USA to spend $7B to provide power in Africa - WTH? (middle east, healthcare)

[timfountain]

What the hell is wrong with us? Why would we spend such vast amounts of money to bring power to impoverished parts of Africa?

I just don't get why this gets the green light with barely a murmur of dissent whilst taking care of our own citizens healthcare needs causes a total meltdown in our society.

I might be looking at this wrong, but vast swaths of Africa have been living for 1000's of years without power, but now we suddenly need to bring them electricity and pay for it out of our own pockets? I thought Africa was supposed to be be mineral rich?

I know Africa has their problems but seriously, why is this our problem, we have enough problems of our own? What about spending that money on our aging power and transportation infrastructure. Oh I see, we'll get it up the a$$ in the form of increased taxes and utility bills to pay for that, whilst our tax dollars gush out to foreign governments. I'm betting that the level of corruption in some of these places means very little of this money ends up helping the people it is intended to help.

FACT SHEET: Power Africa | The White House

[AeroGuyDC]

Ironically, Barack berated African's by implying that they shouldn't have access to air conditioning because of the power drain and environmental consequences of a few billion more air conditioners unless we find another way to power them.

“Ultimately, if you think about all the youth that everybody has mentioned here in Africa, if everybody is raising living standards to the point where everybody has got a car and everybody has got air conditioning, and everybody has got a big house, well, the planet will boil over -- unless we find new ways of producing energy.”

[Bily Lovec]

this is a jealousy issue w/barry.

"W" is very well regarded in africa due to his work with AIDS down there,
he brought a lot of water and improved farming to the poor people of africa.

barry is jealous, so hes spending billions of your $$s to be a hero to africans instead of "W"...

[Goinback2011]

Because O is an African?

[MJJersey]

I doubt we are just handing over 7B to African Governments. It is more likely that we are paying politically-connected US companies 7B in federal bids to build infrastructure in Africa, even though ours is falling apart.

[cw30000]

Which still no power to Africa.

7 billion is a drop in the bucket when you have a 3.5 trillions budget and more than half of it was borrowed.

[timfountain]

Originally Posted by MJJersey

I doubt we are just handing over 7B to African Governments. It is more likely that we are paying politically-connected US companies 7B in federal bids to build infrastructure in Africa, even though ours is falling apart.

Very likely, I don't see a lot of information on how the money is being or is going to be spent. I can only assume there will be a fair amount of 'leakage', as is the norm in that part of the world. No one has ever heard of FCPA in Africa (or the Middle east or South America or the Soviet Union or large parts of Asia, or....)

[timfountain]

Originally Posted by cw30000

Which still no power to Africa.

7 billion is a drop in the bucket when you have a 3.5 trillions budget and more than half of it was borrowed.

But we have to start somewhere, and $7B is not a drop in the bucket when compared to some other expenditures that have generated a LOT more friction.

[andywire]

Originally Posted by cw30000

Which still no power to Africa.

7 billion is a drop in the bucket when you have a 3.5 trillions budget and more than half of it was borrowed.

Lib logic?

What happens when you add up all these little "drops in the bucket"?

[gtc08]

7 billion is chump change. every hour, taxpayers are paying 61 million for the department of defense.