Rand Paul says eliminate all foreign aid

[KingMerv00]

In 2010 about 50 billion was budgeted for foreign aid. Probably closer to a ten fold increase either way though there is a great disparity.
But 50,000,000,000 is a lot of money.


Does anyone know how aid is given by American charities?

That doesn’t sound right. The entire budget for the department of state in the 2010 budget was only $50 billion and apparently less than $30 billion was actually spent

OK, so what's the real number?

 

[Travis]

Sure we were bribing Egypt to stop trying to kill Israelis. What were we bribing Israel to do?

 

[eeyore1954]

From US government website. I suppose there is any number of ways these numbers can be compiled. Or maybe the word outlays is misleading.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2011/assets/state.pdf
Outlays
2009 37,103
2010 50,993 Estimate
2011 53,809

 

[Puppycow]

The people also want foreign aid "reduced" to 13% of the budget. The fact that that is a 26 fold increase in current spending doesn't seem to matter.

So maybe people are just ignorant, and actually think it should be increased.
I doubt very many people if asked what is an appropriate percentage would say 1% or less.
I'm just amazed when you tell a person that the government spends less than 1% on foreign aid and they still say the government spends too much on foreign aid.

 

[Puppycow]

In 2010 about 50 billion was budgeted for foreign aid. Probably closer to a ten fold increase either way though there is a great disparity.
But 50,000,000,000 is a lot of money.


Does anyone know how aid is given by American charities?

If that number is correct, it would be about 1.4%, My info was a few years old, from 2006 I believe. The number given in the same article was $10 billion for private charities. I read somewhere that Americans gave about $295 billion to charity in 2006, But that includes money for churches and universities. Most of it doesn't leave the country,

 

[Thunder]

Sure we were bribing Egypt to stop trying to kill Israelis. What were we bribing Israel to do?

to leave the Sinai.

and to fund their West Bank settlements.