Politics and U.S. Foreign Aid Decisions

Paper Summary:

As fiscal year 2004 budget proposals are clogging up the legislative hopper, this paper reviews the Bush administration's foreign aid policies and payouts. It looks at how Bush's conservative political philosophy effects foreign aid and why it is nearly impossible to reach an approximate figure on total U.S. foreign aid disbursements.

From the Paper:

"To begin with, how much does the U.S. spend on foreign aid? According to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB, 2002), the U.S. government poured some $23 billion into international assistance programs of one kind or another last year. Of that, $9.9 billion was "official development assistance" to foreign nations; $12.7 billion went for "other government assistance" to foreign nations. But those numbers do not reflect the $9.3 billion that it costs to run the U.S. Department of State (which interacts with foreign governments at many levels), nor do the numbers include the billions in secret military hardware and technologies given to nations "friendly" to the U.S. by the Bush Administration. After all, when it comes to definitions, foreign "aid" is foreign aid whether it is rice, milk, medical supplies, equipment for drilling wells for fresh water in Africa munitions for the Columbian government to do battle with drug lords, or millions to oil drilling companies to restart Iraqi energy facilities."

More papers on Politics and U.S. Foreign Aid Decisions:

• Essay # 53118 : "U.S. Foreign Policy Decisions"
• Book Review # 46091 : "Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy"
• Essay # 14252 : "U.S. Economic Aid To Israel"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: