Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Growing the Debt: US resumes $1.6B in aid to Pakistan

As the national debt tops $17 trillion -- thanks to the newly sealed debt-ceiling agreement -- America's costly foreign aid tab is back in the crosshairs.
The federal government in fiscal 2012 spent about $21 billion on non-military foreign assistance and was on track to spend roughly the same in 2013, according to federal records. As Washington enters the new fiscal year, another huge chunk of aid is being released -- the Associated Press reported over the weekend that the U.S. is planning to free up more than $1.6 billion in aid to Pakistan following a lengthy hiatus.
Daniel Markey, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, suggested Monday that the aid decision was premature. He told FoxNews.com Live that the U.S. should at least be changing the way that money is used.
"We haven't gotten a lot out of Pakistan ... and we've spent billions and billions of dollars," Markey said Monday.
He said new leadership in Pakistan offers a reason to keep trying "but we should be very careful."
The aid had been on ice after a major breakdown in U.S.-Pakistan relations. Pakistan lashed out at the U.S. over the 2011 raid on Usama bin Laden's compound. U.S. lawmakers were similarly outraged after Pakistan imprisoned a doctor alleged to have helped the CIA in tracking bin Laden.
Ties continued to fray after the U.S. mistakenly fired on and killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers.
But after a long pause, and an election in Pakistan, both sides are trying to rebuild their relationship.
Newly elected Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived in the U.S. on Sunday, for the first visit by a Pakistani head of state since 2008, and met with Secretary of State John Kerry. In a statement, the State Department said they "continued the robust dialogue on our shared goal of a stable, secure and prosperous Pakistan." The statement stressed the importance of "continued counterterrorism cooperation."
Aid to Pakistan over the years has been channeled to everything from health to education to economic development.
But it is Pakistan's role in counterterrorism operations that has made the U.S. so reluctant to cut ties with the country altogether. Despite suspicion running high between the two governments -- and concerns that some Pakistani officials are taking U.S. money with one hand and helping America's enemies with the other -- many in Washington see the partnership as one of necessity.
Markey, author of "No Exit from Pakistan: America's Tortured Relationship with Islamabad," said the U.S. still needs the supply lines in and out of Afghanistan as that war winds down. But he said the U.S. should be "skeptical."
The battle over how much to give to which countries has been escalating in Washington, and Republicans have made it a perennial target as they seek additional savings.
House Republicans proposed a nearly $6 billion cut to foreign aid in their fiscal 2014 budget proposal.
Congress has not yet passed a full-year budget -- the latest agreement to end the partial government shutdown resulted in a bill to fund the government for just three months. Lawmakers are now seeking a broader agreement to both fund the government and cut the deficit.
Amid the resumption of aid to Pakistan, the Obama administration recently decided to put some aid to Egypt on hold. The decision came after then-President Mohammed Morsi was overthrow.

White House won't rule out delay of ObamaCare individual mandate

The White House appeared to leave the door open Monday to delaying the so-called individual mandate in the federal health care law, as President Obama acknowledged the main website for enrollment is not working as it should.
Press Secretary Jay Carney addressed concerns over the mandate at a press briefing shortly after Obama, in the Rose Garden, personally acknowledged failures with the HealthCare.gov site and vowed that "these problems are getting fixed."
Carney was peppered with questions on whether the administration would be open to delaying the requirement on individuals to buy health insurance, if the website continues to lock out would-be customers. Echoing Obama, Carney said repeatedly that the country is just three weeks into a six-month enrollment process and suggested it's too early to make any decisions of that magnitude.
But he did not close the door on the option.
Asked if the administration is looking for flexibility in applying the mandate, Carney said: "Whatever conclusions you draw about the way the law is written, I think you can draw. The law is clear that if you do not have access to affordable health insurance, then you will not be asked to pay a penalty because you haven't purchased affordable health insurance."
He added that the administration is focused on providing that access.
Carney was vague on what the administration's next move would be, aside from bringing in tech experts from the private sector to try and repair the website. Without offering further explanation, he said the Department of Health and Human Services is "looking to align the policies with the disconnect between the open enrollment period and the individual responsibility time frames, which exist on the first year only."
Whether that signals the administration would consider even a short-term delay of the mandate is unclear.
Technically, Americans are supposed to obtain health insurance by the end of March 2014 to avoid a fine. But analysts have since calculated that, considering the time it takes to process all the relevant documents, most would have to seek coverage by mid-February. 
Republicans have used the website failures to fuel their case that the individual mandate should be delayed. They've been pushing for the delay ever since the administration announced earlier this year it would offer some employers a one-year reprieve from a separate mandate to extend insurance to workers.  
The president's remarks in the Rose Garden did little to quell their complaints.
"If the president is frustrated by the mounting failures of his health care law, it wasn't apparent today. Americans are looking for accountability, but what the president offered today was little more than self-congratulation," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement. "Either the president doesn't grasp the scale of the law's failures or he doesn't believe Americans deserve straight answers." 
Republicans have blasted the administration for not offering up Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for a House hearing scheduled for Thursday.
But the House Energy and Commerce Committee confirmed late Monday that Sebelius would testify before the committee Oct. 30.
"As the administration continues to withhold important details and enrollment figures, I hope Secretary Sebelius is ready to give answers and finally live up to the president's celebrated claims of transparency," Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in a statement.

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