Foreign Failure: Why Foreign Aid is Hurting and Not Helping.

           We all know about it, we all do it.  The American people help the government make revenue through taxation.  We give the government tax money, knowing and trusting that our government will use our money for the right cause; but there’s a problem.  We are using our tax-payer’s dollars for funding corruption.  Giving foreign aid has been a problem for over sixty years, yet foreign aid is not getting the national recognition it needs in order for this blatant cause to end. 

            Before we analyze how foreign aid is bad for the contemporary American society, we have to examine the actual intended cause of what foreign aid through the USAID department is supposed to accomplish.  The USAID department reports that its main mission is to end worldwide poverty.  This is what the USAID department has been created for, despite critics denouncing the government for creating USAID for ulterior motives.

            Yes, we know that worldwide poverty has been one of the world’s unresolved issues, but we have to understand that the USAID department is not doing its job with diminishing poverty.  A study by the CATO Institute reported that between the years of 1989 and 2001, people living in the world on one dollar a day has decreased by 390 million people.  However, the study continues with the fact that people living near two dollars a day became a lot worse off than they ever have been before, with these people making less money every year in the 12 year period.  As citizens of the free world, we have to realize that what we are doing is not working, and we need to balance our budget better.  We also have to look to the chilling fact that a study by Academia reports that from 1950-2001, countries that receive high amounts of foreign aid had the same exact growth rate as countries that receive low amounts of foreign aid.  Usually, we’re supposed to see progress with the tax money that we give to our federal government for living in the United States; but seeing that our U.S. Congress is using our tax payer’s money incorrectly, then you have to question where the money is really going.

Not only are we not helping third world countries economically prosper, but we are also sending our money to corruption.  As skeptical as it may seem, there have been numerous reports of USAID money being used in an incorrect manner.  A report published in April of 2013 by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction stated that $88 million was allocated to DABS-Kabul, Afghanistan’s power utility, but the money had no use due to poor management efforts.  Another $88 million of our tax payer’s money has gone to waste, but even more money has gone to waste than just the $88 million.  This next statistic is even more chilling than the previous one, with the U.S. Government Accountability Office reporting that half of all of the $1.14 billion given to Haiti for earthquake relief has been wasted, due to a failed investment in ports and power plants.  As Americans, we should be outraged to hear the fact that there are even more examples of USAID failing, and some of these failures have not even been reported by the Special Inspector General yet.

            Tax Day is coming up in almost a year.  We owe the United States our income taxes by April 15^th, 2015.  Remember, our money that we are sending to the IRS this holiday is partially going to this failed investment that we call “foreign aid.”  President Barack Obama and the United States Congress are planning to spend a grand total of $46 billion in foreign assistance in Fiscal Year 2015, and they cannot achieve that amount without our dollar bills.  Seeing that our United States has not only failed at diminishing poverty, but has also funded projects for the wrong reason, we have to tell Uncle Sam that we do not want our income taxes to go to such a failed cause.