Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to raise awareness about an ongoing issue that is happening at the International Monetary Fund as it combats COVID-19. As the lead Republican on the Subcommittee for National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy for the House Financial Services Committee, I invite your attention to a bad policy proposal. During this time of crisis, the IMF provides financial assistance and debt service relief to its 189 member countries. As a part of the COVID relief, some IMF members, particularly China, have been lobbying for billions in extra relief through a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs. SDRs are an international reserve asset used to provide liquidity and supplement countries' official reserves. And unlike a typical IMF loan, Mr. Speaker, SDRs do not require repayment. Now, this idea has gained traction among certain congressional Democrats, notably Senator Durbin and Representatives Waters and Garcia, who have proposed allocating no fewer than two trillion SDRs--equivalent to $2.8 trillion--to the IMF's member countries. What the Democrats might not fully understand is that if the IMF were to allocate this additional two trillion SDRs, the allocation would be made in line with IMF shareholding weights, not financial need. This means that the bulk of SDRs would not go to the poorest countries with hundreds of billions of dollars instead going to the richest nations in the world. {time} 0930 Even worse, Mr.…”