<link>
Sen. Barack Obama, perhaps giving America a preview of priorities he
would pursue if elected president, is rejoicing over the Senate
committee passage of a plan that could end up costing taxpayers
billions of dollars in an attempt to reduce poverty in other nations.
The bill, called the Global Poverty Act, is the type of legislation, "We can – and must – make … a priority," said Obama, a co-sponsor.
It would demand that the president develop "and implement" a policy
to "cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015 through aid, trade, debt
relief" and other programs.
When word about what appears to be a massive new spending program started getting out, the reaction was immediate.
"It's not our job to cut global poverty," said one commenter on a
Yahoo news forum. "These people need to learn how to fish themselves.
If we keep throwing them fish, the fish will rot."
(Story continues below)
Many Americans were alerted to the legislation by a report from Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media.
He published a critique asserting that while the Global Poverty Act
sounds nice, the adoption could "result in the imposition of a global
tax on the United States" and would make levels "of U.S. foreign aid
spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations."
He said the legislation, if approved, dedicates 0.7 percent of the
U.S. gross national product to foreign aid, which over 13 years he said
would amount to $845 billion "over and above what the U.S. already
spends."
The plan passed the House in 2007 "because most members didn't
realize what was in it," Kincaid reported. "Congressional sponsors have
been careful not to calculate the amount of foreign aid spending that
it would require."
A statement from Obama's office this week noted the support offered by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"With billions of people living on just dollars a day around the
world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and
tragedies the international community faces," Obama said. "It must be a
priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme
poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking
water. As we strive to rebuild America's standing in the world, this
important bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in
the developing world.
"Our commitment to the global economy must extend beyond trade
agreements that are more about increasing profits than about helping
workers and small farmers everywhere," he continued.
The bill institutes the United Nations Millennium Summit goals as the benchmarks for U.S. spending.
"It is time the United States makes it a priority of our foreign
policy to meet this goal and help those who are struggling day to day,"
a statement issued by supporters, including Obama, said.
Specifically, it would "declare" that the official U.S. policy is to
eliminate global poverty, that the president is "required" to "develop
and implement" a strategy to reach that goal and requires that the U.S.
efforts be "specific and measurable."
Kincaid said that after cutting through all of the
honorable-sounding goals in the plan, the bottom line is that the
legislation would mandate the 0.7 percent of the U.S. GNP as "official
development assistance."
"In addition to seeking to eradicate poverty, that (U.N.)
declaration commits nations to banning 'small arms and light weapons'
and ratifying a series of treaties, including the International
Criminal Court Treaty, the Kyoto Protocol (global warming treaty), the
Convention of Biological Diversity, the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention of the
Rights of the Child," he said.
Those U.N. protocols would make U.S. law on issues ranging from the
2nd Amendment to energy usage and parental rights all subservient to
United Nations whims.
Kincaid also reported Jeffrey Sachs, who runs the "Millennium
Project," confirms a U.N. plan to force the U.S. to pay 0.7 percent of
GNP would add about $65 billion a year to what the U.S. already donates
overseas.
And the only way to raise that funding, Sachs confirms, "is through
a global tax, preferably on carbon-emitting fossil fuels," Kincaid
writes.
On the forum run by Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, one writer reported estimates of taxes from 35 cents to $1 dollar a gallon on gasoline would be needed.
"This is disgusting, sickening and angers me to the depths of my
soul," the forum author wrote. "Obama wants us to support the world. I
wonder how they intend to eliminate poverty. Most of the money always
winds up in some dictator hands and in the U.N. coffers."
WND calls to Obama's office, as well as the offices of others who
supported the plan, were not successful in obtaining a comment.
Another forum participant said, "Yes, and we should also eliminate
sickness of any kind and get rid of poverty as well. Then, too, we
should make certain that everyone in the world has equal assets, equal
money, a college education, etc… After that, or maybe while we are
solving all of the world's little problems, we can take care of the
polar bears, eliminate the internal combustion engine, and, and, and…
Oh dear, if only we would just go ahead and do all the things the
dreamers want us to do. Let's stop using oil and burning coal while
we're at it. Then we can make it illegal to be overweight and then we
can. ..."
One forum contributor said since the legislation doesn't
specifically demand "taxes," but instead leaves the mandatory
"implementation" up to the president, "maybe the tooth fairy will leave
[this new money] under the president's pillow."
Kincaid reported several more budget-minded senators have put a hold
on the legislation "in order to prevent it from being rushed to the
floor for a full Senate vote."
The legislation requires the president to do whatever is required to
fulfill a strategy that would result in "the elimination of extreme
global poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal
of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide … who live
on less than $1 per day."
It further requires the president not only to accomplish that goal
but, "not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this
act," to submit a report on "the contributions provided by the United
States" toward poverty reduction.
