Having read the post by Rep. McMorris Rodgers, I thought it might be helpful to post a few words from a statesman with a very different view of the IMF:

The IMF is the linchpin of the international financial system. . . . I have an unbreakable commitment to increased funding forthe IMF. . . . The stakes are great. This [quota increase] legislation is not only crucial to the recovery of America’s trading partners abroad and to the stability of the entire international financial system, it is also necessary to a sustained recovery in the United States.

And who was the lefty who said this? Ronald Reagan, September 27, 1983.

As regular readers around here may know, I am no fan of the EU, the euro, or socialism (a noticeable portion of the increase in public spending in Greece actually took place under an at least nominally conservative government, but why let facts intrude on an entertaining adjective?), but for President Obama to oppose the IMF’s participation in the Greek loan would be an act of truly astonishing irresponsibility, albeit one apparently supported by a section of the post-Reagan GOP.

Speaking of facts, it should perhaps be mentioned that a quick read of Rep. Rodgers’ post might give the impression that the IMF (and thus, in part, the US taxpayer) is coming up with the whole $145bn for Greece. In reality, $105bn of that loan is slated to come from the EU, with the IMF providing $40bn. Of that $40bn, the U.S. “share” (and as the writer of a WSJ piece here shows, that’s not really the right word) is some 17 percent, or some $7bn – a lot of money, but not quite perhaps as much as that earlier post might imply.