Congress, aid agencies, and NGOs are looking to the Obama administration to make changes in how foreign aid is administered. Much is wrong with the current way the U.S. does foreign aid. Bolstering foreign aid during a financial crisis will only exacerbate our current financial problems.

Nevertheless, Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) says that even with pressure to deal with domestic problems, it would be a mistake to disregard foreign aid.  "Because the challenges and the threats that are facing the American people from every corner of the world will not go away if we ignore them," she says, echoing sentiment that is likely held by a majority of Democratic legislators.

"We desperately need to reform our system," she says. "We need to re-engage in development in a whole new way, because it not only is, in my opinion, the morally right thing to do, but it is what will bring much more security to our country in the long run."

McCollum is proposing a cabinet-level official devoted to development. Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute says he has doubts about creating a cabinet-level official chaged with administering foreign aid. He says it's better that administration of foreign aid stay under the State Department.

According to Eberstadt, part of the problem with foreign aid is that too many government agencies are involved in administering foreign aid efforts. As a result, foreign aid is micromanaged, he says.

Another problem, and one that is not widely perceived making it even more pernicious, is that most of the aid dollars stay in the United States. The so-called foreign aid "services our universities very well; it services our beltway bandit corporations very well; the only thing that doesn't get serviced terribly well is development in this current situation," Eberstadt says.

U.S. foreign aid also has the reputation for supporting corrupt infrastructure and governments abroad, rather than getting the help to the people where it is needed. 

Earlier this year when Congress was considering the president's emergency bill to support AIDS treatment in Africa, Congressman Ron Paul warned that government programs decrease the amount of aid that private groups put into areas of need. "Much of this aid will run through government-to-government channels and will be vulnerable to corruption," Congressman Paul warned. "Some of the aid will be sent to faith-based organizations who, along with accepting government largess, will now be subject to governmental controls and will soon become more dependent on taxpayer funding than private funds."

In referring to the AIDS bill, Paul said: "Africans should decide what is best for Africa. American taxpayers should decide what charities deserve their money. Forcibly taking money from the United States and sending it overseas is unconstitutional and immoral."

He pointed out that when asked what their main developmental concerns were, Africans said they are much more concerned about jobs, agriculture and basic infrastructure than they are about health issues like AIDS.

In 2006 Americans gave $295 billion to charitable organizations, both foreign and domestic. Americans are a generous people. They also tend to be a lot more careful with their own money than government is. If government were to get out of the business of foreign aid entirely, reducing taxes and barriers to giving, America's contribution overseas would likely be much more significant, and more effective. Because of corruption and ineptness, government foreign aid doesn't help our image abroad. Caring Americans could make a great difference where government can't.

And that means government has to get out of the business of taking money from taxpayers and deciding who, whether foreign or domestic, ought to be on the receiving end of the wealth transfer ponzi scheme.

Dr. John Fisher teaches communications and researches in the area of mass media and political decision making.

(AP Images)

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Eagle4life0608 said:

I'm all for foreign aid, but........ I'm all for foreign aid and people doing what they can to help others in need out. But seriously government needs to step back an leave it to the people to make charities an let them donate their time, resources or what ever and stop spending our tax payers money on more things that will get us further in debt. We need less government involvment and we need to crack down and tighten the reigns on this beast and I don't just mean on this issue.

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December 10, 2008
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henri1 said:

	foreign aid I agree with Ron Paul,It's Unconstitutional for the government to take taxpayers money and give to who they! see fit to give it to.
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December 10, 2008
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TerryF said:

... The proof is in the pudding. Research shows that over $500 billion in aid has been given to Africa since they gained their independence from Great Britain yet not one African country is any richer than they were 40 years ago. Uganda alone has received a staggering $23 billion in aid since independence with $20 billion coming within the past 20 years alone. This is a country where 33.8% out of 26 million people still live below the poverty line. 23% of the population (children below 5 years) are malnourished and malaria still annually kills between 70,000-110,000 children under 5 years of age (World development indicator-July 2006 estimates) and over 5.4 million children don’t have access to clean water. Yet all this happens amidst the notion that aid is given out of the belief that giving is good and it really helps. World Bank data indicates that the average rate of growth in real GNP per capita during the period 1965-90 was about 3/4 of a percent per annum in Africa, compared to 2.4% in other developing countries. The data also demonstrates that 14 of 34 African countries had negative growth rates over this 25-year period. The average rate of growth in urban populations during the period 1965-90 was 6.3% per annum in Africa, compared to 4.2% in other developing countries. African countries are urbanizing at a much faster rate than other developing countries and have household resources that are often either stagnant or declining a common pattern as poverty increases in an economy. African leaders have also been known to take American aid and direct it away from the people it was intended for to offshore accounts including Switzerland. So, just what good is actually being done there with our billions while our infrastructure suffers from neglect? And this request for more aid comes in the midst of a deepening economic recession potentially leading to a depression which makes it even more insensitve and absurd? Obviously, forcibly absconding taxpayers money and directing it arbitrarily to African nations has not done the people who need it the much good. In reality it does not work for the African people and it certainly does not work for the American taxpayer or our country. Apart from the fact that it is unconstitutional, it is simply another form of political theft. Moral common sense calls for it to left in the hands of those who earned the money through their labor. If the earner wants to contribute to a charity it should be a free choice not a forced one. Particularly a forced theft of income that is clearly not working for the common people on either continent.

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December 11, 2008
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