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Friday, June 10, 2005

Bush Doubletalks While People Die

A powerful consensus is building for a doubling of aid to Africa among the world's heavyweight donors, except the United States, a divide that is likely to come into sharp relief this week when Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain arrives in Washington to meet with President Bush.

Mr. Blair, America's closest ally, hopes to shake loose more American aid for Africa. He is expected to ask Mr. Bush on Tuesday to join the leaders of other rich nations in forging a kind of Marshall Plan for Africa; Mr. Blair has called the continent's deepening poverty "the fundamental moral challenge of our time."

Britain is far from alone. The European Union has found its collective voice on global poverty, too. Its 25 member nations agreed unanimously on May 24 to almost double assistance to poor countries over the next five years. Japan this week reaffirmed its pledge to double aid to Africa in just three years.

But when President Bush was asked this week about Mr. Blair's effort, as well as a British proposal to raise money for development on capital markets, he replied, "It doesn't fit our budgetary process."

The president hastened to add that he hoped to advance a "compassion agenda" when Mr. Blair plays host to leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized nations in Scotland next month, but any new Africa pact would certainly be weakened without American support.

"Doesn't fit our budgetary process" What the heck does that mean? What he really meant to say was, "We don't give a crap that everyone else wants to save millions of lives. We need to finance instead more tax cuts for multi-millionaires." And then to top it all off, Bush will still insist that he is on a "compassion agenda." Yes, just like domestically he has proven to be such a "compassionate" conservative. It's truly enough to make one sick, and it certainly does me.

Jack Clark 9:55 PM [+]   
Post #111846574062343497