Foreign Aid is Big Business these days. This year the cost is $36,200,000,000.00, PLUS $10,000,000,000 for overruns from last year. There are approximately 117 million taxpayers in the United States. The math totals about $400.00 per taxpayer goes to foreign assistance.
Under the careful watch of the U.S. State Department this government is not only throwing money at our problems at an alarming rate, but we are doing it overseas also.
The United States Agency for International Development (or USAID) is the United States federal government organization responsible for most non-military foreign aid. An independent federal agency, it receives overall foreign policy guidance from the United States Secretary of State and seeks to “extend a helping hand to those people overseas struggling to make a better life, recover from a disaster or striving to live in a free and democratic country…”
USAID advances U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting economic growth, agriculture and trade; health; democracy, conflict prevention, and humanitarian assistance. It provides assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa; Asia and the Near East, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Eurasia. USAID is also organized around four main pillars: Global Development Alliance; Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade; Global Health; Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance.
The actual USAid 2008 highlighted budget and summary. There are a couple of PDF links there that give detailed breakdown of where the $$$ is headed.
Highlight of this years USAid budget.
- Africa-with this year’s requested 54% increase, aid to Africa will have nearly quadrupled under this Administration, from $1.1 billion to $4.4 billion, focused on addressing the crippling effects of disease and poverty.
- Near East-a 6% increase for vital investments in winning the Global War on Terror and empowering the people of this key region.
- Western Hemisphere-with this request, aid to the region has doubled under this Administration, from $862 million to $1.6 billion, and is focused on continued economic growth and strengthening democratic institutions.
- Peace and Security-$6.88 billion for counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics activities and programs to secure necessary conditions for further political, economic, and social progress.
- Governing Justly and Democratically-$1.45 billion to promote effective, accountable, democratic governance, a vital foundation for sustainable progress.
- Investing in People-$6.95 billion to support human capacity development and address poverty and disease, including, $4.5 billion to meet the treatment and prevention goals of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, $388 million for the President’s Malaria Initiative, and $535 million to support equitable access and improved quality of basic education around the world-the largest request ever by this Administration.
- Economic Growth-$2.37 billion to support economic progress and poverty reduction as critical underpinnings of sustainable development.
- Humanitarian Assistance-$2.12 billion to maintain the United States’ long-standing commitment to alleviate human suffering and respond to destabilizing humanitarian disasters
The reason I bring this to everyone’s attention is that we have no say on how this $36 Billion is spent, let alone the authority for our government to give our tax dollars away. There are some very noble health, food and security issues handled under the watch of USAid, but since the government is involved, we also are providing assistance for the INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NEW VARIETIES OF PLANTS.
We all know how efficient the Federal Governments is a the use of our tax dollars. Because of their excellent reputation, I am not even going to entertain the possibility of ANY Fraud, Waste of Abuse.
