December 29, 2008

By Vincent Gioia

Our incoming president has many plans that will drastically affect our country but few are more insidious and far reaching than his legislation to address "global poverty." Obama said "Eliminating global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges we face, with billions of people around the world forced to live on just dollars a day. We can - and must - make it a priority of our foreign policy ..."

While in the senate our president-elect Barack Hussein Obama (it's ok to use his middle name now) joined with RINO U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) to introduce the Global Poverty Act (S.2433). The bill requires the President "to develop and implement a comprehensive policy to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015 through aid, trade, debt relief" and coordination with the international community, businesses and NGOs. Representatives Adam Smith (D-WA) and RINO Spencer Bachus (R-AL) sponsored the House version of the bill (H.R. 1302), which passed the House in September.

The Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Relations (where Sen. Joe Biden sits) approved this plan by a voice vote without any discussion! Why all the secrecy? If Senators Obama and Biden are so proud of this legislation, then why don't they bring it out into the light of day and let the American people have a look at it instead of hiding it behind closed doors and sneaking it through Congress for late night votes.

According to Cliff Kinkaid of AIM, the plan passed the House "because most members didn't realize what was in it. Congressional sponsors have been careful not to calculate the amount of foreign aid spending that it would require."

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 (currently about $65 billion a year) in addition to what the U.S. already donates overseas. The only way to raise that funding, Sachs confirms, "Is through a global tax, preferably on carbon-emitting fossil fuels."

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," he 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."

The following summary is provided by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan government entity that serves Congress and is run by the Library of Congress. The summary is taken from the official website THOMAS. 4/24/2008--Reported to Senate amended.

"Global Poverty Act of 2007 - Directs the President, through the Secretary of State, to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the U.S. foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people, between 1990 and 2015 ..." (emphasis added)

More specifically, the Act would require the United States strategy to contain specific and measurable goals and to consist of specified components, including:

"(1) continued investment or involvement in existing U.S. initiatives related to international poverty reduction and trade preference programs for developing countries; (2) improving the effectiveness of development assistance and making available additional overall United States assistance levels as appropriate; (3) enhancing and expanding debt relief as appropriate; (4) mobilizing and leveraging the participation of businesses and public-private partnerships; (5) coordinating the goal of poverty reduction with other internationally recognized Millennium Development Goals; (6) integrating principles of sustainable development and entrepreneurship into policies and programs."

Though the constitutional encroachment is not explicit in the proposed law, it is really a sneaky way for the United States to sign onto the United Nations Millennium Declaration and its goals which will have a drastic affect on our independence and freedom. The National Ledger defines the term "Millennium Development Goals" are the goals set out in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, General Assembly Resolution 55/2 (2000).[...]"

In addition to seeking to eradicate poverty, through adherence to the Millennium Development Goals, the 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 on Biological Diversity, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. All these treaties involve seriously relinquishing sovereign, and in our case Constitutional, rights.

Under the proposed law, the President is required to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to carry out that policy, include guidelines for what the strategy should comprise - from aid, trade, and debt relief, to working with the international community, businesses and NGOs to ensure environmental sustainability; requires that the President's strategy include specific and measurable goals, efforts to be undertaken, benchmarks, and timetables and; requires the President to report back to Congress on progress made in the implementation of the global poverty strategy.

This legislation is supported by a broad range of the usual suspects including Bread for the World, CARE, Oxfam America, Habitat for Humanity International, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, United Church of Christ, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Borgen Project, United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, RESULTS, and Micah Challenge USA.

Who can disagree with the idea of solving global poverty? However 'The Global Poverty Act' is actually a United Nation global tax that will be paid by American taxpayers. With large Democrat majorities in the house and senate there is a good chance a bill like The Global Poverty Act will be passed and signed by President Obama. The price tag of the bill is quite high; it would require the U.S. to increase our foreign aid by $65 BILLION per year, or $845 BILLION over the next 13 years! That's on top of the billions of dollars in foreign aid we already pay out. Nobody should be surprised at this likely additional debt; the amount of debt the country is already obligated for is absolutely staggering; it can never be re-paid. It is the result of years of incompetent self-serving legislators, failed and corrupt bank practices, loss of the manufacturing base and just plain greed. We cannot print the money fast enough and if additional global warming legislation is enacted, we may soon be burning it to stay warm. Obama's assault on the economy is perfectly timed to coincide with the American recession. Congratulations, Obama!

Arab oil won't be taxed; nor will the Arab oil sheiks. The "obscenely over-rich and decadent capitalist economy" of the United States (in the words of domestic socialists) is the boundless treasure Obama wants to tap.

Obama is so sensitive to Global Poverty that he forgot his grandma or his brother living in a mud huts in Kenya - as he relaxes in his largely donated (by accused grafter and Obama financier Antoin Rezko) mansion in Hyde Park

But despite the huge financial cost to taxpayers, there are even worse ramifications of enacting this law. In addition to the economic burdens this potential law would place on our precarious economy, the bill would also endanger our constitutionally protected rights and freedoms by obligating us to meet certain United Nations mandates. These constitutional intrusions on U.S. sovereignty don't bother Obama; according to Obama, "We should establish these United Nations' goals as benchmarks for U.S. spending."

The Millennium Declaration also affirms the U.N. as "the indispensable common house of the entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal aspirations for peace, cooperation and development." One example of the consequences of this program is that it has helped the Moldavians to write the world's first Muslim criminal code. It is one of the most comprehensive modern criminal codes in the world - modern Sharia Law is a better word. This law will have a "penal code" to coordinate with Sharia law and the Koran. The United Nations is currently considering similar wording in a declaration which would bind countries to not discriminate against Islam and make it a crime to do anything that disparages Islam, Muslims and the Koran.

So far the United States has not signed onto the UN Millennium Declaration but passing something like Obama's Global Poverty Act will give tacit recognition to the aims of the United Nations as it seeks to expand influence over the countries of the world and provide a precedent for future accommodations to United Nation mandates. With President Obama in the White House who can say it will not happen?

Vincent Gioia is a retired patent attorney living in Palm Desert, California. His articles may be read at http://www.vincentgioia.com/ and he may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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