Ahh, yes. They do think like I do. Good for them. Given previous Bush the Younger initiatives, I predict that Bush will promise the money in exchange for voluntary promises which the Israelis never intend to carry out. It isn't a problem because Bush never intends to actually give them money.
They will get whatever they want from us. I have a question for you guys. What is the tax rate for the average Israeli in Israel? What Percentage of their income goes to their country for taxes? I don't know the answer, but I have heard it is very very very high. Any body know for sure?
Such that the so-called "conservatives" feel good about the numbers, these come from the "2003 INDEX OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM," (lmao) provided by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. Fiscal Burden of Government ScoreIncome and Corporate Taxation: 4.5-Stable (very high tax rates) ScoreGovernment Expenditures: 5-Stable (very high level of government expenditure) Final Score: 5-Stable (very high cost of government) Israel's top income tax rate is 50 percent; the marginal rate for the average taxpayer is 30 percent. The top corporate tax rate is 36 percent. In 2001, based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, government expenditures equaled 54.5 percent of GDP. Of course the same site provides that the marginal rate for the average taxpayer in the U.S. is 27.5 percent. I'm sure this group feels this is too high as well; but relative to the U.S. (and given the relative veracity of these numbers, which do spring from am organization that is agenda-laden and NOT neutral), Israel is not outlandish with the taxes the average taxpayer pays...the question is what do they get for those payments in terms of services (we know that, overall, they DO NOT get a sense of peace as the government will not / cannot establish it)? Numbers from here: http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/
Article - "When the dust clears, however, Bush will have to decide whether to follow his father’s example—or continue writing Sharon a blank check." Seems to me that the 10b loan guarantee by Bush the older was more-or-less a blank check since no payments have yet come due and now, on eve of first payment, Sharon is back hat-in-hand for more loan guarantees. $3 bil a year is already too much.