Loading...by Patrick J. Buchanan – September 12, 1997
The IMF and World Bank are replacing direct foreign aid
as the back door for the global burglars who are
looting America for the benefit of foreign, and even
hostile, regimes…Little noticed this summer, China, the
greatest persecutor of Christians on Earth, emerged
as “No. 1 Son” of the World Bank, as it raked in $3
billion in loans…to a Beijing regime that uses its hard
currency to buy Russian missiles to target American
warships…China is making its own $120 million loan to
Panama…to buy influence and pay for strategic
facilities at both ends of a Panama Canal that passes
from U.S. control in two years…
There is a saying in politics: If someone wounds you, don’t cry; just be patient, sit by the window and wait. One day, he will come strolling by again.
For Republicans interested in a little payback for the thrashing Bill Clinton administered to them on the disaster relief bill, the hour of payback is at hand.
Strolling by our window is the bill most beloved of Clinton and the globalists: foreign aid!
This year, Clinton asked for a whopping $16 billion, including $3.5 billion for that Exchequer of the New World Order, the International Monetary Fund. The Senate went along, but the House chopped out the IMF money, cutting the bill to $12 billion. Most crucial, the House bill forbids any of the $367 million in “family planning” money from going to any organization that performs or promotes abortions. Primary target: International Planned Parenthood, the driving force behind repeal of abortion laws in Catholic countries like the pope’s Poland and the Philippines, as well as in Moslem nations.
The amendment’s champion: Chris Smith of New Jersey, a conservative of conviction, courage and perseverance, a work horse, not a show horse. For insurance, Smith also tacked his amendment onto the State Department authorization bill, which just happens to contain $819 million in U.S. “back dues” to the United Nations — not a wildly popular institution west of the Hudson River.
Both bills are now in a conference committee, where House and Senate versions have to be reconciled. Smith has warned that if the bills come back without his pro-life amendment, he will rally pro-life, anti-U.N. and anti-foreign aid forces to kill them. Bye-bye, U.N. “dues,” and bye-bye, foreign aid.
Even better news, however, is at hand. Clinton has issued a veto threat: If Smith’s amendment is in either the State Department or the foreign aid bill, he will veto them. As Dirty Harry used to say, cocking his .44 Magnum, “Go ahead, make my day!”
For once, House Republicans have the moral and political high ground in a showdown battle that can rally their dispirited party. For, of all federal programs, none has fewer friends than foreign aid. Populists despise it; fiscal conservatives detest it. Nobody is for it, except the beneficiaries and their peanut galleries. As for Smith’s amendment, even some “pro-choice” congressmen feel that tax dollars ought not be used to promote “surgeries” that millions of their countrymen believe entails the bloody slaughter of an unborn baby.
Can one imagine a better battle for Republicans than to be seen as standing against foreign aid for killing unborn children? Let Clinton hold as many press conferences as he wishes to demand a foreign aid bill that promotes abortion and sends a billion bucks to the U.N. bureaucrat who succeeded Boutros Boutros-Ghali. The House stand in cutting out the IMF money is also critical. For the IMF and World Bank are replacing direct foreign aid as the back door for the global burglars who are looting America for the benefit of foreign, and even hostile, regimes.
Little noticed this summer, China, the greatest persecutor of Christians on Earth, emerged as “No. 1 Son” of the World Bank, as it raked in $3 billion in loans in 1996. It is estimated that 7 percent of outstanding World Bank loans have gone to a Beijing regime that uses its hard currency to buy Russian missiles to target American warships. And as U.S. taxpayers guarantee World Bank loans to China, China is making its own $120 million loan to Panama, at 3 percent interest, to buy influence and pay for strategic facilities at both ends of a Panama Canal that passes from U.S. control in two years.
Beijing’s World Bank buck-raking is the icing on the cake for a crowd already rolling in cash, thanks to its privileged trade status voted annually by big business conservatives. Last year alone, Beijing, which imposes tariffs and VAT taxes near 40 percent on all U.S. imports, ran a trade surplus with the United States of $40 billion. As of April, Beijing had $52 billion in U.S. Treasury securities in its vaults. According to CNN’s Bill Dorman, Hong Kong’s $44 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds and bills has now passed to China, whose pile must be near $100 billion.
What does this mean? In 1997, U.S. taxpayers will send $7 billion in cash interest to the true heirs of Chairman Mao whose brutalization of Tibetans and Christians, and whose missiles sales to Iran, are the daily fare of our front pages. It’s Mr. Smith vs. Mr. Clinton this fall. Whose side are you on?