Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham are joining forces to propose legislation that will cut off American taxpayer funding of the United Nations until the international body reverses its December 24 Security Council resolution on Israel.
In an interview on WMAL radio in Washington, Cruz hammered the Obama administration for “orchestrating” the Security Council measure:
Cruz laid out three objectives he hopes to push in response to the U.N. resolution including moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (a move President-elect Donald Trump has also endorsed) as well as cutting off funding to the Palestinian Authority “who are in a unity government with Hamas.”
He then detailed his plan to cut funding for the U.N. itself:
Cruz balked at the suggestion that the United States should withdrawal completely from the U.N. “It doesn’t make sense for us to withdraw from the world and disengage,” he said. “But I don’t think we should just be writing a blank check for a bunch of radical policies—a bunch of anti-Semetic, anti-Israel policies, a bunch of anti-American policies to simply spew out with our funding. I think we should use our power, use our influence, use our dollars to focus the United Nations on issues that are in our common interest and not issues that undermine the interest of the United States.”
Cruz also suggested that the measure would have bipartisan support when he presents it on the Senate floor. The Texas senator said he believes that despite the differences the U.S. has with the international body, in the end, American funding will win the day. “Listen,” Cruz concluded, “they want our money. They don’t really care what we have to say, but they want our dollars.”
