Friday, November 25, 2011
Happy Friday CSS World. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now, let's get back to raising the awareness of our nation, shall we?
Yesterday, I gave you a link to a website, US Foreign Assistance, and showed you that in 2011, the US gave South American nations over $661 million in foreign assistance. Mind you, this isn't just the US writing a check for an enormous sum of money, this dollar figure includes various programs such as humanitarian aid, economic aid, military aid, grants, and other programs which include climate change initiatives.
As part of a global community, the US has a certain level of obligation to the rest of the world. This does not mean that the US is responsible for the well being of the entire world. Just as we are not the world's police force, we also should not be the world's bank or "rich uncle". That being said, we should NOT be buying friendship, nor should we continue to pour millions of dollars into nations that spew hatred towards everything we as a nation stand for. If the money is being sent to "bad countries" (North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, etc.) then I would HOPE it is being done to destabilize their government and usher in new, more "friendly" governments. Does anyone believe this? Of course not. The government wouldn't come forward with this information if it was true. So, one has to infer that the $3.5 million sent to North Korea in 2010 was for a program such as humanitarian aid or "global climate change". I wonder if North Korea spent that money on food for its people. I'll venture to say probably not. I'll go even further and say we probably purchased another tank or two or maybe a new nuclear capable missile for them. Yay America! Perhaps when the finally go completely insane and fire off one of their "Long March" missiles at Hawaii or South Korea, they will attach a "Thank You" card to it.
Here is a rough breakdown of where YOUR tax dollars went in 2011 (foreign assistance wise):
Central America/Caribbean: $826,228,000
South America: $661,951,000
Europe (West of Russia): $448,508,000
Asia (Including Middle East and Far East): $10,265,600,000
Africa: (I couldn't get all the numbers/countries to come up, but it is in excess of $10,000,000,000)
Total Estimated Foreign Assistance for 2011: $22,202,287,000
So, there it is, in the proverbial "black and white" from the US Government. By the way, the homepage for this website contains this statement:
"The Foreign Assistance Dashboard was created in response to the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and President Obama’s Open Government Initiative. The goal of the Foreign Assistance Dashboard is to enable a wide variety of stakeholders, including U.S. citizens, civil society organizations, the Congress, U.S. Government agencies, donors, and partner country governments, to examine, research, and track U.S. Government foreign assistance investments in an accessible and easy-to-understand format.
My fellow Americans, this is unacceptable. But so is the rest of our spending. Defense spending consumes 25% of our national budget. While I fully support a strong national defense, I do not support the over use of foreign and domestic contractors to support our military when the military has the ability to do the same job. Example: In Iraq, contractors provide dining facilities for our troops. Every branch of service has food service personnel (cooks). Why are we not utilizing these soldiers effectively? Other contractors fulfill jobs that our military personnel train for, i.e driving trucks, basic construction/road repair, law enforcement, medical care, food service, power and water, even landscaping. With that being said, I'm sure many civilians who work for the military will be angered by this sentiment, but the military employees many civilians to do the job of soldiers. With the impending draw down of the military, this may become a necessity in the future, however, no one can deny that it is cheaper to use a Soldier/Sailor/Marine/Airman to do a job that the government has already trained them to do than hiring a civilian contractor to do the job.
As a parting shot, we spent more than three times more money on welfare as we did on education in 2011. I feel this is wrong on a number of levels. Some other facts that might turn your stomach:
Due to the number of exemptions and deductions, 35%-40% of American households pay no income tax, this increased to 51% in 2009. Much has been said about the need to increase the tax on the higher income individuals in this country, but remember, their tax liability is already at 35% compared to the lower brackets of 15% and 28%. In 1979, these top earners were taxed at a rate of 70% which was lowered in 1980 to 50% and again in 1988 to 28%. I do not care who you are or how much you make, paying 70% in income taxes is ridiculous. And the last time I took a math class, 35% of $1,000,000 ($350,000) is significantly more than 15% of $50,000 ($7,500). So, the rich are paying taxes, and taking advantage of our tax code, just like the middle and lower class are. In a nutshell, tax reform is needed, and sooner rather than later.
Tax reform, spending reduction, job creation are the three keys to economic survival and growth. So far, our government has failed miserably in each area. Enough is enough.
