Posted on 01/30/2011 9:16:46 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Factbox: Most U.S. aid to Egypt goes to military
(Reuters) - The United States has given Egypt an average of $2 billion annually since 1979, much of it military aid, according to the Congressional Research Service. The combined total makes Egypt the second largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel.
The White House said on Friday it would review U.S. aid to Egypt based on events in the coming days amid mass protests aimed at ending President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
Here are some facts about the aid:
-- In 2010, $1.3 billion went to strengthen Egyptian forces versus $250 million in economic aid. Another $1.9 million went for training meant to bolster long-term U.S.-Egyptian military cooperation. Egypt also receives hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of excess military hardware annually from the Pentagon.
-- The Obama administration has asked Congress to approve similar sums for the 2011 fiscal year.
-- U.S.-Egyptian co-production of the M1A1 Abrams Battle tank is one of the cornerstones of U.S. military assistance. Egypt plans to acquire 1,200 of the tanks. General Dynamics Corp is the prime contractor for the program.
-- Lockheed Martin Corp is building 20 new advanced F-16C/D fighter aircraft for Egypt. The final Egyptian F-16 under contract is to be delivered in 2013, joining the 240 Egypt already has purchased, according to Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's biggest supplier by sales.
-- Egypt was the first Arab country to buy F-16s, widely viewed as a symbol of political and security ties with the United States.
-- The United States also has supplied Boeing Co CH-47D CHINOOK transport helicopters, Northrop Grumman Corp E-2C Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning Command & Control aircraft and Patriot air-defense systems built
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
When you have massive debt as far as the eye can see, you don’t borrow more to give to others who may have it better than you. I’m with Rand Paul on shutting down all foreign aid. We need to get our USA back into shape. Those that want to donate to other nations need to open their own checkbook.
I am too. Stop all aid until our entire debt is paid. This money we are sending over there could be a month or so payment on the debt. I am so sick of these dumb people spending our money. PAY THE DEBT FIRST and then after we are down to zero (or close to it) then we can send money to other countries. This is so ridiculous. Can you imagine? They are sending money to Egypt and then saying that we will run out of SS money soon.....what complete idiots!!!!!
US Egyptian military aid will become the new Egyptian military aid to Iran...
I did read the article and I still think it's a bad deal for the USA.
The proviso that goes with the aid is that it is spent on arms "Made In America." Workers at Boeing, General Dynamics and Lockheed have jobs thanks to the contracts "military aid" procures.
Gee, everyone in America could have jobs if we decided to give their products away to other countries using money we either create out of thin air or borrow from the Chinese! Brilliant.
IIRC, arms are one of the (if not the) largest US export. "Military Aid" is what pays for a lot of those exports.
In other words: corporate welfare and a global arms race all paid for by the American taxpayer. Who are we protecting Egypt from, with $60 billion in militay aid over several decades? Israel? Israel, who also gets billions and billions of dollars for free airplanes?
Now I'm not saying there isn't waste and fraud in the system, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
No, it's not 'waste and fraud' in the system, the entire system is the problem. The "baby" in this case is a stinking rotten corpse and most assuredly needs to be tossed out along with the bathwater.
You do have a good point. But unfortunately the USA defense industries are about the only industry we have left thanks to 30 years of absurd “free” trade policy that left out a requirement for reciprocal trade (as other countries do) and as we know it now it was far from free. Congress, White House and international big business have spent 30 years+ selling us out. We handed China the economy it is, not the Chinese.
These billions in military aid to Egypt and others come from taxpayer obligations(loans from China), not just as a rebate coupon from the defense industry. We all pay and one industry benefits. What if the government was handing out billions to foreign nations with the requirement that they must use it to buy Fords or Chevy’s?
We need to get our house of cards in order or we could become Egypt.
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