[Corporations] FPIF News | Foreign Aid Budget
IRC Communications
communications at irc-online.org
Wed Feb 25 12:49:44 EST 2004
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What's New at FPIF
"Working to make the U.S. a more responsible global leader and partner"
http://www.fpif.org/
February 25, 2004
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Introducing a new commentary from Foreign Policy In Focus
The More Things Change: Foreign Aid Budget Looks Like a Retread from the
Cold War
By Jim Lobe
If the "war on terror" is beginning to look increasingly like the cold
war, then President George W. Bush's fiscal year (FY) 2005 foreign-aid
request will not change that impression.
While Bush is proposing to increase funding for his two key anti-poverty
initiatives, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and anti-AIDS money for
African and Caribbean countries, he is also cutting funds for other key
humanitarian and development accounts. At the same time, the president is
asking Congress to increase by more than one billion dollars military and
security assistance, particularly to key "front-line" states in the "war on
terror." Those two categories, which include anti-drug aid and
proliferation categories, would make up nearly one-third of all U.S.
foreign aid under Bush's request, roughly the same percentage of total
foreign aid when the cold war reached its height during the 1980s.
Under Bush's proposals, credits for foreign militaries to buy U.S. weapons
and equipment would increase by some $700 million to nearly $5 billion, the
highest total in well over a decade. Even including the military credits,
the total foreign aid proposal, which is included in a record federal
budget request of some $2.4 trillion, amounts to a mere 5% of what Bush is
requesting for the Pentagon next year.
Under his plan, military spending--which already constitutes roughly
one-half of the world's total military expenditures--would rise by some 7%,
to $402 billion in FY 2005, which begins Oct. 1. That figure does not
include an anticipated $50 billion more that the administration is expected
to request to fund military and related operations in Iraq and Afghanistan
later in the year.
The total budget request now goes to Congress, where even members of Bush's
own Republican Party say he is unlikely to get everything he wants in view
of the record budget deficits being forecast well into the future as a
result of the president's tax cuts and military spending hikes.
Jim Lobe <jlobe at starpower.net> is a political analyst with Foreign Policy
in Focus (online at www.fpif.org). He also writes regularly for Inter Press
Service.
See complete new FPIF commentary online at:
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0402budget.html
With printer-friendly PDF version at:
http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0402budget.pdf
***** We Count on Your Support *****
Please consider supporting Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF). FPIF is a new
kind of think tank--one serving citizen movements and advancing a fresh,
internationalist understanding of global affairs. Although we make our FPIF
products freely available on the Internet, we need financial support to
cover our staff time and expenses. Increasingly, FPIF depends on you and
other individual donors to sustain our bare-bones budget. Click on
https://secure.iexposure.com/fpif.org/donate.cfm to support FPIF online, or
for information about making contributions over the phone or through the
mail. If you respond to this donation solicitation, please enter 'FPIF' in
the "Special Offer Code" field.
***** Thank you ******
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Distributed by FPIF:"A Think Tank Without Walls," a joint program of
Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) and Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
For more information, visit www.fpif.org. If you would like to add a name
to the "What's New At FPIF?" list, please email:
communications at irc-online.org, giving your area of interest.
Also see our Progressive Response newsletter at:
http://www.fpif.org/progresp/index.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC)
http://www.irc-online.org/
Siri D. Khalsa
Outreach Coordinator
Email: communications at irc-online.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.corporations.org/pipermail/corporations_corporations.org/attachments/20040225/a88e42e0/attachment.htm>
More information about the Corporations
mailing list