USA Politics

Obama announced a bunch of climate change stuff today ... agree or disagree with what he has done (and I mostly disagree) ... it is insane that one person has this much power and can enact so much that affects so many around Congress. The only good news is it will take time to implement and ideally the GOP with Dems like Manchin and others in energy producing states will be able to over turn part and the courts will do the rest.

The real problem is that the President has so much power
 
The fireworks are not related to foreign aid ... it is all government money, but it is carved up by department. However, there is good reason to look at the Foreign Aid we spend. Every time a US President goes on a world tour and hands out $ on the way, I question what type of return the US is getting for that.
 
Personally I think this is a non issue. They're just fireworks ... I don't get it, right now with the NSA leaks and all Obama is an easy target, and they're going with fireworks? Aside from that though, I noticed the article didn't say anything about the point of Obama's Africa trip and really only mentions it in the headline. So I did a little bit of research and found that he's going over there to increase foreign relations with them.
"Ultimately, the goal here is for Africa to build Africa for Africans," Obama said. "And our job is to be a partner in that process."
So it's not like he's going on vacation. Anyway, here's the article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/obama-bush-heading-african-city-19540684#.UdJv-ZzNm5w
 
Just looks like a cheap headline.

As Mosh says, do they not having something more pertinent to be criticising him about e.g. the catastrophic P.R. disaster that is bugging European embassies!, etc...
 
And I have lost even MORE respect for this loser!!!

Google this: Obama we're going to start by investing $7 billion in Africa

OMFG!!! We SO BADLY need to stop helping and wasting money on other countries and really need to start worrying about THIS country!!! There is no need for this or a need to increase foreign relations with them. They have enough problems of their own and now we're going to waste more money trying to help them? Their government is so corrupt! They keep almost all of the money that is sent to them through all the various "feed the children" charities and such. And now we're going to aid them? I am more convinced than ever that Obama is intentionally trying to drive this country into as much debt as possible. For what reasons it's hard to say. This really and truly is how I now feel about Obama. I'm very worried and scared for our future under him. I truly hope and pray that he does something to cause himself to be impeached, but that probably won't happen.
 
Wow, 7 billion in development help from the richest country to the poorest countries! What a wanker!
 
The debt is snowballing and has for a long time, but it picked up the pace with Bush and spun out of control at the end of his term with the global financial crisis. It has no w reached a nightmarish state. There is plenty of blame to go around the congress, departments and the President and the American people as an entity. There is no pinpointing the blame. All are guilty and it's borderline impossible to do anything about it during the near future. It will take time to slow down and even longer to pay it off. If ever. Investing in Africa is though, probably a good idea. It's emerging and China has planted a shitload of seeds there and has invested heavily. About time the US got into the game there.
 
Foreign aid can be valuable and in our interest .. before to keep countries from allying with the East Block and today with China (at least economically). But I do question the value we and the recipients of some aid get. If we are talking about development money where they need to buy US goods and food, then there is some benefit ... I am afraid though that a decent percentage gets chewed up in corrupt governments.
 
Travis The Dragon said:
And I have lost even MORE respect for this loser!!!

Google this: Obama we're going to start by investing $7 billion in Africa

OMFG!!! We SO BADLY need to stop helping and wasting money on other countries and really need to start worrying about THIS country!!! There is no need for this or a need to increase foreign relations with them. They have enough problems of their own and now we're going to waste more money trying to help them? Their government is so corrupt! They keep almost all of the money that is sent to them through all the various "feed the children" charities and such. And now we're going to aid them? I am more convinced than ever that Obama is intentionally trying to drive this country into as much debt as possible. For what reasons it's hard to say. This really and truly is how I now feel about Obama. I'm very worried and scared for our future under him. I truly hope and pray that he does something to cause himself to be impeached, but that probably won't happen.
Click to expand...

Foreign aid is more than "just giving them money". It's really an investment, and building up the economy in underdeveloped countries is a good way of creating potential trade partners. Shutting off the US from the rest of the world is not going to help our economy, if anything that hurts it.

Aside from that, I like the new energy plans for Africa. Like Yax said, about time the US got in there. One thing that Bush did well was his work in Africa, it's good to see Obama not only continuing that, but taking it to another level. One of the few Bush things that I'm okay seeing continue. You say that you pray for suffering children, well there you go. Development of clean energy is a step in the right direction.
 
It doesn't matter what we do to aid and help Africa. Their government is so corrupt that they'll just use whatever we give them in a corrupt way that benefits them.
 
That's a horribly cynical and dreadful way to see it. Yep, a large chunk usually disappears along the way when corruption is involved. As it does with the Red Cross and other charity organisations. It's not an incentive to do nothing. It might be an excuse for you to do nothing though. But to imply that all the money spent on Africa aid over the years hasn't improved the life of millions is just untrue.
 
Then why is it that after all the tons and tons of money that has been donated to all the charities to help the poor, the life of those people hasn't improved that much?
 
Just watched Newsnight on BBC2. They had a piece on Egypt & were discussing how uninfluential the US is. As well as through choice (i.e. the US doesn't want to interfere & or become involved), it's also about money --specifically how much money they are giving, or proposing to give. I'm not saying this has anything to do with "aid", as such; but the figures were interesting in providing perspective & comparison.

The US is giving, or proposing to give, $250m in "civilian assistance" (not sure of the time frame, or even what this means --but this is unimportant for the comparison); Libya (yes, Libya) has pledged $2bn; Saudi Arabia $4bn; & Qatar $8bn --of this the Egyptian/Morsi Government has already received $10bn so far i.e. a tiny percentage of the money they have been given has come from the US.

Conversely, in comparison, figures for the amount of money the US gives to the Egyptian military are enormous. The most common figure quoted (that Obama asked congress to give Egypt in military aid for 2014) is $1.3bn. The US has been giving the Egyptian military this amount every year since 1987. Egypt is second only to Israel in terms of US military aid.

Compare this to the US's spend on "military defence" in 2012, which presumably includes that Egyptian figure above. $737bn. Read that again, even it's not accurate: triple figure billion dollars:
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/defense_budget_2012_3.html

My point here, besides throwing a few unreferenced figures around, is this: the money the US spends & gives ranges from very small to very large in the examples above. The money the US is giving to Africa in aid, that Travis quotes as $7bn (I mean: how many years is this over?), is relatively small I'd suggest --for something as important as aid.

Please get stuff in perspective Travis.
(And please tell me that Africa "Government" comment was a slip...)
 
OK, yes I do realize that all of Africa doesn't just have one, single government, but since they do have governments that are in fact corrupt, we shouldn't give any of them any money in case the one we're giving money to is corrupt.
 
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