I had a retort to Jim's love of his government and all his great work below:
By Padmini Arhant The ravenous economy has absorbed about $3.7 trillion dollars via bailouts and stimulus plans, (please refer to individual stimulus package topics for breakdown) yet the nation’s jobless rate rising like a tidal wave rather than settling along the shores. Several arguments mounting regarding the precarious job situation across the nation with some fifteen states like California, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and others experiencing double digit in job losses accumulated over a period of time.
Not surprisingly, criticisms with an ominous prediction such as a possible return of the ‘Great Depression’ from various political and economic factions pouring against the current administration’s level of action and apparent inaction in averting the precipitous decline of the job market...
Please check out the related topics Economic Bailouts on an Unprecedented Scale, Bush Bailout Packages and Obama Bailout Packages with more on the way.
Further riveting details and visuals @http://www.padminiarhant.com
Thank you.
Padmini Arhant
The NY Times reported that Mexican immigration and migration has slowed to a halt because of the recession. Also migration is slow because of the Swine Influenza outbreak. The report figures shows a 25% decrease in illegal immigration from Mexico, and nearly 11 million illegal immigrants are already here in the United States. Since when has 25% of anything been a grinding halt. Someone’s gotta check their math here. That’s not a grinding halt thats just because half of Mexico is in bed with the flu. Give it a few weeks when Obama starts pumping money into construction projects that employ illegal immigrants and watch that laughable grinding halt start back up. Illegal immigrants send BILLIONS back home. Statistics showed nearly $17 billion was sent to Mexico. Want to know where your infrastructure money from the Obama stimulus package is going? Take a trip to Mexico. Oh yeah, in his weekly address he said $25 billion would be spent on improving infrastructure and schools through construction projects. He also mentioned there would be 2.5 million jobs created and $150 billion would be spent over the next then years.
So lets do the math. 11 million illegal immigrants minus 2.5 million jobs to illegal immigrants sending money to Mexico = 8.5 million illegal immigrants not sending money to Mexico.
$25 billion minus $17 billion = $8 billion, leaving us with $158 billion dollars over ten more years.
$158 billion divided by ten years is $15.8 billion a year.
So $15.8 billion minus $17 billion is negative $1.2 billion dollars a year.
So we actually loose $12 billion dollars to illegal immigrants over ten years, but our roads are really nice but no one is on them because our citizens don’t have enough money to drive on them. Our schools? I’ve done the math and we spend more money on average across the country to keep an inmate in jail for one year than it costs to send one child to college for two years at a public university. If you think I’m just a babbling blogger, do some investigating and find out for yourself. All the information is available on our government websites and is free information. Your turn to comment, I’m logging off. This has been another installment of Politicalpete.com
In 1929 our world faced the depression era and we survived. Our Grandparents, suffered through hard times and created a new world for themselves by giving scientists and inventors the opportunity to develop new inventions that would later be used to revolutionize our industries. Cars were made and sold and several companies formed from an invention called "the motor."
Men wanted to fly in the sky like birds, so people invented airplanes. It was man's wish to fly to the moon and rockets were invented into space shuttles. Not only do we have astronaughts going to the moon, we have a space station, satellites and millionaires going for a ride (thanks to russia's rocket bus)
I believe it is time for the world to put their heads together and develop new technologies for the future of the industrial world. It's time for a new industrial revolution and this means, gathering ideas from scientists, inventors, space technology, and people like you and me.
We have millions of ideas running through our heads on a daily basis, but we never share them. We might write a few down in a journal, while others take the next step and try and make the idea work somehow.
I believe by taking some of the money from the stimulus package and giving it to people who can develop new technologies, this will help us create new jobs for ourselves in the future.
Today I received my first "idea" site, where a gentleman is asking for volunteer writers for his site.
He has several "green" inventions that are very useful to the environment. I'm hoping to gather more information while I research the internet for these new technologies. Twitter Me if you have an idea to add to this list!
http://www.twitter.com/theideagirl
http://www.greeninventions.info/
Folks, we need to hold our state and local representataives accountable for the money in this program. Here are websites for you to follow the money and check on your state's progress.
Note how many states have yet to send a request for certification for the ARRA funds.
Federal recovery websitehttp://www.recovery.gov
State certification for ARRA fundshttp://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/state-certifications
Federal transparency websitehttp://www.usaspending.gov/
ShovelWatch website put out by ProPublica.http://www.shovelwatch.org/
Propublica listing Tracking States' Spending Trackershttp://www.propublica.org/special/chart-tracking-states-spending-trackers
We need to hold our elected officials responsible for requesting and spending this money wisely.
It has been the topic of the day and rightfully so. The American taxpayers’ wallet is drained for various bailouts from financial institutions to auto industry and others waiting in line for their respective turn.
Is it the present administration’s fault that the nation is dependent on borrowings and charity?
The response varies as it depends on the network and the guests appearing on the programs to discuss economy, finance and stock market.
Those nostalgic about the previous administration claim that it is entirely the current administration’s fault.
For some reason their calculation of the incumbent administration in office since swearing in i.e. January 20, 2009 up until now works out to three months, unless they have a custom made calendar that converts every year into leap year with some months extending beyond thirty one days and somehow only the Democratic administrations are privileged to such magical occurrence.
To shed light on the relevant topic of spending bill $410 billion approved by the Senate and awaiting the President’s signature, there appears to be some legitimate concerns regarding the infamous “earmarks” or “pork barrel” issue that always finds its way into every legislative bill.
According to news media, 40% of GOP members and 60% of Democrats are responsible for the estimated 8,570 earmarks worth $7.7billion . The following article supports it.
