Richard K. Armey: “Mr. Speaker, what is this IMF that wants $18 billion of our money? Where did they come from and what do they do? I am…”

“Mr. Speaker, what is this IMF that wants $18 billion of our money? Where did they come from and what do they do? I am shocked and appalled at how little we know about the IMF. We know a little bit about its history, but we do not know a thing about how it does business. We have an international financial institution that purports to manage international markets and commerce, has failed in its originally intended mission, and now intends to self-describe a new mission so that it can become an international deposit insurance corporation. It is run by a French Keynesian, who operates the agency at such levels of secrecy that we have no idea how they come by the decisions. It is alleged by many fine scholars to have been the agency that caused the Asian flu first by forcing the Thais to devalue their currency. It seems to have a consistent track record of opposing tax decreases and requiring tax increases. Now, even for a Keynesian, you have got it backwards. This is the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars. We are being asked by this agency, that operates in secrecy, 'Give us the money, or more catastrophe will come.' Many fine scholars believe that the catastrophe we have called the Asian flu was, in fact, created by the IMF.”