Sen. Rand Paul’s Push for ‘Conditional’ Foreign Aid Fails

Sought to Demand Recipients 'Act Like Allies'

Sen. Rand Paul’s (R – KY) effort to demand that foreign aid to certain nations be “conditional” on them fulfilling certain conditions has failed in a 10-81 vote this evening in the Senate.

Sen. Paul called the result “inconceivable” and insisted that he is “far from defeated” by the vote, promising to continue to push future resolutions following his premise that “if you want to cash an American check than act like an ally.”

Paul had said it was unacceptable to continue providing aid to Egypt and Pakistan while anti-US protests are taking place in those nations, and also pushed for Pakistan to release Dr. Afridi, who ran a phony vaccination scheme on behalf of the CIA.

Interestingly, Sen. Paul has conceded that he didn’t believe that the recipients of US aid would actually become proper allies, and indeed openly mocked this suggestion during debate on the issue of withholding the aid. Rather, he simply demanded that those recipients keep up the pretense of liking the US for so long as the money keeps being sent.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.