Fact check me please

[mrgorth]

I'm going to be writing a LTTE and I want to make sure I have some facts straight:

Number of uninsured in the US: 50 million
Cost of Iraq so far: $500 billion
Military aid to Saudi Arabia: $20 million
Military aid to Israel: $30 million

Am I right on these things? Thanks.

[Sherman A1]

1. I would check

globalsecurity.org for the information on defense #'s. I thought the uninsured was in the 43 million range, but you can always couch the data in 40 million + uninsured and you would be on target and still get your point across. My LTTE experience is to keep 'em short as possible. I shoot for 100 words or less and I have a pretty good track record of getting them published both locally and some nationally.


:-)

[Igel]

2. Dunno about the Sa'udi bit.

I've looked at articles that say it's 'aid' and articles that say it's 'sales'. There's a rather large difference between the two. Large media sources tend to use 'sale'; pundits and lesser or more derivative sources go with 'aid'.

The 'aid' to Egypt is almost certainly just that, aid. Some 'aid' to Israel in the past has been cash, some has been arms, and some has been 'approved sales', but you have to look at all the fine print and full audits to see what, exactly, the US pays for and what Israel pays for.