On March 1, if the White House and Congress do not reach a deal, the automatic budget sledgehammer known as the “sequester” will cut $1.2 trillion out of government spending, equally divided between domestic programs and the military.
These cuts would be devastating but, at this point, they could very well happen.
Here is my question? Will AIPAC succeed in getting an exemption for Israel programs, the largest item by far on the foreign aid side?
Already AIPAC’s cutouts on the Hill are getting ready to save Israel’s aid. At the Hagel confirmation hearing last week, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) who combines Chuck Schumer’s zealousness in serving AIPAC with utter ignorance of foreign policy, asked Hagel point blank if he would ensure that Israel’s aid would be kept at current levels if the sequester takes place. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) has chimed in on the devastating effects sequestration would have on poor Marylanders and on Israel.
Our commitment to Israel and its security is unprecedented and unwavering. U.S. security assistance to Israel in the annual foreign aid and defense appropriation bills are the most tangible manifestation of American support to one of our strongest allies. These critical funds are especially vital during this time of tremendous turmoil in the Middle East, particularly as Iran is aggressively working to acquire a nuclear-weapon capability. Indeed, our military and intelligence cooperation with Israel has never been closer.
Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and, in this time of turmoil, we count on Israel as a strong, stabilizing force in that region. With the on-going civil war in Syria, an uncertain government in Egypt and the growing threat of a nuclear Iran, America’s support for Israel must continue.
This is not the time to financially cripple our own nation or that of our allies. Too many nations are watching for any weakness in our national resolve or lack of support for our allies. I believe sequestration would be a self-inflicted wound that would not only endanger our nation’s economic recovery, but also jeopardize our prestige and influence in the world.
The usual AIPAC blah blah,
It is hard to believe that AIPAC would dare exempt Israel from cuts that are going to impact every American or that it will exempt the IDF from cuts that will affect the US Armed Forces. Or that it will preserve the largest item in the foreign aid budget intact thereby forcing proportionately larger cuts on USAID programs to combat hunger, illiteracy and poverty in Asia, Africa and the Americas.
On the other hand, AIPAC is shameless and so are their wholly owned subsidiaries in Congress.
Let’s keep an eye on this. Letting AIPAC know that we are watching might prevent its latest run on the bank.
I believe Obama and Congress will manage the fiscal mess with continuing resolutions that patch this and that and kick the can down the road till the next crises. I think this is our fiscal state of affairs for the rest of Obama’s term, and likely that of several presidencies to follow. The debt and deficit spending problem is just too massive to pull the plug, not without blowing up the country by enraging every six pack Joe & Josephine from sea to shining sea.
Foreign aid to Israel has far more plugging for it than measly – I can’t fight my way into a wet paper bag let alone out of one – Israel. Foreign aid is a tool of the empire, big bucks for corporate America and American jobs. There are a lot of constituencies fighting for it besides AIPAC and Israel. The Israelis may have to take a few ‘window dressing’ cuts like everyone else, but the aid programs will likely as not remain intact.
Agreed. While more and more people may be led to voice objections to our aid-to-Israel policy, the corps. making money off it like Caterpillar and Northrup-Grumman, and the Amer. politicians retaining office with the lobby’s money will make sure nothing every changes just as no one’s gone to jail for the banking/economic meltdown. Too much money and political power behind it.
Israel is a parasite. It feeds off the host by diverting to itself resources the host needs to operate. It has co-opted the host’s governing cells, those in charge of allocating resources, so that they deprive the host’s constituent cells of nourishment by redirecting everything to the parasite. So, as you say, annebeck58, the host cells starve despite all the work they do b/c the fruits of their labor are diverted to the parasite. This has the effect of eventually killing the host, which is the irony of a parasitic system.
I say, if the aid to Israel is cut, then that Casino Mogul in Los Vegas can kick in the difference. After all, the money does come from American taxpayers that he gloom’s.
To the average American taxpayer:
This is what we’re getting in return.. nothing; just another extended hand, palm up, from AIPAC (the ApePac). Lost your job? Too bad, so sad; but don’t forget to file your tax-returs and, what money you desperately NEED this year, forget about is. Israhell needs it MORE…, or they deserve it more-so than do you or your children.
Having to work two part-time jobs, at minimum wage or less, well, too bad. File your tax-returns to ensure the Ape pac and Israhell gets their cut off of YOUR weary backs. Your kids and your wife does not need new shoes. You can wait a while for Obama-care to kick in and if you need dental-care? Well, go wiithout out, like so many other Americans.
For we are all in this together..
Problem with this?
Americans will suffer under what has been done to us, in large part by the Ape pac, but at your own hand(s), too. You voted, years ago, for it… unwittingly or not. And, you pay the price, as do all Americans. Perhaps the worst part is this: those who get the most out of this deal (including ADL and all other lobbies for ZIonism) pay-in the least. And, boy, oh-boy, do they ever get PAID. It is written into their contracts (lifetime, in some cases) even if not into our constitution.
What are you gonna do?