United for free: U.S. moves to cut UN dues

It seems that nothing this administration does is ever quite out in the open where the sunlight can make it fresh and clean. 

We are now in a covert struggle with some of the poorer nations over the UN tab and how much the U.S. is willing to pick up over the next three years, according to FoxNews.com. The biggest part of the cost is the expenses paid out for peacekeeping activities.

Dag Hammarskjold, the second UN secretary general once said that the UN "was created not to lead mankind to heaven but to save humanity from hell." He was talking about the kind of hell mankind created in Hitler's extermination camps and the creation of the atom bomb.

In a recent article by The Guardian, it says: "The United Nations has saved millions of lives, and boosted health and education across the world. But it is bloated, undemocratic--and very expensive." 

Yes, it's so expensive that in its 70 years has spent over $500 billion. And while it goes to war to promote peace, it has been a bystander through genocide, The Guardian correctly points out.

So whether the Obama administration is being sneaky in deciding if we're going to pay the tab for other nations, the more important question is: do we need the United Nations anymore?

The UN is seen by the poorer nations as an organization dominated by the wealthier countries like the U.S. and much of the West.

And accounting for inflation, the cost of operations of the UN is 40 times higher than it was in the 1950s. Now the poor nations are hoping the U.S. can decrease the UN's "scale of assessments"--a dues system that favors poor nations and even less poorer nations that pay less than their 'fair share' as Obama would frame it. They want the U.S. and other rich nations to pay the difference of what they're not paying.

So the U.S. will continue to pay billions more than anyone else and other rich nations will have additional costs, but not as much as we will have. The Obama administration does not reveal our costs to the public, but it has increased significantly. Our last official contribution amount was in 2010 and was about $7.6 billion, but likely much higher than revealed.

In the process of increasing our costs to the UN, the plan is to quietly reduce the cost to others.

Heck, it isn't Obama's money anyway, right?


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