Driving around looking for an open gasoline station recently, my eye lit on a bumper strip that really appealed to me: “Save gas — Stay home and read a book.” Instead of a book, I suggest that those who want to read begin with a dry piece of Congressional legislation designed to keep your tax dollars flowing to foreigners while you are having a hard time making ends meet at home.
It’s called the Foreign Assistance Appropriations Act of 1980 (H.R. 4473), and it’s scheduled to sail through Congress this year without any more of a ripple than dropping a Susan B. Anthony dollar into the ocean. Hardly anyone in or out of Congress openly defends the foreign giveaway bill, but, like 01′ Man River, it jes keeps rolling along.
This year’s bill calls for appropriations of $7.8 billion. Of course, that’s a larger appropriation than last year. More than a hundred foreign countries will be beneficiaries of U.S. generosity. Don’t mention human rights; that’s a no-no when we are talking about foreign aid.
Title I of the foreign giveaway bill calls for giving $3.6 billion to the various multilateral development banks: the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank), two branches of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the International Develop- ment Association, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Fund, and various international programs and organizations such as those sponsored by the United Nations.
Because these funds are given to multilateral agencies, the United States has no real control over how they are doled out. Our State Department maintains that there are not and should not be any political considerations in giving away U.S. funds. You are just to pay and pay, without making any judgments about whether the countries enjoying your hard-earned money are pro- or anti-American, pro- or anti- Communist, pro- or anti-human rights.
Your money goes to at least 41 different organizations affiliated with the United Nations and to 43 other international organizations. Of course, Uncle Sam is the largest financial contributor, and of course, Uncle Sam has the least say-so about the policies of those organizations.
Title II of the foreign giveaway bill calls for giving $1.1 billion in bilateral economic assistance to the Agency for International Development (AID). The Economic Support Fund section of the bill calls for an appropriation of $1.9 billion, more than two-thirds of which is earmarked for Israel and Egypt.
Title IV calls for a raise in the ceiling on loans to be made by the Export-Import Bank to a new ceiling of $5.6 billion. Ex-Im has a direct pipeline into the U.S. Treasury from which it borrows at preferential interest rates in order to lend at preferential rates.
During 1978, Ex-Im was borrowing your money at 7.06 percent and extending direct credits at 7.75 to 8.75 percent. “This practice caused Congressman Bill Young (RFL) to ask why we are subsidizing railroad construction at low interest rates in Mozambique when AMTRAK can’t get enough financial support in the United States to keep up standard operations.
Title V provides that none of the funds in the bill may be used to aid the efforts of any country to “repress the legitimate rights of the population of such country contrary to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.” Under the Carter Administration’s flexible definition of human rights, it can be assumed that that provision is merely a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Hunan Rights proclaims that “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.” It’s about time that we assert the human rights of Americans NOT to be deprived of our hard-earned money in taxes for the benefit of foreign countries which hate America, side with our enemies, or deny freedom to their own people.
