A TAIL WAGS THE DOG
By Bobby Alexander
There is something fishy going on in our
country. An octopus with multiple tentacles
has managed to reach into every chamber where laws are made.
Its influence redirects our tax dollars to the benefit of a foreign
government with little care or concern for the well-being of the American taxpayer whom
our Congress mandates must provide the funds.
According to the National Debt Time Clock,
our national debt stands at $6,401,310,925,064. This puts the debt at $22,177 for each of
289 million citizens and the debt is growing at $1.45 billion each day. One would hope
that our elected officials would reign in this wasteful spending but that isn’t
likely to happen. Israel receives over one
third of the total U. S. aid to foreign countries. Israel
receives this aid because the AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the
pro Israel lobby, has bought and paid for the support of almost every sitting member of
congress.
Since 1949 Israel has received $97 billion
in U. S. aid and annually receives approximately $3 billion.
The U. S. being in a deficit funding position itself, is forced to borrow
money which it then provides to Israel, increasing the cost of this aid another 60%. Several
months ago I wrote to Senator Hatch of Utah protesting the annual $3 billion in aid we
provide Israel. In his reply Senator Hatch
justified the aid on basis of Israel being our ally and having never defaulted on a loan. What he neglected to say is that Israel has never
defaulted on a loan because the Economic Support Funds going to Israel must never fall
below the amount of money needed by Israel to repay its loans to the United States. All
loans are eventually forgiven thus never defaulted on.
Lobbying Congress is an art which has been
encouraged over the years by members of Congress who are always willing to receive perks
for votes and by lobbying groups, such as AIPAC, which is dedicated to buying support for Israel. PACs can give a candidate up to $10,000. By splitting into 50 PACs, one for each state, it
is possible for AIPAC to spend a half million dollars to support or defeat a candidate who
does or does not toe the line and support Israel. Therefore when it comes to politics
regarding Israel, there are only a very few members of Congress who do not bow to the
Israeli flag. Thus we have the tail wagging the dog and it is a cowering dog at best.
In Utah where I live, there are 70,000
children living in poverty. The number must be larger in more populous states. Surely, it
makes more sense to help our own citizens instead of giving billions to Israel so they can
pay a Russian Jew $20,000 to emigrate to Israel. What we need in Washington is more
decency and less politics as usual. What we need is no more aid for Israel.
Courtesy of
and © 2003 by Bobby Alexander. The author, along
with his family, lived in Saudi Arabia for fifteen rewarding years where he worked for the Arabian
American Oil Co (Aramco).
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