It’s been labeled as one of the most wasteful government programs ever. But it’s finally coming to an end.
After seven years, and 36 million taxpayer dollars, the U.S. is finally putting the kibosh on the AeroMarti program – the initiative designed to transmit pro-democracy programs to the people of Cuba.
As reported in The Cable. . .
The United States officially ended one of the most ineffective and widely criticized programs of the last decade aimed at undermining the Cuban government, the State Department revealed Monday.
Foggy Bottom’s inspector general released a report showing that AeroMarti, a multimillion-dollar boondoggle that involved flying an airplane around Cuba and beaming American-sponsored content to the island’s inhabitants, quietly ended in April. Since launching in 2006, the program was plagued by a simple problem: Every day the plane flew, Havana jammed its broadcast signal, meaning fewer than 1 percent of Cubans could listen to its TV and radio shows.
The federal agency that runs the program, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, repeatedly asked Congress to ground the plane because of its exorbitant expense and dubious effectiveness. But for years, hard-line members of Congress opposed to Fidel Castro rejected the agency’s recommendations and renewed funding for the “public diplomacy” effort.
According to the inspector general’s report, the troubled program was finally spiked when money for it was quietly left out of fiscal year 2014 appropriations. Unfortunately for taxpayers, AeroMarti’s final cost exceeded previous estimates, racking up a $35.6 million tab over its seven-year life.
The bottom line is that if the U.S. government truly wants independence for the people of Cuba, lawmakers would be wise to stop wasting our tax dollars on all this nonsense and finally end this ridiculous embargo.
As Ron Paul said, back in 2012:
We talked to the Soviets. We talk to the Chinese. And we opened up trade, and we’re not killing each other now. We fought with the Vietnamese for a long time.
We finally gave up, started talking to them, now we trade with them. I don’t know why the Cuban people should be so intimidating.
I think we’re living in the dark ages when we can’t even talk to the Cuban people. I think it’s not 1962 anymore. And we don’t have to use force and intimidation and overthrow governments.
Amen!