March 4, 2009
Senate votes to keep earmarks in bill – By David Espo, Associated Press – Thank you.
“The Senate voted overwhelmingly to preserve thousands of earmarks in a $410 billion spending bill Tuesday, brushing aside Senator John McCain’s claim that President Barack Obama and Congress are merely conducting business as usual in a time of economic hardship.
McCain’s attempt to strip out an estimated 8,500 earmarks failed on a vote of 63-32.
The Arizona’s senator’s proposal also would have cut roughly $32 billion from the measure and kept spending a last year’s levels in several federal agencies.
Last year’s Republican presidential candidate said both he and Obama pledged during the campaign to “stop business as usual in Washington,” and he quoted the president as having said he would go line by line to make sure money was spent wisely.
The White House has said Obama intends to sign the legislation, casting it as leftover business from 2008. Spokesman Robert Gibbs pledged Monday that the White House will issue new guidelines covering earmarks for future bills.
McCain’s proposal drew the support of 30 Republicans and two Democrats, and the outcome reflected the enduring value of earmarks to lawmakers. While polls routinely show these pet projects to be unpopular, local governments and constituents often covet them.
The maneuvering came on legislation to assure continued funding for several federal agencies past March 6. At $410 billion, the bill represents an 8 percent increase over last year’s spending levels, more than double the rate of inflation.
Republicans made two other attempts during the day to reduce spending in the bill, but failed both times.
Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said McCain’s call to hold spending level with a year ago “doesn’t account for inflation.”
As an example, he said some programs would have to be cut if federal workers were to receive a pay raise.
The House passed the legislation last week, and Democratic leaders are working to clear it without changes so the president can sign it by Friday.
While Republican opposition in the House focused more on the bill’s overall spending, McCain and allies turned the Senate spotlight squarely on earmarks.
“How does anyone justify some of these earmarks:
$1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa;
$2 million ‘for the promotion of astronomy’ in Hawaii;
$6.6 million for termite research in New Orleans;
$2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York,” he said.
He also noted the legislation includes 14 earmarks requested by lawmakers for projects sought by PMA Group, a lobbying company at the center of a federal corruption investigation. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, said he would seek to have them removed.
Taxpayers for Common Sense estimates the legislation contains 8,570 disclosed earmarks worth $7.7 billion. House Democrats declined to provide an estimate of the number of pet projects in the bill, and put their cost at $3.8 billion.”
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Analysis:
It is evident from the article and news media discussions that this particular bill primarily aimed at stimulating the economy has some of its priorities mixed up. As stated earlier in my article “Economic Recovery Plan” earmarks or estimates for pet projects is a contentious issue with notable reasons for objection by some lawmakers.
This is no longer a partisan issue as both parties have participants in varying percentages responsible for wasteful spending. On the one hand, we have economic turmoil with American families receiving pink slips instead of paychecks and children literally dependent on charity for survival.
There are worse situations like in the golden state of California, northern Californian school district is forcing K-12 students in public schools to stay home on Friday, making it a four-day week due to again “messed up priorities” by the State legislators. The victims in the merciless fund slashing are none other than the educators and students.
Qualified teachers’ job contracts are terminated because of severe cuts in essential programs like education. The head of this state living up to the reputation of the title “Terminator” leaving students seeking help from parents, peer group, neighbors, and strangers/aliens on the cyber space or even outer space.
Do the pet projects’ sponsors have any idea how desperate the situation is for those struggling to make ends meet particularly with a fear mongering of the “socialism” concept by the capitalist panderers denying the failure of capitalism in the absence of regulatory process?
What does this mean to parents dealing with job insecurity and lack of support to take care of the children on the day, they should be in school?
Hoping the children will be protected by guardian angels while they are at work and risking visits from a social worker on accounts of child neglect and possible abuse.
Those who lack the support of extended family relying on hired help in this perilous economy have to choose between the safety of their children and the tight family budget, since borrowing is out of question with indefinite freezing of the credit market to families and small businesses.
One might assume the federal aid to states should address these problems. Even though the federal aid has been approved for this purpose, whatever benefits allocated for education and relief to families in the federal stimulus package is siphoned off by the state budget targeting the same programs.
The state legislators had to emerge victorious in the long fought battle to balance the budget using people at the bottom of the socio-economic scale as the sacrificial lambs.
Obviously, on the other hand both state and federal lawmakers favoring the pet projects vigorously debate in the House and the Senate floor to defend their own jobs as pet projects is an insurance for re-election in their constituency.
If surplus funds are the reasons for earmarks, why not allocate those funds to the deserving entity i.e. the taxpayers in the economy. It would make sense for taxpayers to use their own money to spend on their dependents’ education, health care and housing payments.
It is conclusive that earmarks like the ones highlighted in the articles should have never been inserted in the first place, and now regardless of whose business is being taken care of i.e. whether previous or present administration, the burden is squarely on the taxpayers with the passing of this bill loaded with unnecessary and meaningless pet projects.
American taxpayers were promised on the campaign trail about the elimination of earmarks by both parties and now is the time to honor that commitment without any reservation.
In the real world, students can enroll in the best educational institutions only upon excellent academic achievement, similarly secure dream jobs (during the glorious days) and stick with it purely on competence.
Unfortunately, the entities to whom the criteria should apply i.e. Washington and Wall Street are exempt from performance based hiring or firing despite their successful duo disastrous mismanagement of the world’s economic power, the U.S. economy.
Taxpayers as voters have the power to promote and implement the agenda in 2010 to realize the campaign slogan “Change is effective when it happens from the bottom up and not from the top bottom.”
