share of the un budget 99%. would we be obligated by treaty to pay a 99%? i think, just like joe biden, they would be headed to the weeds to avoid that conclusion. i think the answer is to get away from it the system of contribution entirely, and move toward a system that is totally voluntary funding by the united states. we would give money to programs of that work and withhold our money from the many programs that do not work. i think that would actually improve the un system. i think right now the system creates an entitlement mentality that leads to poor performance. if the directors of programs and other members of the government knew that they had to show results without getting money, they it would have an incentive to show results. we should move to voluntary contributions and then a lot of view and the programs would not be funded. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> wijohn, thank you very much for getting us off to an excellent start. th

congressional budget office and perhaps professional staff on this committee, i do not know where we look for the most reliable information. i think the premise of my amendment is still the same, uno pay down the deficit should be used for that purpose. >> could i just very briefly say, and we have lots of amendments pending, so i will try to be very brief. we have tried to pierce the veil on these numbers as well, because the concept that the senator has i think is the correct one. what we have found is in line with what senator warner said. it depends on the language one uses. i as soon and obligated meant money was unavailable. turns out that in the language of omb, that have programs that have been awarded that are not considered obligated until the contract is signed. and so the difference between what we see and what i thought stuck out there, and i was hoping to put into this budget, was money that was unobligated, i guess making the same assumption the senator from texas is making. let me give you two examples we found. on a high-speed rail program, is 100% awarded, but not yet obligated, because the contract has not been formally signed, because they are in what is calle

congressional budget office and perhaps professional staff on this committee, i do not know where we look for the most reliable information. i think the premise of my amendment is still the same, unhat could be used to pay down the deficit should be used for that purpose. >> could i just very briefly say, and we have lots of amendments pending, so i will try to be very brief. we have tried to pierce the veil on these numbers as well, because the concept that the senator has i think is the correct one. what we have found is in line with what senator warner said. it depends on the language one uses. i as soon and obligated meant money was unavailable. turns out that in the language of omb, that have programs that have been awarded that are not considered obligated until the contract is signed. and so the difference between what we see and what i thought stuck out there, and i was hoping to put into this budget, was money that was unobligated, i guess making the same assumption the senator from texas is making. let me give you two examples we found. on a high-speed rail program, is 100% awarded, but not yet obligated, because the contract has not been formally signed, because they a