Israel wants more than total US foreign aid budget, Financial Review, January 8, 2002 "A delegation from Israel, the largest recipient of US foreign aid, has sought $US12 billion ($21 billion) in assistance at a meeting with State Department and White House officials, Israeli officials said. The request, covering the next three to five years, exceeds the total $US11.6 billion budgeted last year by the US for all countries. The request is to help Israel weather the Palestinian uprising and a possible US war with Iraq ... Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said Israel was asking for $US4 billion in direct assistance and $US8 billion in loan guarantees. A US official indicated before the meeting that the US was open to the request. 'We always try to do what we can to help our friend and ally,' the official told reporters. The meeting was intended to focus on "Israel's current economic situation and Israel's expected request for supplemental assistance", he said." Bush Decides Against New Aid Grants for States, Reuters, January 7, 2003 "President Bush has decided against offering grants to cash-strapped states as part of a $674 billion economic stimulus package he is to unveil on Tuesday, the White House said. The White House had been considering providing $10 billion to states to reduce budget woes but White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that Bush had decided against it. 'The goal of the package is to stimulate the economy, not transfer money from one taxpayer-funded source in the government to another taxpayer-funded source in a different government,' Fleischer said."