Bush says "We can handle it" then BEGS FOR DONATIONS for Iraq.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Posted on Sun, Sep. 18, 2005

New twist on Iraq aid: U.S. seeks donations

BY CAM SIMPSON

Chicago Tribune

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/politics/12679449.htm

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - From the Indian Ocean tsunami to the church around the corner, Americans have shown time and again they are willing to open their pocketbooks for charity, for a total of about $250 billion last year alone. But now, amid pleas for aid after Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration has launched an unusual effort to raise charitable contributions for another cause: the government's attempt to rebuild Iraq.

Although more than $30 billion in taxpayer funds have been appropriated for Iraqi reconstruction, the administration earlier this month launched an Internet-based fundraising effort that it says is aimed at giving Americans "a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq."

Contributors have no way of knowing who's getting the money or precisely where it's headed, because the government says it must keep the details secret for security reasons. But taxpayers already finance the projects the administration is seeking charitable donations for, such as providing water pumps for farmers. And officials say any contributions they receive will increase the scope of those efforts, rather than relieve existing taxpayer burdens.

The campaign is raising eyebrows in the international development and not-for-profit communities, where there are questions about its timing - given needs at home - and whether it will set the government in competition with international not-for-profits.

[koopie57]

1. four stupid people smiling ...

what do they think is so funny anyway??

[Wordie]

2. Is * now trying to shift the govt's responsibility for Iraq to faith-based

groups? (like he's trying to do with so many other governmental functions?) (sarcasm)

[gratuitous]

3. I wonder if he's going to tap the haves or the have-mores?

Or will be he be asking all his newest, bestest buddies from New Orleans to come across?

[Spinzonner]

4. I should make charitable contributions to Halliburton why ?

[bluedawg12]

5. he wants charity to pay for everything

from NOLA to Iraq, then after paying txes and giving donations we can watch the money go to big corps.