Argumentative Paper Argumentative Essay
American dollars into the Iraqi infrastructure. 1) Military and police force trained at the hands of American taxpayer dollars. (2) Facilities that have been built by American’s and gone to waste. (3) Global understanding of foreign aid. (4) Iraq’s capabilities of taking care of their own financial aid. (5)Statistics in regards to dollars spent on what projects to Iraq become a better nation. IV. America’s public school system. A. Budget cuts to the educational budget. B. Classroom growth. C. Educational cut back programs. (1) City of Phoenix cut backs. 2) Educational Job market flooded with teachers and no positions available. 3) Interview with Kerry. Help V. American’s need to tighten the purse strings and take care of the issues at home. Too Much Foreign Aid in America’s Budget The act of charity is something that most people are raised on; if a person has been blessed with wealth, it is always good to help those less fortunate. However, there comes a time when too much is too much. The United States, among other countries, developed the practice of foreign aid after World War II.
It was designed to help those countries in desperate need of temporary help when they could not manage on their own. Foreign aid is something that has been in effect over the last few decades and some say has been used to excess and argue the point that if our own country is in debt and suffering, how can there be so much money spent on foreign aid. Others say that we are prosperous and should help those that need it no matter what. Whichever side of the argument is brought up, there are certain facts that do not change.
The United States has spent too much money taking care of other countries financial disasters despite the trouble within its own borders. The United States of America has long been considered one of the most remediable countries in the world leading the pack of economic growth, democracy, innovation and financial dominance. However, lately it seems that the United States is in as much financial strain as the other countries it helps regularly. American’s are experiencing the pinch of billions in budget cuts on education programs, eliminating teaching positions and higher taxes to fund a war with Iraq.
Even through all of these financial hardships, the United States still manages to give billions of dollars in financial aid despite the economic crisis of their own. A country that receives a large portion of American foreign aid is Haiti. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and is one of the countries that recently, receives the most financial aid world wide. In mid-January of this year, Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake that destroyed most of the county. Hundreds of thousands of people were left without homes, clean drinking water or electricity, with debris and rubble making it unsafe territory.
Bret Stephens, a Journalist for the DOD Jones & Company, uncovered news from the World Bank and exactly how much additional aid was going to be allotted to Haiti for relief efforts. Stephens article states: The World Bank–now about to throw another $100 million on Haiti–on what it achieved in the country between 1986 and 2002: The outcome of World Bank assistance programs is rated unsatisfactory (if not highly so), the institutional development impact, negligible, and the sustainability of the few benefits that have accrued, unlikely.
Stephens goes on to quote that the Bank noted, “Haiti has dysfunctional budgetary, financial or procurement systems, making financial and aid management impossible. The Bank makes the claim that the Haitian government does not take ownership and initiative for formulating and implementing assistance programs. A breakdown of foreign aid by country, provided by Guardian, a United Kingdom based awareness blob, shows a grand total of 3. 5 billion dollars already donated and another 1. 1 billion dollars pledged to help with this disaster (Guardian).
America, leading as the highest donor, among other countries such as United Kingdom, Japan and Canada. Many countries making absolutely no contribution whatsoever during this time. American’s are going broke and continue to keep giving. In fact, the United States has only been debt free for two years, 1834 and 1835, according to Marie Clammiest. Clammiest states in another article that, “… The federal governments $14 trillion debt as an emergency that demands big cuts in domestic programs… The majority of this debt is said to have come from the war in Iraq, heavily financed by borrowing from China to fund the war. Lira Logan reported, “The problem for America is that its greatness has always been rooted in its economic dominance and that debt has forced the U. S. To keep borrowing from foreign countries. ” According to statistical ATA provided by the Bureau of the Public Debt , in 1991, the national debt for the United States was under $3 Trillion, even though a large amount, it was still within the realm of being paid off.
However now in 2011, the debt recently went over the $14 trillion mark, a number that is in no way obtainable (Madame). Logan also quoted Aaron David Miller of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, saying, “Can the world’s greatest power remain the world’s greatest power and also be the world’s greatest borrower? I don’t think so. ” Over the past four years fighting the war n Iraq, the United States has spent $500 billion dollars on Just the war alone (Skeletal).
In addition to the funding of occupying this country, the United States has spent over $50 billion in reconstruction costs, that unfortunately, most say will be wasted dollars due to Iraq’s incompetence and capabilities to utilize the reconstructions. As a country, the United States has invested hundreds of billions of dollars on equipment, buildings, infrastructure, electricity and water facilities in third world countries. In an article recently published by USA Today written by Matt Kelley, mints out that, “The United States has spent $44. Billion in taxpayer funds on rebuilding Iraq, about half of it to train, equip and support Iraq’s military and police forces. ” Kelley also quotes Rusty Barber, the head of the Iraq program United States Institute of Peace, “There has been some significant progress, but there’s a long way to go before Iraq can really be a stable, secure country that’s able to provide for its people’s basic needs. ” Iraq is a country that has undergone massive abuse over the past 10 plus years, with no end in sight, and has been rebuilt about ten times over.
The amount of money that America has spent in rebuilding Iraq, by all means a country that has minimal interest in being rebuilt, is atrocious. American tax payer dollars are being spent to fund many projects in Iraq, such as schools, hospitals and prisons, instead of spending those same dollars on the same problems at home. According to Timothy Williams, many of these facilities have remained empty after completion because there were not enough Iraqis trained to operate them. Williams goes on to state that “… 4 million maternity hospital built by the Americans is open, but the staff members cannot operate much of its equipment….. Sinai Hospital in Baghdad, which had been the American military’s largest medical center in the country, has been closed because the Health Ministry lacks the staff and equipment to reopen it, though the American military said it left $7. 9 million in equipment behind… ” He also states that there was a $165 million children’s hospital that was delayed by more than four years and $115 million over budget (Williams). When a country is in desperate need of help, it is up to others to step up and give aid.
