Barrons: U.S. taxdollars bailing out Greece and Euro Zone
Like it or not—and many of us don't like it at all -- U.S. taxpayers are helping to bail out Greece and the rest of the financially-distressed euro zone. The International Monetary Fund has committed to providing the Europeans with a financing package totaling about 250 billion euros. The portion provided by American taxpayers, based on our 17.09% share of contributions to the IMF, is now at least $54 billion.
A handful of congressional Republicans steeped in the fiscal conservatism of the Tea Party have been agitating against backdoor U.S. bailouts for several years. In May 2010, for instance, Reps. Mike Pence of Indiana and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, along with Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, introduced a bill prohibiting the IMF from using U.S. funds for the bailout of any foreign country in Greek-like straits. Similarly, Republicans in June 2009 attempted to block a $100 billion appropriation to the IMF for a $1.1 trillion economic-crisis bailout fund.
President Obama, who had pledged the money during a G-20 meeting that year, had buried the appropriation in a war-funding measure to avoid an up or down vote on the unpopular item. This outraged Minnesota Rep. John Kline, another Republican, who fumed: "I cannot support a bill that uses our military personnel currently in harm's way to advance a political agenda that includes a $100 billion international bailout that has nothing to do with our troops' safety or success." And Kline added: "Already this year, Congress has forced taxpayers to shoulder $700 billion in bailout money, $1 trillion on a so-called stimulus, $410 billion on a massive spending bill larded with pork-barrel projects and $3.6 trillion on a budget that spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much. We should not tack on an additional $100 billion for an international bailout."