Do Americans really want to cut foreign aid?

Posted By Annie Lowrey Friday, February 26, 2010 - 3:54 PM Share

This chart from John Sides at the Monkey Cage made the rounds on the blogosphere yesterday:

Several on the Internet noted the inherent contradiction: Most conservatives want a smaller government, yet they also do not want to cut anything -- save for foreign aid.

Turns out, conservatives aren't the only ones who want to slash U.S. foreign aid -- in part because Americans grossly overestimate how much the United States spends on foreign aid to begin with. As Bruce Bartlett pointed out in a Forbes column earlier this month, "A 2001 poll [shows] that half of all Americans thought foreign aid comprised at least 20 percent of the budget, and the average response was 25 percent."

25 percent! Not quite. Really, foreign aid is less than one percent of the budget. In contrast, military spending is about 20 percent. In 2008, the United States spent $35.9 billion on foreign aid and $607 billion on the military. I could go on.

I regretted that Sides (or whoever got the raw data) did not ask whether respondents wanted to cut the military budget -- though I can imagine the answer. The barely existent red sliver would have fallen between "dealing with crime" and that lower black line. But, I'll note, even Secretary of Defense Gates himself is keen to stop the "creeping militarization" of U.S. foreign policy and bolster State Department and foreign aid funding.

Moreover, I can imagine that if Americans were asked about specific aid priorities -- providing funds to build girls' schools in Afghanistan, or to feed the hungry in Darfur, or build shelter for the homeless  in Haiti -- they would want to cut very few. How these questions get asked matters a lot -- hence, why "aid to the poor" is so much more popular than much-maligned "welfare programs" in the chart above. 

 
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BLUE13326

7:48 PM ET

February 26, 2010

And that's how you got George

And that's how you got George Bush, a conservative who massively expanded government. Most people don't realize how much of federal spending is entitlements.

I suspect, however, there has been some movement in these figures, which are now a couple of years old, as many are realizing that growing spending at previous levels is simply unsustainable. In the years ahead, something's going to have to give.

 

SIRCHIROL

8:16 PM ET

February 26, 2010

What's the problem

The actual amount the US spends on foreign aid is irrelevant to the argument. If Americans do not want to give their hard earned money to foreigners then such aid should stop. Moreover, evidence has mounted over the years that most is squandered by corrupt foreign leaders and even if not, why should the US provide welfare for other countries? The dangerous assumption is that the government should be in the aid business at all? Why is this? Surely donations from individuals who care is the fairest and constitutional way to go.

 

PAPICEK

9:50 PM ET

February 26, 2010

by far the biggest chunk...

of foreign aid i given to Israel and Egypt, so they won't go back to war. And they haven't.

Most foreign aid given by the US is connected, in one way or another, with specific US foreign policy goals, such as peace in the Middle East, or development in Afghanistan (so we can leave something more than a group of warring factions behind when we come home, the sooner the better). Or perhaps fighting the drug trade worldwide (Afghanistan again, not to mention Colombia) Or perhaps fighting HIV/Aids, which has taken an estimated 25 million people worldwide (Sachs, Common Wealth) or other infectious diseases, is another issue the US might want to provide aid for. Certainly, I believe most Americans would feel comfortable spending some of their hard earned dollars on fighting infectious disease. If only to alleviate some degree of risk to Americans. After all, Dengue fever has migrated northward in recent years and has made an appearance in the southwestern US. By all accounts, you don't want to catch Dengue "Break Bone" Fever.

Spending levels are a valid question, and whether the money is spent wisely is a much more interesting question. However one thing US foreign aid almost never is, is welfare.

 

B. ELLI COSE

9:57 PM ET

February 27, 2010

Nice work!

Very nicely put, Ms. Lowrey--and Papicek. I find the quality of blog entries on "Passport" quite uneven, but this is one of the recent high points.

 

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