Sam Gibbons: “I was pleased to learn earlier this week that the United Nations diplomats for the first time in 30 years, three…”

“I was pleased to learn earlier this week that the United Nations diplomats for the first time in 30 years, three decades, will finally reconsider the allocation of peacekeeping costs. Mr. Speaker, it is about time. Currently 30 countries pay 98 percent of the U.N.'s peacekeeping budget, while 158 countries pay only 2 percent, regardless of their economic performance. In addition, it is the United States' share of nearly one-third of that cost of the United Nations peacekeeping overall budget that bothers most of us. Since 1973, when payment proportions were established, the economies of many of the member nations have improved tremendously. Now these nations can afford to pay their fair share, but unfortunately they just do not want to. Mr. Speaker, it is about time that the member nations pay their fair share of U.N. peacekeeping costs. The United States cannot afford nor should it be called upon to be the world's policeman and its banker. I yield back once and for all the unfair U.N. peacekeeping payment system that has punished the U.S. and our taxpayers for too long.”