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Kissing The UN’s Ass??
Posted by Raven on June 17th, 2005
Sometimes the Administration just annoys me. I don’t understand this. The UN is an impotent, useless enitity and we should not be funding their dumb programs. Many of these so called programs are designed to undermine everything America stands for.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Bush administration rejected a Republican plan to withhold U.S. dues from the United Nations but stopped short of threatening to veto the bill which the House of Representatives may take up on Thursday.
The administration said it would likely support Japan and only one or so other nations for permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council as countries prepare to reform the world body after scandals ranging from sex abuse by U.N. peacekeepers to allegations of corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program.
Pitting itself against some Republican allies in Congress, the administration opposed part of a bill sponsored by House International Relations Committee chairman Rep. Henry Hyde, an influential Illinois Republican, to withhold half of U.S. dues to the U.N. if reforms are not enacted.
“We think this provision is unacceptable,” Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters, saying the bill would undermine U.S. credibility and effectiveness at the U.N.
While the administration did not oppose all of the bill, Burns objected to a portion that officials believed would infringe on the president’s constitutional prerogatives to conduct foreign policy.
Hyde rejected the administration’s stance, saying: “The Constitution gives to Congress the power of the purse, and we intend to exercise it in pursuit of meaningful U.N. reform.”
The United States is the biggest donor to the United Nations, contributing 22 percent of the regular operating budget and nearly 27 percent of the peacekeeping budget.
June 17th, 2005 at 3:12 pm
We’re also their landlord.