Bush Criticizes U.N. 'Stingy' Comment

AP via Yahoo ^ | 12/29/2004 | JOHN HEILPRIN

[loboinok]

However, if it were me, I'd say "OK, you're right. As of now, ALL foreign aid is cut off, you a--holes."


I don't remember who, but someone posted on here yesterday that The U.S. should announce that our contribution will match the contribution of muslim countries, dollar for dollar.

Sounds fair to me.

(Now watch the Saudis donate more)

[TeddyCon]

I personally would have much preferred our President tell the world with the same (and his, as usual) amount of class and dignity, that this humperdink punk's comment was not worthy of a response.

[the invisib1e hand]

No such thing as "imperialism" or "unilateralism" when the UN has its eyes on our purse strings, is there? Feaking shakedown artists.

[libs_kma]

"But measuring the generosity of the United States depends on the yardstick. The U.S. government is always near the top in total humanitarian aid dollars — even before private donations are counted — but it finishes near the bottom of the list of rich countries when that money is compared to gross national product."

Just the kind of crap reporting we've come to expect from the Associated Press.

[NCPAC]

Call me stingy, but I thought sending $15 million of OUR TAX DOLLARS for this relief effort was too much. In fact, I think sending any foreign aid, in the form of tax dollars, for natural disaster recovery efforts is debatable, at best.

[jonrick46]

It is interesting how these socialist countries who are affected by the tsunami disaster, seem to care the least about their own people. These socialist spend lots of energy developing more and more ways to extract taxes from which they can line their own pockets. Forget about keeping the roads fixed or have any funds available for emergencies. Forget about warning their own people when in some cases, they had hours to respond. They are in the same league as the U.N. which has a pathetic track record for fixing any problems around the world. All that money floating around is for the life of luxury with caviar and champaign dinners. Let that tsunami come in. It's not worth getting out of bed for with them.

No wonder the U.N. tries to find fault with the U.S. Anything to deflect their own dismal existence.

[KMC1]

Ok so try this one - all future fees for the U.N. we will send immediately to the Tsunami relief...and by the way - how about some real rent on that prime piece of Manhattan property...
Sharper Minds Daily...

[Shqipo]

But if we don't give more, the Sri Lankans will be justified to hate us and support Al Quida! The next 911 will be Bush's fault too... {sarcasm off}.

How Bush doesn't lose his temper and slap some manners into people is beyond me.

[Temple Owl]

ping

[cyncooper]

Andrew Natsios is an impressive and very pro-American person who I've seen give press briefings over the last two days (good thing I surf around as Fox didn't see fit to carry his informative appearances).

Unlike the initial comments the AP reports here, they later get to his real message: The US is the leader in providing aid and we'll come through again like we always do.

He was on Fox today speaking with Chris Wallace (even though they didn't carry the briefings I was pleased to see this) and I do believe he impressed Wallace, too. He flat out said that President Bush is a very kind and generous person--not just with tax money which he realizes comes from the people--but with providing real aid and not just throwing money at it in meaningless amounts without drawing up a plan of action.

I like Natsios very much.

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

"Had it been me, I would have announced the redirecting of U.N. funding fromt he U.S. to aid relief."

I'll vote for that.

Part of the problem here also, is that money donated by USA citizens to charity organizations is lumped together with worldwide donations and not seperated to show how much was given by American citizens. I think in the future when I give I will demand that it be counted as a donation from USA.

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

I would've said;"Maybe Sadaam's moneymen at the UN who profited from the Humanitarian aid the US gave them.... to the tune of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS....could free up some of their ill-gotten gains to help out.....how 'bout it jacques....kofi?"

Does anybody know how much the UN is giving? Are they giving any money? Or are they just sending people to give advise (we know what that is worth).

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

"Every dollar and every life we spend fighting terrorists should be counted, if people must keep count. They end up being another kind of natural disaster."

Another way we could look at this is how much do we spend on disaster relief altogether. I mean, let us add together the money that has been spent from the 9/11/01 disaster, the electrical outage in NYC and elsewhere, the hurricanes in the South, all of the floods, tornadoes, earthquakes etc that happen right here in our country together, I wonder how much that all adds up to and what percent of GDP that comes to. These other events are taken care of almost exclusively by USA with zero help from any other country. Why do our needs not count? Afterall, if other countries helped us more, we would have more available to assist other nations with than what we do now.

[Jackknife]

"But measuring the generosity of the United States depends on the yardstick."

Here's the yardstick the way I see it....The U.S. gives more money in gov't and private funds to aid the rest of the world, hands down. Message to the rest of the world(and Hollyweird):

"Put your money where your mouth is."

[AmishDude]

What great posts! You're a FreeRepublic treasure.

[Mannaggia l'America]

Bush is gonna love signing the bill into law that expels the UN (Useless Nimrods) from US soil.

Wouldn't it be grand if he signed it the day the UN made Bill Clinton Secretary General. :-)

[momf]

Watching ABC's special, I became enraged at Charlie Gibson's remarks. Paraphrasing: The United States gave xx, already surpassed by one companies donation. I emailed a question that I don't expect a reply to: "I would be interested in the amount ABC donated to the relief."

I think those who sling mud should become muddy.

[miner89]

The reason the US government gives a smaller percentage of GNP than other countries is very simple.

In the US the GNP is generated and owned mostly by the people, while in the semi-socialist European countries, the governments own a big percentage of the GNP.

This is also why our smaller percentage is a bigger number, and vice-versa.

[Howlin]

Thank you!