Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: sgt203 on January 16, 2008, 04:35:39 AM
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With the way the economy is going and the deficeit going through the roof I myself was wondering just how much money is the United States sending overseas iin the form of Foreign Aid.
The last figures I could find we from 2003 and so here it is.
WHAT WAS THE TOTAL FOREIGN AID SENT OUT IN 2003
According to USAID for Fiscal Year 2003: $7,764,503,000
Source: http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2004/summary_tables_table4.pdf
Page 7
Caveats: This was the appropriation request, does not include drug interdiction funds, does not include military aid (other than cash) .
The question of total foreign aid is difficult because of the diverse ways that aid is dispersed, but the USAID appropriations covers a large part of the developmental and humanitarian aid.
I noted that this amount did not include alot of aid that we sent overseas.
I also looked up the information on the current budget deficeit and found this article:
"The federal government registered a budget deficit of $161 billion for the just-completed fiscal year, the Congressional Budget office estimated Friday.
The 2007 deficit figure represents considerable improvement over the $248 billion deficit posted last year. It's even smaller when compared to the size of the economy — the measure deemed most important by economists.
At 1.2 percent of gross domestic product, the fiscal picture is the best it's been since 2001, the last year the government ran a budget surplus.
Still, the long-term budget picture is bleak, as federal benefit programs such as Medicare are projected to plunge the government deep into the red as the Baby Boom generation retires.
And just last week, President Bush signed into law a measure increasing the government's borrowing ceiling to $9.815 trillion, the fifth debt limit increase — totaling $3.865 trillion — since Bush took office.
The administration will release the official deficit figure later this month.
"We are glad to see CBO again sees the deficit continuing to decline as it proves we are on our way to surplus by 2012," said Sean Kevelighan, spokesman for the White House budget office. "What's important to reaching that goal is keeping taxes low and maintaining fiscal discipline."
Democrats saw little to cheer in the latest figures.
"Republicans have overseen the largest fiscal reversal in American history — turning a $5.6 trillion ten-year projected surplus into a $2 trillion deficit — and yet the administration continues to advocate the same policies that helped to create our fiscal mess," said House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt Jr., D-S.C.
Spratt was referring to Bush's 2001 budget presentation promising tax cuts, spending increases and $2 trillion in debt buyback made possible by huge budget surplus forecasts.
But a revenue bubble burst, a recession and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks adversely affected the books. Several rounds of tax cuts, including Bush's signature $1.35 trillion 2001 tax cut, also contributed to the return to deficits in 2002 after four years of budget surpluses.
The deficit last year was $248 billion and had closed from a high of $413 billion registered three years ago due to impressive tax revenue growth from a relatively healthy economy.
Bush and Democrats in Congress have both promised to erase the deficit by 2012, though they have greatly divergent views on how to achieve the goal, with Bush and Republicans insisting on extension of his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts when they expire at the end of 2010."
I noted the budget deficit has closed by 165 Billion Dollars over the last 3 years.
Do you think if the US Cut foreign aid for a period of 1 year, maintained the Tax Cuts, and eliminated all the "pork" from Federal Spending for 1 year we could nearly eliminate the deficit and have the US economy back in the black by the end of 2008????
What would be the major problem with doing so???
Note: I did find an article indicating Bush Administration was requestiing 20.27 Billion for Foreign Aid for Fiscal Year 2008. I do not know what this entails such a military aid but is a very large increase from the 2003 figure quoted above.