If Mubarak leaves, should we pull our $2.5 billion aid package?

[Uben]

I'm not sure why we are giving Egypt $2.5B in aid. I don't have a clue what we are getting for it other than a friendly regime in Mubarak, but if he's a goner, are we going to trust the new government enough to risk giving it to them? Of course, we have "people" who make those decisions.

[Obamanaut]

1. Pull it whether he leaves or stays. We have people here in the US that

could benefit from that same money.

edited to add: homeless, unemployed, school children who don't eat at home, people who need medicine but have no money, etc.

[Fumesucker]

2. We give the 2.5 billion in order to keep them from attacking Israel basically..

Clearly if there's no dictator there in Egypt then they don't need our aid money, why would we give aid to poor people instead of rich ones?

[BOG PERSON]

8. "why would we give aid to poor people instead of rich ones?"

i agree 100%. they'd probably spend it on stupid shit anyway (i.e. the poor people would)

[tekisui]

18. What a cold and misguided statement.

[Fumesucker]

20. That burning smell?

It's your snarkometer.. :hi:

[SoCalDem]

3. Our aid should have been "frozen" the instant the revolution started

and probably was..

[LiberalLoner]

4. That aid is bribe money for them not waging war against Israel. n/t

[customerserviceguy]

21. Exactly right

And Mubarak has lived up to his end of the bargain. The thinking is, if we don't bribe them, we just pay it out in higher oil prices to the Saudis, et al, anyway. At least this goes to aid in a poor country, and the military goods keep jobs going in the US.

That was the deal that Jimmy Carter struck in the Camp David Accords, and got him awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Can President Obama keep the peace for the Nobel Prize he already got in advance?

[sufrommich]

5. Actually, we should keep sending aid but insist it be used for

social programs as opposed to military expenditures. I won't hold by breath though.

[Uben]

7. Why should we feed them and not our own?

We have social programs that could use that money.

[BOG PERSON]

9. america needs to go on a diet!

we need to eat less food, not more.

[Uben]

10. Aint that the truth!

But, we still have a lot of hungry Americans who could use the nourishment. We have started a program here to send food home with the schoolkids who have needs on the weekends because it was found that the majority of them weren't eating right, or enough, and most got their nutrition at school. We stock and fund it through donations. That money could be put to use feeding our hungry.

[sufrommich]

13. Yes, we should just stop trying to stop starvation in Africa too.

Fuck them, we've got ours.

[JCMach1]

6. Depends on what it is spent on...

If it is just a stability payment, let the Saudis pay.

[pampango]

11. Oops.

[pampango]

12. We better pull the aid if he DOESN'T leave. If that much money doesn't give us some leverage

over him, I don't know what would.

[Old Troop]

14. He'll probably just take it with him. NT

[BeFree]

15. We get a lot of it back

They buy tear gas from us, weapons, armor, etc.

I thought it was more than 2.5.

[Cleita]

16. I would hope that we pull it if he doesn't leave.

He's had his time. It's time for him to go and let the Egyptian people form a new government. A new government will need the money to rebuild their economy.

[TicketyBoo]

17. To me,

it's friggin' crazy that we are giving foreign aid to other countries while in debt to China up to our wazoos, and borrowing more all the time.

Makes no sense to me. Oh, I know. Bribes and currying favor and all that, but still…

[Obamanaut]

19. Plus, there's plenty of stuff in the US that aid money could be used for:

crumbling bridges, homeless people, hungry school children, medication for those otherwise unable to pay, etc.

[barbiegeek]

22. didn't the President pull it 2 years ago or cut it in 1/2

[Prometheus Bound]

23. You can be pretty sure none of the people in the streets saw a penny of it

so they won't notice if you pull it.

Well, fewer tear gas canisters being lobbed at them maybe.