Here’s an easy savings for Congress: Do not approve new funding for a newly created United Nations (U.N.) agency.
Last year, the U.N. created a new agency to promote women’s issues called simply “U.N. Women.” The U.N. spun off its four existing departments that dealt with women’s issues into this one agency and gave it a bump in status. The director will come right under the Secretary General, similar to a cabinet level position in the U.S.
The previous departments were funded through the regular U.N. budget — of which the U.S. supplies about 22 percent.
But U.N. Women will get 1.4 percent of its $500 million budget from the U.N. budget. The remaining 98.6 percent will come from voluntary funding. For its first year, 2011, that comes to $494 million in voluntary funding.
The U.S. already funds programs that help women internationally, and Americans generously fund charities overseas.
With the creation of U.N. Women, feminists have unintentionally provided an easy savings for the U.S. Our overall dues to the U.N. should rightfully drop by the percentage that had been subsidizing the previous four women’s departments. And there is no good reason, especially during the economic crisis, for the U.S. to initiate new spending for a boondoggle U.N. agency that will promote controversial ideologies.