Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday shot down prospects for major parts of President Donald Trump’s budget, rejecting proposed cuts to foreign aid and medical research. “Every president sends up a budget, and with all due respect to the current president, I can’t recall any time in which we have been sort of dictated to by either a Republican or a Democratic president,” McConnell said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’ll put our own imprint on it, particularly with regard to overseas.” […] “America being a force is a lot more than building up the Defense Department,”...

Approximately 30 countries are refusing to accept the deportations of illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes in the U.S., according to Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar. While these countries are refusing to accept the deportations of these criminals, the U.S. government is still issuing visas and student visas to citizens of those countries, according to the Texan congressman. There is already a law on the books which allows the U.S. to hold visas from a country that is not taking back its criminals, but according to Cuellar, the U.S. is not enforcing it. “We’re not enforcing it, which is amazing....

Complete Headline: Trump wants $1.5 BILLION for the wall and cash for the military but will slash foreign aid and eliminate funding for PBS and NPR in budget designed to infuriate liberals Trump will release a budget blueprint today that makes cuts to discretionary spending to fund his border wall and the military build-up he's been promising State Department is cut deepest with a 28% reduction to its foreign aid division The Environmental Protection Agency and the Housing and Urban Development Department are also expected to suffer The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides support to NPR and PBS, will...

Halfway there.... It’s not a gigantic line item in the federal budget, but don’t get caught up in the Washington way of thinking: A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money! It’s $10 billion. That’s lots and lots and lots of real money. And while cutting half of it might only be a blip on the radar screen as far as the overall federal budget is concerned, it’s would represent around 10 percent of the UN’s budget if Trump and Tillerson really do eliminate it.

President Trump’s administration has told the State Department to cut more than 50 percent of U.S. funding to United Nations programs, Foreign Policy reported. The push for the drastic reductions comes as the White House is scheduled to release its 2018 topline budget proposal Thursday, which is expected to include a 37 percent cut to the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development budgets. It's not clear if Trump's budget plan, from the Office of Management and Budget, would reflect the full extent of Trump's proposed cuts to the U.N. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has suggested phasing in...

State Department staffers have been instructed to seek cuts in excess of 50 percent in U.S. funding for U.N. programs, signaling an unprecedented retreat by President Donald Trump’s administration from international operations that keep the peace, provide vaccines for children, monitor rogue nuclear weapons programs, and promote peace talks from Syria to Yemen, according to three sources. The push for such draconian measures comes as the White House is scheduled on Thursday to release its 2018 budget proposal, which is expected to include cuts of up to 37 percent for spending on the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International...

Today I was having a friendly argument with a friend. He was upset that many people are getting excited that under the USA Trump will have NASA return us to the Moon and build a moonbase. His argument was that was too costly. That the money would be better served helping poor people, building hospitals and schools, and fixing the deteriorating American infrastructure. He just could not listen to reason. Nasa budget is $14 Billion. The budget for HUD is many hundreds of times larger than that. In fact, Obama routinely gave away amounts approaching the NASA budget on mere...

The White House budget director confirmed Saturday that the Trump administration will propose “fairly dramatic reductions” in the U.S. foreign aid budget later this month. Reuters and other news outlets reported earlier this week that the administration plans to propose to Congress cuts in the budgets for the U.S. State Department and Agency for International Development by about one third. “We are going to propose to reduce foreign aid and we are going to propose to spend that money here,” White House Office of Management Budget director Mick Mulvaney told Fox News on Saturday, adding the proposed cuts would include...

Bread for the World warned that the current FY 2018 budget outline drafted by President Donald J. Trump would worsen hunger and poverty in the U.S. and abroad. The cuts to domestic social safety net programs and foreign aid are aimed to boost the Pentagon’s budget by 10 percent. “President Trump is proposing slashing programs that help hungry and poor people,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “These programs include nutrition assistance in the U.S. and aid to poor and hungry people around the world. This comes when 20 million people are at risk of famine...

Besides the stunning political upsets of 2016, the U.S and the U.K have something else in common: a foreign aid budget that is unpopular, unhelpful and doesn’t actually do much good for anyone. With billions of dollars being used as “soft diplomacy” (bribes) to both friendly and unfriendly nations, the aid budget has taken the place of proper foreign policy and real diplomatic measures. Should you choose to type “US foreign aid budget” into Google, your top two responses will be articles by the Washington Post and NPR, delightfully telling you how racist and ignorant people are when questioned on...

