A Country Club for the Poorest of the Poor

15700 River Road, Germantown, MD 20874 – evidently an address of the poorest of the poor.  It serves people in the international community worthy of having Americans in rural Georgia, northern Michigan and the backwoods of Alaska taxed in order to come to their assistance.

But the median family income in Germantown is more than $112,000.  And the median home price is almost $500,000.

So what is so special about this address?

It is the address of the Bretton Woods Country Club.  It technically belongs to the International Monetary Fund but membership is open to staff of The World Bank and its sister development banks in Washington D.C. 

Sitting on the banks of the picturesque Potomac River, Bretton Woods Country Club provides an oasis for the highly paid, totally untaxed bureaucrats at these international institutions to unwind.  American taxpayers pick up the tab.

Speaking of the tab, due to the special arrangements which Congress allowed when creating the Bretton Woods Agreements in 1944, the country club itself – like its members – is untaxed.  Montgomery County, Maryland, where it is located, values the property at $51,741,600.   Nearby homeowners and businesses are taxed on their properties at around 1.15% per annum.  

So this property so vital to bureaucrats uplifting the poorest of the poor gets a taxpayer subsidy of almost $600,000 per year.  

Who can remedy this?  Congress can repeal the exemptions in the upcoming budget reconciliation bill.  The President can remove the designation of the IMF and The World Bank as “public international institutions” which would eliminate their tax-free standing.  

However it gets done, American taxpayers should be off the hook for a country club for bureaucrats promoting DEI and the Global Green New Deal.