White House Readies $450 Million in Aid Tribute to Egypt

Whatever we call the cash that the Obama administration is prepping to send to the new Egypt, we should not call it aid.

The Obama administration notified Congress on Friday that it would provide Egypt’s new government an emergency cash infusion of $450 million, but the aid immediately encountered resistance from a prominent lawmaker wary of foreign aid and Egypt’s new course under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

—

An influential Republican lawmaker, Representative Kay Granger of Texas, immediately announced that she would use her position as chairwoman of the House appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign aid to block the distribution of the money. She said the American relationship with Egypt “has never been under more scrutiny” than it is in the wake of the election of President Mohamed Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“I am not convinced of the urgent need for this assistance and I cannot support it at this time,” Ms. Granger said in a statement that her office issued even before the administration announced the package.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at a meeting of the Group of 8 nations in New York, said on Friday that the world needed to do more to support the governments that have emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings, including those in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Haven’t we maxed out the credit card yet?

Shortly after a Cairo mob, egged on by the Muslim Brotherhood and assorted other Islamists, stormed the US embassy there and desecrated the American flag, the Muslim Brotherhood tweeted its approval for the action. In Arabic, the Brotherhood tweeted “Egyptians revolt for the Prophet’s victory in front of U.S. embassy.” That “victory” was an attack on American soil and personnel. The US response thus far appears to be: Send more money.

Ahead of his UN address, Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi — the Muslim Brotherhood’s man — threatened Coptic Christians if they dared speak out against him. The Muslim Brotherhood government has threatened the peace with Israel, made an overture to Iran, and used the YouTube video to push for sharia speech restrictions on the entire world. Morsi is behaving as what he is, a man hailing from a group that is the fountainhead for international Islamic terrorism.

Against all this backdrop, and our own massively out of control national deficit, we’re considering paying Egypt “aid?” What are American taxpayers getting in return for this “aid?”