Does Congress Represent US Citizens or Israeli Citizens?

First, readers should know we spend more on defense and security than all of the nations of the world put together.

Stop30Billion Billboard at Melrose and Walnut, Los Angeles Courtesy: mondoweiss.net

(JAMESTOWN, RI) - Over the Christmas holiday Congress passed the 2013 Defense Bill which calls for $633 billion dollars of spending without any controversy and with the bill sailing through Congress by an almost a 3-1 margin.

While the media predicts doomsday with the fiscal cliff approaching, Congress saw no emergency, or even a reason to cut the latest defense bill; as a matter of fact, they gave the pentagon more than the pentagon wanted.

They forced the Pentagon to purchase weapons the Pentagon does not want, and provided the military with more money than the president had requested. So there appears to be no concern among Congress about any fiscal cliff. They might justify their spending spree by claiming we must keep the nation strong, but they have gone over the cliff when it comes to spending.

First, readers should know we spend more on defense and security than all of the nations of the world put together. There is no justification for that kind of nonsense.

Second, readers should know that hidden in the latest bill was an appropriation of more than 450 million dollars in additional funding to Israel. It includes 211 million to pay for the Iron Dome Missile system and 235 million for the development of their Arrow and Sling Missile systems. So far we have given Israel about one billion dollars to develop the Iron Dome system. All this is not included in the 3.1 billion we give to Israel every January 1st.

Take that you sap taxpayers! While deciding what social programs to cut at home, Congress is throwing money at a foreign nation. Who does Congress really represent? Obviously not the American public.

Salem-News.com Writer Joe Clifford, lives in historic Jamestown, Rhode Island, and has contributed a number of articles relating to foreign policy to newspapers in the Rhode Island area for years.

He graduated from Providence College where he earned an undergraduate and graduate degree.  After a lengthy career as a high school teacher he turned to the study of US foreign policy, and then to writing, as a means of expressing an alternative perspective. His reading and research on foreign policy is broad and extensive, especially as the policy relates to the Middle East. His interest in foreign policy was inspired by the American misadventure in Vietnam. You can write to Joe at this address: jc21131@gmail.com