The Augusta Courier

Kennedy Wants Power To Control Aid To Foreign Countries

Senator Talmadge,
Congressman Davis Disapprove Plan Of The President

President Kennedy has asked Congress to revamp, renew and increase the foreign aid program and to make the President dictator over the program for a period of five years.

He isn't satisfied with the amount of money we are now spending or with having to ask Congress for an appropriation every year.

He is asking Congress to authorize the five-year plan and allow the Treasurer to borrow most of the money to finance the program over these five years.

Eisenhower's Recommendation

He hasn't yet said how much it is going to cost and no one knows how much it will cost.

President Eisenhower recommended to the Congress that they appropriate four billion dollars for next year but Kennedy seems to want to go far beyond that amount.

He proposes that some of it will be in long-term loans and some in direct gifts. But there is a trick tied to the loans. The loans will be for fifty years at very low, or no, interest rates.

50 Years, No Repayments

Fifty years from now, no country would be interested in repaying a loan.

His plan has been attacked by both Senator Herman Talmadge and Congressman James Davis.

Talmadge has denounced the program as "a global WPA project."

He also added:

"Since the days of the Marshall Plan our foreign aid program has degenerated into a global WPA project."

The Gold Supply

Congressmen James C. Davis denounced the program as being a scheme to perpetuate the so-called foreign aid program.

Talmadge declares that the only way to keep our gold supply and to establish a balance of payments between countries is to put into effect a cut-back in foreign aid.

"Our dollar deficit each year is nearly exactly equal to our foreign aid spending," Talmadge says.

Georgia's junior senator said that since World War II, the United States has made contributions to 104 countries.

We've given two billion dollars to Communist Yugoslavia and another billion to Communist Poland," Mr. Talmadge said.

But I think the most ridiculous project the Senate has ever approved was the one to restore the ancient historical monuments in the Nile River Valley in Africa - in the Sudan and in Nasser's Egypt.

Nasser and The Reds

"Nasser works hand and glove with the Communists and has declared time after time his hostility to the United States."

Rep. Davis noted that President Kennedy recently told Congress:

"Existing foreign aid programs are largely unsatisfactory and unsuitable for the needs of the underdeveloped world.

. . It is a fact that many of the nations we are helping are not much nearer sustained economic growth than they were when our aid operation began.

Backward Nations

The Congressman said President Kennedy was saying something he has known for some time.

Mr. Davis then added:

"The administration unfortunately wants to compound this admittedly ineffectual and unsatisfactory giveaway program by launching what the President refers to as a 'decade of development' for all the backward nations of the world . . . with the American taxpayer footing the bill as usual.

"President Kennedy requested Congress to appropriate four billion additional dollars to finance merely the first year of this projected five-year program.

Wants To Borrow

"He also asked authority to borrow from the Treasury up to $1.6 billion for each of the succeeding four years.

These loans in turn would be handed out to underdeveloped countries at low rates of interest."

Congressman Davis said foreign aid has not worked in finding reliable allies for America. He noted that Laos may shortly go Communist, Morocco is decreeing that the United States must give up three air bases, Saudi Arabia is kicking the American Air Force out, and Cuba has become a Red satellite.