That confusion reign at the heart of the GOP is now indisputable. One only has to look at this weekend’s CPAC. The party of Lincoln and Roosevelt and not so long ago the party of government is fast descending into fringe condescension and has as it's standard bearers two narcissistic opportunists. In Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, the sole rationale for being conservative, it would seem, is to cream whatever financial rewards they can through the authorship of badly written compilations passed off as books or badly mouthed and bigoted pronouncements touted as radio broadcasting; both Rush and Ann are doing very well financially on the backs of a people who do not seem capable of distinguishing fact from fiction. Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are the clearest manifestation that the lunatics are now in charge of the asylum.
The GOP already beaten once by President Obama during the election, seem to want to commit hara-kiri by taking that fabled and entrenched dogma of “we still know best, we have absolutely no need to change and we lost because we gave up on our extreme right wing ideology”. The message coming from them is so confused that you have their new Chairman Michael Steele, apologized that the American people had every right not to believe anything they said. But in the same breath he touted and echoed their penchant for tax cuts ubber alles in debating a very transformational President whose popularity still appear stratospheric.
One would have thought that, after losing to President Obama despite the play on “Conservatives holding on to religion and guns ....” statement by the then candidate Obama and the much looped Reverend Wright’s “God damn America” controversies, the GOP would have formulated a different strategy of response and tactic of execution. Instead they have resorted to confused, misdirected and rudderless rabble rousing.
Take for instance the new line of attack by that most hypocritical of the so-called conservatives, Newt Gingrich’s attempt to link and lump President Obama in with President Bush for the current economic crises. Unless Mr. Gingrich believes that the American is the most stupid person on God’s Earth, how could he possibly make that association in the expectation that less than two months into his Presidency, the American people would have forgotten who brought onto them the current wrath of a very displeased economic GOD. And herein lies the absolutely impossible task that the GOP has to deal with; talk about the government’s lack of fiscal responsibility when they presided over the biggest deficit in the nations recent history is not convincing; talk of over burdening future generations when they spent their way through the nations treasures without so much as a monument built in commemoration, except for corruption and the numbers of new graves for the Brave young men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to uphold the honor of their beloved nation on a distant shore sounds hollow and hypocritical; talk of bad economics when they created the conditions for the festering of the depression malaise that a very new and young administration has to grapple with even before it had taken office sounds disingenuous; talk of diminishing America prestige and influence when they have the dubious honor of their great leader being the only American President to have been ‘shoed’ by a foreign journalist when he was the guest of those journalists sounds farcical.
So the GOP is looking forward to when President Obama’s policies fail so that they can blame him and his party for the failure. Now let us look at how serious a challenge that may prove for the GOP to exploit more than for President Obama to explain. How does ending the war in Iraq render the President to criticism if that country descended into anarchy after the drawdown on US troops when he has already directed with ample notice period that the troops be brought home and only a non combatant compliment is retained and which would leave by a fixed deadline? It will only ‘fail’ if the Iraqis cannot look after themselves. But how does the failure of a democratically elected Iraqi government become the responsibility of a US Administration? Besides, the GOP likes his plan. It is just about the only thing they agree with him on.
Afghanistan as a coalition effort mandated by the UN and NATO is not the direct responsibility of President Obama although he has sought to highlight the dangers of ignoring that campaign for far too long. In fact, any failure there will be a vindication of his long standing complaint that too much focus went unnecessarily onto Iraq. And coalition partners in Afghanistan were not imposed upon to pull their weight.
The case of the US economy presents the worst case scenario for the GOP even more so than the rest of the litmus issues already described. Tax cuts for the middle classes, unemployment benefits and insurance for those who have lost their jobs, a foreclosure stay of execution for those struggling with their mortgages, health insurance for over eleven million children, the biggest reconstruction agenda for a generation, improvements for education, investments in alternative energy, assistance to States struggling as a result of the deep recession... etc.
Now let’s assume that no jobs are created at all (and that is quite some assumption) and the unemployment rate remains as is in 3 years hence. People would still see improvements in bridges and the road infrastructure, they will notice better classrooms and paid teachers, improvements in environmental awareness and steps to address them, a dramatic fall in the numbers of US Soldiers stationed abroad, a reduction in their tours of duty and their involvement in "dumb wars". The people still struggling for employment will be able to stay in their own homes and thereby have roofs over their heads and will be able to get sick without being bankrupt. Those still in employment, especially the middle classes, will still enjoy a reasonable standard of living and not see hikes in their levels of taxation. Since a lot of the jobs currently being lost are in GOP afflicted areas, a lot of ‘former’ GOP voters will come to appreciate the assistance they will be receiving from this so called and much maligned ‘Socialist’ government and may even decide that that type of ‘Socialism' may not be all that bad. Why? Because they would remember that this current President inherited all the issues from a GOP President. Most importantly, they will also remember that those aspects of policy that helps to ease their pain were passed without a single GOP support in the House and only three GOP Senators were brave enough to cross party lines despite a sterling effort by President Obama to be bi-partisan.
If there is a GOP GOD in existence it must know that 2012 will not be a GOP year. That will be when the real fruits of all this stimuli starts to really kick-in. And witnessing the disarray in which the GOP finds itself, it will take them more than three terms to get another look in; look at what happened to the British Conservative Party after Maggie Thatcher. The GOP’s redemption would be on the basis that it remodeled itself on a successful and winning formula; that of the Democrats and the GOP agenda then will be to portray themselves as the best placed to carry out the legacy of Obama. Now will that not be a turn for the books?
