Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth: Pence, Trump to cut UN Funding, give it to USAID Instead

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, October 30, 2017: 

First attributed to St. Jerome (400 AD) is “Noli equi dentes inspirere donati” which, roughly translated, means: Don’t look too closely at a gift you received for you might be disappointed. Just be grateful you got the gift. That’s how those supporting the movement to “Get the US out of the UN, and the UN out of the United States” must feel hearing VP Mike Pence speak last Wednesday night. He was addressing the Solidarity Dinner sponsored by In Defense of Christians in Washington, D.C. when he announced that the Trump administration was going to be cutting funding to the United Nations:

From this day forward America will provide support directly to persecuted communities through USAID. We will no longer rely on the United Nations alone to assist persecuted Christians and minorities in the wake of genocide and the atrocities of terrorist groups. The United States will work hand-in-hand from this day forward with faith-based groups and private organizations to help those who are persecuted for their faith.

The Obama administration made a big deal over sending a billion dollars to help persecuted minorities in the Middle East, but routing it through the UN so that little would help Christians:

The last administration devoted well over a billion dollars in humanitarian aid to the Middle East but routed the lion’s share through programs run by the United Nations.

Yet the United Nations has too often failed to help the most vulnerable communities, especially religious minorities….

Here’s the sad reality: the United Nations claims that more than 160 projects are in Christian areas, but for a third of those projects [as a result of the persecution] there are no Christians there to help….

While faith-based groups with proven track records and deep roots in these communities were more than willing to assist, the United Nations too often denied their funding requests.

My friends, those days are over.

(Extended applause here.)

But what’s wrong with using USAID to handle, disperse, and monitor taxpayer monies instead of the UN? Ask Michael Rozeff, a retired professor of finance and a student of the growth of government:

USAID (United States Agency for International Development) announces its theory as follows: “USAID says that its work helps ensure American security and prosperity – arguing that the world is more stable if there is less poverty and strife.”

If the U.S. government props up client states with aid, floods their markets with American agricultural goods, underwrites military purchases, introduces Keynesian economic practices, and provides disaster aid, this is supposed to make the people wealthier and reduce political strife. If the country becomes more indebted to the IMF and World Bank, building unprofitable signature projects, this is supposed to raise living standards, making people content and happy. And all of that improvement, which actually doesn’t happen, is supposed to make Americans more secure and prosperous, a very far-fetched theory.

The first problem is that there’s no place in the U.S. Constitution that allows for the theft of private property to be used as gifts to others who allegedly need it. And for good reason: once government gets involved, money is wasted, officials are corrupted, weak governments are sustained, and precious little filters down to the oppressed people all of this is supposed to help.

Explained Rozeff:

USAID [assistance] is all wrong because government-to-government aid is absorbed by venal governments, propping them up. Inefficient and corrupt enterprises absorb funds that usually cannot be accounted by either by the U.S. as donor or those on the receiving end.

How much better to return those funds to their rightful owners – the taxpayers who earned them – and then let them decide where and how those monies could be used to assist those in need. Each dollar given to private assistance groups would likely generate much more effective aid than those dollars caught in the bureaucratic blender at USAID.

It remains unclear exactly how much will be cut from those agencies, and which ones will be affected. The United States has provided financial support to the UN ever since it was birthed by communists on October 24, 1948, with estimates as high as paying for a third of its operating and military operations costs.

It’s helpful to remember that the communists behind the UN’s creation had a little help. For one thing, the land on which the UN rests was provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. For another, the chief architect of the outfit, Alger Hiss, before being outed as a communist, was head of the Carnegie Foundation.

For four of the UN’s main relief agencies – the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), UNICEF, the World Food Program (WFP) and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – the United States government provides $4.5 billion a year.

But cutting the UN out of the mix is at least a start. Let’s not look too closely at the horse’s mouth. Let’s just be glad we’ve been given a horse.

Sources:

Proverb: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

Quote from St. Jerome 400AD

The flyer from IDC

Conservative Tribune: Trump Pulls UN Funding, Gives It to Faith-Based Orgs Helping Persecuted Christians

Western Journalism: Trump Bypassing UN, Will Send Aid Directly to Persecuted Christians in Middle East

TheHill.com: Pence says US to stop funding ‘ineffective’ UN relief efforts

TheHill.com: Trump officials to offer clarity on UN relief funding next week

Background on USAID

Michael Rozeff: The Theory Behind USAID Is Wrong, and the Practice Is Worse

Background on the United Nations

Criticism of the United Nations