I received a solicitation in email asking me to link to a video on YouTube about the ONE Campaign. You may have seen the ads, another slick campaign using celebrities to tell us how to vote or think or react.
They don’t exactly tell you what they’re about, except that they want to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty. Hey, who wouldn’t be for that, right? Drill down a bit into their explanations of who and what they are and you’ll find that the aim of the group is to spend more tax dollars. Of course.
ONE believes that allocating an additional ONE percent of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world’s poorest countries. ONE also calls for debt cancellation, trade reform and anti–corruption measures in a comprehensive package to help Africa and the poorest nations beat AIDS and extreme poverty.
ONE is $25 billion. That’s on top of the billions upon billions the federal government already allocates toward foreign aid, global poverty relief, health efforts, and the rest, mainly through the US Agency for International Development. It’s on top of the billions that Americans give every year out of their own pockets, whether as individuals or through corporate donations.
Whose money are they spending?
