Obama Jobs Program: For Afghanistan

September 16, 2011

Tags: contractors, Money Pit
Posted in: Democracy, Iraq

One of every six Americans is legally poor. One on six Americans now lives in poverty. About 46.2 million people are now considered in poverty, 2.6 million more than last year. Some 50 million Americans lack health insurance, and of course no one can find work. Good news: Obama has a job plan, at least for Afghanistan.

It cost nearly $2 billion over the last two years to send hundreds of US civilians to Afghanistan to help with development projects, the economy and training Afghan government officials. Sending just one employee to Afghanistan for one year, excluding infrastructure and security needed to support that person, costs the government between $410,000 and $570,000, according to the joint report by the offices of the State Department inspector general and the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. So woo hoo, some people have jobs!

Click on the image to the right to see a cost breakdown for maintaining one fat, lazy ass contractor in Afghanistan.

And what do those high-paid contractors do in Afghanistan? They spend money helping Afghans do things like rebuild schools and roads, start businesses and access health care. How much money is being spent? No one really knows, but a nice ballpark figure, with enactment of the sixth FY2011 Continuing Resolution through March 18, 2011, (H.J.Res. 48/P.L. 112-6) Congress has approved a total of $1.283 trillion for military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Afghanistan and other counter terror operations; Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), providing enhanced security at military bases; and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).

So don’t worry if you live in Cleveland, or Detroit, or New Orleans, and have no job, no health care and maybe no food. Obama has a plan for you– move to Iraq or Afghanistan, where US money drips from the sky into your hands.

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