((RANT)) Why the hell do we ALWAYS have money to give foreigners but never enough for our citizens?

[BigBearJohn]

BILLIONS to rebuild Afghanistan
BILLLIONS to rebuild Iraq

BILLIONS here... BILLIONS there....

BUT, when it comes to helping our OWN citizens,
we have to learn how to budget our money --
we have to "limit spending"

well, I, for one am

SICK OF IT!!!

[Olney Blue]

1. Bingo. I wonder this ALL THE TIME.

[beyurslf]

2. In a budget of Trillions, the billions in Iraq and other places is considerably

less than that spent on domestic programs.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

5. A couple of links would be helpful, to substaniate that argument.

Or is your word as beyrslf what I should rely upon? Welcome to DU. :hi: MKJ

[beyurslf]

22. You want links to prove that the budget of the US goverment is trillions

of dollars? Really? I need to prove that?

<http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/>

For those who don't something from that site here is this:

<http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/>

I know we all like links to prove what we say, but when someone says that the US budget is in the trillions, surely we can agree that we don't need to have links to prove that. I didn't say a specific number. And I am not refuting how much we have spent on the war (or that it is too much). But it is a small part of the overall budget.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

24. Well, the economic forecast for 2006 is at your fist link, so I'll pass and look for another poster

attribute verification.

MKJ

[beyurslf]

43. I don't feel like finding a link that proves the obvious. The US federal

budget is in the trillions. I didn't say a specific amount--just "trillions." Everyone knows this. The Eiffel Tower is in Paris and Bill Gates is worth billions. I also don't need links to prove these things.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

49. "Everybody knows this" is a compelling argument. n/t

You win. MKJ

[kysrsoze]

57. Ummm... what exactly are they REBUILDING anyway?

I see billions spent on destruction, not reconstruction. Makes perfect sense to me (if you are the type who likes to destroy countries and kill people).

[JerseygirlCT]

3. Messed up priorities, to be sure

Not that people around the world in need of help should be ignored, either.

But this money is simply being transferred from the US gov't to KBR and the like. I doubt much will ever actually do any lasting good for people in Iraq/Afghanistan.

Meantime, it's fine to have children starving, and people without access to basic health care, and people living on the street. This apparently, is just fine.

I know. It's always riled me, too.

[Tatiana]

4. A country of wealth (and we are that) should share with those less fortunate.

However, that is AFTER domestic concerns are taken care of. How NOLA has just been essentially abondoned is criminal. The amount of money we have spent in Iraq could have provided hundreds of thousands with health care.

The basic issue is that Republics don't care about the "have nots" in our country. Which is why no sane person, especially the "have nots" should vote for them.

[sweetheart]

6. why? because 'they' are not 'we'

'we' have been brainwashed by mass media to believe that it is 'ours',
when in fact, it is theirs; the serf is not invited to the plutocratic banquet.

[noamnety]

7. Because our "aid" is coercion

to force other governments to support our foreign policies, or we do thing like give them "aid" like genetically modified seeds or baby formula, so they can't develop food independence.

If New Orleans had anything Bush felt he could exploit, he'd be giving aid to them also.

[blues90]

8. Yeah , we protect all our corporate interests

And start wars that were completely unecessary and then send monry to rebuild that never even goes to rebuilding .

But to just maintain out own country , no this can't be done .

Cut this program and that while corporations billow out their bank accounts .

I'll never understand this as long as I live , never .

All we ever hear in promises by politicians all these years and still we fall for this but then they are bought and paid for by the corporations , they continue to talk about campaign finance , what a joke , this subject must be as old as I am .

[brer cat]

17. I'm with you, blues90.

I have much compassion for foreign aid, but I can't stomach the billions/trillions spent on *'s folly when we can't get help at home.

Remember NO and the other gulf cities! Remember millions without insurance and health care! NCLB...no funding. The list is endless, but the funding is non-existent. Wrong priorities!

[burythehatchet]

9. Because our leaders keep breaking their shit?

:shrug:

[tnlefty]

12. I almost spit on my monitor! LOL

Breaking their shit with weapons supplied by their corporate benefactors, so that all of their other corporate benefactors can make out like bandits.

[nam78_two]

30. Best..post..ever!

:rofl:
Cambodia, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Iraq ....on and on...
We support the Contras, people like Somoza/Pinochet and heck even Pol Pot...:shrug:

[cynatnite]

10. You mean foreign countries? n/t

[demnan]

11. Yeah, me too

But you have to remember that Bush is lying when he says he wants to help Iraq. Bush doesn't want to fucking help anybody! He would have helped more by staying the hell out of there in the first place. That's a phoney excuse for the totally fucking and stealing that is going on over there. So when Bush wants to help some area of this country, look the fuck out!

