Global Taxation

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Global taxation, according to Henry Lamb, executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization and chairman of Sovereignty International, is "not new. It has been around since James Tobin proposed it in the late 1970s."

In a March 13, 2002, article published by the American Policy Center [1]—Global Taxation Moves Closer—Lamb writes that global taxation "has floated around the edges of world government conversations, but did not really gain much attention until the 1994 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program, then headed by James Gustave Gus Speth, former member of William Jefferson Clinton's transition team and [founder and] former head of the World Resources Institute."

"Speth, and his UNDP actively promoted the Tobin Tax as a way to provide the United Nations with 'independent funding,' free from the constant struggle with the United States, and other countries who could withhold dues payment at will."

"The Tobin Tax is a tax on the exchange of currency among nations. A tax of five basis points (.05 percent) is estimated to yield approximately $1.5 trillion dollars annually - more than 100 times the U.N.'s current budget."

"This tax is being presented as a way to slow or stop speculation on exchange rates. This is a process by which the 'greedy' earn profits that should, according to the proponents of global governance, go to the poverty-stricken developing countries."

"Also proposed, as an alternative, or as a supplement to the Tobin Tax, is a tax on the use of fossil fuels - a carbon tax. This tax is said to be justified to force a reduction in the use of fossil fuels in order to prevent global warming. The revenue it would produce is just an extra benefit of doing the morally-correct thing … or so the propaganda goes."

"While all of these recommendations have been floated by various U.N. agencies over the last decade, this [World Conference, March 18-22, 2002, in Monterrey, Mexico] is the first time they have come together in an official global conference, pursuant to the mandate of the Millennium Declaration. Not all of these recommendations will be adopted and implemented in one step. There is considerable disagreement within the various affected agencies, and among several nations. The disagreement is not about the objective, but about the methodology, and who will ultimately rule the economic roost."

"There was a time when senators said publicly that any effort on the part of the U.N. to secure taxing authority would result in the immediate suspension of U.S. funds to the organization. Now, there is a Resolution pending in Congress calling for U.S. Support of the Tobin Tax (House Congressional Resolution 301)."

"The recommendations contained in this report of the High Level Panel on Financing Development provide for the consolidation of economic power required to finance global governance. This is, perhaps, the most important unfinished step in the process. Once the United Nations has independent financing, and an adequate stream of revenue to maintain its own standing army, it will be the world government that has been the dream of globalists for the entire century."

"Much of the preparatory work done by this group enjoyed the full support of the Clinton-Gore administration. In fact, Robert Rubin, Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury, represents the United States on this High Level Panel. The George Walker Bush administration has not made clear the position it will take on these developments. Signals coming from the White House thus far, are mixed. While opposing the Kyoto Protocol, President Bush embraced a treaty to give the U.N. control over 12 important industrial chemicals - including chlorine."

"The jury is still out on which way the United States will go on the issue of global economic control by the U.N. Most Americans will never know the issue is on the table until after the decisions are made. The media is not likely to address the issue, nor is it likely to be a topic of congressional debate."

"These events are taking place in other parts of the world, with decisions being made by officials who are not elected by anyone. No elected official in the United States has any authority to alter or veto these decisions. The world is moving swiftly toward global governance."

"At this late date, perhaps the only action that could halt, or even significantly slow the process, would be a complete, immediate stoppage of all funds to the entire United Nations system. Before any funds are reinstated, there should be a complete congressional review of U.S. participation in each and every U.N. agency to determine the appropriateness of U.S. participation. Those agencies and organizations whose programs diminish national sovereignty and ignore the basic principles of freedom as set forth in the U.S. Constitution - should be made permanently off-limits for any U.S. officials."

"A review of this type would leave very few international organizations eligible for U.S. participation. American citizens are entitled to this thorough review by elected representatives. For 50 years, the U.N. has been the playground of appointed bureaucrats, with the role of Congress little more than that of a rich and indulgent uncle."

"If Congress does not intervene - quickly and powerfully - it will be too late. If the U.N. gets the independent financing it covets, and has designed in the report of the High Level Panel, the United States will cease to exist as a sovereign nation. It will become nothing more than just another state at the mercy of a world government."

Copied from American Policy Center web article by Henry Lamb.

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