Obama squandering big money globally before leaving office

With just over 60 days left in office, outgoing President Barack Obama is taking his spending spree around the globe, trying to leave his mark by using hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to fund “green” and education projects in Mexico, Asia, Central America and the Middle East.

“As the final months of the outgoing administration wind down, President Obama will attempt to add achievements to his legacy, such as the ‘greening’ of Mexico City’s new multi-billion-dollar airport and the modernization of Mexican border crossings – that is, the ones leading into but not out of Mexico,” WND reports. “Designing dozens of schools and athletic fields in an Arab kingdom, assessing the deployment of ‘smart’ street lamps in Central America, and devising a financing system to address climate change in Asian cities are projects likewise on the agenda as Obama’s second term draws to a close.”

Tweaking Mexico’s airport

One spending endeavor involves an independent entity of the White House, which is slated to help fund the new $11-billion Mexico City International Airport project (NAICM) to bolster Obama’s global green agenda.

“The U.S. Trade & Development Agency, or USTDA, recently agreed to award a nearly $1 million grant to Group Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México specifically to develop an environmental sustainability management plan for the endeavor, according to a planning document located through routine database research,” WND’s Steve Peacock informed. “The goal of this technical assistance is to ensure that NAICM becomes the first airport worldwide to receive LEED Platinum certification – the ultimate ‘green’ rating.”

The project solicitation claims that the endeavor will make the airport an inspiration for environmentalists around the world.

“[The Mexico airport entity aims to make the NAICM] one of the few airports in the world to be carbon neutral [so that it produces] net-zero carbon dioxide emissions],” those promoting the project boast.

Instead of using U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund America’s badly deteriorating infrastructure, the money will go to forward Obama’s green agenda south of the border.

“The USTDA funds will enable Group Aeroportuario to hire a firm that will devise a detailed plan to use renewable energy resources, promote public transportation and develop programs to protect the environment, ‘including water resources, wildlife and vegetation,’ the USTDA document says,” reports Peacock. “Though the Mexican authority technically is the recipient of the $924,810 USTDA grant, it is required to hire a U.S. company to carry out the technical assistance project.”

Mexico border funding … for the other side

Besides paying for Mexico’s airport to go green, the Obama administration is seeing to it that the U.S. Department of State is separately funding an operation to modernize border-crossing facilities on the Mexican side of the border. The money at the northern fringe of Mexico will help with the construction of housing for more “non-intrusive inspection equipment” (NIIE).

“The government of Mexico has a need to expand its [NIIE] capabilities at its customs ports of entry/exit to secure Mexico’s borders by targeting narcotics, illegal weapons, chemical precursors, bulk cash, illegal aliens, contraband and prevent terrorist breaches,” a recently updated contracting Work Statement produced by U.S. Department of State reads.

The amount being apportioned to the border project is just a fraction of what Obama has given to the Mexican government since the year he was first elected into office.

“While State said the estimated cost of the NIIE contract should not exceed $5 million, it should be noted that the endeavor is connected with the Merida Initiative, a massive U.S.-funded Mexican security assistance program for which Congress has appropriated $2.5 billion since 2008,” Peacock explained. “The new NIIE systems – to be located in the cities of Tijuana, Mexicali, and Zaragoza – are merely the latest addition to more than ‘766 NIIE successfully operating on a daily basis on its border crossing, sea ports, airports, rail roads and highways, covering about 80 percent of all official borders and points of entry in Mexico.’ These projects are among the most recently unveiled, but they represent a fraction of annual U.S. assistance to Mexico, for which $137.4 million is planned for fiscal year 2017.”

According to WND, Obama has made it a mission for years to sink money into Mexican endeavors – instead of investing in American businesses.

“[S]uch aid programs [have taken place] throughout both terms of the Obama administration, as well as on U.S. taxpayer-funded guidebooks – and even public forums giving tips to Mexican businesses on how to more effectively tap into the U.S. Treasury,” WND stated. “USTDA in 2013, for example, funneled $100,000 toward the creation of a guide that simultaneously taught the Mexican government how to access U.S. grants while also directing U.S. industry to related contracts aimed at modernizing Mexico. The administration one year later unveiled its “Resource Guide for U.S. Industry on Priority Infrastructure Projects” at the three-day U.S.-funded ConnectMEX forum in Mexico City.”

More spending sprees abroad …

According to WND’s report, the following contracting actions funded through the Obama administrations’ foreign assistance initiatives only reveal the tip of the iceberg of its recently uncovered international endeavors that utilize American tax dollars.

“USAID plans to award up to $90 million in contracts to develop a financing system to address climate change in various Asian cities,” Peacock divulged. “The project will focus on secondary rather than major cities across the continent. The endeavor seeks to increase the capacity of such cities in the region ‘to mitigate, adapt to and recover from’ climate-related events, ‘and to transform themselves even with uncertainty and escalating climate risks,’ USAID says in a document known as a pre-solicitation notice.”

Instead of investing in America’s failed schools, the Obama administration is investing millions in Islamic schools and athletic complexes in the Middle East.

“In the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, USAID is arranging the provision of ‘overall construction management services’ to build 25 new schools, perform about 100 school expansions, and to build 300 kindergarten classrooms, as well as 50 sports and activity facilities,” Peacock pointed out. “The $2.5 million engineering contract is separate from other U.S.-funded Jordanian school construction initiatives. Previous USAID‐funded school construction projects led to the construction of 28 new schools and the expansion of 97 other educational facilities. The Obama administration, in recent years, spent many tens of millions on Jordanian schools, in addition to building training facilities to boost the kingdom’s tourism sector.”

In Central America, the Obama administration is slated to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars so that environmentalist-pleasing, energy-saving lighting can don Costa Rican streets.

“USTDA approved a $405,000 grant so that a Costa Rican power utility can decide whether to deploy a ‘smart’ street lamp system on urban highways and roads in the greater San José Metropolitan Area,” WND disclosed. “Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz will use the grant to pay a U.S. firm to conduct a feasibility study of the plan, which involves the replacement of ‘nearly 100,000 high-pressure sodium, mercury vapor and metal halide roadway luminaires with energy-efficient LED luminaires.’”

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