Not being content with the give away he is pushing for the millions of illegal aliens in this country, President Bush on Monday addressed the Hispanic Chamber and agreed to give away billions more while people in America can't even afford their own health care. Last year the President increased foreign aid to Latin America and the Caribbean from $860 million to $1.6 billion.

White House

Please be seated -- siéntese. Buenas tardes. Gracias por la bienevenida. For those of you not from Texas, that means, good afternoon. (Laughter.) And thank you for the welcome. I'm honored to be back again with the men and women of the Hispanic Chamber. I appreciate your hospitality.

This speaks for itself.

I thank you for the role of the Chamber. I appreciate so very much the work you do with our banks to help move capital.

The chamber is an active supporter of illegal immigration and businesses that hire them. They have also actively stood behind companies that allow the transfer of money (remittances) to foreign countries from illegal aliens here in America through companies like Western Union and Bank of America which recently announced it would be allowing illegal aliens to apply for credit cards.

Today the most important ties between North and South America are not government to government, they are people to people. And those ties are growing. These ties are growing because of our churches and faith-based institutions, which understand that the call to love our neighbors as ourselves does not stop at our borders

I have nothing against religion, but nothing speaks more than his reference to religion and people not stopping at our border. Recently Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles once again called for amnesty for all illegal aliens. He has been a fierce proponent and outspoken member of the Catholic church that continues to confuse its separation of church and state. All they see is the potential of more parishioners that they can siphon money off of, even at the detriment of this country as a whole. Faith based initiatives are good in my opinion, but not if they are a direct threat to the sovereignty of this country.

These ties are growing because of the estimated $45 billion that workers in the United States send back to their families in Latin America and the Caribbean each year, one of the largest private economic initiatives in the world.

Yet on top of this we are sending even more directly from our tax coffers in the form of foreign aid.

Nearly one out of four people in Latin America lives on less than $2 a day. Many children never finish grade school; many mothers never see a doctor. In an age of growing prosperity and abundance, this is a scandal -- and it's a challenge. The fact is that tens of millions of our brothers and sisters to the south have seen little improvement in their daily lives.

They live on $2 a day, but the cost of living there is cheaper. One of the main reasons that the money isn't getting to the poor is because of the corruption in their countries, it's really not a matter of the amount of money we've been sending them needing to be increased. As far as many mothers not seeing a doctor, there are millions here who don't see a doctor either. While I admire his compassion for peoples of other countries, his duty as President of the United States is to take care of American Citizens first.

The United States is working for an Americas where every child has access to a decent school. It is a big goal, but it is a necessary goal, as far as we're concerned.

...

Over the past three years, we've provided more than $150 million -- three years time -- spent $150 million for education programs throughout the region, with a special focus on rural and indigenous areas. Today I announce a new partnership for Latin American youth that's going to build on these efforts. This partnership will devote an additional $75 million over the next years -- three years

Our education system is in a shambles with a large amount of children dropping out of school and our nation falling behind in international standings for math and science. Millions go without health care in this country. I truly fear for this nation in the future if as the boomer retire they are replaced by incompetent individuals.

In many of the same areas where families have no schools, they have no access to medical care. Since I took office, we spent nearly $1 billion on health care programs in the region, all aimed at sending a message to the people of Latin America: We care for you. Los corazones de las personas aqui in America son grandes.

Once again I point to the millions in this country with no insurance and no health care.

Through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, we've provided more than $100 million that is being used to help underwrite mortgages to working families in Mexico and Brazil and Chile and the countries of Central America. Now we're going to provide another $385 million to expand these programs and help put the dream of home ownership within the reach of thousands of more people in our neighborhood.

How about we let the governments of those countries provide their own low income housing mortgage insurance and put this money into programs to help American Citizens buy their own homes?

... many nations in this region piled up debt that they simply cannot repay. ... we worked with the Group of 8 industrialized nations to reduce the debt of Latin America and Caribbean nations by $4.8 billion. Members of the Inter-American Development Bank are close to an agreement on another debt relief initiative .... This agreement will cancel $3.4 billion owed by some of the poorest countries in our hemisphere -- Bolivia and Guyana and Haiti and Honduras and Nicaragua. That works out to about $110 for every man, woman and child in these countries, monies that their government should use to invest in the education and health of their citizens.

Monies they should use on education and health care. Look, I have no problem with eliminating the debt owed by these countries if they are truly reforming, but eliminating the debt with no stipulations other than "they should" use it on education and health care is ridiculous with the amount of corruption in these countries. If you are going to make those stipulations, make it 100% certain or they don't receive debt relief and foreign aid in the future. As long as we just continue to dump foreign aid into these countries with no repercussions if they don't reform, they simply will continue on the same path.

... over the past five years, the United States has devoted more than $250 million to help the entrepreneurial spirit flourish in our region. This money includes micro credit loans for people starting small businesses.

Not a bad idea as long as the default rate of these loans isn't extremely high, but if this money isn't being repaid and is being wasted then it needs to end. With the amount of remittances sent back last year, foreign aid given to these countries and the continued influx of illegal aliens into the United States I don't see how it is being that helpful overall.

I'm not a hateful person and I believe in helping other countries, but I also believe in helping ourselves first since it is our money, not some politicians. These monies should be spent on helping our poor succeed so that there is even more money in the future from their success and efforts. Money that can be used for their future when they are old. Overall I see this as Bush once again showing that his allegiance is to countries other than United States before it is to the citizens of this great country..

Other Commentary:

Dustin Inman Society where D.A. King gives his take on the Presidents give away.