USAID---IT!

USAID---IT! (Frazer Chronicle)



While meandering through the world-wide net this early Thursday AM,  I ran across a section on America's foreign aid policy and wondered, what with all the "hub-bub" on Capitol Hill, how much money gets funneled to foreign countries through whatever governmental agency has been set up to administer such things.



I do know, according to the constitution, that the president has lots to do with the United States foreign policies, who we trade with, who we help defend themselves, how much we give to help developing countries and whatever food stuffs we might actually ship to needy places around the world.



I, of course, am not an expert on United States foreign policy, or those folks who actually are involved in the process of determining criteria. I do know that foreign policy changes depending on who is living in the White House, which political party is in power and the state of world affairs.



As I said at the beginning of this blog, "whatever governmental agency has been set up to administer such things," I had little conception of how foreign aid was determined, or how and who paid out the money, or materials to favored countries.



USAID is an acronym for United States Aid, or United States International Development, whichever way you say it, the agency was begun in 1961 by President John Kennedy. It was the first U.S. foreign assistance organization whose primary emphasis was in long-range economic and social development assistance to foreign countries.



Much of what has evolved into USAID can be directly traced to former Secretary of State George C. Marshall's plan to commit significant U.S. resources to rebuild war torn Europe's infrastructure and economy after World War II. Let’s see, the United States bombed it, "Europe," the United States crushed its economy, "Europe," and then the country turned around and rebuilt it, "What a nation!"



The assistance to Europe would become known as the Marshall Plan and the plan would help stabilize a post-war Europe by providing financial and technical assistance through the European Recovery Act of 1947. However, the biggest goal of George Marshall and the United States government was to keep the spread of communism to a minimum in Europe.



During the four year period, 1947-1950, the Marshall plan more than $13 billion American dollars were spent on economic and technical help. The Marshall Plan also had a stipulation that all European business had to be opened to American business interests, tainting what was termed "the most unselfish act in history."



Today USAID is operated under the direction of Michael G. Carroll and have a total of 96 countries listed with sub-directors, phone numbers and mailing addresses. I assume that the staff of these 96 countries as well as the overall director and his staff are paid by the U.S. Federal government.



Each of these countries are listed on the USAID web site list their own mission statements, they all profess a democratic system of government, humanitarian causes and programs and want.....money.....to carry out their missions.



Now even though I'm not the smartest guy in the world, I’d never even heard of USAID, and if I did, I sure as hell never knew what it stood for, or that the organization(s) had been around since 1961. Some of the things that USAID is working on at the present time in Afghanistan are economic growth, infrastructure, agriculture, democracy and governance, health and gender constraints against Afghan women.



Look, I think all of these things are great.....as long as "wedon'thavetopayforthem," the United States can't even take care of its own right here in "ye old homeland." There is a war going on right now in the Supreme Court regarding Obama care, you know, affordable health care for all, and “No patient left behind."



Over the past 6 years, 2007-2012, the United States has spent $9.5 billion dollars in Egypt, $4.5 billion in Jordan, $1.4 billion dollars in Lebanon, 1.3 billion dollars in Indonesia and $74 million dollars in Turkey. I'm not really sure how Turkey's $74 million dollar figure snuck on Fox News's political blog, but oh well, it's where I got this part of my information.



The total just for the above listed Middle Eastern countries is a staggering $17 billion dollars, can you imagine how many $75 band-aids or $50 aspirins a guy could get. You might ask "what is the reason for spending so much on foreign aid," or make a statement like "we are, after all the leader of the free world and love doing humanitarian work."



The answer to both potential questions is easy to understand and can be answered with one word: money." Ya "some" Americans stand to make money through our benevolent giving through foreign aid. "Influence peddling" it's called, unless you really believe all that crap about humanitarian sincerity by the most capitalistic country on the face of the planet.



Every dollar spent on foreign aid is a calculated risk with taxpayer money on behalf of industry of some sort either here in America, or some foreign business with strong ties to American businessmen, and it's been going on since 1947.


Dollar bills are leaving the United States economy by the truck-load every quarter of the year. And it doesn't matter who is in the White House, or the Congress or the Senate, its business as usual, if you don't believe me, look it up under ‘USAID’.