

MORE THAN $6 BILLION ALREADY AT RISK … 

|| By ROBERT ROMANO ||  “The United States has never lost a dollar of our contribution to the IMF.”

That was the U.S. Treasury bragging as recently as March 2014 that no U.S. taxpayer funds had ever been lost on loans made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which the U.S. backs.

So much for that.

With Greece’s default on a $1.7 billion payment to the institution, that may be starting to change. Greece owes the IMF $23.6 billion in total.

How does that affect U.S. taxpayers?

To date, the U.S. has lent $26.68 billion to the International Monetary Fund, drawn in part from our $65 billion quota and an additional $100 billion credit line that was enacted in 2009.

That represents more than 26 percent of all IMF lending, which totals $85.3 billion. Since the money there is fungible, that means the U.S. has more than a 26 percent stake in every loan that the IMF undertakes — including more than 26 percent of all losses booked by the institution.

So that missed $1.7 billion payment? That amounts to a $452 million potential loss for the U.S. Treasury. To pay us back, the IMF will have to draw assets from elsewhere, for example, by selling gold.

What if Greece were to default on all of its $23.6 billion debt to the IMF? Then the tab rises to $6.27 billion of U.S. funds at risk.

All of which leads Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning to call on Congress to get U.S. funds out of the IMF.

“Not one more penny should go to bailing out European socialist governments and the banks that lent them the money. Congress should prohibit the use of any funds created by the $100 billion New Arrangements to Borrow credit line, a 2009 expansion initiated by the Obama administration from being used for any purpose. In addition, it is the duty of Congress to prohibit the use of quota funds to cover any obligations owed by Greece to the IMF,” Manning said in a statement.

(To continue reading this piece, press the “Read More …” icon below).

Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of Americans for Limited Government.  This piece (reprinted with permission) originally appeared on NetRightDaily.com.

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46 comments

Sybil July 2, 2015 at 2:49 pm

Why do we bail these people/countries out? That is question noteworthy. We are in a Global economy. That ship has sailed. Other countries affect our way of life, whether it is the goods we are able to buy or sell. Or the stock market that Obama promised not to play. We are all tied together in some way. Imagine you live in a neighborhood and you are the only rich fat cat, everyone around you is poor. Or imagine there are only a few poor in a neighborhood of a few homes. What do think might happen?

We all have it in us — survival instinct. As much as we might prefer isolationist policies, when we are secure in our own world — security is impossible without working together. We are individuals who need to respect each others rights, but a starving family or country, knows no bounds.

It is in the interest of everyone to find a way to work together and help a neighbor in dire straits.

Last I checked, US contributed less than other countries.

Reply
Crooner July 2, 2015 at 2:57 pm

No, you’ve got it wrong. I was born a white male, I’m smarter than you and I work harder. I deserve to win and you deserve to lose. After all, I need someone to clean my house, watch my kids and mow my lawn, and I don’t want to pay through the nose for those services. If they didn’t want to be the working poor they should have studied harder.

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Sybil July 2, 2015 at 2:59 pm

Crooner send me your contact information, I’d like to hire someone of your character. You have it all figured out and I have the money to pay you, so let’s just cut to the chase.

Hourly rates please.

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Crooner July 2, 2015 at 3:10 pm

Sorry, the “you” I refer to above was the generic you and not you personally. And I was merely trolling, at least as I understand that term.

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Sybil July 2, 2015 at 3:13 pm

LOL – I think you have it down ;)

shifty henry July 2, 2015 at 3:45 pm

Crooner, have a heart, fella’, she can barely put food on the table yet she will sacrifice herself to pay you for your knowledge. WoW — what a woman!

Sybil July 2, 2015 at 3:51 pm

Henry you always make me laugh sooooo hard – thank goodness for your humor!!!!

shifty henry July 2, 2015 at 4:11 pm

Thank you! If I can make Arnold Schwarzenegger laugh I can make anyone laugh!

euwe max July 2, 2015 at 8:01 pm

You made Ahnold laugh?

shifty henry July 2, 2015 at 8:25 pm

That was an accidental slip that revealed too much about me. I should have deleted it.

euwe max July 22, 2015 at 5:57 pm

That might have been TMI… I’m on your trail, now!

shifty henry July 22, 2015 at 6:23 pm

I don’t remember what was originally posted, but it was probably something dumb when I was fatigued late one evening….. otherwise, a few days ago Disqus would not take my post so I tried posting just some letters, then came back and replied to my post, and when that worked I was back in the groove again…..

euwe max July 22, 2015 at 10:27 pm

You’re “in the business.”

John Holmes July 2, 2015 at 4:08 pm

“And I was merely trolling, at least as I understand that term.”

