Despite its public criticism, the Obama administration has yet to publicly leverage billions in annual U.S. aid to Egypt to increase pressure on President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. President Obama is expected to continue seeking full aid to Egypt when he submits his 2012 budget to Congress next week. According to the Los Angeles Times, Egypt is due to receive a wide variety of U.S. military hardware over the next year, including F-16 fighter jets, naval vessels, air defense missiles and surveillance radar. As the budget request nears, many top lawmakers, including Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), have eased off their calls for cutting aid to the Egyptian government. Here in New York, dozens of people took part in a solidarity action with the Egyptian protesters outside the Egyptian consulate.

Protester: “Egypt was supposed to be a democratic country, but now it’s not because of Hosni Mubarak, who’s been there for 30 years, and he’s not helping anybody at all. He has more money than anybody has right now, and that’s not right. The country is not even worth as much as he is! That’s so bad! Like, are you kidding me? He has to go!”