Rand Paul calls for stopping ALL foreign aid

[trish]

We had entitlements under Clinton and no significant deficit. Indeed, we had a ten year surplus. Then we had tax cuts that gave that surplus to the wealthiest Americans, then we had a war in Afghanistan that cost trillions, then we had a "preemptive" war in Iraq with cost trillions. The Afghan was is still in progress and we're still in Iraq. The cost of the two wars was not declared in the Bush budgets to hide their costs. Then we had the Wall Street fiasco that brought the worst recession since the thirties. It clearly wasn't entitlements that put us in the hole. And seeing that we were already in the deepest hole since the Great Depression before Obama was elected to office and we weren't anywhere near broke at the end of the Clinton administration, it was the Bush administration that dropped the fiscal ball. Just stating the facts.

[Faldur]

223 billion dollars added to the deficit in 28 days, ya your right Trish thank goodness we have master card Obama here to save the day. Adding more to our nations debt in 29 days than previous administrations have done in 2 years. Go Jimmy Carters second term!

[hippifried]

223 billion dollars added to the deficit in 28 days, ya your right Trish thank goodness we have master card Obama here to save the day. Adding more to our nations debt in 29 days than previous administrations have done in 2 years. Go Jimmy Carters second term!

What the hell are you talking about? & what the hell is this "our nations debt" all about? Planning a move?

Oh, & FYI for you and the rest of the parrots that like to repeat the slams on Jimmy: The national deficit was cut by 2/3 during the 4 years of the Carter administration. It was Reagan's programs that gave us our (yeah, I can say "our") first trillion dollar deficit.

Another thng: I keep hearing all these comparisons to the '30s, as if there was nothing in between. We pretend that this is all new, & that the housing bubble that brought about the demise of the savings & loan industry in '89 didn't happen. We ignore the end of the biggest economic growth spurt in the history of the world that happened under the Nixon administration & was replaced by top-heavy financial acquisitions & spiraling inflation that we still can't get out of. Get a grip. Bogus supply side economics don't work. We're fast monopolizing everything by forcing the money to the top. How can anyone make the claim that that's where it belongs, while the eeconomy is over 70% consumer spending? There's really no economy at all as long as the focus is on corporate acquisitions of other corporations. It's all just smoke & mirrors.

This 19th century theoretical shit ain't workin'. We need a complete economic rethink.

[Faldur]

What the hell are you talking about? & what the hell is this "our nations debt" all about? Planning a move?

Let me try and type this real slow so even you can understand, we spent $223 Billion dollars more than we received in the 28 days of February. (Sorry my bad the 233 listed earlier was in error). Now this may be hard for you to understand, but spending more than you make is not a good thing. It's like a boo boo.

Now our current idiot in chief is over spending about what our usual douche bags in chiefs spend in 2 years, only he does it in 28 days.. again this is a bad thing, again kind of like a boo boo. This all seems to culminate, (sorry come to a big scary conclusion), when the country ceases to exist as a solvent government, because we spent our self into a really big boo boo.

Hope you could grasp that one..

[Stavros]

Allow me to introduce some objectvity from a non-US citizen:
a) foreign aid for development is problematic when govt-to-govt because too much get lost 'in transit' and never reaches the people its meant to help, even non-governmental organisations can't spend all their money on their 'good causes';

b) a lot of what is called 'aid' from the US is a political thank you for whatever services the US thinks its recipients have 'deserved' -Egypt & Israel for not fighting each other etc. Israel in fact has already said it doesnt need US aid anymore other than military stuff, but when Congresswoman Nita Lowey says
“Israel is the only democratic nation in the Middle East and one of our most stalwart allies”, Lowey said. “A stable and secure Israel is in our national security interest and has been a staple of our foreign policy for more than sixty years..."
She is wrong -Eisenhower was cool on Israel and JFK not so hot either, it was only after 1967 that the US deepened its relationship with Israel, which might have a democratically elected government in its pre-1967 territory but which is another US-supported military dictatorship in Palestine.

There is aid and there is aid, if anything, its a pity the US hasn't matched its obsession with 'security' issues with a focus on real issues like water, agriculture, deforestation etc that impact peoples lives every day instead of throwinh $7bn a MONTH at drug pushers and boy-lovers in Afghanistan...

The US has so many things that it is positive to offer, war is not one of them.

[Ben]

to oppose the 4-year extension of the misnamed PATRIOT Act:

[hippifried]

to oppose the 4-year extension of the misnamed PATRIOT Act:

Actually there's more than you might think. From all across the political spectrum too.

The Patriot Act is a strange issue. The arguments are all over the place, & there's no labels that can be put on any of them.

[Ben]

Actually there's more than you might think. From all across the political spectrum too.

The Patriot Act is a strange issue. The arguments are all over the place, & there's no labels that can be put on any of them.

The Patriot Act is a direct attempt to undercut the Constitution.
Take, say,
Article [IV]:


The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[hippifried]

Yeah. But that's Amendment IV. Article IV deals with the relationship between the Federal Government & the States.

The Charters of Freedom are here in the National Archives.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html

Click the one you want to read, then click "read transcript".
The link to Amendments 11 - 27 is at the bottom of the Bill of Rights transcript.

[Ben]