When that aid is given, it is under the understanding that the money is going to e used to go towards the rebuild of the crisis. However, what happens when the country receiving large portions of aid do not need that aid? For example, according to James Gland and Campbell Robertson’s article in August of 2008, by the end of 2009, the Iraqi government ended up with a surplus of almost $80 million dollars. The article stated that, “The United States has spent $23. 2 billion in the critical areas of security, oil, electricity and water since the 2003 invasion, but from 2005 through April of 2008, Iraq has spend Just $3. Billion on similar services. ” Another report room the Government Accountability Office estimates Iraqi oil revenue from 2005 through the end of this year [2008] will amount to at least $156 billion dollars. ” So what this is stating is that the Iraqi government is not only holding their oil money in a United States bank collecting somewhere in the range of $400,000 in interest, but for some reason they are collecting foreign aid when they are capable of funding and fixing their own problems.
Carl Levin, a chairman of the Senate Armed Services was quoted saying, “The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its espousal to fund large-scale reconstruction projects. It is inexcusable for U. S. Taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves We should not be paying for Iraqi projects, while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank. ” Very well said and a statement many American citizens support full hardheartedly.
However, we are still sending foreign aid to Iraq, building Iraqi schools, hospitals, prisons, and fortifying their country’s security but it does not look like the money is going to stop going into Iraq. If the United States spends 165 million dollars on one hospital, one can only imagine the cost of rebuilding schools during war time; as well as imagine how many of those schools were destroyed intentionally and unintentionally during or after their construction because of said war. America’s public school system drastically needs help and no one is coming up with any solutions but budget cuts.
The American public school system is already the victim of systematic budget cuts are now getting ready for another huge blow to their financial status; one some say that is going to cripple our youth’s outlooks on a better education. ” Education Weekly reported that “the spending bill that President Barack Obama signed into law March 2 severed current fiscal-year funding for several literacy programs at the Education Department as a part of a government- wide reduction of $4 billion” (Rose). For an example, Arizona has taken hard drastic cuts recently.
Classroom sizes have grown from 24 children per teacher to roughly 30 plus children per classroom. After school and during school education enhancement studies to help children who fall below the average or have special learning needs eve all but been eliminated. In previous years, children who may not have passed a subject were allowed the opportunity to attend intercession, a program during the school breaks where they attend class for a few hours a day over a two week time frame intended to get them back on track.
Unfortunately, as of the 2009-2010 school year, Circle Cross Ranch, a local elementary in San Tan Valley Arizona, now requires parents pay $25 per class session if a child fails at any point in time the classes are mandatory. In Phoenix, they are experiencing even more of an unnecessary set back. The city as had a drastic decline in their hiring for the 2010-2011 school year. Roughly 7,400 public-school teaching positions have been eliminated across the state because of budget cuts proposed by the Legislature, according to Arizona Educators Association spokesman John Heartfelt (Quinn).
With the amount of children that are still enrolling and moving into the Phoenix area, this only bodes ill for the amount of attention each child will receive. Education is important to the growth of any society and if that keeps getting hit time and time again with no solutions on how to fix that budget crisis, things will only get worse. The amount of educational Jobs are decreasing but the amount of applicants only increase. The educational Job market is being flooded with teachers that have experienced the layoffs and cut backs, while schools hiring, go for the more seasoned experienced teachers.
Internships have been eliminated across the board for new teachers because the Jobs Just are not readily available eliminating many of the opportunities for young teachers. Kerry, a 4th grade teacher for xx Elementary in xx, has felt the pinch of educational budget cuts along with thousands of other teachers. XX teaches a very owe-income community with children that speak more Spanish than English and she struggles some days to provide the best educational experience she can. “The school just can’t afford what we need and its sad.
I have children that come to school almost every day hungry because they don’t have proper meals at home. They come to school with no supplies because their parents can’t afford them. As a teacher, how can I sit by and watch my students go with out the fundamental things that they need to get an education? ” XX stated that she spends over $500 every year on school supplies that she does not get reimbursed for, “l have to do it. If I don’t, no one will and these children don’t deserve to suffer because of our budget cuts.
How can they learn if they have no paper to write on or a pencil to write with? ” When asked about the financial crisis the schools are experiencing, she replied, “Its sad and disturbing at the same time. How can I teach properly without the books and tools required to teach!? I know this sounds selfish, but doesn’t they saying go, you need to help yourself before you can help others? If we [Americans] keep giving everything away, there’s not going to be anything left for us to help ourselves. We could have so much more for our own kids! America’s future are its children, those children are not educated properly, who’s fault is that going to be? No matter who’s fault it is, the problem needs to be corrected sooner rather than later. The United States has received a hazardous blows over the past few years with several crippling hurricanes, oil spills and a continued economic and financial crisis. The United States is falling further and further into debt with the war in Iraq and an economic crisis that has America considered ‘rich nations’ among one of the poorest (Belittler).
If the United States cut back some of the foreign aid given to the same countries regularly, then those countries receiving the public assistance will have no choice but to learn how to support themselves. By continuing to give aid and support them without teaching them how to figure out how to do it for themselves, the problem only gets worse. It Just seems that the United States is giving a lot of more hand outs while its own citizens are suffering. When that happens, that is when its time to close the purse strings to take care of American’s with American tax dollars.
