For Immediate Release: June 16, 2011
Office of U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina)
Contact: Wesley Denton (202) 228-5079
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), David Vitter (R-Louisiana) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) today offered an amendment to the Economic Development Revitalization Act to roll back the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) ability to use $108 billion in taxpayer dollars to bailout foreign countries, including heavily indebted Greece.
“Our nation is on the brink of bankruptcy and American taxpayers simply cannot afford to bailout Europe,” said DeMint. “The U.S. debt is so massive it is now 95% of our total Gross Domestic Product, that is one of the worst debt to GDP ratings in the world, even higher than Ireland and Portugal. If we don’t our reverse our reckless fiscal course, America will be the one in need of a bailout. We need to stop the spending, stop the debt, and pass a balanced budget amendment.”
“Now is not the time, when Americans are struggling to find work and have budget problems of their own, to tap innocent American taxpayers in order to bail out profligate European governments, “ said Hatch. “Now is the time, however, to stop our own runaway spending and our continued movement toward European levels of government. If we go down that route, the destination is an America very different than the one our Founders intended, and it is critical that we hit the brakes now and save our limited constitutional government.”
“Quite frankly, the federal government needs to get out of the bailout business,” said Vitter. “Bailing out Greece while America is nearing bankruptcy is just puzzling, but some of us in the Senate are working to actually address our increasing deficit, like working to pass a balanced budget amendment.”
“American taxpayers have seen more bailouts than they can stomach, and the last thing they should have to worry about are their hard-earned tax dollars being used to rescue a foreign government,” said Cornyn.
In 2009, at the urging of the Obama Administration, the IMF was provided access to additional funding of up to $108 billion which can be used to bailout foreign countries. The Anti-IMF Bailout Amendment would strike language that allows the IMF to use these addition bailout funds.
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