On Foreign Aid | Duncan: “Stop giving money to countries that hate us, they can hate us for free”

GREENVILLE, S.C. | JOSHUA COOK | JULY 26, 2013 |

Jan Helfeld, investigative journalist, asked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) if he was against foreign aid:

“No,” Graham said. “Smart foreign aid, I’m against giving money to dictators, but we must invest in the world. Africa, George Bush did a great thing by helping people avoid being decimated by AIDS and malaria. I do believe the 1% of the budget we have in foreign assistance needs to be maintained.”

“But foreign aid is redistribution of wealth right?” asked Helfeld.
“No, it’s not,” said Graham. “It’s helping friends and allies at the time you need friends and allies.” -video

Reuters reported that the U.S. State Department and foreign aid budget escaped devastating cuts in a fiscal 2012 spending plan that Congress has approved, and according to the Huffington Post, the United States recently has continued to pump around $50 billion in aid to other countries each year.

Photo credit: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images

Ironically, those countries who receive the most foreign aid from U.S. taxpayers are the ones who hate America the most.

Here are the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid who harbors anti-American sentiments according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.

Egypt – $1.5 Billion
Palestinians – $500 Million
Jordan – $600 Million
Pakistan – $1 Billion

Foreign Aid is Redistribution of Wealth

In contrast to Graham’s statement above, South Carolina State Senator Lee Bright told theGreenvillePost.com,

“Foreign aid is, in the strictest sense, a form of redistribution of wealth, since it is a transfer of wealth from one group of people to another. As such, it should only be permissible when the action is vital to our national interests. For instance, we should not be in the practice of sending American treasure abroad when the recipients are historically inclined to violent, anti-American action (i.e. the Muslim Brotherhood). There needs to be an attitude of “America first” that keeps in mind the consequences of inappropriate foreign entanglements and the buildup of national debt.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) echoes Bright’s statement when recently asked if he is in favor of taxing American citizens in order to give it to foreigners.

“I think there are so many problems with that. And I think a lot of Americans have a problem with that, too.”

Concerned citizens continue to voice their frustration with the U.S. government funding countries with ties to radial Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood, while states in the U.S. continue to suffer economically.

Senator Graham’s Home State Suffers Economically

Recently Forbes.com called South Carolina one of the 11 ‘Death Spiral’ states.

Forbes tells investors not to invest, buy bonds, or buy real estate in South Carolina because its taxes are projected to increase in order to support all the residents that depend on the government. Forbes’ math is simple. What gets you on this “death spiral” lists is when you have more takers than makers, when you have more people dependent of the government via welfare and government jobs than private sector jobs. Liberty-minded conservatives are calling on Congress to stop funding other foreign countries with taxpayer dollars, especially when the U.S. continues to sink deeper into debt.

During the 2012 Republican primary, Ron Paul said,

“foreign aid should be the easiest thing to cut. It’s not authorized in the Constitution that we can take money from you and give it to particular countries around the world. To me, foreign aid is taking money from poor people in this country and giving it to rich people in poor countries.”

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said that “government debt is an unpaid tax bill and must be paid by confiscating money from future workers or from private property.”

America has a $17 trillion dollar deficit and Americans are disturbed by their government continuing to print money to subsidize foreign powers while stacking the financial burden onto their children and future generations. Americans are also disturbed by the Obama administration not following U.S. laws regarding foreign aid.

Giving foreign aid to Egypt is against U.S. law.

Recently a military coup ousted Egyptian President  Muhammad Morsi.

According to the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2012, “Section 7008 prohibits ‘any assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup d’etat or decree or … in which the military plays a decisive role.’”

Despite the obvious military coup, the White House continues to funnel $1.5 billion of taxpayer dollars to Egypt in violation to U.S. law.

“We will not say it was a coup, we will not say it was not a coup, we will just not say,” a White House official said.

On Thursday, Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-SC) and U.S. Tim Scott (R-SC) spoke to large crowd at a Tea party meeting in Greenville, S.C.

TheGreenvillePost.com’s Joshua Cook asked both Sen. Scott and Congressman Duncan why the U.S. continues to give 50 billion taxpayer dollars in foreign aid to counties who hate us.

Sen. Scott said,

“there was an opportunity in the Senate to make a decision on our foreign aid to Egypt. A classic example, the Rand Paul amendment back about two months ago to not provide more resources to a country in the form of F16s and tanks. I voted not to give that money because we ought to question what we get in return for our investments, but we ought to analyze how to make America safer by our foreign investments and Egypt in the classic example. As we move forward if we find ourselves in the position where Egypt’s military action becomes defined as a coup we will be in a stronger position to cut off that aid because we certainly cannot fund coups. So until we get to that point, myself, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and others take a strong stand on questioning what do we get on the return on investment for the money that we are giving out in this world.”

Duncan agreed with Sen Scott and elaborated further.

“We must stop giving money to countries that hate us, they can hate us for free. We got to quit funding Islamic extremist and radicals…if I had my way, we would not fund the Muslim brotherhood at all” Duncan said.

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