Forgiving Egypt

On Thursday, President Obama guaranteed $1 billion to help finance infrastructure and job creation. It sounds wonderful, only the problem is that money is not for America.

In his speech on Middle East policy, the president said that not only will the U.S. be sending more money to Egypt, but will also be relieving up to $1 billion of its debt. After months of unrest in Egypt, the offer comes as an attempt to aid the troubled country on its road to becoming a democratic nation.

"We do not want a democratic Egypt to be saddled by the debts of its past," said Obama.

With the United States already shelling out billions of dollars to countries such as Pakistan, this announcement has not settled well with the American public. Fmr. Clinton Advisor, Doug Schoen, joined Varney & Co. to discuss their concerns.

"American people have no tolerance or understanding of why we are sending billions of dollars overseas when people here do not have jobs, or are underemployed, and can't make a go of it," said Schoen.

Although Schoen advocates the supporting of "our friends," he says it is difficult to know exactly who those friends are. When Egypt holds elections this coming September, it is possible that the money could end up with the Muslim Brotherhood, an unsettling idea to American politicians.

"Democrats are befuddled," said Schoen, "They believe we have an obligation to extend an olive branch and a financial one, but they do not know how or quite what to do."

According to Schoen, this decision will likely be a "political loser" for the president. At home it will fail to answer "where is our money going, what is it doing and what is the overall economic policy, domestically and internationally," and "in the absence of a democratic government, in the absence of a plan to restructure their debt and to revitalize their crumbling economy, I think it is too little too late and not likely to be successful," in Egypt.