An agreement on the debt ceiling debate may be reached today, but then the real work begins. Entitlement spending has become a generic term used for a broad host of non-essential funding programs. Government entitlements may be most readily identified as the Medicaid, food stamp and welfare programs, but also encompass an alarming number of grants to foreign countries and frivolous programs across America. Taxpayer funded grants do support worthy projects in America, liberal lawmakers have also tossed common sense out the door when funding ludicrous project with money generated by hard-working taxpayers.
Grants to Foreign NationsAmerican taxpayers have funded 516 grants to foreign nations totaling $211,465,105 over the past two years. The funds grants were awarded through the National Institute of Health, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Joint Clinical Research Center in Uganda, an agency within the Uganda Ministry of Defense was awarded $54,000 for the "Strengthening the Research Training and Administrative Capacity" relating to conducting "quality" medical research and training.
Hebrew University of Jerusalem garnered$191, 582 to study the "Longitudinal Extension of SHARE- Israel Baseline Data."
The World Health Organization was awarded a $1,138,755 grant to word toward improving the measurement of health and disability trends. The study included household surveys in multiple countries to determine health risk factors for senior citizens.
China, the primary holder of our nation's debt has benefited from American tax dollars for multiple grants, including one focusing on drug abuse by Chinese prostitutes. The Peking University was given $1,270,088 for the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.
The University of Zurich was awarded $247,600 of taxpayer funds for a poverty, stress and discounting study to develop a potential micro-mechanism for behavioral change.
Monash University used a $214,598 grant comprised of taxpayer money for a research project relating to the building an Asian NCOD research network to serve as a regional research capacity resource.
Should politicians be handing taxpayer funds to other nations at a time when the United States is struggling to maintain a AAA credit rating, pay necessary bills and battling both a real estate and job crisis? A cancer research center in British Columbia is a worthy project, but not one the American taxpayer should be footing the bill to support.
Tara Dodrill is a political, eco-green and travel writer. She is a real estate agent and former elected official, public school employee and coach from Ohio who has worked as a newspaper journalist, editor and photographer for magazines and online media outlets. Follow Tara on Twitter.
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