Posted on 05/21/2005 1:04:18 AM PDT by RWR8189
The US Congress is on a collision course with the United Nations by threatening to cut its annual budget by tens of millions of pounds, which would disrupt its work on the ground. Henry Hyde, the Republican chairman of the house international relations committee, is circulating an 80-page draft bill suggesting cuts to UN programmes congressmen regard as inefficient or worthless.
Republican senators have waged a long campaign against the UN, much of whose work they oppose on ideological grounds. Their case has been aided by recent scandals, ranging from sex abuse by UN peacekeepers in Africa to the mishandling of the Iraq oil for food programme.
A UN spokesman yesterday described the prospect of a budget cut as "worrying" and recalled problems created in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the last time Congress implemented such cuts. The US is the single biggest contributor to the UN, paying about 22% of the total budget, with Japan second on 19.5%.
Mr Hyde's United Nations reform bill of 2005 proposes that the UN implement various reforms and that failure to do so will result in a 50% budget cut. The bill targets programmes, including the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, which the Israeli government has been campaigning against.
The draft bill, a leaked copy of which the Associated Press news agency published yesterday, also targets the New Partnership for Africa's Development, a scheme championed by Tony Blair that seeks to re ward good governments with increased aid.
Mr Hyde told a congressional hearing: "No observer, be they passionate supporter or dismissive critic, can pretend that the current structure and operations of the UN represent an acceptable standard."
Copies of his draft have been sent to the Democrats and UN officials. UN officials will be hoping the draft bill runs into insurmountable obstacles in the House of Representatives and Senate or is watered down during its passage.
The White House does not want to alienate Europe with UN budget cuts. But George Bush is unlikely to defy his own party by vetoing the bill.
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has put forward a series of proposals for discussion by the general assembly in September that would amount to the biggest over haul since the foundation of the organisation in 1945.
But most of these reforms are not the same as those being sought by Republicans. The bill proposes that 18 programmes should no longer be paid from the general budget but attract funding from individual countries or collapse for lack of support.
The general assembly meeting threatens to be a fraught session. The chances of success, according to diplomats based at the UN, are 50-50.
UN staff had hoped that a final report by Paul Volcker on the oil for food programme would be published in June, and the row dealt with then.
But UN staff said yesterday the timetable is slipping and the report might now be published in September, threatening to overshadow the general assembly and Mr Annan's proposed reforms.
If I wanted our money paid to organized crime, I'd rather give it to the Mob. At least they're Americans.
Only 50%??
Let the Titanic (U.N.) hit its own iceburg without the help of the U.S. taxpayer!
The corrupt cancer of the UN should be excised from our country. Let them go to France where all the other tyrants go.
At the very least, we desperately need to send John Bolton to the UN, their worst nightmare because he's not just another striped-pantsed patsy looting the US treasury to buy "friends".
By the way, The Guardian's reference to "sexual abuse" should be "child rape" by UN thugs in Africa. The truth, a stranger to the Guardian, is ugly.
The House might... but the Senate will decline and instead, prostrate themselves for an internal-probe.
RE alienating Europe.
That is like saying that cutting the allowance of a juvenile delinquent son will make his friends upset.
The less money the UN is given the less chance that babies will be murdered or raped.
That sounds good to me.
They also managed to note that
"The bill targets programmes, including the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, which the Israeli government has been campaigning against...and.. targets the New Partnership for Africa's Development, a scheme championed by Tony Blair."
So apart from cutting funding across the board, they worry about being in agreement with the 'evil Zionists' and embarrassing our only friend in or near western europe: one time each.
The Senator has not gone far enough researching the waste and ineptness of Kofi Annan's Manhattan Kingdom...(another UN boondoggle at Turtle Bay)
Sunday May 29, 2:46 AM
Pseudo-humanitarian Hypocrisy personified: Kofi Annan
"Annan urges rapid action on Darfur after 'heart-wrenching' visit"
Excerpt from http://sg.yahoonews.com
"AUDIT THE UN."
No one can audit the UN - It is unaccountable.
The UN supports MEETINGS and REPORTS, and MEETINGS and REPORTS, and MEETINGS af ininitum. Silk-suited UN members dine on fine epicurean feasts and enjoy pristine bottled water while people in the Sudan have suffered for YEARS from starvation, displacement, upheaval, death and they have no water sources!
Who is outraged by this?
http://www.getusout.org/ http://www.moveamericaforward.org/?Page=Petition
http://www.db-bis.net/operationamerica/UN.html
http://www.db-bis.net/operationamerica/UN.html
Some related links:
http://www.getusout.org/
http://www.moveamericaforward.org/?Page=Petition
http://www.db-bis.net/operationamerica/UN.html
What work?
Certainly someone at FR can fill me in.
Right?
I wish I were there, however my lawn in Minnesota needs to be cut so travel is out of the question fro me. ; )
Is "Guido" an American name?
Cut needs to be higher definitely!
Snort. That's bloody ALL of them.
But if we're gonna fund any of it, we dang well need to AUDIT the whole dang place first. There have NEVER been ANY outside audits of the UN.
Hyde, start with an audit.
It is in New York.
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