U.S. narrowly avoids “globotaxes” — this time

Earlier today, President Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly’s High Level Plenary Meeting that brought together over 170 heads of state to endorse a 35-page declaration – the Draft Outcome Document – that will serve as the blueprint for an overhaul of the world body in the coming years. The President’s remarks rightly tackled issues critical to the America’s security – urging, for instance, the international community to do more to combat terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

Left out of his remarks, regrettably, was an explicit commitment to fight an agenda that is equally threatening to the Nation’s wellbeing – one that for a time was the driving force behind the Draft Outcome Document. But for the last-minute heroics of a handful of champions of American sovereignty, in fact, it is likely the President would have been "AmBushed" at this gathering, as advocates of global government would have achieved their single greatest victory in the 60-plus year history of the United Nations – the imposition on the United States of what the Center for Security Policy has termed "globotaxes."

Fortunately, the fight to preserve American sovereignty was taken up by the President’s extraordinarily able representative to the United Nations – John Bolton – as well as by advocates of American interests on Capitol Hill. In his short time at Turtle Bay, Amb. Bolton’s tireless work resulted in a great victory, refusing to accept specific international aid targets contained in the original version of the Draft Outcome Document that would have allowed international taxes to be imposed on nations failing to meet those targets. And just yesterday, a group of 17 Republican Senators fired off a missive (see below) to Kofi Annan affirming that Amb. Bolton "has the will of the Congress of the United States and laws past and future behind him" in opposing international taxes.

At the same time, determined Congressmen and Senators have begun to take steps toward ensuring that the international community is never able to tax American citizens. In late July, an amendment to the State Department authorization bill introduced by House Majority Whip Roy Blunt requiring the United States to "vigorously oppose any international or global tax" was adopted without objection. Meanwhile, legislation is being prepared by Senator Jim Inhofe that would, importantly, condition U.S. contributions to the U.N. on a U.N. promise not to pursue international taxation schemes. That this legislation will become law, however, is far from certain, and it is of critical importance that the American people convey to their elected representatives their strong opposition to global taxes so that the Senate may act on this legislation at the earliest possible time.

The Center for Security Policy commends Messrs. Bolton, Blunt, Inhofe and their like-minded colleagues for their fortitude in opposing international taxation. The narrow-miss in the Draft Outcome Document was, however, only illustrative of the determination of the U.N. bureaucracy, many member nations and their world government supporters to eviscerate the sovereignty of nations like the United States and supplant it with a world governing mechanism vested in the United Nations and funded by involuntary global taxes. It is time to draw a line in the sand.

September 13, 2005

His Excellency Kofi Annan
Secretary-General
The United Nations
1 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York, 10017-3515

Dear Secretary-General Annan,

We wish you blessings of a good heart on this commencement of the United Nations High-Level Event to discuss internationally agreed development goals.

In finalizing the outcome document, please be mindful of the intertwined history of the United Nations and United States of America with regard to proposals for international taxes and fees.

In February 1995, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) organized a conference in Nairobi regarding such international taxes and fees. Soon thereafter on October 10, 1995, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) held a conference and set up a research project on global taxes.

Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali gave a speech in January of 1996 at Oxford University. In this speech the Secretary General embraced the concept of global taxation and fees, automaticity in international development finance, and authoritarian world government.

Later in 1996, the UNDP research project resulted in publishing of a text entitled The Tobin Tax by Mahbub ul Haq et. at. Furthermore, in 1996 the United Nations Economic and Social Council fully debated global fees and taxes.

Within days of the Oxford speech, on January 22nd and 23rd, 1996, respectively, leadership in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives mobilized to introduce bills condemning United Nations’ involvement in "any effort to develop, advocate, promote and publicize any proposal concerning taxation or fees on United States persons in order to raise revenue for the United Nations or any such agency."

This legislation became Public Law 105-118 on November 26, 1997 in the Foreign Operation, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1998. The legislation was again enacted in Public Law 106-113 on November 29, 1999 in the Admiral James W. Nance and Meg Donovan Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2000 and 2001.

In December of 1996 the embattled Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali lost his bid for another term.

Congressional furor in the United States of America over the Oxford speech and other such efforts to develop, advocate, promote, and publicize international taxation schemes has oft been cited as a significant factor in his lost bid for another term.

Now we once again witness the concept of international taxation and fees rearing its head in the United Nations:

 

Bureau of International Organization Affairs, US Department of State (1999). "UN’s Human Development Report 1999 Raises International Tax Proposal" July 21

United Nations Development Programme (1999). Human Development Report 1999. New York: Oxford University Press.

United Nations, General Assembly (2001). [Preparatory Committee for the International Conference on Financing for Development] Technical Note No. 3: Existing Proposals for innovative sources of Finance, 20 September.

The report Zedillo, Ernesto (2001). Technical Report of the High-Level Panel on Financing for Development. New York: United Nations, that in preparation for the United Nations Financing for Development (FfD) world conference concluded, "there is a genuine need to establish, by international consensus, stable and contractual new sources of multilateral finance," to wit, international taxes and fees.

A "Conference on Sharing Global Prosperity" held in Helsinki on September 6-7, 2003.

The United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research study on global taxation issued on November 15, 2004, saying it was critical to mobilize additional "resources" for internationally agreed development goals.

New Sources of Development Finance, Edited by A.B. Atkinson, Oxford U. Press, 2005.

We observe that your address of March 21, 2005, insists that nations "adopt a package of specific, concrete decisions this year." You advised regarding your report "In Larger Freedom" that, "The temptation is to treat the list as an a la carte menu, and select only those that you especially fancy," but cautioned, "In this case, that approach will not work."

Before we swallow your entire buffet, we advise the chefs to trim the menu of its considerable fat content.

Please know that the Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations John R. Bolton has the will of the Congress of the United States and laws past and future behind him when he states inter alia, "the U.S. does not accept global aid targets of global taxes."

Sincerely,

James Inhofe
United States Senator

Bill Frist
United States Senator

John Ensign
United States Senator

Gordon Smith
United States Senator

Kit Bond
United States Senator

George Allen
United States Senator

Ted Stevens
United States Senator

Richard Shelby
United States Senator

Thad Cochran
United States Senator

Johnny Isakson
United States Senator

Mitch McConnell
United States Senator

Jim Talent
United States Senator

Olympia Snowe
United States Senator

Pete Domenici
United States Senator

Jim DeMint
United States Senator

Tom Coburn
United States Senator

Jeff Sessions
United States Senator