United States budget process
“Obama gave a BILLION DOLLARS to the Taliban in Afghanistan in October of 2009. “
“And last year Obama gave 8 BILLION DOLLARS to Pakistan “
Recently I read those two statements on a blog and decided that some people may have flunked their high school civics class.
I will break it down simply and then leave a link to the long version.
Every year the President submits to congress his proposed budget. The House and the Senate take this budget and make whatever changes they feel appropriate many times placing restrictions on how it can be spent. Then they pass their version. After wards the have a joint conference to reach an agreement.
So anytime anyone states that any President gave away any money to any entity, they don’t a damn thing about what they are talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_budget_process
You tell em my friend….”)
Maybe he meant that Pres. Obama gave them the money out of his personal funds?
😉
I know, I know… just playing devil’s advocate. But still…..? 😆
Oh…Osama Obama was not alone…he had the approval of all of the Demoncrats in Congress. It’s called Foreign Aid…and Obama loves to give money to the terrorists. The terrorists and the rich…but he does not help the working poor in this country.
Hmmm…I wonder…when Obama gave 3 billion dollars to Brazil when he had his family done there escaping the radiation cloud from Japan…did he have the approval of Congress for that???
The Executive Branch is empowered by the Constitution to conduct affairs of State. The president does indeed give Pakistan financial aid, as the Head of Foreign Affairs. The Secretary of State is the Head of State’s proxy or assistant if you will, and must execute the official duties of the State Department and be in close daily contact with the president.
Within the discretionary budget of the State Department is several ‘folios’ that are funds granted by congress. This is where the President plays king with other countries without interference of congress (until the next budget cycle of course). He can direct foreign aid for ‘humanitarian’ purposes, he can direct foreign aid in the ‘advancement of democracy and diplomacy’ and other such real general ’causes’…
After he spends this money, he is audited and a report generated by the CBO tells his sins and (depending on which party holds majority sway in each body) is either flayed publicly by leaks to the press, or is given a smaller discretionary budget for the next fiscal year.
The bottom line…the president does indeed ‘give money’ to Pakistan and congress has little say over his conduction of his constitutional duties as executive of foreign affairs. They can shrink his budget and he can turn around and raise the fee schedules of all the councillary services (passports, transcriptions, visas, translation and on and on.)
That is why all the fees just recently went up…they are slashing his branch budgets and he intends to make his own budget “bandaids”.
I couldn’t find a reliable source to confirm or deny about the paying off of the Taliban so that remains very iffy and considering who that info came from…….
I did find this about Pakistan and it shows a bit different amount. Perhaps they meant to say 8 billion over five years, but that’s highly unlikely isn’t it.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/pakaid.pdf
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