UN Chief: U.S. a "Deadbeat"

How about we show these ingrates the door:

A day after his White House meeting with President Barack Obama, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the United States a "deadbeat" donor to the world body while making the made the rounds on Capitol Hill.

Ban's criticism Wednesday of the U.N.'s single biggest backer irked some members of the House Foreign Relations Committee. They were generally supportive of his leadership but voiced concern about U.N. efforts in areas from Sudan to Somalia.

"He used the word 'deadbeat' when it came to characterizing the United States. I take great umbrage (over) that," Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the panel's senior Republican, said after an hour-long, closed-door meeting. "We certainly contribute a whole lot of U.S. taxpayer dollars to that organization. We do not deserve such a phrase.

Interviewed after the session, Ban said he had wanted to draw attention to the fact that the U.S. agrees to pay 22 percent of the U.N.'s $4.86 billion operating budget, but is perennially late with its dues -- and now is about $1 billion behind on its payments.

That figure is "soon to be $1.6 billion," Ban emphasized. Asked if he'd used the word 'deadbeat' during the meeting, he replied, "Yes, I did -- I did," then laughed mischievously.

Since we are not 22% of the world's population, how about we just scale back our contribution to the UN to proportional levels and let the rest of the world pick up their fair share?

Either that, or let's just shutter the building and send them all packing.