We ARE stingy.

[LynnTheDem]

NYT says in a poll, Americans think USA spends 24% of our budget on aid to poor countries.

We actually spend less than one quarter of 1%.

Excerpt:

Bush administration officials help create that perception gap. Fuming at the charge of stinginess, Mr. Powell pointed to disaster relief and said the United States "has given more aid in the last four years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world." But for development aid, America gave $16.2 billion in 2003; the European Union gave $37.1 billion. In 2002, those numbers were $13.2 billion for America, and $29.9 billion for Europe.

Making things worse, we often pledge more money than we actually deliver. Victims of the earthquake in Bam, Iran, a year ago are still living in tents because aid, including ours, has not materialized in the amounts pledged. And back in 2002, Mr. Bush announced his Millennium Challenge account to give African countries development assistance of up to $5 billion a year, but the account has yet to disperse a single dollar.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/opinion/30thu2.html?oref=login&oref=login

Have we always been this stingy, or is this another bush New World Order thing?

[elehhhhna]

1. We are BROKE.

[Mutley]

3. exactly n/t

[PA Democrat]

21. Yes, broke, but not due to our generosity

Maintaining our empire of 700 plus military bases in foreign countries is expensive. Not to mention the cost of Dubya's adventure in Iraq.

[Chicago Democrat]

26. Broke my ass! The government is simply temporarily underfunded

because of outragious tax cuts for the rich. To be reverse after 2006.

[merbex]

2. What is striking is how much right-wingers hate facing reality and facts

Just listening to c-span in the mornings shows how defensive they are about this disaster's woefully inadequate response from this administration

[1monster]

4. Our government is stingy. Not the American people as a whole.

Various agencies (private charities) have reported, each, one to three million dollars, raised in three days after the tsunami hit, for relief of the victims. This is from the people of the United States as opposed to the government of the United States.

Plus, if I am any example, most of my charitable giving NEVER makes it on to my income tax return. On the rare occasion that it does, the donation was made in check form to an organized charity.

My charitable works tend to be private acts, such as buying a meal for a homeless person, providing clothing and other necessities to those that I know are in need, and other such under the radar acts and always remembering that there but for the grace of God go I...

[elehhhhna]

8. You nailed it. Thx.

[OnlyInAmerica]

5. It would be interesting to see

How much developmental aid was given to us, not loaned, after the Revolutionary War or the Civil War. In addition, Iran has nobody to blame but themselves. Israel offered aid following the earthquake there and they refused it because it came from "Little Satan". What is the other "aid, including ours, that has not yet materialized in the amounts pledged"? Which other countries have not provided the aid they pledged?

[LynnTheDem]

6. It may be interesting to know what other countries didn't give,

but we're talking about OUR country.

Seems the past few years America is always using "well so & so did/didn't do it either" as an excuse for what we did or didn't do.

[OnlyInAmerica]

16. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say

Western countries are stingy, rather than just the US. Apparently the US isn't alone in pledging more aid than is given.

[LynnTheDem]

24. "more accurate"???

HELLO dear. I'm not talking about OTHER countries. I'm talking about AMERICA.

Just because OTHER countries may be stingy or not is IRRELEVANT when one is talking about one specific country.

Stop trying to excuse the USA by using that child's mantra of "well THEY did it too!".

[elehhhhna]

10. Please. War is not a natural disaster. Bad analogy.

BTW, the Revolutionary War WAS a Civil war if you were British. It's all in the semanics.

[OnlyInAmerica]

14. Not a bad analogy

Look at Sudan. It is a war-torn country and we are giving them aid. Not enough, according to many posts I've seen here. Their woes were not caused by natural disaster, but by war.

[jswordy]

12. Uh, on the Revolutionary War and Civil War...

...FRANCE was our biggest backer and benefactor in the RW! That country gave us a lot, in supplies and money, that we never repaid.

No talk of FREEDOM FRIES back then.

Second in the RW was SPAIN! They backed us with money and ships cuz they did not want the English to control any more of the continent than they already did.

Both England and France backed our new currency post RW, and that is what got our nation on a footing to go forward.

In the Civil War, the South was backed by France. The North received backing from England.

Uh, it's a myth that we just pulled it all off by ourselves.

[OnlyInAmerica]

13. I'm aware of this

But to think it was an altruistic move by the French or Spanish is a farce. The French and Spanish backed us to fight a proxy war against their enemy, England.

[elehhhhna]

15. Didn't Russia help blockade our ports from the Brits in the RevWar?

[hughee99]

22. For some reason, I had always thought that

England and France, while technically remaining neutral, backed the Confederacy. Both England and France were economic competitors with the North, and received raw materials from the south. Both produced blockade runners for the south, and France even used the opportunity to invade Mexico and setup a puppet government. Where can I find information about the support that England provided to the North? This information is new to me, and about I topic I am very much interested in.

Louix XVI's "altruism" during the revolutionary war was more about reducing English power than helping us, although the help he provided did greatly help the Colonists against the British. No, the money he provided did not get repaid, but neither did the support the US supplied France during the World Wars get repaid. If I'm not mistaken, the only country that has repaid the US in full for the WWII support provided was Finland.

[GreenArrow]

7. Stingy. Selfish. Spoiled. Self centered. Ignorant.

Apathetic. Lazy. Dishonest. Mean. Vindictive. Venal. Shallow.

Bush is the surface pustule of the American soul, 2004.

[Skidmore]

9. * just gives a face to

the ugly American persona.

[jswordy]

11. That shows the myths spread by the right....

...for years and years about how generous we are in foreign aid, and how these other countries just diss us for it, are bullshit, but believed.

Many European nations have, for example, already way exceeded our $35 mil pittance for the tsumani victims. And all of them have smaller GDP than we do!

Oh yes, I cannot resist...we are really not broke. We just have deferred the coming national discussion on what out priorities are as a nation. With no priorities and no goals, currently we just deficit spend to cover everything.

That's no way to live, personally or as a nation. But that debate is coming...sooner than most folks would like to think, or feel comfortable thinking about!

[Liberal In Texas]

17. Debt

We have a lot of it, and when you spend and spend on military excursions there is even less motivation to deepen the debt by helping others; vis. foreign aid or social programs.

Not that these "compassionate cons" are motivated to do that in the first place.

[Mutley]

18. if gw

is really spending more on his inauguration than he gave in aid to the tsunami victims... then... damn.. he's somehow even worse than i thought. i and keep thinking it CAN'T get worse........

[NE1469]

19. Kick

[ieoeja]

20. Author changed the subject.

"Bush administration officials help create that perception gap. Fuming at the charge of stinginess, Mr. Powell pointed to disaster relief and said the United States 'has given more aid in the last four years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world.' But for development aid, America gave $16.2 billion in 2003; the European Union gave $37.1 billion. In 2002, those numbers were $13.2 billion for America, and $29.9 billion for Europe."

That's nice. But it would have been nice if the author had addressed Powell's claim directly by giving us the figures for disaster relief instead of for development.

Furthermore, why is he comparing the United States to the European Union anyway? Unless I'm mistaken the European Union is wealthier than the United States. Which is why the UN official spoke of "Western nations", not just the United States.

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. Then put your money where your mouth is:

http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/F136DCCB5929912F41256DFE003F6B7C?OpenDocument&Style=Custo_Final.3&View=defaultBody3

[frustrated_lefty]

25. This is an old debate.

Total amount granted vs. % of GDP.

To my knowledge, our government has always been that stingy, at least since playing around in IndoChina.

FL