For a lesson on trolling, see my response below.

Sybil July 3, 2015 at 11:36 am

You definitely have trolling down — I am learning ;)

John Holmes July 2, 2015 at 3:56 pm

You’re all bent over and ready for my hourly rates. You definitely want to hire someone of my character.

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Sybil July 2, 2015 at 4:04 pm

Ha! Shoo you disease ridden media whore. Not quite the character I was looking for. But thank you all the same. I really appreciate you reaching out to me, hope my gloves are not offensive.

John Holmes July 2, 2015 at 4:09 pm

” I really appreciate you reaching out to me, hope my gloves are not offensive.”

That’s not my hand reaching out to you, though it is wearing a glove.

Sybil July 2, 2015 at 4:14 pm

You couldn’t touch me with John Holmes d*ck. Better luck next time baby.

John Holmes July 2, 2015 at 5:44 pm

You know you want a one way ticket to pound town baby.

Sybil July 2, 2015 at 5:59 pm

If I did, I’d buy it. You are deserving of a way one ticket to the half way house. Not sure what that is, but you ain’t half there, so you might understand it.

Itsty Bitsy, Teeny Weeny….

John Holmes July 2, 2015 at 6:04 pm

“You are deserving of a way one ticket to the half way house.”

So you want the conjugal visit action do ya?

Yeah baby!

Sybil July 2, 2015 at 6:17 pm

See comment above.

John Holmes July 3, 2015 at 8:23 am

You’re a little bitchy now, but after you and I go a couple of rounds hot and heavy that will subside. We’ll work it right out of you.

Sybil July 3, 2015 at 11:29 am

LOL! You still wanna mess with me? :)

FastEddy23 July 2, 2015 at 3:20 pm

The magic word: work. All the rest are excuses.

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FastEddy23 July 2, 2015 at 3:17 pm

“Contributed”? Does that means some king of global income redistribution scheme is in order?

Visualize whirled peas, you screw loose, neo-“progressive”, quasi-socialist helot, one worlder.

Free trade happens … but is triffeled by g’ment manipulations, wherever. More attempted Central Planning hose ups in international will always and forever bring the usual “progressive” fascist anti-social results … Marx and Engels and Stalin Are Dead, thank God. Marxism died in 1989 whe the Berlin Trade Walls finally came down. (Look it up.)

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Sybil July 2, 2015 at 3:20 pm

Huh? I don’t know a thing about economics. I can barely put food on the table. What is free trade? You mean TPA?

Why kind of fool in their right mind might agree that we are all part of the same world? I dunno Eddy, but you are funny, so entertain me with more of your world economic views.

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euwe max July 2, 2015 at 7:59 pm

The idea is to give money to other countries, so we don’t have to improve things *here*!

It’s a Republican thing.

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Jack July 3, 2015 at 12:51 pm

Yea, its like rebuilding all those Iraqi roads we blew up, but we can’t fix the potholes or bridges here.

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euwe max July 3, 2015 at 2:19 pm

Healthcare there, but not here.

FastEddy23 July 22, 2015 at 12:51 pm

… and ATT datacom and Halliburton oil field services and several other private contractors who still work there … and are paid from oil revenue by the Iraqi g’ment.

euwe max July 24, 2015 at 12:21 am

Libertarians would say – make a buck while you can – if you don’t, someone else will.

FastEddy23 July 24, 2015 at 11:52 am

That’s the Ben Franklin way. “Doing good by doing well.”

FastEddy23 July 22, 2015 at 12:44 pm

The Social Security Administration pays benefits to more than 3.7 Million Mexican Nationals (non-US citizens). This has been going on since the Carter Administration …

I suppose the SSA & US State Department, which considers this to be “foreign aid”, is a “republican” thing, too?

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euwe max July 22, 2015 at 5:54 pm

Immigration from Mexico has a grey past.

Sort of like Prohibition of Alcohol.

We should completely rethink it.

It won’t help us any to try to deport them.

We should make a clean break and grandfather the sons a bitches in.

Then, we say – any corporation from this day forward that hires someone who is not authorized to work in the US will be sent into receivership, and the CEO and CTO will both serve time… the corporation will pay a 30,000 dollar fine for each offense.

THEN.. we use that money – we pay any unauthorized worker that gets a job and successfully proves it, gets immediate citizenship AND a 30,000 dollar reward!

Now, how many unauthorized workers will there be?

FastEddy23 July 23, 2015 at 1:18 pm

Nice, neat, broad strokes. BUT first we should close the boarders and go back to historic limits.

