UNESCO, true to form, has voted today to admit the Palestinian Authority as a member. So ineffective was Obama administration diplomacy that France voted in favor of Palestinian membership, and Britain and Japan abstained. U.S. statutes, dating from 1990, now require a full cutoff of U.S. funding, which Congress should insist occur immediately. Should the administration seek changes in the applicable statutory provisions that would eliminate or weaken the funding cutoff, Congress should reject them.
UNESCO has made its decision: It prefers Palestinian membership to American participation. Now let the rest of the U.N. specialized agencies make their choice.
How about for once we follow through and not let the U.S. lawmakers threat to withhold roughly $80 million in annual funding to UNESCO if it approved Palestinian membership be nothing but an empty promise.
DO IT! Don't just take this like we have no power to punish.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePfff. "Statutory law." Be it bankruptcy law, the War Powers Act, what have you, this White House's track record suggests they won't even acknowledge it, and if they're forced to, they'll say they're in compliance and stonewall thereafter.
The Senate will play along, and the House will be represented as simply tying to be "obstructionist" if they push the matter.
("We are the ones we're waiting for," said Candidate Obama. If the usual lefty trolls wish to excuse Obama by references to his predecessor, do keep that in mind.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf we don't cut off the funds then we are no better than the U.N. itself. Remember, one of the reasons for war in Iraq was saving the "honor" of the U.N. (all those resolutions being ignored). Does anyone believe that Obama will cut of funds to protect the United States' Honor?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseas many times as obama has been outsmarted on the diplomatic front is it any surprise? they figure he wont enforce the law and they will probably be right. after all it is for the kids, right??
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI suspect that the public would be largely supportive of cutting off funds to this UN agency, especially when reminded that the law requires it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's past time to abandon the entirety of that corrupt organization.
The US out of the UN.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe UN out of the US.
Well the US administration in Iraq lost 6 billion US$ to corruption... so going by your logic, the US should pull out of the US (and vice versa :-).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOr not:
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOf course, what will happen is that this will be ignored if at all possible. If Congress does act, however, the Administration will decide this is "too important to wait" and will keep the funding going under some ginned up authority, so as to ignore both statute and Congressional will.
Remember, for the Smart People(tm), the rules (and laws) apply only to others.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne hundred and seven countries voted in favor of Palestine, including the BRIC countries, which includes America's banker, China. Your "billion dollar military" is being beaten by resistance fighters in rubber sandals. Your friendly dictators in the Middle East are being toppled. Your "democracy" experiment in Iraq has pushed that counry into the arms of Iran. To put it politely, the US has been "overtaken by events" and is history.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWow. Everything after "BRIC countries" is entirely fact-free.
They constantly say US education is falling far behind, but it's hard to take that very seriously when you see things like this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe State Department announced that funding will be cut per the law:
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It's sad that you have to say "good job" for merely following the law, but good job, indeed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThank you for the cite, David.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNow let's see if the rest of the Obama administration will follow the law.
If not, there will be absolutely no excuse for the Republican-majority House NOT to vote to cut off UNESCO funding.
Are you confident that they will? I'm not.
Not only should the US withdraw its presence AND its money, we should cease funding the Palestinians immediately. After all, nothing focuses the mind quite like impending bankruptcy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHey Mr. Bolton, do your get your checks directly from AIPAC or do you have a different agreement ?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse" U.S. statutes, dating from 1990, now require a full cutoff of U.S. funding . . "
US law hasn't stopped 0bama from unraveling No Child Left Behind, giving backdoor amnesty to illegal aliens or unilateraly changing the terms of the student loan program. Maybe he'll pay the UN via executive order, or use left over stimulus funds that have already been appropriated.
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