This is my first time, so I hope that this gets to the right person:
Because some of the Republican Govenors are trying to refuse the monies for this Stimulus plan in order for it to fail, I think that there should be a way to send one e-mail to all of them at the same time and that everyone in the country can let them know how they feel. This will let them hear that they are effecting the possibility that may help the whole country climb out of their holes that their own politicians help create and now they want to throw the last shovel of dirt on to their graves. Hopefully, they will get the picture that their re-election doesn't stem on just their Republican ideologies, but the lives of the people of their state. I see where most of them are coming up for re-elction in 2010. They must think that they only are there for their republicans and not the rest of the people in their state. Once again, my suggestion is to put together an e-mail that includes all of their e-mails on one that everyone can send a message. Some of those e-mails I'm sure will agree with them, but I'm welling to bet that most of them will be from people all over the country and not just their state will let them know they are making selfish decisions.
Will Obama’s stimulus plan work……… NO
You don’t need to be great economist to figure it out. First look into why US went into this recession. Is it just irresponsible sub-prime lending by financial institution??? …….NO. That is just one of the superficial reasons which brought recession. The main reason is overall US foreign policies. For the US economy to sustain and grow, it has to do business with ALL over the world. The stimulus plan will create only short term growth. For long term sustained growth, it has to sell its products & services all over the world. To sell all over the world it has to make friends & allies. Thanks to US foreign polices over the years and mainly during George “W” Bush tenure, it has made more adversaries than allies. Even the last biggest recession in 1970’s came thanks to US foreign policy of unilaterally supporting Israel by air lifting more than 25,000 tons of military equipment for its war against its neighboring countries, which made them turn against US and block sale of oil to US. This time, its direct war with Iraq which cost it more than 600 billion and counting. Why did US did attack on Iraq when Atomic energy agencies had given it clean chit that it doesn’t have any nuclear war heads or WMD? (Till not a single was found). Effortless answer is to get rid of tyrant Saddam Hussein………..NO It was to demolish a country that was challenging the existence of Israel. US fought on behalf of Israel and itself into recession for second time. Zionist lobbies in US capitol is making US take those decision which just benefitting Israel become a more and more diabolic & regional terror, by which it not just making 57 Muslim countries adversary of US but also many other countries are becoming its foe. What is US getting in return from Israel …….. nothing except recessions & enemies. Till the time US does not close this hole in the economy, till will never grow to true potential and long term sustained growth.
In-depth Study: How much is US Tax payers are funding Israel????
Generous as it is, what Israelis actually got in U.S. aid is considerably less than what it has cost U.S. taxpayers to provide it. The principal difference is that so long as the U.S. runs an annual budget deficit, every dollar of aid the U.S. gives Israel has to be raised through U.S. government borrowing.
In an article in The Washington Report for December 1991/January 1992, Frank Collins estimated the costs of this interest, based upon prevailing interest rates for every year since 1949. I have updated this by applying a very conservative 5 percent interest rate for subsequent years, and confined the amount upon which the interest is calculated to grants, not loans or loan guarantees.
On this basis the $84.8 billion in grants, loans and commodities Israel has received from the U.S. since 1949 cost the U.S. an additional $49,936,880,000 in interest.
There are many other costs of Israel to U.S. taxpayers, such as most or all of the $45.6 billion in U.S. foreign aid to Egypt since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979 (compared to $4.2 billion in U.S. aid to Egypt for the preceding 26 years). U.S. foreign aid to Egypt, which is pegged at two-thirds of U.S. foreign aid to Israel, averages $2.2 billion per year.
There also have been immense political and military costs to the U.S. for its consistent support of Israel during Israel's half-century of disputes with the Palestinians and all of its Arab neighbors. In addition, there have been the approximately $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees and perhaps $20 billion in tax-exempt contributions made to Israel by American Jews in the nearly half-century since Israel was created.
Even excluding all of these extra costs, America's $84.8 billion in aid to Israel from fiscal years 1949 through 1998, and the interest the U.S. paid to borrow this money, has cost U.S. taxpayers $134.8 billion, not adjusted for inflation. Or, put another way, the nearly $14,630 every one of 5.8 million Israelis received from the U.S. government by Oct. 31, 1997 has cost American taxpayers $23,240 per Israeli.
The only members of Congress who even suspect the full total of U.S. funds received by Israel each year are the privileged few committee members who actually mark it up. And almost all members of the concerned committees are Jewish, have taken huge campaign donations orchestrated by Israel's Washington, DC lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), or both. These congressional committee members are paid to act, not talk. So they do and they don't.
The same applies to the president, the secretary of state, and the foreign aid administrator. They all submit a budget that includes aid for Israel, which Congress approves, or increases, but never cuts. But no one in the executive branch mentions that of the few remaining U.S. aid recipients worldwide, all of the others are developing nations which either make their military bases available to the U.S., are key members of international alliances in which the U.S. participates, or have suffered some crippling blow of nature to their abilities to feed their people such as earthquakes, floods or droughts.
Benefits to Israel of U.S. AidSince 1949 (As of November 1, 1997)Foreign Aid Grants and Loans$74,157,600,000Other U.S. Aid (12.2% of Foreign Aid)$9,047,227,200Interest to Israel from Advanced Payments$1,650,000,000Grand Total$84,854,827,200Total Benefits per Israeli$14,630
Cost to U.S. Taxpayers of U.S.Aid to IsraelGrand Total$84,854,827,200Interest Costs Borne by U.S.$49,936,680,000Total Cost to U.S. Taxpayers$134,791,507,200Total Taxpayer Cost per Israeli$23,240
Since 1992, the U.S. has offered Israel an additional $2 billion annually in loan guarantees. Congressional researchers have disclosed that between 1974 and 1989, $16.4 billion in U.S. military loans were converted to grants and that this was the understanding from the beginning. Indeed, all past U.S. loans to Israel have eventually been forgiven by Congress, which has undoubtedly helped Israel's often-touted claim that they have never defaulted on a U.S. government loan. U.S. policy since 1984 has been that economic assistance to Israel must equal or exceed Israel's annual debt repayment to the United States. Unlike other countries, which receive aid in quarterly installments, aid to Israel since 1982 has been given in a lump sum at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving the U.S. government to borrow from future revenues. Israel even lends some of this money back through U.S. treasury bills and collects the additional interest.
