WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House objected Thursday to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s description of the United States as a “deadbeat” donor to the world body. Ban used the phrase Wednesday during a private meeting with lawmakers at the Capitol, one day after he met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Ban’s “word choice was unfortunate,” given that the U.S. is the largest contributor to the United Nations. The United States pays 22 percent of the organization’s nearly $5 billion operating budget but is perennially late paying its dues.
Asked whether Ban should retract his comment, Gibbs said some recognition by Ban of the U.S. role would be appropriate.
“I think given the contribution that the American taxpayer makes, I do think it would be appropriate to acknowledge that role,” Gibbs told reporters at his daily briefing.
Ban, apparently concerned about his choice of words, issued a statement late Wednesday saying the U.S. “generously supports the work of the U.N., both in assessed and voluntary contributions.” Ban also said he enjoys “an excellent working relationship with the United States and appreciates the many ways that it supports the United Nations.”
Well that’s a fine way to treat your host!
We could solve the National debt by making those deadbeat “diplomats” pay their parking tickets…Too bad Comrade Barack would never consider such a thing.
You know, the people who posted about the UN’s lack of customer focus have a real point. UNESCO never fails to crap on us every time they hold a meeting – their favorite charge being “cultural imperialism” for the heinous crime of entertaining people too well instead of requiring Hollywood to make us watch Uighur music festivals and documentaries on the plight of the (insert your favorite obscure cultural entity).
Yet the UN has shown a true lack of self-awareness, as when then-Secretary General Kofi Annan and his son were both found to have accepted money and other gratuities from the bankers handling Iraq’s Oil for Food swindle. We have yet to hear an apology from the UN on that score, or really, even a fully-publicized accounting of the matter.
Given the UN’s record for both malfeasance and nonfeasance, it’s remarkable that Ban Ki-Moon has the nerve to criticize what historically has been its most steady financial and political supporter as “deadbeats.” Even more remarkable is the lack of consequences with which Mr. Ban’s attack of verbal diarrhea had met.
I really think our nation has pressing problems at home which demand any funding which might otherwise go to funding Ban Ki-Moon’s jet-setting and his idiotic prating before the press.