On the February 14, Rush Limbaugh read part of an inaccurate blog post by Cliff Kincaid on Accuracy in Media where Kincaid falsely stated that the Global Poverty Act, sponsored by Obama, "would commit the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid, which amounts to a phenomenal 13-year total of $845 billion over and above what the U.S. already spends."
Wow, Rush! Thank you! If I had any criticism of the Global Poverty Act (which I don't really), it would be that the Act actually doesn't say that. I WISH it said that and was getting passed quickly. 0.7% of national growth is what I write about and dream about our country stepping up to provide for poverty-focused development aid. But beyond my own dreams, it is actually what our country already committed to providing when the United States signed on to the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. It's not the just audacity of hope that leads Obama and 9 other bi-partisan senators to co-sponsor this bill...it's the audacity to live up to commitments we, as a nation, have already made to the world. The actual Global Poverty Act would put the MDGs into US Foreign Policy and require that the president come up with a strategic plan to support the MDGs and report to Congress about it. No funding, no appropriations. It would require us to coordinate our existing departments to provide better foreign assistance and spend less of Rush Limbaugh's, Cliff Kincaid's, yours and my tax dollars on inefficient practices.
I hope someday we actually get to have the debate Rush was fearing, but we're not there yet...not yet!
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