Obama to unveil broad African electrical power initiative

reply to post by Indigo5

I am defending facts, not the President.

I did not take issue with Reuters...good choice...but your interpretation of the article fell in line with the false claim by Briebart and others that this was 7B in taxpayer dollars being spent.

You're being obtuse. You're talking as if Obama was just the front guy announcing a bunch of private business ready to go taking risks and eat costs if it's required, to bring electricity to the masses of Africa at no cost to Americans. That's simply not accurate here.

The majority of the 7 Billion (Over 5 Billion of it) is coming from the United States Export/Import Bank. Now that is on top of the first source you took issue with being government and with this "bank" being about as private as the US Mint itself, I'd say it's not very debatable that billions of U.S. dollars were committed and tax payers put on the hook by the announcement of this initiative. The mission statement of the US Export/Import Bank pretty well says it all.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is the official export credit agency of the United States. Ex-Im Bank's mission is to assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets.

Ex-Im Bank enables U.S. companies — large and small — to turn export opportunities into real sales that help to maintain and create U.S. jobs and contribute to a stronger national economy.

Ex-Im Bank does not compete with private sector lenders but provides export financing products that fill gaps in trade financing. We assume credit and country risks that the private sector is unable or unwilling to accept. We also help to level the playing field for U.S. exporters by matching the financing that other governments provide to their exporters.

Ex-Im Bank provides working capital guarantees (pre-export financing); export credit insurance; and loan guarantees and direct loans (buyer financing). No transaction is too large or too small. On average, 85% of our transactions directly benefit U.S. small businesses.

With more than 77 years of experience, Ex-Im Bank has supported more than $456 billion of U.S. exports, primarily to developing markets worldwide.

Source: exim.gov

It even sounds like a variation and modern version of what the author of this book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man was using to put the 3rd world in hock to Western nations for years as standard policy. Just the new boss being the same as the old one in this case, it would seem and so much for hope for change.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000

The majority of the 7 Billion (Over 5 Billion of it) .

Hey rabbit, we are running in circles...you are claiming that the 5 Billion is Taxpayer funds? While I and Forbes and other financial industry sources appear to know otherwise? It loans the money to Private US Firms. If we are starting with the assumption that spending=loan with interest I can't help.

This doesn’t mean that Ex-Im is spending or investing those $5 billion, rather the job of the Ex-Im bank is to help finance trading opportunities that private sector lenders are not willing to take a risk on. As Ex-Im describes its mission: “We assume credit and country risks that the private sector is unable or unwilling to accept. We also help to level the playing field for U.S. exporters by matching the financing that other governments provide to their exporters.”

www.forbes.com...

reply to post by Indigo5


It loans the money with U.S. Treasury backing and INSURANCE behind all said loans and interests based on them.

It's a corporate version of USAID on steroids. It's not talking in circles...It's pointing out these are Government agencies, as the article Reuters put together presented. One collects private money and controls it's distribution like a real aid agency and forms the smaller of who Obama committed funds from.

The other "bank", and other Federal agency, gives both the loan with loan guarantee as well as the insurance for monies and efforts.

It's an executive version of the I.M.F. without the oversight of other nations.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


ANd there we agree finally. Loans...not outright money. The Chinese government has spent OUTRIGHT easily over a Trillion dollars in Africa, the USA looks to loan US Busineses 5B and line up work for them in Africa...and everybody starts the BS train...where a loan becomes "spending" taxpayer dollars on Africa vs. Loaning money to US businesses.

It is good policy...and a hell of a good investment both for the USA foriegn policy and US Businesses.

For an overview of what China has been up to there, I HIGHLY recommend this link..see the pics, read the captions below each.

www.time.com...

How silly of Obama to spend $100 million to travel to another country then to let on the appearance of 'giving' to Africa increase his popularity/favorability. Especially to a nation like Africa, where we're funding Al Qaeda rebels in Syria and millions protesting us in Egypt.

We're broke here, FIX AMERICA, stop sending aid to other countries (like 20 F-16 fighter jets to Egyptian Morsi Regime) and promising crap away and then complain about how you need to stop the white house tours because of budget cuts.

Obama is a walking embarrassment, I might even venture out to say that he is worse than Bush, and being at that level is already extremely shady...

Another slap in the face of the American Public. It's so nice being reminded everyday, that our Government doesn't give a rat's %#* about the United States. It make paying taxes so enjoyable, knowing that none of that money is being used for the well being of my own Country.

Our own infrastructure isn't adequate. Brown outs and black outs in the cities in the summer .... bridges falling in .... highways in disrepair .... but he uses our tax money to make the infrastructure in Africa just fine and dandy?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000




Just wait till he gets back. Our infrastructure might be as bad as Africa's.

“If Thomas Edison were to come back today, he’d feel right at home with America’s electrical system because not much has changed in the past century…” Langford lamented, “…on the East Coast where the electrical infrastructure was torn apart by Hurricane Sandy, they’re replacing the old system with exactly the same thing…meanwhile China is putting up power lines with only a 7 percent loss over 1200 miles. Anybody know what our system’s loss is over 1200 miles? Eighty percent.” As utilities prepare to build new power plants, how much money could consumers save in the long run if greater efficiency in our infrastructure reduced the number of power plants we use to merely make up for transmission loss?

Failing Infrastructure Could Cost U.S. Businesses $1.2 Trillion by 2020

Why isn't OUR infrastructure being taken care of first?

Well it's a wonderful gesture of goodwill, but it comes at a cost of slitting our own throats. Obama wants the poor to pay for the poor. So we give a bunch of African villages and towns electricity, how is that going to help us? We need our own economy to be boosted up before we can offer help to the world. Seriously why has the US not built a fast monorail system yet? So many other countries have them and here we are with garbage. Our internet speeds are inferior and ranked at 28th in place with the rest of the world.