I am so sick of the BushCo failures that are WASTING taxpayer $$$!!

[FormerRepublican]

I don't know if this was posted before, but it could use a new airing:

"Bush's Fake Aid

In March 2002, with one war raging in Afghanistan and another looming in Iraq, President Bush announced that he intended to undercut terrorism by attacking poverty overseas. "I'm here today to announce a major new commitment by the United States to bring hope and opportunity to the world's poorest," Bush declared. Under his watch, the president said, America would increase its annual foreign aid to $5 billion. And instead of giving handouts, he added, the program would employ an entirely new model: investing in countries to spark their economic growth and holding them accountable for their policies. "I carry this commitment in my soul," Bush said, concluding his speech with a trademark religious touch. "We will make the world not only safer but better."

The president's plan looked revolutionary. US aid efforts, long hampered by an ossified bureaucracy, often fail to ensure that recipient nations spend the money wisely. Bush's plan, by contrast, recognized that poverty cannot be conquered without economic development, and that countries should continue to receive aid only if they use it effectively. "It seemed a bold, exciting new experiment in development policy," says Mary McClymont, the former head of InterAction, the largest alliance of aid organizations in the US

In a pattern that has become a hallmark of the administration, however, Bush's aid initiative - the Millennium Challenge Corporation - has become an object lesson in dramatic ideas followed by disastrous action. Over the past three months, Rolling Stone has reviewed the MCC's "compacts" with foreign countries, compared the work of similar agencies and spoken with a wide range of supporters and critics - including many of the conservative insiders responsible for creating the program. Instead of hiring aid experts, the administration at first staffed the MCC with conservative ideologues. Rather than partnering with other countries, the White House operated on its own, disconnected from the rest of the world. And when experts criticized the new agency, the administration responded with a bunker mentality, refusing to talk to detractors and learn from its mistakes.

Today, four years after the president announced his initiative, the MCC has signed compacts with six countries - offering only $1.2 billion in assistance. In February, Bush released a budget for 2007 that falls another $2 billion short of his pledge, bringing the total aid to less than half of what he promised. And the new budget once again pushes back the goal, stating that the administration "expects" to provide $5 billion annually in 2008."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031506E.shtml

This is standard operations for the Bush Misadministration. They cobble together something that's supposed to benefit people, then they loot the thing for their cronies and corporate pals. Then, when the thing doesn't work and everyone criticizes it, they claim it's because the truth about how good it is isn't getting out to the public. Yeah, right - with the amount of Bush propaganda being generated, the truth about the program isn't getting out. :sarcasm: If the program actually worked, they wouldn't have to worry about what people were saying about it.

I'm getting so freaking tired of all the taxpayer dollars Bush is wasting to pay off his campaign donors and corporate cronies. Even worse, I'm so sick of all the plans business is demanding from this misadministration that get implemented, only to NOT WORK and cost even more taxpayer dollars. It's an endless downward spiral of red ink.

And it's yet more proof that Bush doesn't give a sheet about people - he only cares about his cronies.

[sam sarrha]

1. we are enslaving their great great great grand children

[Dunvegan]

2. BushCo is enlasving OUR generations to come, while permanently enriching..

...theirs.

Remember the so-called "Paris Hilton" estate tax exemption?

So all of America's looted wealth will remain in the hands of the same few ruling families...forever.

Sick enough yet?

[bliss_eternal]

3. Isn't it a mess?

Some from the right seem to be losing patience with his spending, too. For one that's supposed to be conservative, you'd never know it based on the way he spends our money...

[TahitiNut]

4. Taxpayer dollars are "trickling up" in a more efficient way each day.

Government functions are being 'privatized' at a greater rate today than ever before. That means 'owners' make a profit on every taxpayer dollar that flows out through the federal purchasing function, the size of which has never been larger. (Pretty soon, even Purchasing will be out-sourced.) On the flip side, all those bothersome AFSCME jobs are going away, relieving the payroll and union membership lists of all that record-keeping. Those federal contractors don't have to bother with collective bargaining, decent pensions, impediments at-will firing, decent health care, or even training and promotions from within.

[madmark]

5. ditto