Posted on 02/22/2009 4:15:26 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The time is right for reevaluating US sanctions on Cuba, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says in a new report, calling for allowing Cuba to buy US goods on credit, US media reported Sunday.
Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana's opinions are attached to a report due to be released Monday that could add fuel to momentum toward change in almost five decades of US policy seeking to isolate Cuba, the Americas' only communist country.
The United States and Cuba do not have full diplomatic relations. And Washington has had a full economic embargo on Havana since 1962.
Former US president George W. Bush in recent years however allowed Cuba to purchase US food, as long as it was purchased in cash. US food sales to Cuba have surged, but US farm producers would sell much more if Cuba could get credit for its purchases.
The report due out Monday stops short of recommending an end to the US embargo, The Washington Post reported.
Lugar supports "lifting Bush administration restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba, reinstituting formal bilateral cooperation on drug interdiction and migration, and allowing Cuba to buy US agricultural products on credit," the Post said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has promised a "review" of Cuba policy without providing details.
US President Barack Obama has said he would speak with all foreign leaders in sharp contrast to successive US administrations which have sought to isolate Havana.
But he has offered few details on how far he might be willing to go in reaching out to Cuba.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
When Castro is dead, it will happen quickly.
Since when has Sen. Lugar been a top Republican?
Is there some dumbass virus going around?’Cause a LOT of people in Washington have turned up stupid lately.
Lugar is a flaky old man that is not dependable in a close fight.
AMEN!
I guess he is a top republican in the moron media’s eyes because the rest of us conservatives think he is a worthless RINO
There's a lot of money involved from "special interests".
I don’t think he is, I KNOW HE IS.
1) See above. Castro has killed the Cuban goose and their cigars ain't what they used to be.
2) Cuba will think they have a golden opportunity to sell Cuban cigars in the big U.S. market again, and charge up the yazoo for their cigars, further keeping people away and on the Dominican (and others) market.
I guess the thing to do would be to sell short Cuban tobacco futures if we do end the embargo!
It is far past time to lift the embargo.
RINO Alert!
Why all the cubans are happy and healthy in their little communes why would they need to buy things from us on credit?
How quickly we forget.
Considering we are probably the only country on earth that still has an embargo on Cuba, I agree. Now that Castro is about to die, lift the embargo and start helping the Cuban people both here and in Cuba itself. ;-)
My Canadian friends all talk about spending Spring Break in Cuba like we talk about Spring Break in Cancun.
We do business with China and VietNam — so why not Cuba? Tell me, aside from those swing voters in the swing state of Florida, can someone tell me why we keep this farce going?
I think it was George Will that suggested we flood the country with Victoria Secret catalogs, air-drop $10 bills (cheaper than the Stimulus package?), and have hourly $100 commuter flights between Miami and Havana. A few years of that and people will see the light in Cuba.
One Friday evening I had given Julio his recycloables and was headed back up the stairs. Julio was leaving with his home-made wagon when he was approached by two Cuban cops. They were engaging in some heated talk with Julio. I went back to the fence and asked "is there a problem, Officer?" Julio explained to me that they met him every Friday evening. Julio bartered the old Victoria's Secret catalogs for their uniform shirts. He also used to sell my empty Gatorade bottles to mothers in the 'hood so they could take them to the local milk-rationing point and get them filled for their children seven and under; older kids didn't get rationed milk.
Top a_hole RINO is more like it!
Since every time Loogy opens his stupid mouth with another globalist remark.
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