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Culture April 26,2024 | Independence Journal Editorial Team

Majority Of Americans Believe US Spends Too Much On Foreign Aid

A Rasmussen Reports poll released earlier this week showed that more than half of Americans believe that the United States spends too much taxpayer dollars on aid to foreign countries.

The U.S. government continues to send billions of taxpayer dollars overseas while Americans suffer from a variety of serious problems that the government doesn’t appear to want to address — including rampant crime, historically high illegal border crossings, rising inflation, a homeless epidemic and rising drug deaths.

The new Rasmussen Reports survey conducted among 1,126 likely American voters revealed that a majority of Americans are sick of the government choosing foreign aid over fixing domestic problems. According to the poll — which was conducted from April 16-18 — 57% of likely American voters believe that the U.S. government spends too much on foreign aid, while 10% believe that there is not enough foreign aid spending and 23% believe that the current spending levels are about right.

Respondents were asked a simple question: “In general, does the US government spend too much or not enough for foreign aid? Or is the amount of foreign aid spending about right?”

This survey came as Congress is facing backlash over the decision to approve another $95 billion taxpayer-funded aid package that was divided between Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. In the package, Israel received $26 billion to aid in its war against Hamas terrorists following the Oct. 7 massacre, while Taiwan was given $8 billion to aid in preparing for potential threats from communist China. The bill also included a TikTok ban, which would force the social media app to divest from China and be purchased by an American company or be banned.

Ukraine received a staggering $61 billion for its never-ending war with Russia, of which $300 million was allocated to Ukraine’s Border Patrol — angering many Americans who question why taxpayers are spending money to protect another country’s border while ours is wide open.

Foreign aid in general has been a hot topic for some time now for a variety of reasons. The growing “America First” wing of the conservative movement have begun opposing all foreign aid on principle, regardless of which country it is for, pointing out that the U.S. has essentially become a charity bank for the rest of the world with nothing in return while American citizens suffer.

Meanwhile, others oppose foreign aid to specific countries and are either apathetic or supportive of the overall concept of foreign aid. The radical left, along with some small anti-Israel factions on the right, oppose foreign aid specifically for Israel either because of a disagreement with the actions of the Israeli government, a preference for Palestine, actual antisemitism or even outright support for the elimination of the Jewish state.

As for Ukraine, the left is virtually in total agreement over limitless funding for the war against Russia — claiming that Russia is evil and the U.S. must do anything to stop it from expanding. The Republican Party is split on Ukraine funding, with establishment pro-war Republicans essentially arguing that the Cold War never ended and the U.S. must defeat Russia at all costs. Conservatives and other “America First” individuals believe that Ukraine has been proven to be corrupt and has misused the money it has been sent, while also arguing that Ukraine’s likely unwinnable war has nothing to do with the American people and the country should have negotiated a peace deal a long time ago.

Regardless of which faction Americans belong to, it is clear that the majority would appreciate it if Congress takes a closer look at foreign aid spending and perhaps come up with a better solution to the problems that the aid is supposed to address, rather than continuing to spend billions of taxpayer dollars that are borrowed and must be paid back by future generations.

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