The ongoing “reconstruction” of Afghanistan has cost taxpayers $117.26 billion thus far. Referring to the billions of dollars taxpayers are spending in Afghanistan as funds for “reconstruction” is disingenuous because what federal bureaucrats and their preferred “contractors” are doing is building an Afghanistan that did not exist prior to 2001. Your politicians continue to fund nation-building in Afghanistan while ignoring America and the American people.
The corporate chattel on Capitol Hill refuses to fund a border wall opting instead to spend working Americans’ hard-earned money on nation-building. Afghanistan is under construction, and every project is fraught with fraud, waste, abuse, incompetence, and indifference. The following is some highlights of a couple of the ill-fated, wasteful projects that have enriched corporations and non-profits to the detriment of taxpayers?
- A $43 million natural gas filling station. According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) audit report, the filling station was an “ill-conceived project that proved to be a total waste of tax dollars.” There wasn’t a natural gas filling station in Afghanistan until federal government bureaucrats paid to build one. The average cost to build a natural gas filling station is $200,000 to $500,000. However, the “experts” and fiscally responsible bureaucrats built a station for $43 million.
- An ongoing $62 million project awarded by the progressive United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to a nonprofit called Roots of Peace (RP) “for implementation of the Commercial Horticulture and Agriculture Marketing Program. Roots of Peace “works with private sector and international agencies to revitalize a country’s agricultural sector.” The nameless, faceless bureaucrats redistributed your wealth to teach Afghanis how to grow flowers and vegetables.
When you visit SIGAR’s website, you find hundreds of reports that detail the obscene amount of money that has been wasted on failed projects that have plunged America deeper into debt.
In 2016, Trump voters sent a message to members of Congress and the federal government that they want America’s borders secured. Every Trump campaign rally featured a few chants of “build the wall” by his supporters, and he responded by promising to build a wall, but Congress refuses to fund the wall. Thus far, Congress has wasted $117.26 billion to make Afghanistan but is unwilling to spend a penny to secure America’s southern border.
