In an extremely rare occurrence, the U.S. government will not try to squander every single nickel given to it by its taxpayers. As Sputnik News reports, Washington has pulled the funding on a deal that (through the foreign military financing fund) would subsidize roughly $429 million of a $699 million deal to send up to eight F-16s to Pakistan.
Congress, in what appears to be the first time it has ever critically analyzed subsidies, has concerns that Pakistan is going to take the F-16s and not do much in return for footing the majority of the bill (i.e. fighting terrorism).
“They take our money, take our arms and laugh in our face. Pakistan is at best a frenemy, part friend and a lot enemy.” Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) was quoted as saying.
In addition to the skepticism about how much Pakistan would do to help fight the “war on terror”, congress also kept in mind Washington’s relationship with India. Given the fact that a deal was just finalized in which India would help the U.S. patrol the Indian Ocean for Chinese submarines, congress didn’t want to immediately subsidize F-16s for Pakistan that could potentially be used against India.
“Given congressional objections, we have told the Pakistanis that they should put forward national funds for that purpose.” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Pakistan’s response was predictable in that it said other sources of financing would be sought, and if unable to find any funds, it would just look to buy the planes elsewhere.
Pakistani Prime Minister has this to say about having the funding rug pulled out from underneath the deal: “[There is a] lack of sufficient appreciation for Pakistan’s whole-hearted efforts it was undertaking jointly with the U.S. administration, in countering the threat posed by terrorism.”
While we’re skeptical that this deal won’t be put back on the table before the ink is even dry on this article, we are glad to see that for now, further cuts won’t need to be made to social security benefits in order to fund military subsidies.
via http://ift.tt/26TvfPQ Tyler Durden