The Rubio-McConnell "Republican" Congress

Why not ask all the presidential candidates if they support this...

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The Financial Times reports that officials “from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are heading to Azerbaijan to discuss a possible $4 billion emergency loan package in what risks becoming the first of a series of bailouts stemming from” tumbling world oil prices.

Not surprisingly, other corrupt, oil-cursed countries have caught the whiff of “free” money and are getting in line to seek their own IMF bailouts. They include Iraq, Ecuador, and economic basket case Venezuela, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. Bloomberg reports an IMF forecast of inflation hitting 720 percent in Venezuela in 2016. Actually, that’s not inflation—that’s verging on hyperinflation.

Where did all that new IMF cash come from?

From U.S. taxpayers, of course.

Well, about 20% of it, anyway (about $62 billion, or 40.9 billion “Special Drawing Rights” [SDRs] in IMF-speak), thanks to the little-noted inclusion of an “IMF Reform Package” that was tucked into the gigantic omnibus appropriations bill that Congress passed just before Christmas.

* THAT THE "REPUBLICAN" CONGRESS PASSED...

* THAT HOUSE SPEAKER PAUL RYAN SUPPORTED...

* THAT SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL SUPPORTED...

* AND MAKE NO MISTAKE, MY FRIENDS; MARCO RUBIO IS THE REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT'S "PLAN B" NOW THAT BUSH IS TOAST. RYAN AND MCCONNELL ARE SALIVATING AT THE IDEA OF GETTING RUBIO INTO THE WHITE HOUSE. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW IN ORDER TO KNOW THAT RUBIO IS NOT THE GUY ANY OF US SHOULD WANT ANYWHERE NEAR THE OVAL OFFICE?

Lending to countries as badly governed as Ecuador and Venezuela could just enable them to go further into debt. That’s known as moral hazard.

This is what happened when the IMF bailed out Greece in 2010 — without any conditions to force the Greek government to end profligate spending and make other reforms.

(The IMF itself has conceded “notable failures” in its first Greek bailout. It was the first, by the way, because it led to two more bailouts.)