I see a lot of people saying to cut foreign aide. Think about this, stole it from another forum.
I think there's a gross misunderstanding of what "foreign aid" really is.
We send a lot of stuff overseas, but in terms of money, a lot of that "foreign aid" benefits people in the US, not overseas.
The way it works is like this: Let's say we want to send "foreign aid" to the Republic of Kookistan as a way of buying their support in our war.
So, we say "we'll give you 150 Q-35 Disintegrator guns, and the personnel to train you on how they're used." The Q-35 is made by Consolidated Widget, a US company. The personel to train the Kookistan military are from Mercenaries, Inc, a US-based military training company. And more than likely the Q-35's and the personnel are being transported on a US commercial carrier, US-Shipping.
Kookistan gets the Q-35s, and the training, but Uncle Sam doesn't write checks to the Government of Kookistan. It writes checks to Consolidated Widget, Mercenaries, Inc, and US-Shipping - all US entities.
In many ways, "foreign aid", like military spending, is a form of "patronage" (or if you prefer, "corporate welfare.") IOW, it's about sending US $$ not to other countries, but to US companies who then provide goods or services to other countries.
And that's one reason it's so tough to cut foreign aid. Because there are a lot of folks right here in the US who depend, for their jobs, on the existence of "foreign aid" and you can bet they'll fight any cuts tooth and nail.
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Originally Posted by newracer
Seriously, how can someone still be collecting welfare after even 5 years? Simple answer, they don't want to work or better their lives. If we have to keep welfare, I'd say reduce it so that you cannot live comfortably on it but you can survive. Foodstamps would afford you the store-brand food (although, TBH, I think Wal-Mart brand American cheese is fantastic!) and nothing else, and only enough for you and your family to survive on. Welfare is not supposed to be comfortable. Granted I'm a better person that these leeches, but when I was on unemployment after leaving the Army I was very uncomfortable- embarrassed even- and wanted off that crap ASAP! Even though it got my bills paid. So problem solved if we just reduce the amount given so that you can't live very well off of the system... that is contingency for if we can't just get rid of it altogether.