Yesterday, I gave you a link to a website, US Foreign Assistance, and showed you that in 2011, the US gave South American nations over $661 million in foreign assistance. Mind you, this isn't just the US writing a check for an enormous sum of money, this dollar figure includes various programs such as humanitarian aid, economic aid, military aid, grants, and other programs which include climate change initiatives.
As part of a global community, the US has a certain level of obligation to the rest of the world. This does not mean that the US is responsible for the well being of the entire world. Just as we are not the world's police force, we also should not be the world's bank or "rich uncle". That being said, we should NOT be buying friendship, nor should we continue to pour millions of dollars into nations that spew hatred towards everything we as a nation stand for. If the money is being sent to "bad countries" (North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, etc.) then I would HOPE it is being done to destabilize their government and usher in new, more "friendly" governments. Does anyone believe this? Of course not. The government wouldn't come forward with this information if it was true. So, one has to infer that the $3.5 million sent to North Korea in 2010 was for a program such as humanitarian aid or "global climate change". I wonder if North Korea spent that money on food for its people. I'll venture to say probably not. I'll go even further and say we probably purchased another tank or two or maybe a new nuclear capable missile for them. Yay America! Perhaps when the finally go completely insane and fire off one of their "Long March" missiles at Hawaii or South Korea, they will attach a "Thank You" card to it.
Here is a rough breakdown of where YOUR tax dollars went in 2011 (foreign assistance wise):
Central America/Caribbean: $826,228,000
South America: $661,951,000
Europe (West of Russia): $448,508,000
Asia (Including Middle East and Far East): $10,265,600,000
Africa: (I couldn't get all the numbers/countries to come up, but it is in excess of $10,000,000,000)
Total Estimated Foreign Assistance for 2011: $22,202,287,000
So, there it is, in the proverbial "black and white" from the US Government. By the way, the homepage for this website contains this statement:
"The Foreign Assistance Dashboard was created in response to the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and President Obama’s Open Government Initiative. The goal of the Foreign Assistance Dashboard is to enable a wide variety of stakeholders, including U.S. citizens, civil society organizations, the Congress, U.S. Government agencies, donors, and partner country governments, to examine, research, and track U.S. Government foreign assistance investments in an accessible and easy-to-understand format.
My fellow Americans, this is unacceptable. But so is the rest of our spending. Defense spending consumes 25% of our national budget. While I fully support a strong national defense, I do not support the over use of foreign and domestic contractors to support our military when the military has the ability to do the same job. Example: In Iraq, contractors provide dining facilities for our troops. Every branch of service has food service personnel (cooks). Why are we not utilizing these soldiers effectively? Other contractors fulfill jobs that our military personnel train for, i.e driving trucks, basic construction/road repair, law enforcement, medical care, food service, power and water, even landscaping. With that being said, I'm sure many civilians who work for the military will be angered by this sentiment, but the military employees many civilians to do the job of soldiers. With the impending draw down of the military, this may become a necessity in the future, however, no one can deny that it is cheaper to use a Soldier/Sailor/Marine/Airman to do a job that the government has already trained them to do than hiring a civilian contractor to do the job.
As a parting shot, we spent more than three times more money on welfare as we did on education in 2011. I feel this is wrong on a number of levels. Some other facts that might turn your stomach:
Due to the number of exemptions and deductions, 35%-40% of American households pay no income tax, this increased to 51% in 2009. Much has been said about the need to increase the tax on the higher income individuals in this country, but remember, their tax liability is already at 35% compared to the lower brackets of 15% and 28%. In 1979, these top earners were taxed at a rate of 70% which was lowered in 1980 to 50% and again in 1988 to 28%. I do not care who you are or how much you make, paying 70% in income taxes is ridiculous. And the last time I took a math class, 35% of $1,000,000 ($350,000) is significantly more than 15% of $50,000 ($7,500). So, the rich are paying taxes, and taking advantage of our tax code, just like the middle and lower class are. In a nutshell, tax reform is needed, and sooner rather than later.
Tax reform, spending reduction, job creation are the three keys to economic survival and growth. So far, our government has failed miserably in each area. Enough is enough.
