A recent editorial in the Times-Union discussed the Global Poverty Act sponsored by Senator Barack Obama. Gary Gerard's column is based on information from Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid. Accuracy in Media is a conservative organization whose founder once described Walter Cronkite as a "Soviet Dupe." I found the following clarifications regarding this legislation at MediaMatters.Org Although MediaMatter.Org is admittedly a progressive Web site, these clarifications speak to the facts of the legislation, not opinions or lies.
In a Feb. 12, 2008, column by Kincaid, he falsely asserted that the Global Poverty Act, sponsored by Senator Obama, "would commit the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid, which amounts to a phenomenal 13-year total of $845 billion over and above what the U.S. already spends." The column also included Kincaid's false statement that the bill "could result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States." In fact, the bill does not impose a tax on the United States or allow any other body to impose a tax. In his column, Kincaid further falsely asserted that the legislation "makes levels of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations."
While the Global Poverty Act would proclaim that "[i]t is the policy of the United States to promote the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day," the act would establish no specific funding source, would not commit the United States to any targeted level of spending, and specifically would require the president - not the United Nations - to "develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day." The Global Poverty Act directs the president, acting through the secretary of state, to develop a strategy to meet the goal of reducing poverty. It also states that strategy "should include" among its components "[i]mproving the effectiveness of development assistance and making available additional overall United States assistance levels as appropriate," but it does not require that foreign aid be increased or mandate a funding level for foreign assistance.
The Global Poverty Act is a bipartisan piece of legislation co-sponsored by Indiana's own Senator Richard Lugar. I am proud to be part of a country where intelligent people in both parties agree that how we care about the least among us represents the truth of who we are.
For more information, the legislation sponsored by Senator Obama is S. 2433 Global Poverty Act of 2007 and can be found at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-2433
Lisa Rector
Warsaw, via e-mail
Note: While the bill itself makes no mention of money, it does seek the "achievement of the Millennium Development Goal." Further, the bill defines Millennium Development Goal as "goals set out in the United Nations Millennium Declaration," UN General Assembly Resolution 55/2 of 2000. The commitment to provide 0.7% of gross national product (GNP) as official development assistance was first made 35 years ago in a U.N. General Assembly resolution, but it has been reaffirmed repeatedly over the years, including at the 2002 global Financing for Development conference in Monterrey, Mexico. In 2004, total aid from the industrialized countries totaled just $78.6 billion -or about 0.25% of their collective GNP. The source for this is the Millennium project itself: http://mirror.undp.org/unmillenniumproject/press/qa4_e.htm
World-renowned economist and Harvard PhD. Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet professor of sustainable development, and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University. He also is director of the UN Millennium Project and special advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. He has estimated that the U.N. plan would add $65 billion to what the U.S. already spends. Over a 13-year period, the cost would be $845 billion. That's where the cost estimate comes from. For the sake of brevity in my column, I failed to provided the above documentation, instead using Kincaid's analysis, which I deemed to be accurate. I hope this assuages the letter writer's concerns.
