Sunday, January 13, 2019

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN - related legislation

The following is from legislation introduced on the very first day of the 116th Congress -- 12-days into the Government Shutdown over giving Trump a one-time amount of $5.7Billion to complete work related to the 2006 SECURE FENCE ACT opposed by Nancy Pelosi, but fully supported by Chuck Schumer, (and then Senators) Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The legislation is entitled, “Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019", and effectively funds a Border Wall between Israel and Jordon. 
(7) The 2016 Memorandum of Understanding reflected United States support of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grant assistance to Israel over the 10-year period beginning in fiscal year 2019 and ending in fiscal year 2028. FMF grant assistance would be at a level of $3,300,000,000 annually, totaling $33 billion, the largest single pledge of military assistance ever and a reiteration of the seven-decade, unshakeable, bipartisan commitment of the United States to Israel’s security."
The next paragraph states:
(8) The Memorandum of Understanding also reflected United States support for funding for cooperative programs to develop, produce, and procure missile, rocket, and projectile defense capabilities over a 10-year period beginning in fiscal year 2019 and ending in fiscal year 2028 at a level of $500 million per year, totaling $5 billion.
Thus we have the House saying it happily provides funds equal to those needed for domestic border security -- spread over 10 years -- to introduce Weapons of Mass Destruction to the Middle East.  GEE and that was after starting a 17-year and counting war because of alleged but disproved WMDs in the Middle East.

From the proposed act, we also learn that Obama and Congress had,  "On August 16, 2007, ....signed a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding on United States military assistance to Israel. The total assistance over the course of this understanding would equal $30 billion."

So it seems, as important as Israel might be to America's stance in the Middle East, it is actually ten or times as important as a proven successful domestic economic (and potential military) security act which has been the law for a dozen years.


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