In addition, there is the more than $1.5 billion in private U.S. funds that go to Israel annually in the form of $1 billion in private tax-deductible donations and $500 million in Israeli bonds. The ability of Americans to make what amounts to tax-deductible contributions to a foreign government, made possible through a number of Jewish charities, does not exist with any other country. Nor do these figures include short- and long-term commercial loans from U.S. banks, which have been as high as $1 billion annually in recent years.
Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes. Indeed, Israel's GNP is higher than the combined GNP of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. With a per capita income of about $14,000, Israel ranks as the sixteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.
AID does not term economic aid to Israel as development assistance, but instead uses the term "economic support funding."
For the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, the U.S. has given Israel $6.72 billion: $6.194 billion falls under Israel's foreign aid allotment and $526 million comes from agencies such as the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Information Agency and the Pentagon. The $6.72 billion figure does not include loan guarantees and annual compound interest totalling $3.122 billion the U.S. pays on money borrowed to give to Israel. It does not include the cost to U.S. taxpayers of IRS tax exemptions that donors can claim when they donate money to Israeli charities. (Donors claim approximately $1 billion in Federal tax deductions annually. This ultimately costs other U.S. tax payers $280 million to $390 million.)
Israel, whose troubles arise solely from its unwillingness to give back land it seized in the 1967 war in return for peace with its neighbors, does not fit those criteria. In fact, Israel's 1995 per capita gross domestic product was $15,800. That put it below Britain at $19,500 and Italy at $18,700 and just above Ireland at $15,400 and Spain at $14,300.
All four of those European countries have contributed a very large share of immigrants to the U.S., yet none has organized an ethnic group to lobby for U.S. foreign aid. Instead, all four send funds and volunteers to do economic development and emergency relief work in other less fortunate parts of the world.
The lobby that Israel and its supporters have built in the United States to make all this aid happen, and to ban discussion of it from the national dialogue, goes far beyond AIPAC, with its $15 million budget, its 150 employees, and its five or six registered lobbyists who manage to visit every member of Congress individually once or twice a year.
AIPAC, in turn, can draw upon the resources of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a roof group set up solely to coordinate the efforts of some 52 national Jewish organizations on behalf of Israel.
Among them are Hadassah, the Zionist women's organization, which organizes a steady stream of American Jewish visitors to Israel; the American Jewish Congress, which mobilizes support for Israel among members of the traditionally left-of-center Jewish mainstream; and the American Jewish Committee, which plays the same role within the growing middle-of-the-road and right-of-center Jewish community. The American Jewish Committee also publishes Commentary, one of the Israel lobby's principal national publications.
Perhaps the most controversial of these groups is B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Its original highly commendable purpose was to protect the civil rights of American Jews. Over the past generation, however, the ADL has regressed into a conspiratorial and, with a $45 million budget, extremely well-funded hate group.
More recently, FBI raids on ADL's Los Angeles and San Francisco offices revealed that an ADL operative had purchased files stolen from the San Francisco police department that a court had ordered destroyed because they violated the civil rights of the individuals on whom they had been compiled. ADL, it was shown, had added the illegally prepared and obtained material to its own secret files, compiled by planting informants among Arab-American, African-American, anti-Apartheid and peace and justice groups.
The ADL infiltrators took notes of the names and remarks of speakers and members of audiences at programs organized by such groups. ADL agents even recorded the license plates of persons attending such programs and then suborned corrupt motor vehicles department employees or renegade police officers to identify the owners.
Although one of the principal offenders fled the United States to escape prosecution, no significant penalties were assessed. ADL's Northern California office was ordered to comply with requests by persons upon whom dossiers had been prepared to see their own files, but no one went to jail and as yet no one has paid fines.
Not surprisingly, a defecting employee revealed in an article he published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs that AIPAC, too, has such "enemies" files. They are compiled for use by pro-Israel journalists like Steven Emerson and other so-called "terrorism experts," and also by professional, academic or journalistic rivals of the persons described for use in black-listing, defaming, or denouncing them. What is never revealed is that AIPAC's "opposition research" department, under the supervision of Michael Lewis, son of famed Princeton University Orientalist Bernard Lewis, is the source of this defamatory material.
But this is not AIPAC's most controversial activity. In the 1970s, when Congress put a cap on the amount its members could earn from speakers' fees and book royalties over and above their salaries, it halted AIPAC's most effective ways of paying off members for voting according to AIPAC recommendations. Members of AIPAC's national board of directors solved the problem by returning to their home states and creating political action committees (PACs).
Most special interests have PACs, as do many major corporations, labor unions, trade associations and public-interest groups. But the pro-Israel groups went wild. To date some 126 pro-Israel PACs have been registered, and no fewer than 50 have been active in every national election over the past generation.
An individual voter can give up to $2,000 to a candidate in an election cycle, and a PAC can give a candidate up to $10,000. However, a single special interest with 50 PACs can give a candidate who is facing a tough opponent, and who has voted according to its recommendations, up to half a million dollars. That's enough to buy all the television time needed to get elected in most parts of the country.
