US giveaway programs

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I continually read about America's, s give away programs, I speak of foreign aid. Every time I do the thought comes to me. Where is the money coming from? Do we borrow it from China or some other foreign nation? It would seem that we instead of giving, based on the shape of our present status as a debtor nation should be receiving . Or at the very least stop giving what we do not have to give.

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Wasn't it Bill Maher who said that the US is in debt to Mexico??

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Of couse its all borrowed.

The only explanation I can think of goes along these lines. Just like some young fools think they can do drugs with shared needles, have sex with everything in a skirt or pants without protection, drink three or four six packs a night, and drive drunk and get away with it, the older fools in Washington think they can spend us into oblivion and get away with it. At least until the next election.

Just like the young fool above, sooner or later we're going to experience the consequences of our actions. And when that day arrives, it ain't going to be pretty.

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Money's fungible, so you could say that everything the government spends on is borrowed money. Equally, you could say foreign aid is paid for out of tax dollars and congressional salaries are borrowed money. It's all semantics. Back to foreign aid, the US doesn't give anything away, we buy policy. We want a drug war, we give money to Columbia. Support against the Taliban, give money to Pakistan. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a philanthropic bone in the US body politic.

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engineer wrote:

Money's fungible, so you could say that everything the government spends on is borrowed money. Equally, you could say foreign aid is paid for out of tax dollars and congressional salaries are borrowed money. It's all semantics. Back to foreign aid, the US doesn't give anything away, we buy policy. We want a drug war, we give money to Columbia. Support against the Taliban, give money to Pakistan. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a philanthropic bone in the US body politic.

May I add it is all money well spent.

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Money well spent?

I cannot prove this, but I believe that somewhere around 40%+ of the money spent by Washington is completely wasted.

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Jim wrote:

Money well spent?

I cannot prove this, but I believe that somewhere around 40%+ of the money spent by Washington is completely wasted.

You are entitled to your opinion. The above 40% "fact" is based on someone's subjective opinion as to what defines "wasted."

Nothing is "wasted" since the economic system just moves money around to effect kinetic energy in the economy. I don't begrudge anyone's playing Monopoly well.

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I have no problem with people "playing monopoly" with their own money. If Citizen Soros or Citizen Gates want to give away their own cash in schemes that may or may not be beneficial, that is no business of mine.

When the Government taxes me to pay for these schemes, then it does become my concern.

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OK, but realize that the money is not given away. It is payment for enactment of policies the US favors. Those policies might produce economic benefit and so might pay for themselves many times over, or they may not, but our only recourse is at the ballot box. To call these programs "give aways" is not accurate.

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engineer wrote:

OK, but realize that the money is not given away. It is payment for enactment of policies the US favors. Those policies might produce economic benefit and so might pay for themselves many times over, or they may not, but our only recourse is at the ballot box. To call these programs "give aways" is not accurate.

Hey, you understand the system. Bless your heart.

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What money are we giving away exactly?

We give roughly .07%, that 7 pennies for every hundred dollars of our budget thats spend on foreign aid, that's about a hundred times smaller than how much Japan contributes to foreign aid, and much much smaller than every other developed nation as well. Compare that to the $40 of every $100 we spend on the military.

And even most of that money goes to governments in exchange for them doing whatever we want them to do.

If anything, we should be giving more aid. Atleast that money builds good will and builds infrastructure so that other contries can join in on globalization and help every economy, including ours in the process.

The two trillion estimated to be spent on Iraq by the end of the war does nothing but build bad will about us int he rest of the world.

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engineer wrote:

OK, but realize that the money is not given away. It is payment for enactment of policies the US favors. Those policies might produce economic benefit and so might pay for themselves many times over, or they may not, but our only recourse is at the ballot box. To call these programs "give aways" is not accurate.

Are you including humanitarian aid in your definition?
Tell me what policies did the US want enacted when we sent disaster relief supplies to Asia after the tsunami.
That counts as money spent, doesnt it?

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mysteryman wrote:

engineer wrote:
OK, but realize that the money is not given away. It is payment for enactment of policies the US favors. Those policies might produce economic benefit and so might pay for themselves many times over, or they may not, but our only recourse is at the ballot box. To call these programs "give aways" is not accurate.

Are you including humanitarian aid in your definition?
Tell me what policies did the US want enacted when we sent disaster relief supplies to Asia after the tsunami.
That counts as money spent, doesnt it?

Yes, I include humanitarian aid and even the money spent by the military supporting operations. Those operations make great photo ops and the people remember all those US helping hands and all the US flags on the boxes of food. It's a great boost to the reputation of the US, especially in an area where the US needs to be seen as a friendly presence. It plays well at home also. Lots of wins for the government on the tsunami especially.

Some of these considerations also go into where Navy units take port calls. A carrier pulling into port will drop over a million dollars into the local economy just in sailors dropping cash around town. Add payments for port services and it adds up to a nice boost. The US plans those visits carefully and sometimes uses them to "reward" a country that is pulling our direction.

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US giveaway programs

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