Hell Yeah We Are Stingy

An important sidebar to the devastation in South Asia has been the debate about America's stinginess in this disaster - and it's foreign aid levels in general. This is not academic, as America meeting its committments to the international communitt could save at least the amount of lives we see lost this past week annually (the US was recently ranked rock bottom of developed countries in the amount given per capita).

To put the $35 million figure pledged thus far in context, this is just about the amount the Republicans see fit to spend for a glorified parade and speech we call innauguration. It is also wht we spend in Iraq in a couple hours.

Republicans are defending the President - and let them. The American people fortunately are far more generous than their Government and feel ashamed. Meanwhile the Adminstration continues to feeds homegrown misconceptions of America's generosity by erroneously claiming we give "more aid in the last four years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world" (actually the Europeans doubled us--see first linked article).

The right thought they could again throw shit at the UN, who's chief humanitarian official called "rich countries" stingy - not the US mind you. Well you can try to weasel your way out of it by ratcheting up the money and making phone calls to world leaders 4 days after the fact, but chalk it up as more proof of America's utter disregard for the rest of the world.