How much does the UN cost us?????

[j]

this was an eye opener from "Millions of Americans" Website.
Un******* believable.

1.8 BILLION TAX DOLLARS -- $1,800,000,000.00!

That's how much we spend each year in annual dues payments
to the United Nations.

What's worse, there are also the "voluntary payments," which
in some years exceed our dues payments. Between 1992 and
1997, we gave the U.N. an additional $11 BILLION. In total,
we pay an estimated 25 percent of all U.N. expenses.

And what do we get for these tens of billions of dollars?

We provide a platform for nations who despise us! We are
giving a voice to nations that oppose our American values of
democracy, justice, free enterprise, privacy and private
property rights!

In short, your tax dollars are paying for a rag-tag
collection of dictators and socialists to propagandize and
work against our security and economic interests.

What is the thanks that we get for the generations of
Americans who fought in the trenches of France during World
War I and stormed the shores of Normandy, as well as died to
defend freedom in countless other places around the world?

The thanks we got, as we prepared to disarm a dictator who
had invaded his neighbors and murdered thousands of his own
citizens, was blistering criticism, NO votes, and multiple
veto threats!

The U.N. not only won't stand behind their own resolutions,
they fought against having us do that for them!

In addition to spending our tax dollars to thwart American
interests around the world, the United Nations is ripe with
waste, fraud and abuse. Let me give you just three examples
of the massive waste of our tax dollars:

* In Somalia, $369,000 was paid for fuel distribution
services the contractor never provided.

* A project director of the UN Relief and Works Agency,
which helps Palestinian refugees, kept $100,000 of agency
money in his private bank account.

* In Nairobi, a member of the UN Center for Human
Settlements arranged loans worth $98,000 for a company of
which she had been a partner and with whose director she was
"closely associated."

The list goes on and on! By slashing our U.N.
funding, we could improve America's security at home and
abroad, reduce the soaring federal deficit, pay for tax cuts
to stimulate the economy, or wire the funds directly to
Baghdad to pay for the reconstruction of Iraq!

[JetMaxx]

It makes me sick j..and angry

And for all our money the UN takes, we get about as much respect in return as a dead skunk on the side of the highway

[WidreMann]

Well, the government is mostly funded by the rich (that's right), and what do they get? Not a government that supports their policies...no, wait, they do, especially that Bush is in office.

The UN wasn't created to be an arm of the US, although it actually for the most part is. Similarly, the US government wasn't created to be an arm of the people who do most of the funding. The UN was created to carry out specific goals, which may or may not at times be the same goals that the US has. We have absolutely no right to assume that they should do every single thing we want them to any more than it would be right for the top tax payers to dictate what the US government does to the exclusion of everone else. But hey, might makes right, right?

[j]

Somehow I just knew that WidreMann would come to the defense of the UN while sneaking in some Bush bashing. I'm speechless..........

I thought about this for a few while I did some work, and let me add this:

I think the US should get out of the UN. It is a joke and the #1 waste of our tax dollars. The UN does absolutely nothing for the US. We could, perhaps, have a token representative there, but the funding should stop or at least be drasticly reduced. The good people of the US could do far more good if the government would let us keep more money by increased tax cuts, and let us fund deserving private aid organizations.

OK Widremann....rip away!!

[chadtm80]

Well, the government is mostly funded by the rich (that's right), and what do they get? Not a government that supports their policies...no, wait, they do, especially that Bush is in office.

The UN wasn't created to be an arm of the US, although it actually for the most part is. Similarly, the US government wasn't created to be an arm of the people who do most of the funding. The UN was created to carry out specific goals, which may or may not at times be the same goals that the US has. We have absolutely no right to assume that they should do every single thing we want them to any more than it would be right for the top tax payers to dictate what the US government does to the exclusion of everone else. But hey, might makes right, right?

*sigh

[WidreMann]

I'm still not entirely sure why we think the UN should do everything the US dictates. That's like having New York or California dictate the policy of congress in general. We are part of the UN, and not the UN. Who cares if we give the most money to it. California gives a larger portion of money to the government than other states.

[wx247]

I think we should just get rid of all taxes period.

No... seriously... while the UN is not the best friend to the US and while we might want to examine cutting some of our money to them, I think that it is still important that we be there. Why? Because we need the right to excercise our veto power as well. The second we leave there will be those who will start passing resolutions and lifting sanctions, etc. I think we would find ourselves in an even more dire situation.