Even candidates who don't need this kind of money certainly don't want it to become available to a rival from their own party in a primary election, or to an opponent from the opposing party in a general election. As a result, all but a handful of the 535 members of the Senate and House vote as AIPAC instructs when it comes to aid to Israel, or other aspects of U.S. Middle East policy.
There is something else very special about AIPAC's network of political action committees. Nearly all have deceptive names. Who could possibly know that the Delaware Valley Good Government Association in Philadelphia, San Franciscans for Good Government in California, Cactus PAC in Arizona, Beaver PAC in Wisconsin, and even Icepac in New York are really pro-Israel PACs under deep cover?
In fact, the congress members know it when they list the contributions they receive on the campaign statements they have to prepare for the Federal Election Commission. But their constituents don't know this when they read these statements. So just as no other special interest can put so much "hard money" into any candidate's election campaign as can the Israel lobby, no other special interest has gone to such elaborate lengths to hide its tracks.
Although AIPAC, Washington's most feared special-interest lobby, can hide how it uses both carrots and sticks to bribe or intimidate members of Congress, it can't hide all of the results.
Anyone can ask one of their representatives in Congress for a chart prepared by the Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress, that shows Israel received $62.5 billion in foreign aid from fiscal year 1949 through fiscal year 1996. People in the national capital area also can visit the library of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Rosslyn, Virginia, and obtain the same information, plus charts showing how much foreign aid the U.S. has given other countries as well.
Visitors will learn that in precisely the same 1949-1996 time frame, the total of U.S. foreign aid to all of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined was $62,497,800,000--almost exactly the amount given to tiny Israel.
According to the Population Reference Bureau of Washington, DC, in mid-1995 the sub-Saharan countries had a combined population of 568 million. The $24,415,700,000 in foreign aid they had received by then amounted to $42.99 per sub-Saharan African.
Similarly, with a combined population of 486 million, all of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean together had received $38,254,400,000. This amounted to $79 per person.
The per capita U.S. foreign aid to Israel's 5.8 million people during the same period was $10,775.48. This meant that for every dollar the U.S. spent on an African, it spent $250.65 on an Israeli, and for every dollar it spent on someone from the Western Hemisphere outside the United States, it spent $214 on an Israeli.
These comparisons already seem shocking, but they are far from the whole truth. Using reports compiled by Clyde Mark of the Congressional Research Service and other sources, freelance writer Frank Collins tallied for The Washington Report all of the extra items for Israel buried in the budgets of the Pentagon and other federal agencies in fiscal year 1993.Washington Report news editor Shawn Twing did the same thing for fiscal years 1996 and 1997.
They uncovered $1.271 billion in extras in FY 1993, $355.3 million in FY 1996 and $525.8 million in FY 1997. These represent an average increase of 12.2 percent over the officially recorded foreign aid totals for the same fiscal years, and they probably are not complete. It's reasonable to assume, therefore, that a similar 12.2 percent hidden increase has prevailed over all of the years Israel has received aid.
As of Oct. 31, 1997 Israel will have received $3.05 billion in U.S. foreign aid for fiscal year 1997 and $3.08 billion in foreign aid for fiscal year 1998. Adding the 1997 and 1998 totals to those of previous years since 1949 yields a total of $74,157,600,000 in foreign aid grants and loans. Assuming that the actual totals from other budgets average 12.2 percent of that amount, that brings the grand total to $83,204,827,200.
But that's not quite all. Receiving its annual foreign aid appropriation during the first month of the fiscal year, instead of in quarterly installments as do other recipients, is just another special privilege Congress has voted for Israel. It enables Israel to invest the money in U.S. Treasury notes. That means that the U.S., which has to borrow the money it gives to Israel, pays interest on the money it has granted to Israel in advance, while at the same time Israel is collecting interest on the money. That interest to Israel from advance payments adds another $1.650 billion to the total, making it $84,854,827,200.That's the number you should write down for total aid to Israel. And that's $14,346 each for each man, woman and child in Israel.
It's worth noting that that figure does not include U.S. government loan guarantees to Israel, of which Israel has drawn $9.8 billion to date. They greatly reduce the interest rate the Israeli government pays on commercial loans, and they place additional burdens on U.S. taxpayers, especially if the Israeli government should default on any of them. But since neither the savings to Israel nor the costs to U.S. taxpayers can be accurately quantified, they are excluded from consideration here.
Further, friends of Israel never tire of saying that Israel has never defaulted on repayment of a U.S. government loan. It would be equally accurate to say Israel has never been required to repay a U.S. government loan. The truth of the matter is complex, and designed to be so by those who seek to conceal it from the U.S. taxpayer.
Most U.S. loans to Israel are forgiven, and many were made with the explicit understanding that they would be forgiven before Israel was required to repay them. By disguising as loans what in fact were grants, cooperating members of Congress exempted Israel from the U.S. oversight that would have accompanied grants. On other loans, Israel was expected to pay the interest and eventually to begin repaying the principal. But the so-called Cranston Amendment, which has been attached by Congress to every foreign aid appropriation since 1983, provides that economic aid to Israel will never dip below the amount Israel is required to pay on its outstanding loans. In short, whether U.S. aid is extended as grants or loans to Israel, it never returns to the Treasury.
Israel enjoys other privileges. While most countries receiving U.S. military aid funds are expected to use them for U.S. arms, ammunition and training, Israel can spend part of these funds on weapons made by Israeli manufacturers. Also, when it spends its U.S. military aid money on U.S. products, Israel frequently requires the U.S. vendor to buy components or materials from Israeli manufacturers. Thus, though Israeli politicians say that their own manufacturers and exporters are making them progressively less dependent upon U.S. aid, in fact those Israeli manufacturers and exporters are heavily subsidized by U.S. aid.
