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Bolton Resists U.N. Push for Global Taxes
August 29, 2005
by Cliff Kincaid
We are in the midst of an orchestrated campaign by U.N. supporters to force the Bush administration to go along with a pro-world government agenda at next month’s “World Summit” at the world body in New York. The script is a familiar one—depict John Bolton, the new U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., as someone obstructing the progress of the international community. The main players in the campaign are the World Federalists, the Open Society Policy Center of billionaire George Soros, and Ted Turner’s Better World Campaign. In terms of the media, Reuters news service, the New York Times and the Washington Post have already opened fire on Bolton. Most recently, Arianna Huffington and Steven Clemons of the New America Foundation have joined the campaign, urging the State Department to bypass Bolton and acquiesce to U.N. demands that the U.S. commit to hundreds of billions of dollars in new foreign aid spending.
What the media have carefully concealed is the fact the summit’s “draft outcome document,” as it’s currently called, would put the U.S. on record in support of global taxes on the American people. Bolton wants those and other parts of the document eliminated.
Two new developments are expected in this propaganda campaign. First, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will release a letter to President Bush urging the U.S. to play a “positive role” in the negotiations on a final document. Second, liberal members of Congress will release a similar letter. The major media will fawn over these developments, leading to more anti-Bolton stories.
The media campaign began on August 17 when Reuters news agency falsely accused Bolton of trying to “scrap” U.N. reform by challenging the document. The very next day, the Citizens for Global Solutions, previously known as the World Federalist Association, Ted Turner’s Better World Campaign, and the Open Society Policy Center announced they were going to send a letter to Bush on this matter and wanted other groups to add their names to it. “A similar congressional sign on letter will be circulated shortly,” they said. They only want Bush to “cooperate” with the U.N., they insist.
Then, on August 25, the Washington Post and the New York Times ran stories by their U.N. correspondents raising alarms about the changes Bolton is seeking in the document. Colum Lynch of the Post accused Bolton of throwing the proceedings of the U.N. into “turmoil.” Warren Hoge of the Times quoted William R. Pace, general secretary of the World Federalist Movement, “which promotes a strong United Nations,” as saying, “It would be very unfortunate and not in the interest of the United States or the international community for the new U.S. ambassador to barge in and undermine an important summit negotiation process.”
Notice use of the loaded words and phrases “barge in” and “undermine,” designed to convey the impression of Bolton as obstructionist.
But also notice the misleading description of the World Federalists promoting “a strong United Nations.” The group openly favors world government, financed by global taxes, and Bolton stands in its way.
It’s unfortunate that the major media have reporters at the U.N. who are either too lazy or too liberal to inform the American people that the draft supports “a solidarity contribution on plane tickets to finance development projects.” This is a euphemism for a French proposal for an international tax on airline travel. The document goes on to say that the nations of the world will “agree to consider further other solidarity contributions that would be nationally applied and internationally coordinated…”
If the idea of global taxes is shocking, it’s only because the Big Media have failed to report that the U.N. issued a 17-page August 17, 2004, report under the title of “Innovative sources of financing for development.” The phrase “innovative sources” is another euphemism for global taxes. The report was approved by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, made explicit references to global taxes, and carried the endorsement of the U.N. General Assembly. This kind of thinking is reflected in the summit document that Bolton wants to change.
The U.N. also prepared a book, New Sources of Development Finance, advocating global environmental taxes and a global currency tax that would affect the international investments of ordinary Americans. One contributor to the book suggests that taxes be collected by national governments and then provided through a “World Tax Authority” under the U.N. system.
In seeking a global tax, the U.N. is demanding that the U.S. spend 0.7 percent of our gross national income on foreign aid. According to Jeffrey D. Sachs, Annan’s special advisor, the U.S. is short by $65 billion each year. Over the 13-year period of time when the U.S. is expected to meet its own “Millennium Development Goal,” this amounts to $845 billion over and above what the U.S. already spends on foreign aid. Sachs favors a global tax to force the U.S. to pay up.
All signs point to a propaganda blitz on behalf of the U.N. over the next several days as negotiations on the summit document intensify. Bolton, who will be depicted by the media as the villain, has been standing firm. The question is whether the U.S. State Department will buckle under the pressure. American sovereignty hangs in the balance.