House Attempts to Stop American Dollars From Funding the Taliban

AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon


Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) introduced the No Tax Dollars for the Taliban Act last year. The bill is expected to pass today in the House. 

The No Tax Dollars for the Taliban Act would force the State Department to report on which countries send aid to the Taliban that also get U.S. assistance. 

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Thanks to President Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban were ready to take over the country as soon as the last military plane left the Kabul airport. The Biden administration left a power vacuum in place and the Taliban filled that vacuum in 2021.

The bill forces the secretary of state to weigh if the countries getting American dollars should keep getting that aid. The bill also forces the State Department to develop a strategy to stop sending aid to the Taliban.

Burchett is the vice chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's subcommittee on the Middle East. He accused the State Department of being deliberately vague on how many federal dollars have gone to the Taliban. 

What? The Biden administration isn't transparent? I'm shocked. I'm old enough to remember when Biden pledged that his administration would be the most transparent ever. If his lips are moving, he's lying. 

"It's just obscene that any money would get to the Taliban," Burchett told Fox News Digital in an interview on Tuesday. "We are $35 trillion in debt and do not need to be funding our enemies one bit."

He argued that foreign cash being funneled to the Taliban is, in effect, wasting U.S. taxpayer dollars.

He's right about a waste of taxpayer dollars. American debt continues to grow. Why are we sending money to terrorists? Is it incompetence? An oversight?

"If this was an oversight of them, funding our enemies, that just tells you they have zero management and zero quality control at all, they don't know what's going on," Burchett said. "They obviously – somebody knows what's going on, and those people need to be out."

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The Taliban must be laughing at us. By us, I mean the Biden administration. This administration is feckless on the world stage. No world leader is intimidated by the United States as long as Biden is in office. 

The Taliban sent a suicide bomber to kill thirteen U.S. military members and dozens of Afghans at the Kabul airport as the last plane left. It was a tragic terror attack. Why are we sending money to the Taliban?

"It is unacceptable for any U.S. funding to benefit the Taliban. The Biden administration must take immediate action to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from going to the Taliban," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said at the time.

The bill will be voted on under suspension of the rules. That means the bill is generally referred to as noncontroversial legislation. It is expected to get bipartisan support. Let's hope there are still at least a few Democrats left who don't support terrorists to the demise of innocent people. 

Tens of millions of U.S. dollars in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan may have ended up in the hands of the Taliban. There is every reason to believe that is so. The Taliban rules with an iron fist.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee held a hearing last week. His opening remarks included a list of several State Department expenditures he found egregious or lacking proper oversight. Or both.

After admonishing the State Department over a $500,000 grant he characterized as going to "promote atheism in Nepal," Mast took aim at what reportedly happened to the billions the U.S. sent to help Afghan civilians after their country was upturned.

"Another example is that the Biden administration has sent more than $2.8 billion to Afghanistan since the Taliban took power in August of 2021. The report shows tens of millions of dollars of that money going directly into the hands of the Taliban," Mast said, calling the examples the "tip of the iceberg" in incompetent federal appropriations.

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Rep. McCaul said the administration must take immediate action. 

"The Biden administration must take immediate action to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from going to the Taliban," McCaul said in a statement praising the latest work of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

Enough is enough.


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Ed Morrissey 11:20 AM | June 28, 2024
David Strom 10:40 AM | June 28, 2024
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