“The fact is, we are already bailing out Europe.”
That was Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson’s take on a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report published in September that showed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already dispensed €78.5 billion to the creditors of Greece, Portugal, and Ireland, or about $112 billion for refinance bailout loans.
The U.S. provides 17.72 percent of the IMF’s finances. Which means the “U.S. taxpayers’ tab is already almost $20 billion so far that the IMF has put at risk,” Wilson noted.
He urged members of Congress to resist any further U.S. role in providing financial assistance to Europe to alleviate the sovereign debt crisis, saying, “It’s not up to the American people to bail out European banks that bet poorly on the sovereign debt of socialist governments that could not afford to be paid back.”
According to the CRS report, Europe’s various efforts through the €440 billion European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) have been “backstopped by various forms of assistance from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board (FRB) and the IMF.”
A staunch opponent of bailouts, Wilson was not happy, saying, “The bailout of European banks is already taking place under the noses of members of Congress and is putting U.S. taxpayer resources at risk, whether through the IMF or the Federal Reserve.”
Wilson warned representatives and senators that there were multiple avenues the government was moving bailout monies into Europe, “It’s not enough just to stop the IMF. It’s got to be comprehensive.”
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