Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said Friday that he opposes USAID’s plans “to spend another $20 million for ‘democracy promotion’ programs in Cuba” and called for a review of the programs.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, editor of the Capitol Hill Cubans blog, criticized that move.
The problem is that the Administration has already consulted with Congress — and Congress has already voted to approve and appropriate the FY2010 budget.
Furthermore, the last time Cuba democracy programs specifically came up for a vote, they were overwhelmingly approved in a Democratic-led House by a vote of 254-170.
Thus, Chairman Kerry is inappropriately (and selfishly) equating his own personal views with the entire U.S. Congress.
Kerry’s full statement said:
We all hope the Cuban people achieve greater freedom and prosperity in the future consistent with their aspirations, and I have applauded the Administration’s commitment to expand people-to-people contact between our two countries. There is no evidence, however, that the ‘democracy promotion’ programs, which have cost the U.S. taxpayer more than $150 million so far, are helping the Cuban people. Nor have they achieved much more than provoking the Cuban government to arrest a U.S. government contractor who was distributing satellite communication sets to Cuban contacts.
Before this $20 million is committed, a full review of the programs should be undertaken and the Administration should consult with the Congress. The GAO, which has investigated fraud and abuse in these programs in the past, is already undertaking another investigation at my request into the legal basis and effectiveness of these operations.
Links:
John Kerry photo gallery, which was source of cover photo
If the incredible gravy-train for people like Mauricio Claver-Carone, Frank Calzone, Otto Reich, Roger Noriega, Stephanie Rudat, etc., etc., etc., had been restricted to thousands of dollars instead of millions many decades ago then America, Cuba and the world would be far better places today. To severely punish the Cuban people on the island and the hard-pressed U. S. taxpayers just to lavishly benefit an elitist group of Cuban Americans and their sycophants has shamed the U. S. democracy as Senator Kerry and a few others have pointed out before. But money and politics being what they are — as Obama eyes those 27 electoral votes in Florida and as he prepares to raise an obscene billion dollars for his re-election — democracy is a poor and pathetic stepchild today. Mauricio Claver-Carone and the multitude of lobbyists like him have destroyed the American democracy and the only question is…will it ever be restored? Probably not. The rich and powerful minorities have all the advantages over the majority, and the rich and powerful are not the best and most decent among us. But for just over 200 years the U. S. democracy, while imperfect and certainly not blessed with a necessary arsenal of checks and balances, was the best form of government ever devised by man. The subject of Cuba says as much about the rise and fall of the U. S. democracy as any other historical entity. That’s why sovereignty should prevail on the island as opposed to self-serving exiles and their sycophants successfully lobbing grenades from a super-power safe haven.