Posted on 12/22/2003 7:32:21 PM PST by Conservomax
Many politicians seem to think that the answer to every alleged problem is higher taxes. Howard Dean, for instance, has said he would repeal the Bush tax cuts -- even though this would boost the average family’s tax burden by nearly $2,000.
This initiative sounds radical, and it is. But some proposals out there are even worse.
The United Nations, for instance, wants to create an International Tax Organization (ITO) that would have the power to interfere with national tax policies.
This crazy idea first surfaced two years ago in a report from the world body’s “High-Level Panel on Financing for Development.” Since then, the U.N. has been working to turn it into reality. For instance, U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan recently called for the creation of a global tax commission. But no matter what it’s called, an international bureaucracy with power over tax policy would be an assault on American sovereignty.
An international tax organization, of course, would mean higher taxes and bigger government. Indeed, U.N. officials have been quite open about their intentions. The chairman of the U.N. panel that first endorsed the creation of an ITO said that it would “take a lead role in restraining tax competition.” According to this mentality, it’s unfair for America to have lower taxes than places such as France and Germany, especially if it means that jobs and investment flee Europe’s welfare states and come to America.
For all intents and purposes, the U.N. wants to create an “OPEC for politicians.” Governments would conspire to keep taxes high, and countries with free-market tax systems -- such as the United States, Switzerland, Ireland and Hong Kong -- would be targeted for persecution.
The U.N. also wants the power to levy its own taxes. The original report looked at two options, a tax on currency transactions and a tax on energy consumption. Both of these proposals would hit America hardest. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. In the past, the U.N. has endorsed new taxes on the Internet, including a tax on e-mail. Again, the U.S. economy would pay the lion’s share if this reckless idea took effect.
But the prize for the worst U.N. idea probably belongs to the proposal to give governments permanent taxing rights over emigrants. You see, the U.N. thinks it’s unfair when talented people leave high-tax socialist nations and move to places such as America. But since even the U.N. realizes it would be unacceptable to prohibit emigration, the bureaucrats are instead proposing to let governments tax income earned in other nations.
This scheme is a direct attack on American interests because of our high levels of immigration -- particularly the well-educated portion of the immigrant population. For instance, if a doctor from the Caribbean moves to America, his home government would get to tax income he earns here. If a Chinese entrepreneur moves to Silicon Valley, the Chinese government would get to tax his U.S. income.
Foreign-born workers in the United States, including both citizens and resident aliens, earn nearly $600 billion each year. Imagine the damage if foreign governments could tax that income. Even if they imposed only a 15 percent tax rate, foreign governments could drain nearly $100 billion from our economy.
There is an understandable temptation to dismiss these U.N. proposals as silly. After all, the United States can veto any bad initiatives. But this passive approach is a mistake. What would happen, say, if Howard Dean were president when the U.N. was voting whether to create an International Tax Organization? Could we trust him to veto this nutty scheme?
Another reason we should worry: The U.N. is just one of several international bureaucracies working to undermine fiscal sovereignty. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) targets “harmful tax competition” and the Brussels-based European Union enthusiastically backs “tax harmonization.”
What’s particularly troubling is that U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for much of this nonsense. We don’t belong to the European Union, but we pay 25 percent of the costs at the U.N. and the OECD.
Fortunately, some members of Congress are trying to address this. For example, Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., has introduced legislation that would end U.S. funding of these bureaucracies if they insist on pursuing policies that undermine America. Bureaucrats at the U.N. and OECD don’t want to risk their bloated budgets and tax-free salaries, so this is a good approach.
Clearly we have to do something -- unless we want to see our tax bills soar
The FIRST question I pose to incoming students each year in my inner city high school Sociology class is: "In all your twelve years as a student in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools has anyone ever said anything GOOD about firearms, or BAD about the United Nations? Sure enough, nothing good about guns or bad about the UN.
I tell them they have been victims of an agenda and one of the major goals in class will be to learn to spot an agenda; anyone's agenda in moments. I also challenge them to look for my own agenda and to challenge it by checking facts (not opposing opinions) outside of the classroom.
I want them to make up their own minds based on their own values and not manipulated by outside forces be they parents, teachers, clergy or whatever. So far, it's a smashing success. I've been doing it fifteen years. Named Teacher of the Year in 2001 for my school.
In Germany businesses pay half the state health care premium for a worker, which is quite expensive. The personal cost plus recent reductions in services provided by the state health care system are the reasons people are now starting to turn to private insurance in great numbers.
Yet another reason for my screen name.
None of this, the UN, the mark of the beast, none of it can be stopped. It's already in motion. All we can do is serve the Lord and try to be as happy as we can be until Rapture.
And yet, the Bible exhorts all believers to fight evil wherever it confronts us. So I'll work and volunteer and vote and if it comes to it, die bloody, before I'll submit. My wife feels exactly the same way. God Bless her.
As long as we have our friends in Church, our friends here on Free Republic and take the time to drink in God's splendor, we'll know we are not alone, either in Heaven or on Earth. Right?
Just like its defunct predecessor--the worthless League of Nations.
Kick 'em out of NY and send them packing to wherever. Enough of the high living for the UN "staff" all on the US taxpayer tab.
No more UN for US-list
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
Too funny. I dare them to try. The end result would be the UN building in flames.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.