THEN “we” should make sure that those here, working and providing, pay their fair share of taxes due. (I can point to several places here in north Taxifornia where one can buy drugs and girls from meskin pimps and ganbangers … and none of them pay taxes.)

euwe max July 23, 2015 at 3:03 pm

historic limits

——
historically – there were no limits.

FastEddy23 July 24, 2015 at 11:50 am

Historically, there were many limits, country by country. These limits were generally put in place by Woodrow Wilson overtly to increase g’ment control over excessive Irish immigration, then Chinese, then African immigration, then eastern European and “foreign enemy states” like Germany and other central Europe and Japan, China.

These visa document immigration limits, country by country, were overseen by congress from the ’20’s through the Carter years, when democrats were sticking to a segregated mind set.

euwe max July 24, 2015 at 2:55 pm

Mexicans were welcome for quite a while…

1821: Mexico permits Stephen F. Austin to start Texas colonization.

1851: The California Land Act attempts to resolve property disputes between Anglos and Mexican Americans. California regions with the largest Mexican American populations are taxed more than any other region in the state.

1861: During the 1860s, Tiburcio Vásquez, Joaquín Murieta, and others are labeled “bandits” for resisting the take-over of lands held by Mexican Americans in California.

1883: Chinese labor is reduced because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and railroad companies search for alternative sources of cheap labor. Mexican workers are increasingly recruited.

1890: Increasingly, Mexican Americans work for the railroads. Railroad construction continues throughout the early 20th century.Copper mining continues to lure people to Arizona, driving more Mexican Americans from their lands.

1900: Copper, silver, and zinc are found in Arizona and New Mexico; Texas begins to mine salt, leading to further expulsion of Mexican American land owners.

1904: The first border patrol is established to stop Asian workers from coming into the United States through Mexico.

1910: Mexican Revolution begins. Thousands of Mexicans flee across the border for safety.

1916: General John J. Pershing leads 10,000 American soldiers into Mexican territory in retaliation for a raid on Columbus, New Mexico by General Francisco “Pancho” Villa. After 11 months, Pershing is forced to return to the U.S. without ever catching sight of Villa. U.S.-Mexican relations suffer because of the action.

1917: A secret telegram from Germany to Mexico proposing an armed alliance between the two countries is published and causes the U.S. to enter World War I. In spite of President Wilsons veto, an Immigration Act that mandates a literacy test for immigrants is passed.

1921: The Immigration Act of 1921 restricts the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans. Agriculture lobbyists rally to block the movement to include Mexicans in the proposition.

1924: Immigration Act of 1924 halts the flow of other immigrant groups, border stations are established to formally admit Mexican workers, and a tax is collected on each person entering.Largely due to a lack of immigration quotas, more than 89,000 Mexicans come into the United States on permanent visas, making 1924 the peak year for Mexican immigration.

1931: Mexican American parents successfully sue the school board in Lemon Grove, California to prevent the segregation of their children from Anglo children.

1934: San Antonio community leader Eleuterio Escobar forms La Liga Pro-Defensa Escolar (The School Improvement League) because of the gross inequity in spending he discovered between Mexican American and Anglo public schools.

1942: The bracero program begins, allowing Mexican nationals to temporarily work in the United States primarily in the agricultural industry

1947
Backed by LULAC, a suit by Gonzalo Mendez against many California school districts causes the Federal District Court to rule that segregation in schools is unconstitutional. This sets the judicial precedent for the Brown vs. Board of Education case, which repeals the “separate but equal” concept.

1953: Operation Wetback: The U.S. Immigration Service deports more than 3.8 million people of Mexican heritage.

FastEddy23 July 24, 2015 at 3:43 pm

“… 1861: During the 1860s, Tiburcio Vásquez, Joaquín Murieta, and others are labeled “bandits” for resisting the take-over of lands held by Mexican Americans in California. …”

And during that time frame General Vallejo was, first the Spanish/Mexican Governor, then offered a post as ambassador to Mexico from California, then Elected by a significant majority to Be The Governor of the new state of California. He maintained His Mexican Citizenship throughout.

euwe max July 24, 2015 at 4:53 pm

Everyone was scum in those days.

Sybil July 2, 2015 at 2:55 pm

I am going to add one more comment for now and look forward to the feedback of others. IF we were to employ isolationist policies, stop helping other countries when/where we can. No one will be there when we might need a friend. More importantly — it is the poor and middle class who will be the losers. Your fat cats, have enough fat, to weather the storm.

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MashPotato July 2, 2015 at 5:31 pm

US funds- the funds we borrow from China or quantitative easing?

Reply
euwe max July 22, 2015 at 5:56 pm

Don’t worry, Trump will declare bankruptcy and walk the debt to China.

Reply

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