Key Vote NO on More Taxpayer Funding for the IMF

As one of our over 6 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your senators and ask that they vote NO on the Support for the Sovereignty, Integrity, Democracy, and Economic Stability of Ukraine Act, S. 2124. This foreign aid bill for Ukraine contains an unnecessary and expensive new U.S. commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The U.S. contributes money to the IMF based on a quota system by country based on economic strength and size, and as the world’s largest economy we pay the largest share. In 2010, the IMF doubled the quota for its largest member nations, and the Obama Administration has been attempting to get Congress to ratify the increase in commitments ever since.

Our doubled commitment would be realized by transferring much of our commitment to the IMF’s “emergency account” over to their general fund. The U.S. emergency account commitment is only given in the event that some urgent event takes place that requires a large outlay by the IMF, and because the U.S. has the largest stake in the emergency fund, we have an effective veto power over how those funds are directed.

Thus, sending our “emergency” funds to the IMF as general revenues not only costs us more money up front, it also prevents us from withholding that funding if the IMF embarks upon an ill-advised scheme such as bailing out a fiscally reckless nation such as Greece (as it did in 2010 and 2012).

This bill attempts to rationalize including the increase in IMF funding by claiming that the extra money will help the IMF with loans to the embattled new government in Ukraine. In fact, the IMF has hundreds of billions in accessible funds, and does not need any extra cash from us in order to help out Ukraine.

In sum, the IMF “reforms” in this bill will cost us further billions of dollars, reduce our say in how that money is used, and have nothing at all to do with the current showdown in the Ukraine.

For these reasons, I urge you to call your senators and ask them to vote NO on the Support for the Sovereignty, Integrity, Democracy, and Economic Stability of Ukraine Act, S. 2124. We will count their vote as a KEY VOTE when calculating FreedomWorks’ Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2014. The Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of Congress who consistently vote to support economic freedom.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO,
FreedomWorks