Sunday, July 8, 2012

Did You Donate?

From Fox News: International donors pledged Sunday $16 billion in badly needed development aid for Afghanistan over the next four years when most foreign troops will leave as Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the international community not to abandon his country.
The major donors' conference, attended by about 70 countries and organizations, is aimed at setting aid levels for the crucial period through and beyond 2014, when most NATO-led foreign combat troops will leave and the war-torn country will assume responsibility for most of its own security....
Japanese foreign minister and U.S. officials traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the donors have made $16 billion available through 2015, which would be in line with the nearly $4 billion per year that the Japanese co-hosts had said they were hoping to achieve during the one-day conference.
Japan, the second-largest donor, says it will provide up to $3 billion through 2016, and Germany has announced it will keep its contribution to rebuilding and development at its current level of $536 million a year, at least until 2016.
To me, using taxpayer money to give to another government is not a donation.  To me, it's an expenditure.
To donate some thing, it means that that you are voluntarily giving something to somebody and I am sure, many taxpayers are not happy that the U.S. and other countries are giving Afghanistan billions of dollars.
I'm not sure why Fox News and the rest of the news media is using the term "donors", unless that is the terminology the people at the conference is using, which I highly suspect.
So, aren't you glad you are donating to Afghanistan without being asked?

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