This
is why George Washington warned of entangling foreign alliances. In a quiet,
barely noticed session wedged between fiscal fiascos on Capitol Hill, House
members on Jan. 1 confirmed the nomination of Morton H. Halperin to the board
of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Who?
Well,
before answering that, it’s important to understand the basic gist of the Millennium
Challenge Corporation. According to its website, MCC was established in 2004 as
“an innovative and independent U.S. foreign aid agency that is helping lead the
fight against global poverty.” MCC generally takes a carrot-stick approach to
funding other nations’ poverty eradication programs. In return for its reported
$8.4 million in global investments, for instance, recipient nations must show “good
governance, economic freedom and investment in their citizens.”
Sounds
a common sense means of providing foreign aid. After all, why should Americans
pay into nations with anti-American beliefs?
The
problem, however, is that MCC has become basically a cash-cow for politicians to
push their political agendas and foster their own business dealings. In 2010,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – who serves as the chair of the MCC –
signed a $600 million MCC compact with Indonesia to support a “green prosperity
program to improve sustainable management of Indonesia’s natural resources and
support clean energy investments,” according to a statement from Climate
Advisers.
How
exactly does that contribution play into the poverty eradication mission of
MCC? Good question.
“In
addition to the benefits for Indonesia, the focus on Green Prosperity and
reducing deforestation is in the United States’ national interest,” Climate
Advisers’ statement continues. “Primarily because of carbon emissions from
deforestation and peatland degradation, Indonesia is the world’s third largest
emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China and the United States.”
Talk
about spin. But at least you get the idea. MCC money isn’t exactly spent on
pure poverty eradication – at least, in the classic sense most people would see
it, as food aid, or agricultural assistance.
Enter
Morton H. Halperin.
“Morton
H. Halperin is a senior advisor to the Open Society Foundations,” according to
his posted biography for the Open Society Foundations. “Halperin has been
associated with a number of universities and think tanks including … the
Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for American Progress.”
The
Open Society Foundation, of course, was founded by none other than George
Soros, billionaire investor of all things antithetical to America, capitalism
and free market principles.
And
now, due to his Jan. 1 board appointment to MCC, Halperin’s potential to
influence America’s foreign aid investments will prove substantial. Halperin’s
fellow board members, aside from Clinton, include Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner, as vice chair; Ambassador Ron Kirk, as U.S. trade representative; and
USAID administrator Rajiv Shah.
Look
for more tax dollars appropriated for poverty eradication through MCC to flow
from this nation for more social justice, environmental and other progressive
causes. What a win – and barely noticed – for Team Soros.
And here: http://www.mcc.gov/pages/about
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