Wahl notes that, in 2004, 115 countries supported a resolution before
the United Nations General Assembly to study international taxes to
finance development. France already has instituted an international tax
on air travel and nine other countries expressed similar interest at a
conference this year on "Innovative Development Financing." Many other
countries are expressing interest in similar measures. Wahl writes,
"...[T]he French initiative has now sparked a new dynamic. A strategy
based on a plurilateral approach is proving successful: starting out
with a 'coalition of the willing,' a lead group is paving the way for
and promoting the project, without first waiting for a universal
consensus to emerge."
While there is a drive for international taxation to finance
international development goals, it's worth asking just how well the UN
is managing the money it now has.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been critical of the lack
of transparency and adherence to sound management principles at the UN.
Thomas Melito, Director of International Affairs and Trade at GAO,
testified earlier this year before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial
Management, chaired by Senator Thomas Coburn, M.D. (R-OK). Melito stated
that "experts have called on the UN to correct serious weaknesses in its
procurement process for more than a decade, including the lack of an
independent process for considering vendor protests and ensuring
selection of qualified vendors. However, recent audits and
investigations have uncovered evidence of corruption and mismanagement
in the UN's procurement activities."
Senator Coburn recently addressed a conference on UN Reform. He said our
country's most important leverage with the UN is our annual
contribution. "It is time that Congress get serious about using that
leverage," demanded Coburn. He was talking about having the United
States forego loaning the UN funds to renovate UN headquarters in New
York City until it instituted transparency in its financial affairs.
That would be a good start at exerting our country's leverage. It must
be taken further given the UN's interest in international taxation.
Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) recognizes the dangerous folly of
international taxation. Fortunately, Inhofe, like Coburn, dares to take
action when others simply sit back. Inhofe has introduced S. 3633, the
"Protection against United Nations Taxation Act of 2006" (PUNT Act). It
would "...require the withholding of United States contributions to the
United Nations until the President certifies that the United Nations is
not engaged in global taxation schemes." Thirty-two United States
Senators are co-sponsors, including leading conservatives Jeff Sessions
(R-AL), Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Coburn, as well as a leading moderate,
Olympia P. Snowe (R-ME). Ben Nelson (D-NE), a moderate Democrat, also
is a co-sponsor.
Wahl contends the United States is a leading opponent of international
taxation. He sees it as a disgrace. Most Americans view such a scheme as
grandiose utopianism. We see the folly of sending hard-earned income to
Washington via our income taxes, only to see it wasted and squandered by
the Federal Government. Now are we supposed to send money to the United
Nations, to a bureaucracy over which we have even less say and which has
proven itself to be even more unaccountable and inefficient than the
Federal Government? Now are we supposed to send our money to an
international organization to which we already contribute 22% of the
UN's regular biennial budget but in which we are regularly outvoted on
the floor of the General Assembly?
The idea that UN officials expect to be rewarded for their incompetent
fiscal stewardship with more money from taxpayers is certainly good
material for the comedy writers of the Letterman and Leno late night
talk shows. Unfortunately, what would appear to be a laughing
proposition is indeed a serious one.
Grassroots conservatives need to start raising the alarm about the UN
and its international taxation schemes. There is no better time to start
than now. Ask your candidates for Congress where they stand on the issue
of international taxation. Would they support legislation to withhold
our contributions to the United Nations until the President has
certified the UN has abandoned any thought of instituting global
taxation? The sooner Americans make clear to politicians that their
knowledge - and vehement disapproval - of UN taxation schemes the
better.
Presidential candidates also need to be grilled about the issue of
international taxation. UN officials have no real regard for our
nation's sovereignty or the concept of "No taxation without
representation." Our American heritage of remaining distant from the
fanciful philosophies and ideas that have wreaked havoc on the rest of
the world -- such as Communism and multiculturalism - is taken by UN
officials as our backwardness rather than our prudence.
If anyone does not think international taxation is indeed viewed
seriously, consider how Wahl concludes "From Concept to Reality":
"Schopenhauer once said: Every good idea goes through three phases. In
the first it is declared to be idiotic; in the second it is bitterly
opposed; in the third it is implemented. As far as international taxes
are concerned, we are presently somewhere between phases two and three."
What Wahl sees as a "good idea" is recognized by many Americans as just
plain wrong. It's really about picking the pockets of American taxpayers
- not to mention those of many other countries - to finance the grand
schemes of UN officials. If the UN is squandering the money it has now,
why should we trust it to spend wisely our dollars collected through
international taxes? Contrary to Wahl, the idea of international
taxation to this American is still in the first stage and will remain
stuck there forever. The way to ensure that it never achieves "phase
three" is to motivate right-thinking Americans to "phase two."
This election year conservatives are dead-right in making clear they
want our borders protected and the Federal Budget balanced. Our
sovereignty is a sleeping issue. There should be no Law of the Sea
Treaty and no international taxation. The UN should reform itself, not
find ways to pick our pockets for more revenue. Let's hope our country
is blessed with leaders who have a similar realization. Otherwise, it
won't only be Washington that causes Americans to complain how their tax
dollars are being wasted as we cede our sovereignty to Big Blue.