(Host) Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders wants to block a financial bailout of Brazil that’s designed to prevent the country from defaulting on its international debt.
Sanders says that the United States faces a growing deficit and a $6 trillion national debt. He says the money that would go to Brazil is needed at home:
(Sanders) “And what is particularly ironic, of course, is that most of this money is not going to help the poor people of Brazil, it is designed to help large banks, like Citigroup, that made risky and poor investments in that country. So these banks always tell us how they hate government intervention, want this form of corporate welfare to bail them out. So to my mind, taxpayers – middleclass taxpayers of this country – should not be having to bail out large banks that made bad investments in Brazil.”
(Host) The International Monetary Fund has put together a $30 billion loan package for Brazil. Sanders, who serves on the House Banking Committee, says the U.S. share will amount to about $6 billion. Sanders says Congress can stop the loan.