[cynatnite]

13. Should we stop giving money to countries in Africa? n/t

[OhioChick]

14. Agreed, BigBearJohn.

What's NOLA looking like these days?

[entanglement]

31. See my reply below

n/t

[Journeyman]

15. Well, this is a topic I could comment on. . .

plenty of things to say, lots of insight and personal belief, but I've learned my lesson.

Hey, the weather sure was nice today. I took my cute puppy for a walk.

Regards to all.

~Washington Irving

[brer cat]

18. I don't know what your experience has been

but I'm very sorry that you don't feel you can share in this discussion.

:shrug:

[Journeyman]

26. So do I . . .

but if its not about Wonder bread or cottage cheese, there's little sense and less reward in challenging current perceived wisdoms.

Enjoy your stay.

~ Irving Washington

[Twist_U_Up]

16. because..........

if its supposedly going elsewhere its harder to track. Therefore I doubt little if any eventually makes it to where it was intended in the first place.

If the money stays home its harder to steal.

[Ilsa]

19. My husband's aunt just had a social security check yanked.

It was her brother's SS and he just died. The check was due for deposit less than a week after death, but they sure acted fast on it! Now, if the family wants to try to get the last check, they have to wait 2-3 weeks to get turned down.

I'm sure it was a pitiful sum, and it would have been used to pay off the last of his little debts, but now those people won't get anything since there is no one else to go after for unsecured credit. She (we) is (are) pissed as hell about sending money to Afghanistan or Iraq when we have people here doing without.

[nicknameless]

20. The keyword: "rebuild"

The money goes to cronies -- not really to the other countries.

[SanCristobal]

21. People confuse foreign aid with good will. It's a policy tool to

bind countries closer to us and make them dependent. Hence, we always have plenty to go around.

[fujiyama]

23. From what I've seen

we're not really rebuilding much of anything in either of those two countries. Both countries are a fucking mess.

This is just a bunch of money poured into contractors (mostly military industrial) with links to this administration. It's one no-bid contract after another.

Either way, it's inexcusable that such a wealthy country can allow people to go without food, shelter, or medical care. It's absolutely appalling that an administration can watch a city destroyed without batting an eye.

Foreign aid is important - in fact if we did a good job of distributing that aid and making sure it went to people that needed it, I think the world would be much better off.

But the only kind of foreign aid this administration gives is military. We'll give billions of dollars worth of arms to tinpot dictator ruled nations the world over.

[Benhurst]

25. Much of the money goes into the pockets of our merchants of

death and not the so-called beneficiaries.

As far as billions for Iraq, much of it has been siphoned off by corrupt contractors and, in fairness, most of the work is supposedly being done was necessitated by our bombing the hell out of them in our illegal and immoral invasion and subsequent occupation.

[unblock]

27. it's not going to foreigners. it's going to halliburton.

[donco6]

46. Yes! I totally agree. It's all about increasing profit. n/t

[trudyco]

28. "Confessions of an Economic Hit man" explains it all

It's a racket - the money is loaned based on projections of profits that can never be realized so the countries are beholden to the USA, or more precisely the CEOs and investors of certain companies like Brown&Root, Bechtel, oil companies, etc. They siphon off the poor countries' resources benefitting the elite of that country, the corrupt politician and the elite in this country. It's a scam.

As for aid for the tsunami and other disasters I question if the announced amount is ever realized, and what strings are attached to it.

[entanglement]

29. It's a widely believed myth - all the 'rebuilding' does is line the pockets of crony

contractors. Also, the foreign 'aid' figures you read about are usually 'pledges' (it is not uncommon for 1 billion to be pledged, and say $50 million to be actually donated). Last off all, LOANS (yes loans) are falsely called 'aid'. The idea that our corrupt elites are actually helping the rest of the world at the expense of the US citizen is laughable.

[nam78_two]

32. What foreigners have benefited in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Both countries look like a mess to me...But hey we exported "freedom" right :eyes:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

33. The US gives a smaller fraction of GDP as third world aid than any other developed nation.

You spend a hell of a lot on military ventures, which is sort of "on foreigners", but you spend far too little, not too much, on projects to genuinely help people in other countries, especially given that a lot of your nation's wealth is based on enforcing very one-sided trade deals due to being in a position of power.

[Judi Lynn]

40. It's an odd system which actually DOESN'T spend proportionately the

equivalent of far smaller, poorer countries which STILL manages to reinforce the picture to its citizens that it is known throughout the world for its generosity.

Yeah, we're generous with death, and we're generous with destructive trading policies which work against the well-being of struggling people in other countries.

I've seen the statistics, too, and you're absolutely right.

