Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
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UN Finance
So...Who Really Cares if the US Pays its Dues
Fact Sheet prepared by the United States Mission to the United Nations
to the United Nations?
"It's high time the United States wiped out its debt to the world body and gave it a chance to show the effectiveness of its recent financial reforms. No country has a larger stake than ours in the observance of law and the standards the U.N. promotes worldwide." - Atlanta Journal & Constitution (GA) 4/30/98.
"Congress ought to pay the more than $1 billion in past dues and assessments owed the United Nations. Not paying weakens U.S. influence and cripples national interests." - Baltimore Sun (MD) 5/1/98.
"Most Americans...do not like deadbeats. Congress's refusal to pay the UN harms itself and the nation." - Boston Globe (MA) 4/30/98.
"We believe that when the United States makes pledges, even if they are unsound ones, we should live up to our word. So the back dues ought to be paid." - Chattanooga Free Press (TN) 3/13/98.
"The refusal to pay its share of United Nations operations...turns the U.S. - the world's richest and most powerful nation - into one of the biggest international deadbeats." - Chicago Tribune (IL) 4/30/98.
"There's no better time than now to catch up on the dues." - Columbus Dispatch (OH) 3/30/98.
"The fact is that the United States has failed to pay its share for the United Nations - an organization that we are responsible for creating and sustaining....to play single-issue politics with it is irresponsible and unworthy of a superpower." - Courier-Journal (KY)4/30/98.
"A White House spokesman called congressional inaction last week on payment of $926 million in back dues to the United Nations "utterly boneheaded." Blunt words, but apt." - Christian Science Monitor (MA)11/18/97.
"The [G-8] leaders should strongly urge Congress to pay its debt and to avoid linking payment to the unrelated issue of abortion funding." - Dallas Morning News (TX)5/14/98.
"It's not in this nation's best self-interest to continue in arrears. It's time to pay up." - Fort Worth Star - Telegram (TX)4/28/98.
"...the United States should pay its back dues to the United Nations not only because it is legally obligated to do so, but also because it serves everyone's interest to have a healthy world organization." - Hartford Courant (CT)1/8/98. "That the world's richest nation is unwilling - though certainly not unable - to meet its obligations is a national embarrassment and an international political liability that undercuts American influence." - Los Angeles Times (CA) 3/12/98.
"Congress should have approved the back dues without strings attached." - Morning Call (PA) 5/4/98.
"There's no question that it makes sense for the United States to pay its way at the United Nations, which plays a crucial role in global security and in furthering U.S. interests abroad." - News and Observer (NC) 4/8/98.
"Speaker Newt Gingrich should understand that I.M.F. and U.N. payments are too vital to American interests to be ensnarled in abortion politics and ought to let an unencumbered bill pass the House." - New York Times (NY) 3/16/98.
"...U.S. nonpayment of dues is indefensible." - Providence Journal Bulletin (RI) 3/6/98.
"...it is a grave mistake for the United States not to honor its commitment to pay its U.N. dues." - Record (NJ) 3/10/98.
"America's failure to pay its bill to the United Nations is a moral stain with practical consequences detrimental to U.S. interests." - Roanoke Times & World News (VA) 3/27/98.
"U.S. should pay its dues to U.N." - Sacramento Bee (CA) 3/8/98.
"The House of Representatives is doing major damage to U.S. interests by blocking funding for the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations." - San Diego Union-Tribune (CA) 3/18/98.
"The United States is the U.N.'s NO.1 deadbeat, a position that only erodes U.S. influence globally." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 3/18/98.
"As for the United Nations, our status as the world's largest deadbeat has become a persistent international embarrassment, straining the international alliance that successfully isolated Iraq after the Persian Gulf War." - St. Petersburg Times (FL) 3/16/98.
"When members of Congress stripped money for long-owed U.N. dues and the International Monetary Fund from its fiscal '98 foreign-operations bill, they were engaging not in foolishness but in an act of careless spite....In the process, they did a lot of collateral damage." - Star Tribune (MN) 11/21/97.
"If Congress doesn't pay the $1.3 billion we owe in back U.N. peacekeeping dues, our ability to influence U.N. policy on vital security matters in such places as Iraq and Bosnia will be diminished." - State Journal-Register (IL) 3/22/98.
"It is outrageous that Congress would stiff the United Nations for nearly a billion dollars in long delinquent dues." - Tulsa World (OK) 5/2/98.
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