Americans Want To Balance The Budget By Cutting Foreign Aid: POLL

The Economist:

How do Americans want to tackle the deficit? By cutting spending, not by raising taxes, that much is clear. And while Americans are divided over which areas should be cut, a solid majority (71 percent) agree that if the country needs to lower spending to balance the budget, foreign aid should be reduced, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll.

Read the whole story: The Economist

Comments

[TruEngineHearing]

10:23 PM on 04/12/2010

Where people are less informed, democracy is less successful. Since Americans are now embracing - and even celebrating - their fear of intellectual pursuit, we are now nothing more than an embarrassment to all those in the world who thought they saw a bright light.

[Figerre]

10:51 AM on 04/12/2010

I don't know - could there be a more ignorant idea? Let's check? The US has cut its aid to less than 1% of what it spends - sort of like thinking that PBS is paid for by tax money -- ho ho ho - less than 7% of their income is from taxes - the rest is from those of us Americans who support PBS.

But then - Americans would rather believe the worst of everyone than actually READ or LISTEN to facts. It is so much easier to be ignorant and have a big mouth.

For a country where 93% believe they are CHristian - there are a few that need to go back to church or open their bible and read it - and they would see that many of these "Christian" right people, wouldn't know Christ if he stopped them on the street and asked for a drink of water.

stupid stupid stupid

[Sundialsvc4]

09:16 AM on 04/12/2010

"I was hungry, and you did not feed Me. Thirsty, and you did not give Me drink. Naked, and you did not clothe Me..."

"If they are going to die, then let them do it, and rid the world of its surplus population ..."

[vippy]

05:40 AM on 04/12/2010

Vote all incumbents out of office every time they don't balance the budget.
That is why we have a budget in the first place.

[Figerre]

10:55 AM on 04/12/2010

Excuse me - did you pay off your house? or are you paying on a mortgage? how does that fit into your budget?

you might consider that the money used to 'balance the budget; for the feds - is taxes. How do you expect to use 80's tax levels to pay 21st century needs if you refuse to raise taxes. As for me and mine - I'm addicted to calling the firefighters when my house is on fire, the police when i'm being robbed and going to the hospital when injured. funny how that works.

thanks, but no thanks, I'll pay my taxes, in fact i'll vote for the 1 cent increase in AZ that will allow us to keep teachers in classes. i have this funny idea that if we don't educate young people, they may come up with a big idea like elder death camps because they don't want to work and pay taxes. You betcha!

[vippy]

11:18 AM on 04/12/2010

Budgets encumber all of those extras. Do you support ear marks? Our politicians always cut education once they got themselves in a bind, known fact. There is also much waste going on, they should do it by priority, like cutting out research on frog
multiplying, etc. First things first!

[lippylaroux]

08:55 PM on 04/11/2010

Socilaistic programs like social security and medicaid as well as over bloated government union pension obligations are the problem... PERIOD. Too many people work for the government. Government is funded by confiscation of wealth by the producers of the wealth... Democrats expansion of government will guarentee less true wealth for the private sector. The private sector is the ABSOUTE source of prosperity in this country not government.

[JScott]

09:19 PM on 04/11/2010

Troll from Fox News has visited.

[vippy]

05:37 AM on 04/12/2010

Idiotic comment. If you need to get some tips then contact those countries who fluorish with those types of programs in tact.

[LittleMittens]

06:48 PM on 04/11/2010

End the wars, and stop paying 'tribute' to foreign despots

[Carl Caroli]

12:43 PM on 04/11/2010

End the wars and get our troops home.

[vippy]

05:38 AM on 04/12/2010

Why people are so ignorant and don't think of ending the 3 wars is beyond me? We could save 3 billion dollars per day in Afghanistan alone. Someone please tell me why we are in Afghanistan?

[NoPCZone]

10:57 AM on 04/11/2010

Start with military assistance to Israel. We should not be supporting an Apartheid state.

[realitytrumpsbull]

12:49 AM on 04/11/2010

I think that any year the federal government is into deficit spending, then ALL federal programs, foreign aid programs included, should be 'on the table'. If the public doesn't apply some pressure, then a balanced budget will never happen.

What percentage of the federal budget IS foreign aid? How much goes out in terms of welfare and other sops across this country, what happens to all those hundreds of billions, how much annual aid to each of the states, and would the common interest be better served by simply cutting ALL programs by the required percentage, no matter how sacred or sanctified they might be?

[cabinetmaniac]

10:26 AM on 04/12/2010

Spending 1% to aid those in need and imprint a positive image of the US seems relatively inexpensive to me when compared with spending 50% to bomb them into submission.

:-]

[Harrier]

01:43 PM on 04/10/2010

If you pass law eliminating corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners, and limit foreign imports for food, you will instantly start improving health and significantly reduce obesity and lower trips to the doctor.

We are currently fighting three wars from the Bush Administration. Those are the longest wars in US history and three times as long as WWII

[MAJK]

10:49 AM on 04/10/2010

I've read that foreign aid accounts for 2% of the budget - The defense budget accounts for almost HALF

[LeftRight]

02:01 PM on 04/10/2010

IDK about the foreign aid percentages, but between CURRENT and PAST military expenditures we spend approximately 54% of the discretionary budget (the portion which can be changed by Congress, including the debt payments, but not including Social Security and Medicare, both of which have their own funding sources....)

And considering how much we outspend the rest of the world on military expenditures.... It's estimated that military spending accounts for around 2.5% of WORLD GDP, and that the USA spends about 40% of that total.....

In other words, we could cut our military spending by half, spend only as much as the next ten countries combined, pay off the debt, provide universal health care, and STILL cut taxes!

[realitytrumpsbull]

12:52 AM on 04/11/2010

I don't know by what percent the federal budget is currently overspent, but I think they should do an across-the-board cut until that budget balances. Only problem is, from what I've read over the years, it sure seems like a good chunk of the US economy as we know and love it today is essentially on life support FROM the federal government, so to cut spending is to basically shut off the lights, at least in some areas. But, this also comes from long-term reliance on annual federal outlays to the states, a habit that states like California aren't likely to be able to break, just anytime soon.

[vippy]

05:40 AM on 04/12/2010

Our Defense Budget is more than the rest of the world's combined. We are the aggressors as
we can readily see with Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

[nappyman]

09:10 AM on 04/10/2010

Yes foreign aid needs to be restructured. But alot of it is very necessary. It's like revenue sharing in baseball. Look how much money one unstable country like Somalia is causing the world. Imagine 10.

[JaneQCitizen]

07:21 AM on 04/10/2010

Agreed. And the first aid that should get cut is Israel.

[sabrinaqedesha]

06:13 PM on 04/09/2010

Too bad for them, foreign aid is such a minuscule part of the budget.

[Y3rMawm]

08:28 PM on 04/09/2010

Bingo.

[James Leo]

04:09 PM on 04/09/2010

Does that mean reducing aid to Israel?
Also, it would appear that even reducing all Foreign aid to 0, we would still have a deficit!
We need to consider reducing our military bases in Europe and Asia Is Japan a threat? Is Germany a threat? Is Russia a threat? China, yes but I fear they control over our financial institutions much more than their military!