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. Military Industrial Complex? We aren't really rebuilding these Countries that we have devastated,

are we? The money is going to Halliburton/KBR, into the pockets of the CEOs of those companies and into the pockets of bu$hco, the BFEE and Cheney. We're all getting screwed, Afghanis, Iraqis and Americans alike. It's all about the war profiteers.

[butterfly77]

35. Bush always says"remember its your money"

when he wants to give it to the rich, but its not our money when we need it for something in this country especially for the poor and middle class...

[SammyWinstonJack]

36. BFEE MO, steal other peoples' monies and give it to the rich.

Robin Hood in reverse.

[rman]

37. That money does go to US citizens - guess who's rebuilding Iraq?

Ok so it doesn't go to every US citizen (and some might not want to call them citizens), got to "work hard" for it you know...

Not to mention that before rebuilding it, first hundreds of billions were spend on destroying Iraq.

[SammyWinstonJack]

38. It goes to bu$hco's US citizens, the rest of us pay the bill and Iraqis should

be employed to rebuild what we have destroyed, not US corporations' employees. With Iraqis only having at minimum of four hours of electricity a day, inadequate hospitals, etc, it's my guess that these corporations are stealing our tax dollars and not giving back to the Iraqis, right?

[butterfly77]

42. They built it to destroy it...

how many times have some of these building been blown up since they were built, money down the drain...We have cities in america that look as bad as Iraq..

[lovuian]

39. It could have paid for Universal Health

its BS

[SammyWinstonJack]

41. It could have paid for "NCLB" It's all BS!

[donco6]

48. Yes.

I just groan when I think of what good things we could do with some of that cash that's gone to line the pockets of war profiteers and warlords.

[Bridget Burke]

44. I'm sick of spending all that money on blowing up other countries.

Then we claim we're "rebuilding"--but the money goes to crooked corporations. Hey--most of the CEOs' are American Citizens!

[htuttle]

45. We DON'T give money to foreign governments for the benefit of their people

We give foreign aid for the benefit of so-called 'US Corporations' (headquartered in the Bahamas, and almost completely outsourced to India) that do bidness in those countries. The so-called 'rebuilding' has nothing to do with making citizens of foreign countries better off, it's so that US corporate campaign donors can make more money overseas. Simple as that.

Half the time, that foreign aid is used to subvert any democratic tendencies that might cause friction for these so-called 'US Corporations' (who are really only 'US' based in the historical sense nowadays...). So we're ALL getting screwed -- you, me, and the people who live in those countries that get our 'aid'. As the esteemed Major General Smedley Butler once said, "...the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag". And we foot the bill.

[SoCalDem]

47. We "buy" good will.. always have... always will

The rub here is that there IS enough money to do BOTH, but way too much gets siphoned off to the money-grubbing middlemen, and the "blame" always goes to "entitlements".

When you get right down to it, "entitlements" are the backbone of our country..

food
shelter
education
jobs
secure old age
health

Without those things, is it even worth living...or living HERE?

[Faux pas]

50. I've wondered about this disparity for about 25 yrs. What

ever happened to 'charity begins at home' and 'clean up your own yard first'?


I SO FAR BEYOND SICK OF IT, I WANT TO SCREAM ALL DAY, EVERY DAY!!!!

[SalmonChantedEvening]

51. If they solve domestic issues, how will they keep the populace distracted and afraid?

This can be the only reason why such problems remain systemic.

Nothing to pledge you'll fix once elected isn't gonna play big on Corporate Media.

[arcos]

52. You destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan...

The least you could do is help to rebuild them.

[Taxloss]

53. Steady on there.

It's understandable to be cross about billions lining the pockets of Halliburton and their ilk, but your flat condemnation of giving money to "foreigners" instead of "our citizens" sounds distressingly like a RW nationalist talking point to me. Does this apply to the billions given after the tsunami, as well? The USA devotes a lamentably small proportion of its national budget to international aid, when compared to other rich nations - is that something to be applauded? As for Iraq and Afghanistan, damn right the USA should pay for rebuilding infrastructure it blew up. I just wish that that process of reconstruction was not riddled with corruption by the larcenous contractors involved and that we weren't STILL blowing stuff up.

[BigBearJohn]

54. The point I was making is we always seem to find the money

for every cause under the heavens EXCEPT
when it comes to helping our own country.

You missed my point. I don't begrudge any
money being spent legitimately to help those in this
world that truly need it, but our country should
come FIRST.

I find it amazing that we can EASILY
find billions to spend on every other cause
than in our own back yard.

Plain and simple.

WE SHOULD CLEAN UP OUR OWN BACKYARD FIRST

[AZBlue]

55. Couldn't agree more!

kick

[mitchum]

56. Because it's easier to "misplace" $$$$$$$$$$ when it travels