The Obama administration is spending $250 to $1,000 a day to house each of the illegal aliens from Central America “surging” across the Mexico border into the United States. That’s what Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Jeh Johnson told the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.
That’s why the Obama administration is requesting from Congress $3.7 BILLION in emergency funds for the border “surge” that began in 2012. The Daily Mail reports that only about 3% of the $3.7 billion would actually be used to strengthen border security, with the bulk of the requested funds going to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to care for the “unaccompanied children,” the majority of whom are males ages 15 to 17, according to the New York Times.
The Obama administration also awarded a $50 million contract to Baptist Child & Family Services (BCFS) to buy the Palm Aire resort and hotel in Weslaco, Texas, and transform it into a 600-bed facility for “juvenile” illegal aliens. Palm Aire’s amenities include an indoor Olympic sized pool, an outdoor pool, Jacuzzis, sauna, steam room, two racquetball courts, outdoor tennis courts, picnic area with grills, a fitness center with 20 machines and free weights, as well as free Wi-Fi and cable TV in all the guest rooms.
Palm Aire Resort & Hotel
Public backlash to the news was swift, which led BCFS to withdraw its bid.
But the Obama administration has seen fit to cut the number of hot meals for U.S. troops in Afghanistan from four to two a day.
Carol Hills reports for PRI, June 21, 2013:
All US combat troops are to be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
And the Pentagon is already making tough decisions about how to manage the drawdown.
That includes reducing the number of cooked meals available to the troops.
Until recently, because of the round-the-clock nature of war, the US military has been offering most troops in Afghanistan four cooked meals a day.
Now that’s in the process of being reduced to just two hot meals a day.
In an email to The World, a Pentagon spokesman said “The change is part of our transition to a more expeditionary posture, and is necessary to ensure US forces and DoD agencies make the best use of the resources available in the time remaining and while meeting retrograde requirements. By adding operational rations to the meal cycle, we will significantly reduce contractor and supply chain requirements.”
In other words, it will save money and reduce the American footprint in Afghanistan by cutting the number of contractors.
The troops won’t go hungry; they’ll still have MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), and packaged food available.
But it’s still a bad idea according to David Brown, an army veteran of Afghanistan, and now an author and journalist who writes under the name D.B. Grady.
An MRE doesn’t measure up to a hot meal after a long mission, says Brown.
He goes on, “being able to sit down across from your comrades over a meal, where everyone to a certain extent has let their hair down, it’s a stress-reliever, and it’s also a way of building solidarity with your brother-in-arms.”
In a recent article in The Atlantic, Brown described how a single army cook was able to transform morale on his base in Afghanistan by creating meals at midnight that people really wanted.
Sure speaks volumes about the priorities of the Obama administration.
~StMA
Consortium of Defense Analysts 