Inspecting the mouths of gift horses

The Washington Times is carrying a story today of U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland (Norway) and his response to the United States' pledge of 15 million dollars in relief to aid those struck by the tsunami in Asia

"...U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised."

Source: Washington Times (emphasis added)

This guy from Norway thinks we could give more money in relief aid if we were just taxed a little more. Maybe he doesn't realize that Americans are already seeing 30% or more of our incomes vanish into a wasteful government bureaucracy. I realize that this nation is the world's wealthiest but it's people have to work from January to March just to cover their taxes every year. The idea that the solution to the World's problems is just to tax the Americans a little more is ridiculous.

The really absurd part of this is that American's will give way more than 15 million dollars to the effort through non-governemental relief organizations. We always have.

Charity isn't charity when it's coerced by the government under penalty of prison through a tax system. If the World leaders in the UN think otherwise then maybe it's time that the United States defunded it. Redirect THAT money to the relief effort in Asia.