US cuts funds for UN after ‘null and void’ vote

THE United States has slashed the twoyear budget for the United Nations by $285 million, delivering on a promise to cut spending on the agency after the UN Security Council overwhelmingly denounced President Donald Trump’s decision to move the country’s embassy in Israel.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley hailed the decision to negotiate a reduction to the overall 2018-2019 budget as one of “a host of successes” by the US.

“( W)e reduced the UN’s bloated management and support functions, bolstered support for key US priorities throughout the world, and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the UN system,” Haley said in a statement. “We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked.”

Ahead of last week’s UN General Assembly vote to declare the US decision to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “null and void,” Haley warned in a tweet that “the US will be taking names.”

After the assembly voted 128-9 Thursday to denounce Trump’s decision to move the embassy and declare Jerusalem Israel’s capital, Haley and other US officials promised to revisit the US’s role in the organization, including the size of its financial contributions.

“America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that,” Haley said. “But this vote will make a difference on how Americans look at the UN, and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the UN.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted after the vote: “Given its tendency to be forum for anti-Semitism & anti-Americanism, reevaluation of US role as single largest donor to #UN is long overdue.”

Earlier this year, Rubio introduced legislation to withhold U. S. funding to the U. N. and all affiliated agencies until they stopped what Rubio called “systemic bias and targeting of the Jewish state of Israel.”

Trump also threatened to withhold “billions” in funding from the UN member countries that voted in favor of denouncing the US’s embassy relocation.

“We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” Trump said before a Cabinet meeting at the White House last week. “This isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars. We’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”

Haley’s statement didn’t specify how much of the reduction would come as a result in the reduction of US contributions. According to PolitiFact, about 22 percent of the UN’s funding, or roughly $3.3 billion, comes from the US.