Jim Saxton: “as chair of the Joint Economic Committee, sometime ago I began or the Joint Economic Committee began a review of a…”

“as chair of the Joint Economic Committee, sometime ago I began or the Joint Economic Committee began a review of a proposal which came to us from the International Monetary Fund through the Treasury of the United States. Secretary Rubin, in essence, passed along the request of the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, for an appropriation of $18 billion to, in their words, permit the IMF to continue their work. It is interesting, Mr. Speaker. The IMF, which was established in 1945, over the years since 1945 has had a total, a quota appropriated to it, of about 36 billion U.S. dollars. So one might ask why it would be that the IMF would come to us today and in one lump sum request the appropriation of $18 billion, a 50 percent increase in 1 year over what they have had over the past 50-some odd years? So we began to look at this as a very serious matter. This is $18 billion of U.S. taxpayers' money that would be used for purposes around the world; for perhaps good purposes, in some instances, and perhaps for questionable purposes in other instances; but $18 billion, billion with a B, of U.S. taxpayers' funds.”