I just couldn’t let this one go…
Andy McCarthy of The National Review, in the midst of another gross distortion of the Global Poverty Act, describes the funds that the United States could contribute to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as money that would be “flush[ed] down a UN sink-hole.” Mark has already thoroughly debunked the utterly baseless rationale on which McCarthy’s attack relies, but let me just emphasize the perversion of so rabidly opposing — and even mocking — a bill that will help bring hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
The Global Poverty Act calls for the United States to increase its contribution to foreign aid, which currently stands at a meager 0.18% of our Gross National Product — the second-lowest proportion among developed countries. This assistance is geared toward meeting the MDGs that nations — including the United States — agreed to in 2000. The MDGs, among other ambitious endeavors, aim to halve the number of people living on less than $1 a day — currently 1.4 billion — by 2015.
If contributing to the goal of improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people in poverty is a “flushing” money down a “sink-hole,” then it’s certainly the most worthy sink-hole I’ve encountered. Let’s flush away.