POURING MONEY DOWN A RAT HOLE

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Have you ever thought about how much money this nation spends on foreign aid each year?

I did a little research and discovered that in 2006, the last year for which complete records are available, we gave away over $39,000,000,000.00 That’s right. Over thirty-nine BILLION dollars.

Here’s a list of only a few of the recipients of our generosity. The complete list is much more extensive.

Israel, $2,600,000,000
Egypt, $1,800,000,000
Colombia, $1,350,000,000
Jordan, $562,000,000
Georgia, $426,000,000
Kenya, $390,000,000
Philippines, $338,400,000
Ethiopia, $322,000,000
Ukraine, $280,000,000
Indonesia, $268,400,000
Nicaragua, $247,000,000
Haiti, $243,000,000
Mexico, $238,000,000
Bolivia, $223,600,000
Nigeria, $187,000,000
India, $173,000,000
Congo, $171,000,000
Nepal, $60,000,000
Russia, $53,000,000
West Bank/Gaza, $48,000,000
Uganda, $10,600,000

Note that we give Mexico $238 million annually. That’s in addition to the tens of billions of dollars Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, send home to their families in Mexico. That stream of dollars flowing into Mexico has recently surpassed oil as that nation’s largest source of income. Is it any wonder that Mexico has little interest in stemming the flow of illegal immigrants across its northern border? That nation has become a leech subsisting on the lifeblood of the United States.

And Nepal — $60 million? Nepal has a population of only 28 million and the last time I looked, they were being run by Maoists. Why not let China support them?

And then there’s Haiti with a population of only 9 million. We’re giving them $243 million of our taxpayer dollars. Why?

Added to this is the nearly $250 billion in charity the NonProfit Times estimates the American people give annually, and you have an astounding amount of money pouring out of this country to the rest of the world.

This outpouring of wealth from the American people is simply the result of our desire to help those we deem less fortunate than ourselves. However, the stated purpose of foreign aid is to support our foreign policy goals. If that’s our purpose, the program hasn’t been very successful. What have we received in return for these investments?

Israel is our friend — or was, before Obama threw it to the dogs. The others? The others wouldn’t care if we crash and burn. Seventy-five percent of the recipients of our largess oppose us in the United Nations. Perhaps the Beatles said it best: Can’t buy me love.

Okay. I hear you. You’re saying we have an obligation to help feed the world’s poor. How many of those billions and billions of dollars of foreign aid do you think make it past the greedy, corrupt governments of some of those nations and actually reach the poor? Not very much, I’d wager.

I suggest that Congress should end hand-outs to corrupt regimes and petty dictators, and let charity be handled by those who do it best — the American public.

© 2009 by Libbi Adams. All rights reserved.