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shannon_aIn response to some comments from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seidl I looked up a couple of numbers on reconstruction aid for the Middle East:
In his 2003 budget Bush requested zero dollars to help reconstruct Afghanistan. Zero, none, nada. Or, to be more exact, he requested zero dollars out of the $16 billion dollars in the budget earmarketed for foreign aid.
The congress found this inappropriate and allocated $300 million dollars. In other words they offered a sop of 2% of our foreign aid budget to the country we ravaged last year.
See The Beeb.
Meanwhile the budget of the war is currently going through. There's $62 billion dollars allocated for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Yep, that's right we're still fighting in Afghanistan though you've been told that war is over too.) And, lucky for the Iraqis there's also $8 billion dollars earmarked for the reconstruction of their country. I guess we care more because we need to keep the oil wells running, not just push an oil pipeline through the country.
This UPI Story talks about the recent war budget.
Meanwhile, in my home town of Berkeley, we're facing extreme budget crunches. This is partially due to the economy that Bush is ignoring and partially due to the fact that we're spending so much money on foreign wars that the cost of social services are being shifted down to first the state, then the municipalities.
ONE-THIRD of the teachers in the Berkeley School District have been given pink slips because of the need to close a $4.3 million dollar budget deficit over two years.
This story was in the Berkeley Daily Planet
seidl I looked up a couple of numbers on reconstruction aid for the Middle East:In his 2003 budget Bush requested zero dollars to help reconstruct Afghanistan. Zero, none, nada. Or, to be more exact, he requested zero dollars out of the $16 billion dollars in the budget earmarketed for foreign aid.
The congress found this inappropriate and allocated $300 million dollars. In other words they offered a sop of 2% of our foreign aid budget to the country we ravaged last year.
See The Beeb.
Meanwhile the budget of the war is currently going through. There's $62 billion dollars allocated for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Yep, that's right we're still fighting in Afghanistan though you've been told that war is over too.) And, lucky for the Iraqis there's also $8 billion dollars earmarked for the reconstruction of their country. I guess we care more because we need to keep the oil wells running, not just push an oil pipeline through the country.
This UPI Story talks about the recent war budget.
Meanwhile, in my home town of Berkeley, we're facing extreme budget crunches. This is partially due to the economy that Bush is ignoring and partially due to the fact that we're spending so much money on foreign wars that the cost of social services are being shifted down to first the state, then the municipalities.
ONE-THIRD of the teachers in the Berkeley School District have been given pink slips because of the need to close a $4.3 million dollar budget deficit over two years.
This story was in the Berkeley Daily Planet