The U.S. first announced they would give $15 million in disaster relief for the Southeast Asia's Tsunami victoms.
But when some questioned the level of the commitment of the U.S., the administration got touchy.
NYT:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 - Rejecting a United Nations official's suggestion that it had been a "stingy" aid donor, the Bush administration on Tuesday announced another $20 million in relief for victims of the Asian earthquake and tsunamis and dispatched an aircraft carrier and other ships to the region for possible relief operations. [They meant to do that all along, I'm sure.]
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, displaying irritation with the suggestion of American stinginess, said the United States had been the most generous of aid donors in recent years and that, in any case, the sums announced so far were "just a start" of a larger sustained effort.
According to the Congressional Research Service, an independent agency, the United States is the largest aid donor in terms of dollars, but its record of donating two-tenths of 1 percent of its national economy for foreign aid makes it among the smallest donors as a proportion of what it could theoretically afford.
Countering that argument, the State Department acknowledges on an official Web site that its direct economic aid is "the smallest among government foreign assistance programs" but that the "true measure" of American generosity should include private money.
80 Billion more for Iraq:
If we could have only bombed the crap out of that damn tidal wave...
AP:
US President George W. Bush is expected to seek authorisation for spending of an additional 80 billion dollars in Iraq , the head of a visiting congressional delegation said.
"In early February, there will be ... a supplemental appropriation in addition to the 2006 budget for defence submitted to Congress," Jim Kolbe, Republican congressman from Arizona, told reporters.
He estimated the extra funding to range between 75 to 80 billion dollars.
If we only had to money to lend, really we would, but...
Currently Iraq has cost us somewhere in the range of...
$147,393,300,000
Posted by bushmeister0
at 4:55 PM EST
