Sen. Bernie Sanders should ignore a “misleading and politically-motivated” United Nations official’s report on poverty in the United States, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Vermont senator Thursday.
“Regrettably, this report is an all too common example of the misplaced priorities and poor use of funds proven to be rampant throughout the UN system,” she wrote in a letter sent to Sanders and obtained by the Washington Examiner. “There is no question that poverty in America remains a serious concern. But it does not one any good to inaccurately describe its prevalence or its causes.”
Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democratic Party, led a group of 20 colleagues in charging President Trump’s administration with a “rejection of the economic and social rights recognized by many key treaties the U.S. has ratified.” They echoed U.N. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston’s assessment that “the American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion” and urged Haley to develop a plan to remedy such errors.
Haley derided the report. “It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America,” she wrote. “In our country, the president, members of Congress, governors, mayors, and city council members actively engage on poverty issues every day.” Alston’s report, she added, “deflect[ed] attention from the world’s worst human rights abusers” by focusing on Americans.
Alston, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, took aim at the Republican tax reform law that Trump signed into law last year, saying the tax cuts would result in spending cuts at the expense of the poorest Americans.
“There are also global consequences,” Alston wrote in the May assessment. “The tax cuts will fuel a global race to the bottom, thus further reducing the revenues needed by Governments to ensure basic social protection and meet their human rights obligations.”
Sanders reiterated that assessment, which comports with Democratic criticisms of the tax bill during the legislative debate. “We believe the massive levels of deprivation outlined in the report – as well as the immense suffering this deprivation causes — are an affront to any notion of the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” the lawmakers wrote. “Given the breadth of poverty outlined in the report, these rights are simply illusory for millions in this country.”
Haley rebuffed the criticisms of the tax policy. “The United States is currently at its lowest unemployment rate in decades, and the administration will continue to pursue the pro-economic growth policies that are helping so many people find work,” she wrote.
Alston responded to her rebukes by throwing a rhetorical elbow at Haley’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Human Rights Council.
“[Haley] just blasted my report on poverty & human rights in the US as ‘misleading and politically motivated,’” he tweeted Thursday. “Look forward to responding in the Human Rights Council at 12pm Geneva time tomorrow. Too bad the US won’t be there.”
Haley displayed disinterest. “Many of the report’s recommendations touch on matters of great interest in the domestic American political process … all issues that American citizens appropriately consider when casting ballots in our great democracy, none of which we will look to the United Nations for guidance,” she wrote.
