According to a letter to the edttor in last week’s issue of The Times, “Barack Obama immediately cut funding for (Egyptian) democracy promotion .... and eliminated money given directly to civil society groups altogether.”

However, according to an October 2009 inspector general audit, “The Government of Egypt has resisted USAID/Egypt’s democracy and governance program and has suspended the activities of many US NGOs (non-governmental organizations) because Egyptian officials thought these organizations were too aggressive.”

“Per the Egyptian government’s complaints, the U.S. now limits it’s funding to NGOs registered with the (Egyptian) government, therefore excluding most human rights groups,” according the Huffington Post.

Most times there are two sides to a story.

I did not mean to pick on aid to Egypt specifically in my 3-2-11 letter. Aid to Egypt is just one piece of the foreign aid pie. My point was that I think it is ironic that the Republican tea partiers continually pick on entitlements which help people in our own country, calling them socialistic, communistic, etc., but don’t seem to mind the aid that goes to foreign countries.

Penny Fattig, Gothenburg