By Florida Bill It is an understatement to say that the United States is the most magnanimous nation on planet earth. Its great arms and largess extend to 142 countries, touching 76 per cent of the world.
Annually, it writes checks totaling $35 billion in foreign aid and it does all this despite being saddled with a national debt of $19 trillion dollars. That generosity goes out, compliments of America's taxpayers. Eighty six per cent of the money goes to nations in the Middle East and Africa.
It is difficult to get your mind around the enormity of the $35 billion being doled out by the United States. In raw numbers, a billion dollars is 1,000 millions. So the aid which is distributed to other nations, big and small, amounts to thirty-five thousand million dollars each year.
If you consider that there are 306 million Americans living in some 30,000 cities, towns and villages inside 50 states, you might wonder how come some of those billions are not used to improve homegrown infrastructure; to pave roads and to repair tottering bridges as federal projects. Use a few billions to make life a little easier for the poverty-stricken--imagine the jobs that could be created.
With Donald Trump as the President, he should be able to find a measly $15 billion for the wall he talks about, assuming, of course, that the tab for the wall is not picked up by the Mexican government. Any spill over can be applied to the debt.
Lots of Americans are meat and potatoes people who are careful not to let their personal spending go haywire, driving them into a black hole of debt. In view of the country's huge debt, its largess is remarkable--kind of crazy you could say. Yes, let's help those who need it, but does it make sense to allow our own house to get in disarray while printing and handing out money. America's debt increases by $32,000 each second and by two billion dollars each day. Some financial experts tell us that the USA, with its wild spending, is headed for bankruptcy.
Nineteen trillion dollars, the national red paper, makes the $35 billion in foreign aid look like peanuts. A trillion equates to one thousand (1,000) billions; so 19 trillion equates to nineteen thousand (19,000) billions. The amount is staggering, incomprehensible. One fascinating descriptive analogy of the national debt is that if you live to be 80 years old, your heart will beat about 3 billion times; And it would take 602,000 years for 19 trillion heartbeats to tick away.
The debt is what it is. But then, what is foreign aid all about, and where and to whom does the money go? It helps out a lot of needy countries and people and maybe the countries will like us in return. Kind of a quid-quo pro, you might say. The United States has an annual budget of about $4 trillion dollars. Relative to this bottom line, foreign aid constitutes less than one per cent of annual spending-- not enough to make any real difference.
The top recipients of aid in 2014 were five nations in the Middle East: Israel, $3.5 billion; Egypt, $1.5 billion; Iraq, $300 million; Jordan, $300 million; and Pakistan, $280 million. Israel is a cherished friend and America's only genuine ally in the Middle East. Over the years, Israel has received well over $100 billion dollars in aid from America and has developed the military strength to counter any attack. Egypt which has been in and out of favor, has received more than $70 billion dollars between 1948 and the present.
American foreign aid is designed to assist individual countries in two general areas: economic assistance and military assistance. The billions for Israel currently and in the past have been used primarily for military build up and protection against nations like Iran and the Palestinians who refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist and are dedicated to its destruction. For sure, America has its back.
Conservative members of Congress and Libertarians question the extent of America's foreign aid. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has said that "in our hours of need, why send billions of tax dollars to countries which hate us. I support aid to allies when it promotes American interests, like Israel; but I oppose foreign aid for countries that hate us and burn our flag. It is the wrong thing to do."
Phyllis Pomerant, a professor of public policy at Duke University observes that America is generous and there are nations with poor people that need help. Alongside other nations which give aid to other countries, she points out, the United States "has one of the lowest percentages of gross national income donated to foreign aid," indicating that the USA is in a position to do more to help those that need assistance. It is also true, analysts tell us, that only 30 per cent of USA assistance goes to the least developed countries in the world.
Yes, America is--and should be-- generous, no question about that. Yet Sen. Paul has an excellent point--no aid for countries that hate us. Remember the films of jubilation in Pakistan, men, women and children dancing in the streets, after hearing news of he 9-11 attack in New York where 2,500 Americans were killed.
But something needs to be done about the national debt which soared by $10 trillion under President Obama.
America needs to put its own house in order and be sensible in its foreign aid programs, and it should quit doling out money it doesn't have to countries which stomp Old Glory and hate us.
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