Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Tyrants and dictators, shady international arms dealers, brutal leaders of broken, basket case nations like President for Life Robert Mugabe, will be celebrating today; President Obama just transferred $500 million of US Taxpayer’s money into the new UN Climate Fund.

According to The Guardian;

Obama administration pays out $500m to climate change project The first chunk of a $3bn commitment made at the Paris climate talks ‘shows the US stands squarely behind climate commitments’, the State Department said The Obama administration has made a first installment on its $3bn pledge to help poor countries fight climate change – defying Republican opposition to the president’s environmental plan. The $500m payment to the Green Climate Fund was seen as critical to shoring up international confidence in Barack Obama’s ability to deliver on the pledges made at the United Nations’ climate change conference in Paris in late 2015. … Administration officials said the initial $500m payment to the Green Climate Fund demonstrated that Obama would follow through on the promises of last December’s Paris climate agreement – despite February’s setback at the supreme court and threats by Republican presidential candidates to dismantle Obama’s agenda. “Today, the United States provided a $500m grant to the Green Climate Fund,” a state department official said. “This grant is the first step toward meeting the president’s commitment of $3bn to the GCF, and shows that the United States stands squarely behind our international climate commitments.”

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/07/obama-administration-pays-out-500m-to-climate-change-project

$500 million is only a drop in the ocean, compared to the FY 2016 $22 trillion total US public debt. However, given the severe and rapidly worsening state of US government finances, a more productive use of the President’s remaining time in office, might be to find ways to cut expenditure, instead of thinking up new ways to give federal money away to people who hate America.

UPDATE by Anthony: Uh, oh.

State Dept defiant on $500M to UN climate fund: ‘Did Congress authorize the Green Climate Fund? No.’

Asked by Senator Cory Gardner if Congress approved the US State Department to divert $500 million to the United Nation’s Green Climate Fund, Deputy Secretary Heather Higgenbottom says: “Did Congress authorize the Green Climate Fund? No. […] We’ve reviewed the authority and the process under which we can do it, and our lawyers and we have determined that we have the ability to do it, and I pledge to you and to other members we’d be happy to provide that legal analysis and the additional details.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee March 8, 2016

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