Bill Maher gets it mostly right but he is a bit behind on the news
Earlier this week a staunch supporter of Israel, Joe Scarborough, called out Israel for its indiscriminate killing in Gaza. Bill Maher, another staunch supporter of Israel, is ready to let Israel take care of its own military endeavors.
“Not only did Republicans block the immigration law,” Bill Maher said. “They blocked aid for wildfire relief out here in the West because they said it would add to the deficit. And I couldn’t help but noticing that we give Israel $3 Billion a year. And we pay three quarters of the tab for NATO who is supposedly fighting Putin. You know what? Putin is Europe’s problem. Israel can take off the training wheels. We’ve got Guatemalan kids and Ebola on our border. We just can’t afford this shit anymore”
What Bill Maher forgot to mention was that this week Congress voted to send $225 million more to Israel to restock its Iron Dome yet cannot invest in keeping America’s long term unemployed afloat with emergency long term unemployment. It was an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote.
“I always hear from Republicans about the culture of dependency,” Bill Maher said. “We shouldn’t be giving money to poor kids, and widows, and sick children, ladies who are pregnant. You know what? What about Germany. That’s the real culture of dependency. Germany and Israel, Japan and Korea, and all these countries, they don’t need our money. They can handle it themselves.”
Bill Maher should have stated the obvious. These countries are funded not for love of these countries but to keep profits flowing to our military industrial complex. We must tell Americans not just what but why. Until then the American taxpayer will continue to work and pay taxes without reaping the full rewards of the contribution they make to our society. And politicians will continue to use our own money against our own economic and social interest.