Alert! 7 Days to Save Billions in Funding
March 7th, 2008 at 12:57 pm | posted by Virginia SimmonsRight now, the Senate is considering a $4 billion cut from the president’s 2009 request for poverty-fighting funding. Most devastating - if passed, this cut would be a $1 billion drop from 2008 levels.
Thankfully, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) have introduced an amendment to restore $2.6 billion to the international affairs budget.
This is where ONE comes in.
We only have a week to get the majority of the Senate to decide to support this amendment - so we’re doing what we do best - launching a petition!
We’re hoping to get 60 U.S. senators to sign up in support of Senator Durbin and Smith’s amendment - which means we need support from senators in every state in America.
I’ll updates you with how many ONE members have signed the petition, and how many senators have signed on, throughout the week. Please add your name and send the petition on to your friends. We only have 7 days to save billions of dollars worth of critical poverty-fighting programs for the most vulnerable among us.
3/10/08 UPDATE: The Amendment is now called the Feinstein-Smith Amendment. Senators Durbin, Sununu, Dodd and Coleman are co-sponsors for the Dear Colleague Letter.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Why are we talking about sending any money overseas when we have a plethora of problems at home. We can’t help others until we help ourselves. Listen to David Walker, Comptroller governor of the US and head of the GAO, he’s been telling us about the problem with our national debt. Look at our economy and the value of the dollar. Don’t take money from everyone in the US and give it to foreign aid. Keep the money with the people and they can donate if they wish. It’s unfair to hold the american public responsible for other country’s problems when we are in desperate need of help ourselves.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I’ve signed this petition and I encourage everyONE who reads this to SIGN THE PETITION also.
So much for all those in Congress who we whiteband and then turn right around and support cuts to essential programs like those in the International Affairs budget that fight extreme poverty.
We must always remember to be in their world - but not of it.
Let’s really work hard during the next week AS ONE to save this $4 billion in funding to save hundreds of thousands of lives and futures in Africa. Their lives are just as precious as ours.
Take very good care, my friends. Blessings - not just for those who kneel.
ALWAYS ONE in the Spirit, debbie
March 7th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I think a lot of people don’t quite understand how good we have it in the United States. We give less than 1% of our country’s income to help places in economic strife such as Africa. Not to mention the majority of problems abroad are the results of the environment and old colonial influence. Before you think our country needs to hold on to all of our tax dollars please travel to Africa first hand and realize those people there are helpless in their circumstances.
March 9th, 2008 at 12:11 am
I second what Max wrote, and consider also that 1) the US is spending over $700 million PER DAY in Iraq, reaching 3 TRILLION total by current estimates, so apparently we have money to put into overseas projects (providing humanitarian aid has a strategic value, as well, in promoting a healthy, stable society that will not breed terrorists) and 2) we ARE helping ourselves, to a nice check of $600 per person from the Congress and the IRS so we can “stimulate the economy”; that is two year’s worth of income for 1 billion of the world’s population. The stimulus package will cost $168 billion, and the amount we send for foreign development and poverty assistance is around $15 billlion, a smaller percentage of our GNP than any other rich country.
March 9th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I just came to this blog for the first time. Found you by starting out on FREERICE.COM. I’m glad I found it so that I could have the opportunity to sign this petition. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to get our involved and help in a small way…just by signing our name.
March 9th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Glad you joined, freerice is a very cool site! It has a handy link I just found to what I mentioned above, how much countries are giving to international aid:
http://www.poverty.com/internationalaid.html
The US is almost at the bottom, 1/100 of a percent ahead of Greece!
March 10th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Hello to all of my new fellow ONE supporters. I was initially turned on to the campaign by U2 and just joined up today.
To John Galuppo I say yes we sure as hell can afford to help others WHILE helping ourselves. Every minute that passes innocent children are dying overseas…we cant afford to wait until all of our own problems are solved
any country that allocates more money to building bombs than helping feed the homeless needs to get its priorities in check…so to congress i say unclench your fist for once and lend a hand…we already have enough arms to kill every person on the planet 50 times over…maybe its finally time to stop thinking of new ways to kill each other and start figuring out new ways to help each other ..we’re all on this rock together
peace, love and ONE ~ adam
March 10th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
We cant we as one of the greatest nations in the international community help our own as well as others. We are a nation that has always boasted its desire to help others. Why should we stop now? Just because our country is in need, we are not superior to others. As Bono stated, where we live should not determine whether we live or whether we die. Embrace this idea. Remember, in the prehistoric times, there was Pangea- we were all one country. Keep this in mind. While we are separated by water now, we were not before. We are all one in the same.