Just days after the United Nations General Assembly voted on and passed a resolution condemning America’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel (which it has been for decades, whether the U.N. and third-world dictators want to admit it or not), Nikki Haley has shown that when she said that the United States would be ‘taking names’ of those nations that voted to undermine U.S. sovereignty, she was not exaggerating or engaging in hyperbole. She was quite serious, in fact, and now we have evidence. That evidence comes in the form of the newly-negotiated U.N. budget, which includes a cut of more than $285 million from the annual budget of the United Nations. Though it is not yet clear how much of that money will come from savings realized by the United States, hopefully the entire cut comes from the United States’ unwillingness to pay the United Nations more for doing almost nothing of value.
The 2018-2019 budget for the United Nations will be $285 million LESS than the budget for 2016-2017, which stood at $5.5 billion for general operating budget, which is separate from other budgets, such as the U.N.’s ill-spent peacekeeping budget.
All told, the United States sends the United Nations about $3.3 billion a year, which is a bit more than a fifth of their total operating budget for any given year. However, the problem is not that we pay around 22% of their annual budget every year, but rather what we get for that 22%, or $3.3 billion we spend each year. To say that the United States gets nothing would be generous, and outrageously so. In general, the United States gets nothing from the United Nations except for condemnation and vague threats of censure from third-world countries that have no place dictating policy to anyone, let alone their betters. To make things worse, the United Nations is criminally inefficient with their money. As Nikki Haley said, “the inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known.” She continued on to say that the United States “will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked. This historic reduction in spending – in addition to many other moves toward a more efficient and accountable UN – is a big step in the right direction.
The United Nations has very little to show for their spending every year, and for the fact that the United States pays almost three times as much for the UN to continue operating as any other nation on the planet (the second-highest paying member-state of the United Nations is Japan, which pays 9.68% of the United Nations’ budget). Its peacekeeping operations are almost always a farce; the United Nations has not once managed to stop a genocide, slaughter, or any other violent rampage by warlords in the third world. In fact, more often than not, the United States and our NATO allies have to provide the muscle to stop the violence around the world, for which we get nothing but scorn and derision from third-world tin-pot dictators who are given a voice in the United Nations. The United Nations runs many ‘programs’ that are allegedly designed to help improve the life of third-world member states. Of course, this is done by taking money from more affluent nations that are not run like kleptocracies, and these programs are riddled with fraud and embezzlement.
To make things better, in instances of fraud, waste, or theft of funds by the United Nations and its employees, the general consequence is nothing. At worst, employees of the United Nations will lose their jobs for outright criminal actions. More commonly, they are simply shunted sideways to another position without even a slap on the wrist. The United Nations was thought of as a necessity after World War II, in hopes that another World War could be avoided. However, at this point, it seems to have outgrown its usefulness. It is no longer a place that is needed for diplomatic reasons in a world where diplomacy is as simple as an email, and most of its programs like the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are riddle with corruption and could be better and more affordably administered by private organizations. The United Nations contributes nothing to the world, other than giving third-world nations the opportunity to berate their betters. Hopefully, this $285 million cut in the budget is the beginning of much bigger cuts, until the United Nations either begins to be responsible for the money or more thankful for the money they’re given by countries like the United States.
