Aid to the Foreign

Today Kevin Drum touches one of my pet peeve nerves (and I have a bundle of them). The well-informed American public still believes foreign aid consumes a huge chunk of our national budget.

49% of the country thinks foreign aid is one of our two biggest programs. No
wonder they're convinced their tax dollars are being frittered away. This is no
surprise, though, since it fits with this earlier
poll result showing that Americans think 24% of the federal budget is spent
on foreign aid. (Real number: about 1%.)

I wonder why Americans are
convinced we spend such vast sums on this? Whatever the reason, it probably
explains why Americans are so frequently taken aback that the rest of world
isn't more grateful toward us. They think we're spending a couple hundred
billion dollars a year on these guys and then wondering why they don't show a
little more gratitude.

Kevin's post also has a table showing the poll results.

This perception problem was first brought to my attention 20 years ago by the late, great Illinois Senator Paul Simon. I was talking to him once when we got onto foreign aid. He told me audiences would express concern that too much was being spent on aid to other countries. So he would ask what would be a reasonable percentage. Answers would often come back in the 5% range. He would then tell them that they actually favored a dramatic increase in foreign aid since it amounted to less than 1% of the budget.

I'm not sure where this misconception comes from exactly. I don't think its xenophobia, even though that is something Americans have plenty of. No, I think its the usual combination of someone else benefiting from OUR tax money and said money being given to people who get it for "doing nothing". It's the same dynamic at work that has many Americans believing we spend huge sums on "welfare". In fact, the poll Kevin discusses shows 10% of those surveyed think food stamps alone is one of our two biggest programs. So, I think it's just people adjusting amounts in their heads to reflect their prejudices and resentments about how the money is spent.