Jon Cohn flags a fundraising e-mail from the McCain campaign that portrays Obama as someone who will spend taxpayer dollars ... on foreign aid! Check it:
It seems the Democrats' would-be president of the United States of America really believes that the rest of the world's problems, and approval, trump the interests of Americans when it comes to how we live our lives and where our money is spent.
A bill he has sponsored in the U.S. Senate, the so-called Global Poverty Act (S. 2433), would raise the amount of American tax dollars allocated to United Nations' redistribution efforts to $845 billion.
That's $2,500 from every American taxpayer, when many in our country already are struggling to make ends meet.
Jon factchecks the mailer and, no surprise, finds out that the Global Poverty Act referenced would spend something on the order of $1 million a year. But looking at those numbers, and thinking about a would-be president who believes we should spend money on programs that aren't in America's interest, I remember that the U.S. is involved in a War in Iraq that requires $12.5 billion a month, and that McCain would like to be there indefinitely. But these are just details, which aren't the province of McCain and his aides.
--Tim Fernholz