Global Poverty Act - Nov. 13

The U.S. Senate will be debating passage of the Global Poverty Act, a bill that is supported by both President-elect Obama and by Vice President-elect Biden.

This bill will cost the US taxpayers an estimated $845 billion dollars if enacted, that is billion with a B! The taxpayer money will go to third world dictatorships in what would be a re-enactment, on a world scale, of the 1960's failed War on Poverty program which was launched during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson. That program expanded the size and scope of the federal bureaucracy, congtributed to social ills such as crime, drugs, and the disintigration of the family, encourages dependency, and turned poverty itself into an institution and a cottage industry for the public sector.

The American people are the most charitable people on earth. We are committed to alleviating poverty, hunger, and disease in the third world. Throwing money at the problem not only failed in America but actually perpetrated many of the social ills that caused the poverty in the first place. Why would such an approach work for dictatorships in which small and corrupt oligarchs control most of the wealth and property?

If we really want to help the third world, we would directly invest in the development of small private business, industry, and institutions fundamental to freedom such as private property and groups that promote constitutionally based governments and free elections. We ought to demand that certain standards are met in the third world before we invest our hard earned money into these countries. That way, we can know that the money is actually going to people who need it and we will get a return on our investment by promoting freedom oriented allies that we could trade with.

Let's not just hand our money over to countries unless we get something in return which is a guarantee that we are fostering freedom and prosperity. As the Bible says, "you can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, you can teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."