Obama is known by what he’s done – not so much. Hardly a half year of being the junior senator from Illinois, he started in on being the leader of the most powerful country in the world. And he wants to spend it’s treasure and single handedly commit the US to the UN Millennium Development Goal. This is an effective UN tax which demands that national governments spend 0.7% of their nation’s GDP on fighting world poverty.
How? By spending $845 Billion of your money. Overseas. No longer is is "I gave from my wallet and heart"; we are now past "I gave at the office" and have now traveled to "I gave with my taxes" (which is neither charity nor voluntary).
And that vote is coming up soon in the Senate – this week! Once again, it is time to call your Senators to see where they stand on this legislation. I will call my Senators, Gregg and Sununu, and ask them to vote to kill this ill-advised legislation.
While Obama’s only effort at any kind of legislation be an admirable goal in the philisophical area, it ignores a couple of real factors:
- Americans are the most charitable people on the planet – none of the money that we willingly send to those in need is counted in this fee. In fact, Europeans look down their noses at this largess – so it seems that Obama is more European than American in this regard.
- It fails to realize that much poverty in the world is due to corrupt and incompetent government leaders (more the former than the latter), ignoring the philosophy of private property, the Rule of Law, and free speech (among others) in a true democracy.
From WorldNetDaily (H/T: Jane):
Obama’s $845 billion U.N. plan forwarded to U.S. Senate floor
‘Global Poverty Act’ to cost each citizen $2,500 or moreBy Bob Unruh © 2008 WorldNetDaily
The U.S. Senate soon could debate whether you, your spouse and each of your children – as well as your in-laws, parents, grandparents, neighbors and everyone else in America – each will spend $2,500 or more to reduce poverty around the world.
Remember, this is not charity and this is not voluntary. This $2,500 is money that I can longer direct to charities of my own choice. This is money that I would rather give to my church for overseas work (like the blankets my church sent to an orphanage in Africa this past summer) or to Samaritan’s Purse that helps kids in foreign lands.
This is government deciding that it knows how to do charity better than you do. And we should say "NO"!
The plan sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is estimated to cost the U.S. some $845 billion over the coming few years in an effort to raise the standard of living around the globe.
S.2433 already has been approved in one form by the U.S. House of Representatives and now has been placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar for pending debate.
WND previously reported the proposal demands the president develop "and implement" a policy to "cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015 through aid, trade, debt relief" and other programs.
This has as much chance of success as the Kyoto global warming treaty had in actually reversing global emissions – absolutely none.
And only politicians that do not know better are the marks for those that are moving to hamstring and guilt the West in falling for this WITHOUT the changes in the local government structure and efficacy (but if you notice, that never gets mentioned, does it!)
Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media has 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."
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."
You know, you ought to ASK your Senators that question – Senator, what will this cost me?"
"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.
Again, and admirable goal – but think about this question – WHY is it our responsiblity to tell other nations "You’ve failed in your responsiblity in taking care of your citizens – get out of our way!" I would think that this is unilaterally "cowboy" behavior?
Another critic, however, has been commentator Glenn Beck: ""Not one dime would go to fixing America," the commentary said.
Obama has continued to lobby for such massive expenditures on his campaign stops. During an address as recently as last week, he said, "I’ll double our foreign assistance to $50 billion by 2012, and use it to support a stable future in failing states, and sustainable growth in Africa; to halve global poverty and to roll back disease."
Objections have remained strong. Duane Lester, writing at the All American blogger, warned that the U.S. has yet to be able to win its own war on poverty.
He continued, "Very little. In 1964, there were 36 million Americans living in poverty, or about 19 percent of the population. In the 40 years between 1964 and 2004: … poverty never measured less than 11 percent of the population. In 1983, under President Reagan, poverty registered 15.2 percent; in 1993, at the beginning of Bill Clinton’s presidency, poverty was measured at 13.7 percent of the population. In 2004, under George W. Bush, a president often accused by the political Left as not caring about the poor, the poverty rate declined to 12.7 percent. Still, some 37 million Americans remain poor."
"In addition to seeking to eradicate poverty, that declaration commits nations to banning ‘small arms and light weapons’ and ratifying a series of treaties, including the International Criminal Court Treaty,
the one that foreign nationals have used to attempt to bring our armed forces members to trial for what they beleive are war crimes.
the Kyoto Protocol (global warming treaty),
that has failed to do anything. The Europeans who wanted this? All hat and no cattle as their emissions went up MORE than the US emissions.
,the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child," he wrote.
DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center, warned the over-arching plan includes the ideals of consolidating all international agencies under the U.N., regulation by the U.N. of all corporate environmental issues, license fees charged by the U.N. to use air, water and natural resources, a restructuring that would give hand-picked non-governmental organizations huge influence, authorize a standing U.N. army and require registration of all arms.
In other words, let’s subjugate our sovereignty, the US Constitutition and our rights to that of an organization that is growing more and more anti-American. Give up my rights to a bunch of unelected representatives of despots and tyrants? No thanks.
Call your Senators, and just say "No"!