Although it's beyond the parameters of this study, it's worth mentioning that Israel also receives foreign aid from some other countries. After the United States, the principal donor of both economic and military aid to Israel is Germany.
By far the largest component of German aid has been in the form of restitution payments to victims of Nazi atrocities. But there also has been extensive German military assistance to Israel during and since the Gulf war, and a variety of German educational and research grants go to Israeli institutions. The total of German assistance in all of these categories to the Israeli government, Israeli individuals and Israeli private institutions has been some $31 billion or $5,345 per capita, bringing the per capita total of U.S. and German assistance combined to almost $20,000 per Israeli. Since very little public money is spent on the more than 20 percent of Israeli citizens who are Muslim or Christian, the actual per capita benefits received by Israel's Jewish citizens would be considerably higher.
Isn't it amazing how rhetorical ads like this make a creative attempt at focusing the attention of the American people on spin? This political action comittee tries to compare the time it would take to spend a million dollars a day since Jesus. To the present day and age.
Hey there!
I gathered some videos about the Stimulus Package. - Link - opens in a new window
Regards - Max
P.S.: And one video about the most expensive helicopter in the world, the Marine One: - Link - opens in a new window
The title refers to the stimulus package recently passed by Congress. Sung to the music of “Celebration”, by Kool and the Gang. Watch it here.
My fellow Americans, our elected officials have made it clear that there is no stopping this $787 billion dollar "economic stimulus plan". While we the people will be forced to pay for this plan, the government has seen it fit to hide the details of this plan from our view before they force it down our throats. So I'd like to respond to this new "transparency in government" policy with a few predictions about how this is all likely to go down...
1) Total spending for this plan will exceed 5 TRILLION dollars before this administration leaves office. As the children's book states, "If you give a moose a muffin... he'll want some jam to go with it". Giving this criminally negligent government $787 billion to do with as they see fit will only open the floodgates of more "stimulus" in the coming months. I suspect within 6 months we'll see Mr. President on the TV again (made possible by all the MASSIVE dollars in this stimulus for DTV converters) saying "well, it didn't work like we had hoped, but if we just put this additional money behind it...". SIX MONTHS. Mark your calendars the day this thing passes.
2) Following passage of this bill the stock market will show a brief rebound followed by a collapse of most if not all key market indicators. The stimulus bill itself states that Americans "borrowed and borrowed and when they couldn't borrow any longer, the bottom fell out". Yet, this is exactly what this plan is proposing. Our government continues to borrow and borrow and eventually when there's no potential for any more free money, the bottom is going to fall out, decimating every segment of the American economy. We complain now that the DOW is under 8K, but what's going to happen when it drops below 6K? 4K? Lower, perhaps? I believe a time is coming during this administration when we will look back fondly at when the stock market was in the 7000 range, with hopes that maybe, just maybe, it may get that high again in our lifetime.
3) Countless Americans will lose their lives under the provisions of this "plan". When the free money finally runs out and the hope of any economic future whatsoever has been completely decimated by this "plan", the rate of suicide, homicide, and other violent crimes will likely skyrocket. Others with no bent towards criminality will simply starve. More egregiously, with this "plan" having no appreciable increase in support for social services (police, fire, emergency) there will be little for local governments to do but watch the people die and the property burn. This administration has, however, planned to spend loads of cash improving medical record keeping. With this they should have no problems keeping track of how many Americans their recklessness has killed.
4) The plan will not work as expected. How can it? The President himself stated in his latest news conference "We don't know how this is going to work." If the author of this thing doesn't know how the last page is going to read, then what confidence do we – that is, the people who are paying for it – have that we're not going to be the victims in this story? While I applaud the President for being bold in taking action, he should have considered that taking the wrong action is worse than no action at all. Striding boldly forward without a clear picture of the end game didn't fare so well for the Titanic, and it won't likely fare any better for the American economy. Of course, he might get lucky... or he might not. In other words, our President is gambling a large percentage of OUR future earnings with no more chance of success than a game of roulette. What do you suppose it might do to the economy if the president of Coca Cola or the head of one of the auto makers or a CEO of any of the large banks took a large percentage of their company's earnings and went to Las Vegas to bet it all on a single number? If they pick a winner, people keep their homes. If they lose, a lot of people are going to be negatively impacted, many displaced, and some even economically destroyed. Yet, isn't this exactly the risk that this administration is assigning to "we the people"?
5) Despite the total decimation of the American economy, the Obama administration will be completely sheltered from its impacts and exempted from responsibility. Now that the President has spent all that free Party money he has the microphone and a contingent in this country so in love with his mantra of change that they would starve themselves and their children simply for the chance to shift blame away from him and his administration. But let us not forget this plan is the brainchild of one man with a dream of change. And regardless of how this turns out, there will be change. In that way, this administration stands to be a roaring success. The question remains, however: Can we – the American people – survive such success?
We cannot be surprised that the Republicans distance themselves from the stimulus proposals brought forth by a Democrat Congress and a Democratic President when it is of no political benefit to Republicans to vote for these proposals.
We have the next two years to make credible progress in correcting the economic disaster brought to us by the eight years of Bush's laissez faire economics and distrust of government regulation. That is enough and more. It is well marked out, now, the divide between us and them, for all to see. They have voted no, voted to sit on their hands while we commit to extraordinary spending by government to put people and projects into motion. Now it is up to us to make sure that the promises and the expenditures become a workable reality. If it works, we will win the Congressional elections two years from now in record fashion.