Sooooo, food for thought. Higher estimates of the wall are 38 billion. Current US foreign aid is about 37 million annually. Mexico has about 500 million in US foreign aid out of that 37 million. How about we take all of north and south america's US foreign aid and apply it to the wall budget. We can tell all of those countries: "Hey dudes, sorry, but Mexico ruined the Foreign Aid gravy train for you. If you can convince Mexico to pay for the wall, we can turn the free money back on." Maybe even include countries that Mexico trades...

The United Nations on Monday launched an appeal for $547 million (€524 million) to help 1.6 million people in the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2017, AFP reports. The response covers 1.1 million residents of Gaza, and half a million people in PA-assigned of Judea and Samaria. “Needs in Gaza remain particularly acute and humanitarian services provided by the international community remain a lifeline,” said Robert Piper, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, in a letter accompanying the launch and quoted by AFP. The appeal was down from $571 million the year before, of which about 47 percent, or $267...

Possibly thinking a major U.S. aid package had been terminated, an enraged Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said “bye, bye” to America in retaliation Saturday and threatened to dissolve an agreement that allows U.S. troops to visit the Philippines. The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. government aid agency, did not actually cancel the aid. Instead, the agency deferred a vote on the renewal of aid for the Philippines “subject of a further review of concerns around rule of law and civil liberties.” Duterte won the presidential election earlier this year largely based on his promise to aggressively target drug dealers and...

Last week’s announcement of a record-breaking US aid package for Israel underscores how dangerously foolish and out-of-touch is our interventionist foreign policy. Over the next ten years, the US taxpayer will be forced to give Israel some $38 billion dollars in military aid. It is money we cannot afford going to a country that needs no assistance to maintain its status as the most powerful military in the Middle East. All US foreign aid is immoral and counterproductive. As I have often said, it is money taken from poor people in the US and sent to rich people overseas. That...

The United States has informed Pakistan it will have to pay for eight American F-16 fighter jets itself after members of Congress raised objections to the proposed deal that would have seen the U.S sponsoring part of the purchase. The deal, estimated to be worth about $699 million USD, was approved by the U.S in February whereby the U.S would assist Pakistan with $430 million USD in aid to help finance the purchase. The deal involved up to eight F-16 fighter jets, along with radar and other equipment. However, this week, members of Congress voiced their unhappiness over the deal...

The United States spent a total of $5.9 billion to fund militaries around the world in 2014, according to the government’s 2015 Foreign Assistance report. Of that total, some 75%, or about $4.4 billion, was divided between Israel and Egypt. Clearly, the Middle East, at 64% of the pie, is the theme here, with Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon also found among the top 10 recipients. Closer to home, Colombia led the Americas with a relatively scant $29 million. Still, that’s enough to place it ninth overall on the list.

You can take any Obama policy and boil it down to "Billions wasted" and "ultimately unsuccessful". One of his lesser known plans involved electrifying Africa. You can guess how that went. When President Barack Obama made his first presidential visit to Kenya over the weekend, he visited not just his ancestral home, but one of the target countries in his $7 billion signature foreign aid initiative, Power Africa. Launched in 2013, Power Africa aims to boost electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative has prioritized expanding the continent’s capacity to generate electricity, with an additional focus on small-scale renewable...

These days Obama following the law would be news. Obama not following the law is just business as usual. So this is another case of Obama doing what he can to help terrorists while ignoring the limits on his powers.No wonder he likes the PLO. It too is run by an unelected dictator.Here's what the issue is... Two lawmakers are warning the Palestinian Authority (PA) that its economic assistance from the United States could be suspended because of its decision to initiate charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC).“By formally submitting allegations against Israeli forces to the...

GUATEMALA CITY, June 10 (Reuters) - Three of the poorest, most violent Central American countries want $20 billion over the coming years to lift their economies with new roads and better education to curb illegal migration into the United States, according to a plan seen by Reuters. The document was given to U.S. President Barack Obama in April at a Panama City summit by the governments of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala after a flood of child migrants from the three countries overwhelmed the southern U.S. border last year. Foreign ministers from those countries will go to Washington on June...

The Other Problem with Hillary’s Foreign Donors by BRENDAN BORDELON March 16, 2015 The Clinton Foundation took money from governments receiving massive foreign aid. Two of the governments counted among the Clinton Foundation’s foreign donors aren’t exactly generous global givers. In fact, Algeria and the Dominican Republic, which both contributed to the Clinton Foundation, receive hundreds of millions of dollars yearly in foreign aid — including from the U.S. government. The Foundation is already under fire for accepting Algeria’s $500,000 donation for Haitian earthquake relief in 2010, during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. That grant was not cleared...