Republethugs Debate in Vegas...Let's Talk About Cutting Foreign Aid

The Republicans' debate tonight in Las Vegas spent some time on foreign aid. Following a debate on illegal immigration, the tide turned to foreign aid, when all of a sudden Rick Perry and Ron Paul jumped into the fray. The bird was battered about with much ferver, but then I remembered that the actual percentage of the United States budget allotted to foreign aid was pretty small... between 1.0-2.5% Google revealed.  What? These bozos are debating foreign aid and won't touch the Defense Budget??? Oh, no. And don't mention the economy or the job creation issues. Holy cow!!

Yep, look at this article that outlines how our perception of foreign aid is not based on reality. Don't spend your time worrying about this. We need to help feed those who are starving. We need to help those who cannot help themselves. We are ONE. No ifs, ands, or butts.

Asked to estimate how much of the federal budget goes to foreign aid the median estimate is 25 percent. Asked how much they thought would be an "appropriate" percentage the median response is 10 percent.

In fact just 1 percent of the federal budget goes to foreign aid. Even if one only includes the discretionary part of the federal budget, foreign aid represents only 2.6 percent.

This set of questions has been asked repeatedly since the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) first asked them in 1995, and it was subsequently asked by other organizations as well. Over the years the most common median estimate was that foreign aid represented 20 percent of the budget, most recently in a 2004 poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Thus the most recent number represents an increase of 5 points in the median estimate. Steven Kull, director of PIPA comments, "This increase may be due to Americans hearing more about aid efforts occurring in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti over the last few years. There have been some increases in foreign aid under both Presidents Bush and Obama, but, of course, nowhere near to the perceived level."

The median amount proposed as appropriate has consistently been 10 percent in other polls including the 2004 Chicago Council poll.

In the current poll estimates of foreign aid vary by education, growing more accurate with higher levels of education. Among those with less than a high school education the median estimate was that foreign aid represented an extraordinary 45 percent of the budget, those with only a high school diploma 25 percent, those with some college at 20 percent.

 However, even those with a college degree or higher still overestimate by a wide margin, with a median estimate of 15 percent of the budget.
 
Steven Kull comments, "It is quite extraordinary that this extreme overestimation has persisted for so many years, even among those with higher education."

Written a year ago, Go here to learn more!!!

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/670.php


 Hmmmmmmm?