An interesting note about what the future has in store for us.

We all want to know what to hope for and what we will find, both at a personal and at a political and other levels.

My friend Paco sent me the following information:

Amendment to Cut Radio-TV Marti Defeated, Another to Restore Embassy Funds Withdrawn at 2:18 PM Thursday, June 11, 2015

An amendment this morning in the House Appropriations Committee, which sought to cut $5 million in funding for Radio and TV Marti failed by a bipartisan vote of 18-33.

The amendment was offered by U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) during the markup of the FY 2016 State Foreign Operations Appropriations bill.

Another amendment, which sought to restore funding for a potential U.S. Embassy in Cuba -- currently prohibited in the bill -- was withdrawn after sensing it would also be defeated.

That is, we're talking about an amendment that was defeated by a BIPARTISAN vote. It was not the Republicans, but representatives of those things that the U.S. system calls Political Parties.

Radio-TV Marti's 2015 budget has been already approved, so don't think that it will be changed, since the debate at issue is about the 30-million-dollar budget requested for 2016.

Therefore, we will have Radio-TV Marti in 2016, and supported with more funds to boot, taking into account that the 2015 budget amounted to 25 million.

What a good sample of the U.S. foreign policy that we will see in 2016. The additional five million will probably be used for a transmitter in their Embassy in Havana, bound to be in place by 2016, to make sure once and for all that TV Marti can be seen in Cuba.

The Embassy in Havana was also an item on the agenda, but after the decision about Radio-TV Marti they decided to withdraw the request for funding, as they thought it would be denied.

As you can see, playing a guitar is not the same as playing a violin.

Obama has the violin, whereas Congress has the guitar.

June 12, 2015

(A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs4405.html)