At the Future of Freedom Foundation, Jacob Hornberger wonders why Americans should be forced to send foreign aid to Israel, or to any country, writing:
Why in the world should the American people be forced, through their tax system, to fund a government that they might not wish to fund if they were free to decide what to do with their own money? Where is the morality in such a program? Where is the justice in such a program? How is such a program reconcilable with the principles of liberty?
It’s important to keep in mind that U.S. foreign aid formed no part of America’s governmental system for more than 100 years. There are three reasons for that:
1. The Constitution doesn’t authorize foreign aid.
2. There was no income tax. For more than 100 years, Americans were free to keep everything they earned, and there was nothing the federal government could do about.
3. There were no welfare programs by which Americans were forced to share a portion of their earnings with others, either domestically or to foreign regimes in the form of foreign aid.
Make no mistake about it: Foreign aid is nothing more than a standard welfare program, albeit one for foreign governmental officials, some of whom line their personal pockets with it. Foreign aid uses the income-tax system, which is enforced by the tyrannical IRS, to take money from people to whom it belongs and give it to government officials in foreign countries.
Hornberger echoes the calls from Rep. Thomas Massie to end foreign aid to Israel. Massie posted on X.com back in 2025:
Nothing can justify the number of civilian casualties (tens of thousands of women and children) inflicted by Israel in Gaza in the last two years. We should end all U.S. military aid to Israel now.
More recently, Massie suggested withholding aid to Israel in order to get them to abide by the peace treaty being negotiated between the United States and Iran.
It’s all talk. Just withhold foreign aid to Israel for a month and they’ll stop bombing their neighbors – instant peace, the Strait of Hormuz can be opened, and gas drops $2 a gallon. Israel has been, and continues to be, the biggest welfare recipient from American tax payers. https://t.co/VzAQYbMIpO
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) June 2, 2026
