April 2, 2013—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today called on the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade to take up legislation that would begin the formal process of removing the U.S. from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Wilson’s call came after the IMF produced a study calling for the U.S. to implement a $500 billion a year carbon tax on consumers to offset what it calls “underpriced” oil, coal, and other energy products.
This “mispricing” is supposedly leading to “excessive energy consumption,” which is “accelerating the depletion of natural resources” and contributing to climate change.
“The IMF is lobbying on behalf of environmentalist radicals, arguing that not implementing a half-trillion dollar a year carbon tax is a de facto energy subsidy,” Wilson wrote in a letter to members of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade.
The IMF study, published on Jan. 28, states, “Consumer subsidies include two components: a pre-tax subsidy (if the price paid by firms and households is below supply and distribution costs) and a tax subsidy (if taxes are below their efficient level)… The efficient taxation of energy further requires corrective taxes to capture negative environmental and other externalities due to energy use (such as global warming and local pollution).”
Wilson also criticized the IMF for bailing out Greece, Portugal, and Ireland with $86.6 billion of bailouts, which the U.S. has contributed about $17 billion to, and the IMF’s role in levying a €5.8 billion savings deposit tax in Cyprus.
Wilson said the U.S. “should have nothing more to do with this radical outfit,” and called on Congress to reject the Obama Administration’s budget request to double the nation’s quota subscription in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to $130 billion from its current $65 billion level, converting part of the nation’s current $100 billion line of credit to the IMF.
If the Obama request was fulfilled, it would keep the nation’s total stake in the IMF at $165 billion.
“Not only should that request be rejected, but Congress ought to withdraw our quota subscription altogether, along with the $100 billion line of credit,” Wilson added in his letter to the House subcommittee, concluding, “Taxpayers should not be propping up bankrupt socialist states and the banks that fund them, let alone financing the lobbying efforts of radical environmentalists.”
Attachments:
ALG Letter to House Financial Services Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade, April 1, 2013 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/IMFLetter-4-1-13.pdf
“Energy Subsidy Reform: Lessons and Implications,” International Monetary Fund, Jan. 28, 2013 at http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2013/012813.pdf
Interview Availability: Please contact Adam Bitely at (703) 383-0880 ext. 126 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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