A recent writer in a letter to the editor (“Why should we pay taxes or follow the law”, Kent Reporter, June 21) wrote that “we have tons of money on foreign aid.” This belief fits the concept most Americans have of the amount this country spends on foreign aid.
A recent poll showed that, on average, Americans believe that we spend 25 percent of the federal budget on foreign aid. Recent figures (2011) show that we spent $31.7 billion for economic assistance and $17.8 billion for military assistance, or a total of almost $50 billion. The 2011 federal budget was $3,630 billion, so foreign aid (including military assistance) was about 1.4 percent of the total budget. Additionally, of the developed nations, this country spends about the lowest percentage of its budget on foreign aid.
– Wesley Aman
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