Obama pledges $7 billion to upgrade power in Africa
CNN ^ | Updated 0044 GMT (0844 HKT) July 1, 2013 | By Faith Karimi and Matt Smith, CNN / FR Posted by vannrox
U.S. President Barack Obama pledged $7 billion Sunday to help combat frequent power blackouts in sub-Saharan Africa.
Funds from the initiative, dubbed Power Africa, will be distributed over the next five years. Obama made the announcement during his trip to South Africa, the continent's biggest economy.
"Access to electricity is fundamental to opportunity in this age. It's the light that children study by, the energy that allows an idea to be transformed into a real business. It's the lifeline for families to meet their most basic needs, and it's the connection that's needed to plug Africa into the grid of the global economy," he said.
Two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa lacks access to electricity, including more than 85% of those living in rural areas, the White House said. "A light where currently there is darkness -- the energy to lift people out of poverty -- that's what opportunity looks like," Obama told students at Cape Town University.
"So this is America's vision: a partnership with Africa for growth, and the potential for every citizen, not just a few at the top."
PIC President Barack Obama kicks around an energy-generating soccer ball at a power plant in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Tuesday, July 2.
Obama was pushing for partnerships in energy as he concluded a three-nation trip to Africa. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, third from right, joined Obama at the Symbion Power Plant at Ubungo.
Obamas invoke Mandela's legacy: The program includes $1.5 billion from the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation and $5 billion from the Export-Import Bank, the White House said. Sub-Saharan Africa will need more than $300 billion to achieve universal electricity access by 2030, it said.
The preliminary setup will include Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique. -- SNIP -- (Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Obama Gave Himself A MASSIVE Pay Raise… FOREVER!
The Political Insider | 3-18-16 | Charles Kosar / FR Posted by afraidfortherepublic
The Congressional Research Service reports that for requests for both 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, Obama's proposed federal budget would expand funding through the Former Presidents Act. In 2017 alone, Obama wants nearly an 18% hike in expenditures… $588,000. That means $3.865,000 in appropriations will be available to spend on former Presidents! The 2016 proposed budget includes an additional $25,000 increase.
The Former Presidents Act, enacted in 1958, provides living former presidents with a pension, office staff and support, funds for travel, Secret Service protection, and mailing privileges. It also provides benefits for presidential spouses. Currently, former presidents are awarded a pension equal to the salary of cabinet secretaries, which totaled $203,700 for the 2015 calendar year and was boosted by $2,000 for the current calendar year.
Critics of the act argue that it financially supports former presidents who are not struggling. Many of them, alternatively, have gone on to profit from writing books about their time in the White House or delivering paid speaking engagements.
Former President Bill Clinton, for example, earned $132 million for delivering paid speeches between February 2001 and March 2015, according to an analysis from CNN. Clinton received $924,000 in taxpayer dollars last year by way of the Former Presidents Act.
Republicans in the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would cap annual pensions for former presidents at $200,000. Additionally, the bills would cut each pension by a dollar for every dollar the former president earns over $400,000 in the private sector in a given year. The measure was approved by the House in January with bipartisan support.
"It's pretty simple. You want a retirement and pension, it's there. But if you're going to go out and make enormous sums of money, then you don't need taxpayer subsidies," Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), who introduced the bill in the House, told ABC News in an interview. "The former presidents are making gobs of money speaking and writing books, more power to them, but that doesn’t mean they need more taxpayer dollars on top of that," Chaffetz added. "It's embarrassing that they take that money."
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CONTACT CONGRESS HERE: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Demand Congress vote no more money for ex-presidents.
On another note, the Hussein “Presidential” Library will need 1.5 BILLION to build, all donations (pay backs) welcome.