Overdrawn at the Bank
The United States has a long and demanding list of reforms it wants the World Bank and the regional development banks to adopt. It is also the only donor that fails to pay its bills.</br></br>Last year Congress cut the administration's funding request so that U.S. arrearages more than doubled, to $850 million. It may cut again this year, while still aggressively demanding change. Its motto for the banks seems to be: "Listen to what I say, not what I pay."</br></br>If Congress doesn't feel the discord in these two positions, others do. Anyone who spends much time at the banks has his or her tale to tell of building resentment and opposition to American-pushed reforms, including from countries that share our goals.</br></br>The empire won't fall over a few insults and failed proposals. If we believed that the World Bank didn't serve American interests or that there were better uses for that money, it might make sense to push and pull back. But, in fact, over decades, few dollars have as efficiently served American economic and political interests, and American values, as have its relatively small contributions - $2 billion proposed this year - to these institutions.</br></br>Funding the banks ought to be a no-brainer on purely selfish grounds, because we get back in procurement contracts for U.S. companies a great deal more than we pay in. Last year the figures were $1.5 billion in contributions and $2.7 billion in contracts. Unfortunately for the banks, the bonus is no inducement because we've been getting the contracts without paying the bill.