Foreign aid has been criticized for a long time but the criticism doesn't seem to have an effect on the government's love of spreading the wealth to every possible recipient. We have spent over a trillion dollars in aid to foreign governments since WWII. What have we achieved with all of that money? It appears that very little is measurable. There are three things that can be said of foreign aid that are without doubt.
Much of the aid goes to repressive and/or corrupt governments.
Aid has had little discernible impact on poverty in third world nations.
Much of the aid has restrictions that force the recipient to spend the money buying weapons systems from US companies.
So, most of the money is wasted and some of it is thinly disguised corporate welfare. You don't have to look long at the details of US foreign aid before you begin to wonder what the bureaucrats are thinking when they write these checks.
Not convinced? What would you say about the fact that we gave $68 million to China last year? We would have given more but for restrictions in place since the Tiananmen Square executions. This means that the United States gives aid money to China, after we finance this charity by taking a loan from China, then we pay interest to China on the charity we gave... to China. At some point the word dumb just doesn't do this behavior justice. At some point you just have to call it what it is - mental incompetence.
Ending foreign aid will save us about $36 billion per year.
