Damn the Torpedoes - Cut Foreign AidBy Brent Smith April 8, 2019 During a time of increased illegal immigration at the Southern border in the summer of 2014, Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein encouraged President Barack Obama to use his “very broad power” to limit immigration as he saw fit. My how the Democrats are singing a different tune less than five years later. Crisis then – no crisis now. I’m sure it can’t have anything to do with the fact that Donald Trump is now President. Or maybe it’s that Obama was just so darn successful at curtailing illegal crossings that the crisis simply is no more. Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. But the Democrats just continue to push the “no crisis” narrative, insisting that we believe them and not our own lying eyes. Well, thank heavens for Donald Trump. I don’t often say that, but it’s spot on. Without the president shedding constant light on the border, we would know little about it. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have cared a wit about border security. Oh, Republicans talk a good game, but their action, or rather inaction, over the last several years betray their rhetoric. Trump is one of a very few in Washington who is serious about this issue, and the only one willing, it seems, to do whatever it takes, consequences be damned. It’s why he has decided to cut foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Yahoo News writes that “These three countries are the primary source of migrants to the U.S., but for years the U.S. has worked with them to stabilize their political environments and economies and end violence and corruption so that migrants wouldn’t leave in the first place.” Of course Yahoo would say it this way. All the left wing media are saying the same thing. And how’s that been working out? Over the past decade, we have given Guatemala anywhere between $60 million to $260 million per year - Honduras, from $44 million to $180 million per year, and El Salvador, from $45 million to $517 million per year. And for all those billions, what we have received in return? I mean, other than illegal immigrants and criminals. Yet politicians on both sides of the aisle insist that we give them even more money. And what’s their reasoning? Well, it’s the same old tired argument they always give when they don’t want to make the hard decisions, like making these countries accountable for our largess. As Vox predictably writes, “Experts agree that you can’t address the ‘root causes’ of migration without aid. But Trump’s border temper tantrum prevails.” Ah, the “experts.” Well pardon the vernacular, but [heck with] the “experts.” Listening to them is what has gotten us into this mess. If we know anything about governments the world over, it is that they are all the same in two respects. Political power corrupts, and cash is the mother’s milk of that corruption. Whether it’s Russia or America or one of these three Central American countries, the result is the same. Large amounts of cash roll into the central government. It is then filtered through a myriad of departments and agencies and a large percentage is siphoned off, never to be used as intended or earmarked. And this is what is happening to all those millions we “give” to these supposedly destitute nations every year. The people live in poverty that we in America cannot imagine, while the rulers of these nations bask in opulence. It’s fine for our Education Department to put all kinds of “conditions” on federal money given to schools, but somehow it’s an insult to demand the same from the countries? Please – spare me the crocodile tears. Damn the torpedoes – full speed ahead President Trump. Do what you think is right and heck with our elitist political class and the nattering nabobs of negativism in the mainstream press.
|
Brent Smith, "The Common Constitutionalist," offers not just conservative commentary and analysis, but a blend of politics, history, arts, science, and humor. Whoever said conservatives aren’t funny? Yeah, I know…most people. Brent is a contributing writer for numerous online publications. When he is not burning the midnight oil writing his insightful commentaries, he is raising his two teenage sons to be patriots and Conservatives. Visit Brent Smith's website at www.commonconstitutionalist.com
|