Why Not Cut Foreign Aid?

On a website, the U.S. government has made it easy to see which countries are benefitting from U.S. tax dollars. It should come as no surprise that many of the world’s poorest nations receive aid from Americans. The United States has long been the most generous nation in the world. But some of the nations that received aid are a shock. Enemy nations are on the list, even all four members of the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terror—the worst of the worst. Below is a short list of rogues who received your money in 2009 (the latest data available on the map).

The countries with asterisks are designated State Sponsors of Terror, while many of the others are former designees. Many also are current or former communist nations. America’s worst enemies, either former or current, are receiving aid from Americans’ tax dollars.

You would think that if America is so generous with its enemies, it must really take care of its friends. Not exactly. In 2009, after a financial crisis, Iceland, a NATO ally, was in dire straits. How much did the generous American government dole out to Iceland? Not a penny. America’s allies in Iceland got nothing, while oil rich countries like Russia, Iran and Venezuela all received aid.

Are you thinking that’s chump change as you look at the totals given to some countries? That is understandable given the amount of money the U.S. government spends each year. But think about it like this—add up the totals from the rogue’s gallery above, and America could pay for the nearly 1.8 million Americans on food stamps for a year or put 86,000 freshmen through college. The government could even let Americans keep their money and decide for themselves if they’d like to spend the money on charity.

So what did the enemy nations above do with their U.S. tax-payers money? Most expanded their militaries. Syria is spending its money to brutally crack down on its citizens. Iran and North Korea are both pursuing increasingly advanced missile technology and possibly nuclear weapons. Congressman Ron Paul was criticized for suggesting America end all foreign aid. But at the very least, isn’t it time to end foreign aid to rogue nations and admitted enemies of the American people?