Let’s have DOGE start here—taxpayers subsidizing swank country club memberships for World Bank and International Monetary Fund staffers in D.C.

According to an exclusive report from the New York Post yesterday,

Staffers at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank raking in six-figure, tax-free salaries at both global bodies qualify for free memberships at the Bretton Woods Recreation Center in Maryland, according to documents obtained by The Post.

Stiff initiation fees at the IMF-owned course — which range from $12,000 to $20,000 — are automatically waived for all employees on the payroll of the two institutions, according to the documents, which are not in the public domain.

Now, how are those membership fees effectively subsidized? Well, the U.S. taxpayer has “financial commitments” to the World Bank and the IMF numbering into the hundreds of billions, and American tax dollars (and debt) remain the top “contributor” to both institutions. Here’s this, from a Congressional Research Service report released in May of this year:

The IBRD’s total capital is $318 billion. Most of the capital is guarantees from donor countries (‘callable’ capital, $296 billion) and a smaller portion has been paid to the IBRD by donor countries (‘paid-in’ capital, $22 billion). The United States has the largest financial commitment to the IBRD, accounting for 16.64% of total IBRD resources. U.S. callable capital is $52.9 billion and U.S. paid-in capital is $3.7 billion.

(The IRBD is one of two major “lending” institutions run by the World Bank.)

And, from a CRS report released in 2022 on the IMF’s financial structure:

The United States contributes $117 billion to the IMF quota (17.46%). In addition, the United States has contributed $44 billion to funds at the IMF that supplement quota resources.

These groups have so much money floating around—thanks to you and me—that they can afford to purchase ritzy golf courses, and offer the perk of a “free” annual membership with a price tag that runs somewhere between $12k and $20k to any staffer that collects a paycheck from both the World Bank and the IMF. According to the NY Post piece, around “80%” of the club’s 1,300 members (roughly 1,040 individuals) are taking advantage of the deal. The other 20% are the charity project “general public” cretins with enough money to make their presence tolerable:

They [the club] boast of preventing too many members of the general public from joining to ‘maintain the integrity’ of the posh venue, which is 22 miles from downtown Washington DC, as an exclusive networking club.

Gross, gross, gross—is that DOGE tipline up and running yet?

Image generated by AI.