Does the war bill shortchange the war?

By Catharine Richert
Published on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 5:31 p.m.

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The war spending bill "actually spends more money on the International Monetary Fund than on the war."

Lynn Westmoreland, Wednesday, June 17th, 2009.

Ruling: Mostly False | Details

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Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia says the war spending bill has more money for the International Monetary Fund than the wars.

In an unusual role reversal, most Congressional Republicans recently voted against a war funding bill. Some said they opposed the bill because it had so much money for the International Monetary Fund, a coalition of 185 countries that tries to foster global economic growth.

Among the Republicans sounding off was Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, who wrote this on his party's blog:
 
"We’re getting an alleged war spending bill that actually spends more money on the International Monetary Fund than on the war," he wrote. "We have the ability to bounce back out of this recession, but we can’t afford to pay for a global bailout – we have more than enough bailouts going on in our own country, thank you very much."

We examined Westmoreland's claim and found he was exaggerating the cost .