Hey @danielledsouzag and @DineshDSouza, Did you know that historians (including this one) on the Left have been writing about the history of US foreign aid for over 50 years, and that it looks nothing like your absurd caricature? 1/
The Council on Foreign Relations, hardly a bunch of leftists, produced a handy primer just last month on where US foreign aid goes (cfr.org/backgrounder/h… ). I’m sure you and @DineshDSouza already read it, but in case you haven’t… 2/
Taking into account all aid, the US spends $49bil/yr, about 1.2% of the federal budget. Let’s compare that to the $717 billion 2018 military budget. The US spends 1,463% more on than military than foreign aid, and that’s the face that much of the rest of the world sees. 3/
Of that $49 billion, 55% goes to development and humanitarian assistance. A third goes to military aid, mostly to just five countries: Iraq ($5.3 billion), Afghanistan ($5.1 billion), Israel ($3.1 billion), Egypt ($1.2 billion), and Jordan ($1.2 billion). 4/
While the US spends more than other countries in absolute terms, “As a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) ... U.S. aid spending ranks near the bottom of all developed countries. It accounts for 0.18% of GDP, twenty-second out of twenty-eight countries.” Wow! 5/
Just as among regular people , as this article from the Leftist TV network Fox News points out (foxbusiness.com/features/poor-…), the richest nations give proportionally less than other nations. 6/
In fact, since 1970, the US has been comparatively *less generous* than other developed nations (www2.compareyourcountry.org/oda?cr=20001&c… ). Britain, under the conservative government of Theresa May, spends over 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid, *four times* what the US does. now that's generous! 7/
But your point is that “No one on the Left wants to talk about this because it goes against their narrative that America is the bad guy.” Right. People on “the Left” have been criticizing US foreign aid for decades, primarily the US role in propping up undemocratic regimes. 8/
In Indonesia, US foreign aid for 32 years propped up a murderous dictatorship that killed hundreds of thousands of its own citizens, invaded neighbors, and looted tens of billions in foreign aid. I even wrote a book about it! sup.org/books/title/?i… 9/
During the Cold War, outside of Europe, US foreign aid often propped up right wing dictatorships that repressed, tortured and murdered their own people! (cambridge.org/core/books/uni… ) That’s partly how we got the Iranian revolution, the Taliban, etc. 10/
I don’t think that’s what you had in mind though. I imagine you’re referring to how generous we are in “giving money away” to other countries. In fact, in 2015 “only 4 percent of USAID assistance [went] directly to foreign governments.” 11/
About 70% of US foreign aid goes to for profit or nonprofit US contractors: politifact.com/global-news/st… That means that most US foreign aid actually goes to American companies! 12/
There is a Left critique of foreign aid, but it mostly centers on the idea that the US should spend more, not less, slash military aid to repressive governments, and use that aid more wisely to empower the poorest and most vulnerable people in recipient countries. 13/
You can read a literal “Leftist case for foreign aid” here: counterpunch.org/2017/12/08/a-l…. @dbesser has written eloquently on what a real Left foreign policy would look like: nytimes.com/2018/09/17/opi… . 14/
Needless to say, none of what the Left has to say about foreign aid looks anything like your uninformed caricatures. Its rooted in support for real democracy and human rights. But you would have to actually read some history, or read anything, really, to know that. 15/END
Part of the problem is that Americans think we spend vastly more on foreign aid than we do, in part bc Americans are generous, and in part bc Conservatives talk about foreign aid as if it represented a vast ocean of waste and generally misrepresent it. politifact.com/global-news/st…
For people who are interested in the actual history of US foreign aid, this is a good place to start: cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=801…
This is a great overview by Joseph Hodge of the last twenty years of historiography on development and foreign aid, with commentary by other terrific scholars: humanityjournal.org/joseph-hodge-r…. Not bad, considering that “the Left” hats talking about foreign aid.
