Did I Read This Right? DeWine Wants to Give Away More of Our Tax Money?

From the Heritage Foundation:

As the Senate attempts to clear its docket of unfinished bills, the chamber’s Leadership seeks to bring S. 1320, the Multilateral Debt Relief Act of 2005, to a vote. The bill’s sponsors believe that heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) bear too huge a debt burden to spark growth and leave poverty behind while paying back their multilateral lenders. Their bill would relieve debt and provide more resources for future aid programs. Experience, however, shows that debt relief and aid alone will not put countries on the path to prosperity. The Senate should instead focus on promoting good government, the rule of law, and economic freedom—the real keys to growth.



Introduced in June 2005 by Senators Mike DeWine (R-OH), Rick Santorum (R-PA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Dick Lugar (R-IN), and Barack Obama (D-IL), S. 1320 authorizes the Secretary of Treasury “to instruct the United States Executive Director of each international financial institutions [IFIs]…to reach an agreement among shareholders [of such IFIs] to permanently cancel 100 percent of the debts owed to each such institution by any eligible country.” In addition, the bill would “compensate” the IFIs, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for the debt payments that they will forgo. With this compensation, the IFIs will have the resources to hand over more money to poor countries and to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.



This approach sends two problematic signals. First, it implies that the United States pardons mismanagement, dictatorship, and corruption—the circumstances that led many countries to pile up their debt. Second, the compensation provision indicates that the U.S. will continue to fund poor countries’ governments regardless of whether government corruption and bad policies are to blame for their poverty.

I just don't see the wisdom in this as TROTUS Portman continues to have problems reigning in the trade deficit. If other countries owe us money, I think we need to get it to pay off our own debts...

What say you?