U.S. Shouldn't be Borrowing to Give Money to Israel

While some folks in Congress are discussing cutting social programs for American citizens, Israel is to be given more money than ever this year.

Photo courtesy: sodahead

(JAMESTOWN, R.I. Westerly Sun) - A distant relative asks you to loan him money but you cannot afford it. Would you be willing to borrow money so that you could loan it, then have him invest it in a bank and earn interest on the money you borrowed to loan to him? Of course not.

Would you take money out of your family budget and deprive your children of necessities so that you could make this loan to your distant relative? Of course not!!

Thanks to your generosity and a Congress subservient to the people and government of Israel, you will borrow 3.4 billion dollars and give it to Israel this year.

While some folks in Congress are discussing cutting social programs for American citizens, Israel is to be given more money than ever this year.

Few Americans realize that Israel by law is the only foreign aid recipient to receive its yearly money in a lump sum within 30 days of the New Year. The U.S., on the verge of bankruptcy, does not have the $3.4 billion on hand to give, so it borrows the money from the Treasury and naturally has to pay back millions in interest, while Israel takes its lump sum and invests in U.S. Treasury Bills and notes, earning millions in interest from the U.S. government.

So while we borrow the $3.4 billion and lose millions paying the interest, Israel invests the lump sum and makes millions earning interest. So U.S. taxpayers pay millions of dollars in interest to borrow, and then pays millions in interest to Israel. Make sense? Of course not!!

Want some icing on the cake? Included in the $3.4 billion dollars in aid to Israel is $25 million for “immigrant absorption”. Arizona and New Mexico? Sorry we have no money for you.

Israel has received by conservative estimates; about $115-120 billion dollars in total. What could have been done with $115 billion dollars? Find a cure for cancer? Make Social Security and Medicare forever solvent? Provide housing for the homeless? We will never know.

So why would Congress borrow money, and then give it to a foreign nation, while depriving its own citizens of needed social programs? Why would Congress increase aid to Israel this year while cutting programs for American citizens?

Maybe you should ask.

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