Whether it works or not, they will continue to chant that all we had to do was lower taxes on those who produce jobs and the great trickle down will create a tide that will raise all boats and bring America back to glory and prosperity.
We have to watch the spending of all this stimulus money and make sure that it gets moving and gets to where it is supposed to go as soon as it can. There will be a lot of obfuscation, a lot of bureaucratic waffling, a lot of waste, a lot of wrongdoing, but it can be done right if we, the people, the interested, the concerned, the stakeholders, keep on watching, keep on pushing. Ignore the criticisms about nationalizing the economy. Ignore the pundits who claim that most of the money won't even be spent for the next two years, but don't ignore your responsibility to watch this process like a hawk, and when it seems to be going wrong, to stand up and say it loud and often.
We finally have a US President who can speak in full sentences, who can take responsibility for mistakes made and have a stated interest in hearing dissenting opinions. The past few weeks have been filled with joyous relief for those few facts alone! But the challenges the US and the world face are enormous and with the recent debates on the economic crisis I can’t help but feel President Obama may be a little too limited in his perception of potential solutions.
The problem for our new President is that he has to do the impossible, and he has to do it fast. Unfortunately, even for the truly great, it’s easy to get caught up in the eye of the storm and not see what goes on beyond the immediate wall of despair and destruction. From my perspective this stimulus bill, although certainly much needed and done with the best of intentions, is a dangerous gamble. Consuming your way out of debt is only effective if there is a prospect of new funds on the horizon. As far as I can tell, this bill will only increase the national debt with very little influx of pure capital. In my humble opinion the US economy is in far too deep a recession to come out of it just by adding billions of borrowed dollars on some domestic touch ups.
I fully understand the thought process behind the stimulus bill and the need to get Americans back to work. And personally I can’t wait for the United States to join us in the 21st century when it comes to internet access, environmental developments, education and healthcare. But I can’t imagine anyone believing this is going to be enough. This stimulus bill is like adding oil in a car to make the engine run more smoothly when it is in fact all out of gas!
The effort that goes into the sheer political practicality of passing a bill as massive as this stimulus package is mindboggling. What is commonly referred to as pork is the price you pay to get politicians with very different agendas to come together to achieve a mutual goal. This is what politics is at its core; bargaining, squabbling and endless compromises until all agree but no one is happy. It’s the price we pay for democracy. A sovereign King can decide on any action he pleases, a democracy has to find ways to make hundreds of vastly different individuals with, in many cases opposing agendas, agree on one course of action, in theory as much of a challenge as in reality.
But to survive this recession, depression, slump or whatever you want to call it, the US desperately needs to pump gas into its engine, and fast. America’s debt is today so high it defies human comprehension. This debt is only going to get higher during the next few years, with all the bailouts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still needing funds. This debt can never be fully paid by American taxes or consumer spending.
What the US needs is external funds flooding into the country, money not attached to business deals or political deals, but pure profit. The only way this is going to happen is if America can come up with something to sell to the world that’s worth buying.
Today the whole world suffers from the economic crisis, every nation in its own way. The first instinct is of course to look to one’s own welfare with a deadly protectionism as a result. We are all dependent on the free flow of goods and funds to maintain our level of comfort and if the US were to close the door on fair trade and withdraw inward (effectively abandoning capitalism for planed economy) it would have disastrous effects on the entire balance of the global community. Where America goes, the world goes…
The only way to save the US economy, and in effect the worlds, is to make full use of the means available in the realm of the global community. But if Americans keep making up the rules as it suites them no one else is going to play along. President Obama will then be left standing alone, with his fancy new roads and shiny new houses and a national debt that will make the United States of America effectively bought and paid for by foreign nations and conglomerates.
Innovations and foreign relations should be President Obama’s main focus, in my opinion. This is where the money is and the solution to America’s many problems. One new invention is not going to be enough, nor will one solution ever be enough. But President Obama won the worlds approval through this recent election. He should capitalize on that now. The influx of money into his suffering nation depends on whether we believe America is once again worth investing in and if American products are worth paying for. If we are still ignored, as we have been for the past eight years, if the current President insists on pressing the idea that saving American jobs at all cost is the only solution then I fear, as great a man as I believe he is, President Obama will inevitably fail.
One of the most important rules of capitalism state that if a product can be produced at a smaller price with same quality in, let’s say India as opposed to Indiana, then that’s where it needs to be produced. The country that has a higher living cost and its workers therefore are unable to live on a the salaries the workers can, in for example India, will just have to find other things to do for profit, things that are too complex to be done in India, or other developing nations. Clinging to jobs that rightfully belong to people in poorer nations, simply because Americans lack the imagination or the education they should have considering the nations collective wealth, is inexcusable!
We shall soon see which road President Obama chooses for his country. What I hope for is that he will find the courage to let go of some type of jobs and businesses in order to allow the world to help fuel the American wonder once more. But if he ignores the needs of the other nations across the globe, which many of his fellow countrymen will insist on, I fear it will fasten the decent into despair for all nations, including the US. The American dream needs new material, new inventions and new ideas!!
President Obama won the election on the idea that anything is possible, that the American spirit can survive anything. This is a noble idea and in some ways it’s absolutely true. I just hope he doesn’t put too much faith in the premise that the only thing Americans need is more jobs and a house to live in. Investing in the future is a good thing. Giving people jobs is a good thing. But America has lost more than just jobs and houses. And it will take more than what Americans themselves can muster to get out of this recession.
I hope President Obama and his countrymen will realize in time that all humans are a part of this now, the world is one and the American engine needs to run smoothly, not just for its own sake but for all of us.
