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The following is a Counterpoint:

By Robert Flowers

This is in response to the request by Harold Pitts and Rev. Herron for citizens to endorse the Global Poverty Act, S 2433. This bill may sound good, but it is a bad idea.

The bill sets out to meet the United Nations’ Millennium Declaration, which requires nations to contribute 0.7 percent of their GNP to the United Nations. This would place an additional $65 billion per year burden on what the United States already pays.

The United States would be required to sign the World Court Treaty and commit to ban individual small-arms ownership. Further, meeting the declaration would also require the United States to sign the Kyoto Protocol and recognize the United Nations as the “indispensable common house for the human family.” Signing on to the Global Poverty Act will cost the United States $845 billion by 2015. The only realistic way to achieve those funds would be through a fossil-fuel tax, making gas at $4 per gallon look like a bargain.

Americans voluntarily give more to help those in crisis than any other nation. We are the most generous people on earth when it comes to addressing the needs of those affected by natural disasters, famine and diseases, giving freely and often, and doing so without government mandates.

Governments can’t legislate charity, people do. By endorsing the Global Poverty Act, U.S. foreign aid spending would become subservient to the dictates of the United Nations.

Does anyone remember the recent fraud perpetrated in the name of charity by the United Nations and its leadership? Do we not remember the “Food for Oil Program” headed up and managed by the United Nations? U.N. officials looked the other way with their hands out as billions went into personal accounts instead of buying food for those in need. Americans can give our money to those in need with discernment and with a charitable heart. We always have and we always will. Ask your representative to vote against S 2433.

The writer lives in Summerfield.